Press release by chess.com
Magnus Carlsen suffered a shock defeat to long-time second GM Laurent Fressinet but roared back to secure qualification for Division I in the Champions Chess Tour’s upcoming Aimchess Rapid event.
The five-time world champion was in amongst a field of 181 titled players battling it out in last night’s Play-In for the right to take part in July’s $235,000 tournament, the fourth leg of Chess.com’s glittering $2.5 million Tour.
Carlsen made it through the Swiss section before going into a 1-0 lead in the Match Play against Ivan Saric after winning from the white side of the Sicilian Defense: Canal Attack.
But the dangerous Saric hit back and won the second following the same line he used to rout the then-world champion at the SuperUnited Croatia blitz tournament in 2022.
Undeterred by the loss, Carlsen bounced back with his finest victory of the day in the armageddon game after grinding down his opponent in a knight vs. bishop endgame.
Joining Carlsen in the top tier will be Levon Aronian, Wesley So, and the Venezuelan-born Spanish Eduardo Iturrizaga who all progressed through a challenging Swiss event before winning their respective rapid matches against other top-eight finishers.
Aronian was unbeaten en route to a 7/9 score in the Swiss portion. The qualifying players will join ChessKid Cup top-finishers, GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Fabiano Caruana, Jorden van Foreest, and Vladimir Fedoseev in a winner-takes-all knockout in July as they vie for their share of the prize fund.
The Aimchess Rapid Knockout will commence on Monday, July 10, starting at 8 a.m. Pacific/17:00 CEST.
