The Week in Chess

The last day of Group B of the Chessable Masters proved to be even more exciting than Group A with the qualifiers in doubt right until the final round. Anish Giri topped Group B with 6/10 but was the only player going into the final round who knew he had qualified for the knockout phase. Giri was largely untroubled and was gifted half a point when Ding Liren lost on time when disconnected in a likely drawn position. Ding would have been extremely unfortunate to have been eliminated because of this but he had to not lose against Teimour Radjabov in the final round, which he never looked likely to do. Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final round to ensure his own qualification and eliminate MVL.

Fabiano Caruana only just qualified and that by virtue of surviving a completely lost position against Teimour Radjabov in Round 9. As fourth placed finisher Caruana will face Group A winner Magnus Carlsen in the KO phase. MVL just seemed a bit out of sorts but Teimour Radjabov having played quite poorly on day one played some of the most interesting chess of the day but too many lost half points throughout the event cost him qualification, but I'd certainly like to see him in the final event of the series.

There is a rest day on Wednesday.

Final Group B Standings: Giri 6pts, Ding 5.5pts, Nepomniachtchi 5.5pts, Caruana 5pts, Radjabov 4.5pts, MVL 3.5pts.

Thursday pairings: Carlsen-Caruana, Artemiev-Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura-Ding and Giri-Grischuk.