Champions Chess Tour Final, Round 2: Carlsen continues to lead

by André Schulz
9/27/2021 – After two days of play Magnus Carlsen leads the final of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour - which he, thanks to the 16.5 bonus point he received because of his successes in the previous tournaments of the tour - did from the very start of the event. But in round 2 the World Champion had to overcome serious problems before beating Shakhryar Mamedyarov in a tense and eventful match that went into Armageddon. | Graphics and photos: Tournament Site

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The final of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is the tenth and last tournament of the series and it is played in a slightly different mode. The previous tournaments started with a round-robin, which was followed by knockout matches. There are no knockout matches in the final, but each round consists of a four-game mini-match, followed, if necessary, by a tiebreak of two blitz games and a possible armageddon game.

However, the allocation of points is somewhat unusual, because the players started the final with bonus points they had gathered in the nine previous tournaments. Therefore, Magnus Carlsen, who had scored best in the previous tournaments, began the finals with 16.5 points, four points ahead of Wesley So, who started with 12.5 points in second place.

In the first round on Saturday Carlsen convincingly defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda 2.5-0.5.

On Sunday, in round 2, the World Champion had to play against Shakhryar Mamedyarov and this match turned into slugfest in which the Azeri managed to land plenty of blows.

Let our authors show you how Carlsen tailored his openings to be able to outplay his opponents strategically in the middlegame or to obtain an enduring advantage into the endgame.

White won in all four games of the rapid match. In the blitz-tiebreak both players also won their games with White. Here's Mamedyarov's win with White:

 
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1.e4 c5 2.a3 g6 3.h4 If White played like that in a club match one would be tempted to share some basic insights of "proper" opening play with the White player. But Black also reacts in a non-standard fashion. Nf6 After 3...h5 4.Nc3 Bg7 Black scores well according to the stats. 4.e5 Nh5 5.Be2 Nf4 6.d4 Nxe2 7.Nxe2 cxd4 8.h5 Bg7 9.f4 gxh5 10.Nxd4 d6 11.e6 Qa5+ 12.Nc3 Bxe6 13.Rxh5 Qb6 14.Be3 Nc6 15.Rb5 Qc7 16.Nxe6 Bxc3+ 17.bxc3 fxe6 18.Qh5+ Top level chess in coffeehouse style. But stopping Black from castling is a kind of success for White. Kd7 19.f5 Nd8 20.0-0-0 Castling queenside though the queenside is rather damaged. However, White has a trick in mind. Rf8 21.Rc5 Where to go with the queen? Qxc5? Carlsen overlooks a tactical trick. After 21...Qb8 22.fxe6+ Nxe6 23.Rc4 White is more than okay. But best was 21...Qb6!? 22.Re5 Qa6 23.fxe6+ Kc7 with a complicated position with chances for both sides. 22.fxe6+ Kc6 23.Bxc5 dxc5 24.Rd7 Black is completely lost. Kb6 25.Rxe7 Nc6 26.Rf7 Rfe8 27.Qxh7 Rxe6 28.Rxb7+ Ka6 29.Qd3+ Kxb7 30.Qd7+ Kb6 31.Qxe6 Rh8 32.g4 Rh1+ 33.Kb2 Rg1 34.Qf5 Na5 35.g5 Nc4+ 36.Ka2 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Mamedyarov,S2762Carlsen,M28551–02021B20Meltwater Tour Final 20212.6

In the armageddon game Carlsen had White and won the match with a quick victory.

Wesley So suffered a setback and lost outright 0.5-2.5 to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Jan Krzysztof Duda bounced back from his opening loss against Magnus Carlsen and beat Anish Giris 2.5-0.5, while Levon Aronian won by the same score against Vladislav Artemiev.

No enthusiam was generated by the match between Teimour Radjabov and Hikaru Nakamura. The two players quickly played four short draws, all under 20 moves, a behaviour Howell called "disrespectful" to spectators and chess fans. After this non-match Nakamura won blitz-tie-break 1.5-0.5.

Results of round 2

Standings after round 2

Games

 
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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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