Magnus Beats Hikaru To Take Joint Lead In The Champions Chess Tour Finals

Carlsen defeated two of his greatest rivals, GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, back to back. So, on his end, shut down both French players in the event, GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov recovered from a poor day one by winning both matches, while GM Denis Lazavik won his first match in the tournament.

Sunday was full of new opportunities for players with a shaky start in the first two rounds of the round robin. Abdusattorov had the greatest recovery, winning both of his matches after finishing day one with zero points.

Every player has won at least one match so far. For those with a slow start, there’s still hope. Nobody will be eliminated until Tuesday—and, in the round-robin, finishing in the top six means making it at least to the Survival Stage. 

Round 3: Carlsen Beats Caruana, So Recovers

Carlsen and So continued their perfect runs with 3/3 match wins, while Nakamura and Abdusattorov won matches for the first time.

The clash of world number-one Carlsen vs. world number-two Caruana was the marquee matchup of the round. In their 2018 world championship match, Carlsen won all three of the rapid tiebreak games, but since then Caruana has greatly stepped up his speed-chess game.

Carlsen, with White, tried the Catalan Opening in game one, but Caruana held a pawn-down endgame. 

About game two, Carlsen said: „I decided to play a somewhat unusual opening, gunning for a fight, and he was all for it.“ Carlsen sacrificed a pawn and, later, when Caruana had the opportunity to repeat the position soon, GM Robert Hess commentating on the action foretold: „His position is quite in danger of crumbling if he continues this game.“

Continue he did—and the prediction came true.

Asked if it gives him special pleasure to beat the former world championship challenger, Carlsen answered: „Yeah, but I’ve played with him for many years.“

Meanwhile, So was busy dealing with the tricky Vachier-Lagrave, who he eventually beat 2-1.

Having lost game one, So won the next two to keep his Toronto dream alive. In game one, after sacrificing the exchange in the opening, Vachier-Lagrave dropped the mic with the queen sacrifice 34…Qh4!, the move that provoked collapse.

So won the next game on demand with Black. And, in the armageddon, after bidding just under nine minutes and even seeming to regret his decision just seconds later, he defended against the Frenchman’s fearsome and sacrificial attack.

For a single move, So nearly blundered his queen, but he was able to hold the draw in the end. After the game, he said of the nerve-racking encounter: „It seems that, based on history, I just can’t play chess against Maxime. I don’t want to play him again!“
 

Round 4: Three Armageddons Leave Carlsen, So On Top

Just as on Saturday, the second round of the day had three armageddon games in store. Only Abdusattorov won his match, with an impressive 2-0 score against Caruana.

Like Carlsen vs. Caruana in round three, Carlsen’s match with Nakamura was the marquee matchup in round four. 

Nakamura showed his intention to play sidelines. In the first game, he played the Austrian Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined with Black, while he essayed the Trompowsky Opening with White in game two—which could not be a surprise since he had played it the day before. Still, both games ended in well-played draws.

Off to the armageddon they went. Carlsen bid 15 minutes and guaranteed himself the white pieces. Nakamura would have nine minutes 40 seconds but with draw odds. After the game, Carlsen stated: „If I play at my best, I usually do pretty well.“

Meanwhile, the other front-runner So was busy beating Firouzja 2-1 to continue with 4/4 match wins, and he said afterward: „My goal before the start of the tournament was to finish in the top six. Like, at least not to go home so early…. I couldn’t have asked for a better start. It’s crazy.“

Firouzja held his own with Black in the Italian Opening in game one. He came with an opening novelty against the Berlin Defense in game two, 13.Rf4N, but it was not enough to take down one of the world’s most solid players.

So had White in the armageddon against just under nine minutes. Firouzja played the solid Petroff but didn’t respond properly after 16.g4!. The game ended quickly as So switched from a kingside attack to simply winning a pawn on d6.

Only So and Carlsen are on a perfect score now, and they’ll play in round five on Monday. So said: „It’s up to him which Magnus shows up. I hope the best Magnus doesn’t show up, but if he does, it’ll be an uphill battle.“

Rounds five and six of the round-robin will be on Monday, December 11, starting at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 22:30 p.m. IST.

You can watch the Champions Chess Tour Finals 2023 on Chess.com/TV, our Twitch channel and catch all our live broadcasts on YouTube.com/Chess. The games can also be followed from our Events Page.

Adapted from NM Anthony Levin’s report for Chess.com. Read the full report with game analysis here.