Carlsen blows out Artemiev, wins Aimchess US Rapid

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
9/6/2021 – A convincing performance in the finals of the Aimchess US Rapid gave Magnus Carlsen tournament victory in the last ‘regular’ event of this year’s Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The world champion beat Vladislav Artemiev 2½-½ in the second set of the finals. The young Russian nonetheless made it into the grand finale of the series, despite only playing in 3 of the 9 qualifying tournaments.

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Artemiev impressive in the tour

Magnus Carlsen obtained his third tournament victory in this year’s Meltwater Champions Chess Tour by taking down Vladislav Artemiev in the finals of the Aimchess US Rapid. The world champion thus got as many victories as Wesley So. Carlsen played in all but one of the nine events and topped the overall standings in the end, accumulating 339 points for $215,370 in total earnings.

The top 8 players in the overall standings qualified to the Tour Final, scheduled to start on September 25. They will be joined by two wildcards in a single round-robin tournament in which the top scorers during the ‘regular season’ will get extra points from the get go

Remarkably, Artemiev made it to the grand finale after playing only in the last three events of the series, twice reaching the final and once making it to the semifinals. For comparison’s sake, the likes of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (6 events) and Alireza Firouzja (7 events) did not manage to qualify. These players might be invited as wildcards anyway, but that does not take away from Artemiev’s impressive achievement.

The remaining six players who qualified are Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov, Anish Giri, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura.

Aimchess US Rapid 2021

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Carlsen’s smooth ride

Talking to the commentators after his victory, the world champion described the match as “a fairly smooth ride”, noting that this was “for sure” his best performance in the tour so far. Only needing a draw in the second 4-game mini-match against Artemiev, the world champion kicked off the day with a win.

 
Carlsen vs. Artemiev - Game #1

Carlsen managed to keep the position lively enough against an opponent who feels more at home in positional struggles. On the diagrammed position though, Artemiev, playing black, would have been well advised to close things off with 27...c4. Instead, there followed 27...Qd6 28.Qa3, and Black did not get any other chance to push his c-pawn to keep things under control.

Nevertheless, the tense struggle continued, with White getting only a slight initiative. But the one handling the small plus was an in-form Carlsen, who kept tightening the screws as his queen and bishop kept creating threats along the light squares.

 

At this point, Black had nothing better than 40...Qd6, trying to defend passively — White would then start pushing his kingside pawns, potentially creating more weaknesses on Black’s camp. Artemiev chose not to enter this line, though, and played 40...Kd6 instead.

Black’s position quickly crumbled — 41.Qd7+ Ke5 42.Bd3 f5 43.Qxa7

 

There is no perpetual check for Black, and the passer on the a-file is too strong. Seven moves later, Artemiev resigned.

The Russian got some chances with white in game 2, but he could not find a way to break through against the ever-resourceful world champion. A draw was agreed, which meant Artemiev needed back-to-back wins to take the match to blitz tiebreakers. 

Carlsen quickly got the upper hand in game 3. Clearly in good form, the Norwegian kept things under control and ended up scoring his second win of the day, thus securing tournament victory with an overall convincing performance in the finals.

 
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1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Qc2 c6 7.Bg5 Be7 8.e3 Nh5 9.Bxe7 Qxe7 10.0-0-0 Nb6 11.Bd3 Bg4 12.Kb1 g6 13.h3 Bxf3 14.gxf3 0-0-0 15.Qb3 Kb8 16.a4 Qe6 17.a5 Nc4 18.a6 b6 19.Na4 Rc8 20.Ka1 Ka8 21.Rc1 Rc7 22.Nc3 Rhc8 23.h4 Nf6 24.Rc2 Nd6 25.Rhc1 c5 26.Nb5 Nxb5 27.Bxb5 Qd6 28.Qa3 Kb8 29.Kb1 Qe7 30.Rc3 Ng8 31.dxc5 Rxc5 32.Rxc5 Rxc5 33.Rxc5 Qxc5 34.Qa4 Qd6 35.Qd4 f6 36.h5 Ne7 37.hxg6 hxg6 38.Qh4 Kc7 39.Qh8 Qb4 40.Qe8 Kd6 41.Qd7+ Ke5 42.Bd3 f5 43.Qxa7 Qe1+ 44.Kc2 Qb4 45.Qc7+ Kf6 46.a7 Qa4+ 47.Kd2 Nc6 48.Qxb6 Kg5 49.Bc2 Qxa7 50.Qxc6 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2847Artemiev,V27041–02021D37Aimchess US Rapid KO 20212.1
Artemiev,V2704Carlsen,M2847½–½2021B20Aimchess US Rapid KO 20212.2
Carlsen,M2847Artemiev,V27041–02021B92Aimchess US Rapid KO 20212.3

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Aimchess US Rapid 2021

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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