The Week in Chess

The FTX Crypto Cup quarterfinals concluded today setting up the pairings Carlsen-Radjabov and Nepomniachtchi- Wesley So in the semifinals. Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi only progressed after blitz tie-breaks. The online event is the last major of the Meltwater Champions Chess tour although there remain three more normal qualification events before the final starting on September 25th.

Magnus Carlsen won the blitz tie-break 2-0 against Hikaru Nakamura after another close struggle in the rapid games. The first game was a very sharp Giuoco Piano where Carlsen found himself with the harder position to play - even though the computers thought he had quite some advantage. Carlsen fell behind on the clock and went wrong quite quickly after giving up a piece (26.Nxe5 might have been a decent practical chance but it had to be followed up by 27.Rxa5 rather than 27.Rxe5). Nakamura got some advantage in a Sicilian in game two but drifted into trouble before 29.Qe1? (29.a6 had to be tried) left him with a lost position. In Game 3 Carlsen played the poor Orangutan Opening (1.b4) and almost immediately was much worse, he eventually escaped into a drawn bishops of opposite colours endgame, a big missed chance for Nakamura. The final game was a fairly calm draw taking the match into a tie-break. Carlsen had a crushing win in the first game where Nakamura didn't get out of the opening and was already completely busted by the time he dropped a piece on move 23. In the second must win game Nakamura again lost the opening battle, Carlsen was a little better by move 12 and winning by move 20.

Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana drew the first three games of their set today. Caruana allowed perpetual check at the end of game two when in fact he could have avoided it and won, he was also better in game three, game four Caruana traded down into an endgame that proved to be tricky for him but he held and the match also went to a tie-break. Nepomniachtchi won the first tie-break game and survived a lost position in the second to go through.

Wesley So was the first player to make it to the semifinals. Having won the first set yesterday against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave he only needed to draw today, he drew games 1 and 3 with white and outplayed MVL on the black side of a London System to progress. Teimour Radjabov won the final game of the day yesterday and with four draws today it was enough for him to go through against Anish Giri. When Radjabov had white both players were happy enough to draw. Giri's big chance was in game two where he was winning according to the computer, but when he allowed the final pair of rooks to be exchanged the game was drawn. Giri quickly became worse in the final must win game and that too was eventually drawn.

Semifinals Friday 28th May 2021 4pm: Carlsen-Radjabov and Nepomniachtchi-So.