The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen reached his third final out of the four on his tour after defeating Peter Svidler 2.5-0.5 in the second set of the semifinals of Chess24's Legends of Chess to go through 2-0. Ian Nepomniachtchi twice took the lead in his match against Anish Giri only to lose the next game and finally he lost the following Armageddon game too. This match goes to a final set of games on Sunday.

Carlsen won a fine Sicilian Najdorf with white in the first game of the day finishing things off in just 26 moves. In game two Svidler won a pawn for not much compensation but after 19.f3? that advantage started to dwindle and with 29.Bb3? Nd1! Carlsen won a second game. In the final game Carlsen traded all the pieces off until there was a bishops of opposite colours endgame which was drawn.

Nepomniachtchi played the Scotch in game 1 of his match against Giri, this was drawn in 40 moves. In game two Giri missed a chance to be much better with 26.Nd1 but gradually lost the initiative and massively behind on the clock he couldn't defend his King in a wide open position with all the heavy pieces. In game three Giri got a good Sicilian with black and steadily outplayed his opponent winning in 65 moves. Giri had the slightly better side of the draw in the final rapid game. In the first blitz game Giri blundered with 30...e4 which just lost material without giving any real attacking compensation and lost in 76 moves. In the second must win game Giri found a lovely tactical shot with 14.Nxd4 and once he recovered all his material on move 21 he was winning - he eventually brought home the full point in 48 moves. In the final Armageddon game Nepomniachtchi chose white and a wild fluctuating struggle followed 29....f5? was bad from Giri overlooking the power of 30.Ne2 but then Nepomniachtchi returned the favour with 31.f3? which won two minor pieces for a rook but unfortunately Nepomniachtchi's knight was in a forever pin and 33...h5, 34...h4 picked it up and game. Nepomniachtchi was visibly furious with himself at the end of the game. It's pretty clear Nepomniachtchi believes he's the better rapid and blitz player but Giri is causing him some problems. This match has shaped up quite nicely for the final day.