The Week in Chess

Ian Nepomniachtchi took the lead in his semifinal against World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the Magnus Carlsen Invitational after winning a very sharp struggle in game three. The remaining three games were drawn with Carlsen having good chances in game one, had he converted that the outcome of the day could have been very different. Nepomniachtchi was rewarded for some very enterprising play in the Vienna variation. Carlsen felt that he stood very well out of the opening and had a wealth of good options - perhaps too many - he eventually miscalculated something and it left Carlsen being the one having to find good moves just to stay in the game and instead his 31.d5? (31.Kh2) was an error he could not recover from. Carlsen also was granted a chance in the final game after 51.Bxh5? which left him better but 51.Qxe3? rather than 51.Qh3+ Ke1 52.Qxe3+ ended any chances of levelling things.

Anish Giri recovered from a one game deficit to beat Wesley So 2-1 in their first set. Giri blundered away a level position with 29.Nf5 allowing the simple tactical response 29...Rxe4 which ended things more or less straight away. Game two was a quick draw. In game three So even got a nice edge from the opening as black in a Berlin Ruy Lopez but probably had to play actively for a win, he started to drift into trouble, perhaps 27...Qd6 was the start of this and then blundered something simple with 31...Qd5? and was immediately lost. In the final game So again drifted into trouble and his 24.f5? was just a terrible move - Giri thought it a panic move - and in fact 24...Bh6 might have ended the game straight away, 24...gxf5 was enough for an advantage for Giri but by move 29 the position was more or less equal again until 30.Qg4? which lost on the spot (30.Rg5=). A very strange set of blunders from So who has looked in good form after a relatively poor first day.