The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen enjoyed his best day of the final of the "Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Final benefiting Kiva" tournament after beating Hikaru 2.5-1.5 on the fourth day to level things up at 2-2 with just a maximum of three sets to go. Even though Carlsen missed many golden opportunities in the first game he retained control throughout and took advantage of a serious miscalculation in game three and forced a draw in game four when in total control.

Game one saw Carlsen build up a decisive advantage quickly 17.e4 for instance was a vast improvement over the game. Carlsen was critical of 18.axb6 saying that 18.Qa3 was much better. Carlsen did have a winning advantage for a long time after that but good defence from Hikaru combined with time problems for Carlsen meant the game finished in a draw. Carlsen got an extremely comfortable draw in the Berlin in game 2 and said he felt a lot better after that. Game three was a quiet Italian game which suddenly became tactically extremely complicated with both sides pursuing tactical ideas almost independent of the other player. 26...Qxd3 would have left Carlsen a bit better but instead he was shocked by 26....Qxf2? which put Carlsen's King potentially in a nasty mating net but Carlsen could avoid mate and thus was winning. Carlsen took his time and calculated a way to a win. In the final game Carlsen played the novelty 6....Bg7 in the g6 Ruy Lopez and soon with the dynamic 12...c5 followed by 13...d5 achieved complete control of the board which he never surrendered - Carlsen said once he saw this idea he had no doubt it was the right one and played it with little additional thought. On move 34 instead of playing for a win Carlsen chose a forcing sequence that gave him the draw he needed.

Score Carlsen 2 Nakamura 2. Just three sets left.