Magnus Carlsen survived a fierce onslaught from Ding Liren today to set up a dream final in his own $140,000 online signature tournament.
The World Chess Champion was right on the brink of being dumped out in a topsy-turvy white-knuckle rollercoaster ride of a fourth set.
Ding, the highest-rated Chinese player in history, missed a string of chances to pull off a shock result as the regular rapid chess games finished 2-2.
A blitz chess play-off followed and in the final tiebreaker game, Chinese number 1 collapsed under pressure to send Carlsen through to the grand final of Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals benefiting Kiva.
Carlsen, who looked visibly exhausted after today’s grueling match, said: „I can’t believe that I actually escaped, but that is the way it is sometimes.“
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