The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen was still a little dissatisfied with his play at the Chess24's "Legends of Chess" tournament saying that he thought there were long stretches at the Chessable Masters where he played better but in terms of results he completely dominated this event winning every single match and in the final stages beating Peter Svidler and Ian Nepomniachtchi in the fastest possible way using just three games in each of the four sets he needed.

In game one Carlsen said he just decided on the spur of the moment to use the London System vs the Gruenfeld which he plays extremely well. Nepomniachtchi got a very complex fight and according to the computer he stood better but 15...Nh5 was the start of things going wrong and 16...f5 played after some thought and met by a grimace from Carlsen was the losing move, something Carlsen knew before he played it. On move 27 Nepomniachtchi couldn't bear looking it anymore and resigned. In game two there was a sharp fight in a Sicilian but once the tactics started Nepomniachtchi was outplayed in just a few moves between move 16 and 21 when he was dead lost. Carlsen took his time brining home the point but never let the win go. In the final game Carlsen took the game into quiet waters as white and got the draw he needed to win. Nepomniachtchi was not at his best today but Carlsen was very, very good indeed.

There is not long now to wait for the Tour Final (I've seen Kiva named as the sponsor) which runs Sunday 9th to Thursday 20th August 2020. Carlsen faces Ding in the semifinals, Nakamura plays Dubov in the other. Ding's ongoing issues with the Internet and disconnections during games - which have been plausibly explained as being caused by him having to play via a VPN as he can't connect directly to Chess24 - are likely not solvable which is a pity as it is a huge disadvantage.