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Wesley So clenched his fist after beating Magnus Carlsen on demand in the final game on the first day of the Euro Rapid Opera final to tie the match before the Valentine’s Day final. Magnus had taken the lead by winning the second game despite falling into deep preparation that Wesley had posted in his Chessable course. In the match for 3rd place, White won the last three games, which meant that Meltwater Champions Chess Tour leader Teimour Radjabov now only needed a draw on the second day.
You can replay all the games in the Opera Euro Rapid knockout stage using the selector below.
And here is the live commentary of the day from Peter Leko, Tania Sachdev and guest Alejandro Ramirez.
And by David Howell, Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare.
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More than half of the matches were decisive on the penultimate day of the event.
Magnus Carlsen 2: 2 Wesley So
The experience of the Skilling Open final meant there was little doubt that it would be a fierce battle, and we already saw that in the first game of the day. At first glance you might think it was a quiet game, but it was full of drama from the moment Magnus played 11.a3? at the opening. That allowed the surprise hit 11… Nc5!
The trick is that the queen is trapped after 12.Qxb4? a5 13.Qb5 Ba6, while otherwise the queen retreats and Bxc3 + forces White to accept doubled c-pawns. Instead, in the game Wesley quickly played 11… Bxc3 +, when after 12.Qxc3 Magnus had a decent position. In fact, our commentator Peter Leko at one point felt that White was about to win, although it seems that Wesley always had a way of defending, while it was Black who had chances to win when Magnus was about to push too hard. .
Wesley carried that momentum into the second game of the day, when he was able to play the first 21 moves of a tight line that he had analyzed for his Chessable course.
Magnus, in general, was unhappy to have gone to that opening:
He was kicking me a bit for allowing it, because I was checking these things during Wijk aan Zee, but not today, for some reason. For whatever reason, I thought he would go for the quiet lines, so that was really kind of stupid.
It got worse when asked if he knew this was covered in Wesley’s Chessable course.
No, if I had known that, I would not have played it!
Will you see the course now?
Clock? Maybe make others do it!
It’s nice that others work for you, but on the board it was all Magnus who made what turned out to be a lucky mistake with 21… Qxd4? and not 21… bxc5.
As is often the case after a player runs amok in a long line of theory, Wesley didn’t adapt to the first unexpected move. He commented:
Qxd4 is actually losing by force, but at the same time he did not know how to react and during the game he was confused about what was happening. I thought I had already mixed up some order of moves, because this opening is very complicated: White is not better, but it is not very clear.
In fact 22.Bc4! now he would have been close to winning, with Wesley explaining:
Black has a piece for two pawns, but his problem is that his minor pieces are very badly placed and all his pieces are in bad positions and the knight is pinned, so yes, it is a waste of good opening material, but it happens. .
In the game 22.Qxd4?! Nxd4 and only now 23.Bc4 + was received by
23… Be6! and suddenly Black was completely on top. After that, Magnus went on to do what he does best.
Game 3 was one of those games we became familiar with on last year’s Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour when player motivations line up to make a very quick draw. For Wesley, with the black pieces, a draw is almost always a good result against the World Champion, while for Magnus it brought a match closer to victory on the first day of the final and meant that in the worst case it would happen. at the end. day level. However, there was another reason he gave for the tie:
I was gutted, so I needed a very short game!
The problem for the World Champion in the last game of the day was that Wesley once again performed 20 moves of his Chessable course, with only 20.c4 an uncovered move.
As Wesley pointed out:
In the course I recommended Rab1 instead of c4, but c4 also seems very complicated, because Black only has one way to call, which is not so easy to find.
At a glance, it seems that the path to the draw can be 20… fxe5 21.Nxe5 Qd6 !, without fear of 22.c5? which fails at 22… Bxc5! and the bishop cannot be captured or the knight on e5 would fall. Magnus instead played 20… Bc7 ?! and very soon he got into a lot of trouble.
Here I had to play ugly 22… gxf6, allowing Wesley to put a knight on f5 via h4, since, as he pointed out, 22… Rxf6 23.e4! it was “very, very bad”. Magnus went on to deliver a rook to eliminate the monster knight on f5, but soon after collapsed.
33 … Be5 would have kept the game going, but Magnus went for
33… Rxd5? only to meet the brutal 34.Rg4! There was no defense, with the end of the game: 34… h5 35.Re8 +! Kh7 36.Re7 +! Kh8 and a move that the computer announces as mate-in-8, 37.Qc1! Magnus resigned, and we could see a rare emotion in Wesley!
Wesley commented:
Obviously, I am very excited to win on demand with the white pieces. The white pieces are much easier than the black ones, but it is still a very difficult thing to do.
That meant the players were tied after Day 1 of the final, and Magnus wasn’t too upset about the loss in the final game:
It was good. I made a mistake quite early and then I had a very bad position. I could probably have fought a little better there by not meeting on d5, but it was difficult. Anyway, I’m pretty happy with a draw today so I’ll try to push myself a little harder tomorrow.
Wesley claimed that he did not expect Magnus to have revised his course:
I guess my Chessable course is primarily aimed at lower-rated players, because there is a huge audience out there. I don’t expect the world champions to be looking at my Chessable courses and it looks like Magnus hasn’t, but maybe now he will.
He ended up answering a question about whether we would see the same openings on Sunday:
It depends on if Magnus is going skiing or if he is going to watch my Chessable course!
Radjabov 2.5: 1.5 MVL
It is difficult to play a match for 3rd place after the disappointment of losing a place in the final, but at least Teimour Radjabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave did their best to keep us entertained, only finishing the first game of their clash. in a tie.
Game 2 saw Maxime on the ropes early on in his Grünfeld, although he briefly had a chance to survive earlier. 45… Kd7? allowed for a crisp finish:
46.Rxe7 +! Rxe7 47.Rxg8! Rf3 48.Rd8 + Kxd8 49.g8 = Q + Re8 and there was only one winning move, the stinger in the tail 50.Qg5 +!
Wherever the king goes, Qg4 + will lift the rook on f3.
Maxime responded in Game 3 with an equally impressive crush, with the finishing move. 36.Qh4! accumulating threats in a position one pawn less.
The main threat is Qd8 + and Bh6, while Rb8 and Ne7 + are also suspended in midair.
However, it was to be Teimour’s day, as Maxime’s Grünfeld took another beating in the last game of the day. With move 39 there was only one way for the non-French. 1 to escape.
39… Bh3! followed by doubling rooks with 40 … Rce7 gives Black the counterplay he needs, but then 39… Re6? 40.Bd5! Re7 41.Rxd6 the loss of an important pawn was only the beginning of Maxime’s troubles. Dark clouds were also gathering over the black king and MVL gave up a couple of moves later.
So entering the last day of the Euro Rapid Opera is an advantage for Radjabov in the battle for 3rd place, but the clash that really matters is too close. Either we’ll see Magnus get revenge for the final Skilling Open loss to Wesley, or Wesley scoring two finals, two wins against the World Champion on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour!
Don’t miss the last day of the Euro Rapid Opera, live right here on chess24 starting at 17:00 CET.
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