Caruana Beats Nakamura Without Needing 4th Game, Advances To Grand Final

Losers Quarterfinals

So-Carlsen 0.5-1.5

Carlsen won convincingly with Black in the first game and drew the second to take the match. After the games, he said: “It was clearly my best day so far.”

Game one was self-destruction in the opening for So. The world champion repeated a Rossolimo Sicilian line with 4…Bd6 that he’s played many times and it should not have been a surprise.

So sacrificed a pawn, but after Carlsen grabbed it the American super-GM thought for a full minute before making his move. Although So was objectively okay at first, his position slowly began to slip, and Carlsen consolidated the extra pawn and won the game.

The world champion drew the second game comfortably to secure the match. 

About game one, the world champion said: “I think he just mixed something up and he was sort of trying to look for compensation.” 

Carlsen also expressed confusion with the format, saying he expected to play White in the first game and thought he’d play another match as well. He explained: “I’m clearly not used to being in the Loser’s Bracket.”

So walks away with $10,000 for finishing in 5-6th.

Artemiev-Aronian 1.5-1.5

After trading blow for blow in the first two games, the match was decided in the armageddon tiebreaker. Aronian won the match with an even score because he had draw odds with Black in the final tiebreaking game.

In the first game, Aronian trapped his opponent’s rook and went on to win up the exchange. Artemiev, in a must-win situation already in game two, won the game instantly after his opponent blundered a tactic. 

Can you find it? Black to move and win.

And so the two combatants decided everything with an armageddon game. Aronian earned draw odds after an extremely low bid of seven minutes and 30 seconds. He would have half his opponent’s time, but a draw would win him the match.

The match was decided by a good old time scramble as both players desperately punched in moves with zero increment added. To his credit, Aronian did prove adequate defense on the board in the rook endgame; and the draw by repetition secured the match win.

He could hardly contain himself and threw his hands in the air after the hair-raising final game.

After the game, Aronian said: “I think I really cannot play without drama. I created all of this myself… . [Winning the match] took the usual recipe that I always show: the luck.”

Artemiev exits the tournament with $10,000 for reaching this stage.

Winners Final

The good news for these players is that, by making it to the Winners Final, both players automatically qualify for Division I of the next Champions Chess Tour event in May, which guarantees a minimum $7,500 prize. 

Caruana-Nakamura 2.5-0.5

Nakamura led his head-to-head encounters with Caruana in rapid chess with 16 to 9 wins and 21 draws. However, the reigning American champion overcame all odds, even with a recent shoulder injury, to enter the tournament’s last stage: the Grand Final.

Caruana won the wild first game where both players gunned for the opposing king. After tactical jockeying throughout the game, the winning sequence Caruana found to win the game was simply startling.

He called a bluff and grabbed a hanging piece, but at the cost of walking into what looked like a dangerous attack—one that objectively fell short after the white king ran into the middle of the board, shockingly safe.

The Winners Semifinals of this division featured two young players in one match and two veterans in the other. 

The Abdusattorov-Lazavik was a close encounter where the Uzbek GM ultimately prevailed by winning with the white pieces in the armageddon tiebreaker.

The other match had some technical drama. After losing game one, Kramnik blundered his queen in one move due to a mouse slip in game two. The former world champion was playing on his phone after issues with his computer—sadly, he was at least equal in the position and also had a two-minute lead on the clock.

Both of the eventual grand finalists won their first games and made a draw in the second to secure match victories.

In the Winners Final, Tabatabaei took advantage of a weak pawn on the queenside. After his opponent missed the difficult path to equality, with a specific way of sacrificing the pawn, the Iranian grandmaster cruised to victory with flawless play.

To see two beasts of rapid chess like Tabatabaei and Sarana in Division III is, as commentators have said and I have written, a testament to the strength of this event. We are in for a gripping Grand Final.

Division III Standings