Comebacks Galore As Nepomniachtchi, So, Nakamura, Carlsen Advance To Semifinals

Most of the players who lost their first matches turned the tables.

Today the Skilling Open advanced to the second day of its quarterfinals knockout phase. GMs Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov, Wesley So, and Anish Giri battled for a spot in the semifinals that start November 27.

Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, and Radjabov started the day with a significant advantage after having won the first match of the quarterfinals and needed only a 2-2 draw to advance. If any of those players lost their match, a tiebreaker consisting of two blitz games and an armageddon round would decide who would take the spot in the semifinals.

How to watch?
The games of the chess24 Champions Chess Tour Skilling Open can be found here as part of our live events platform. IM Levy Rozman and IM Anna Rudolf are providing daily commentary on GM Hikaru Nakamura’s Twitch channel starting from 9:00 a.m. Pacific / 18:00 Central Europe.

Carlsen vs. Giri

It seemed like Giri came to the match prepared to make Carlsen’s life harder after he got an advantage over the world champion in their first game. In the complicated game that followed, Giri was on top until Carlsen successfully forced an exchange of the bishops and queens, entering a drawish endgame.