The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen was unsatisfied with his play against Levon Aronian on day two of the Quarterfinals of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational but it was still good enough to get through in just three games. Carlsen won the first game, comfortably drew with white in the second but was lost in the third game but somehow found a way to escape with a draw to progress. Ian Nepomniachtchi won the first two games against Hikaru Nakamura (the second a 28 move demolition with black) but was under pressure in the third but held in the end to go through. Wesley So again showed his brilliant calculation skills to frustrate Alireza Firouzja who had plenty of good opportunities but just could not nail down his opponent. So found a nice tactical trick in 24.Ne5 to win game two (the otherwise strong 24...Qa5 is refuted by Nc4) and in game three Firouzja was marching his pawns down the board but 43...Ra8 turned things around and So even went on to win. Anish Giri won game two against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in a must win game 4 MVL got into terrible trouble out of the opening and lost that as well.

Semifinal pairings Thursday 18th March 4pm GMT: Magnus Carlsen vs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So vs Anish Giri.