Chessable Masters: Carlsen, Ding, Praggnanandhaa and Giri qualify for the semifinals

The Chessable Masters 2022, part of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, has reached the knockout stage. The top eight from the preliminary met in the quarterfinals to decide in four-game rapid matches who qualified for the semifinals.

Anish Giri is in particularly good form in this tournament. After winning the preliminary he had to play Aryan Tari, second in the Norwegian rankings behind Carlsen, and won without much trouble. Giri won the first two games and secured his place in the semifinals with a draw in game three.

Interview with Giri

The match between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ding Liren took a similar course. Ding Liren, currently the world number two, won the first two games, and after losing the third drew the fourth game to win the match.

In his match against David Anton from Spain, Magnus Carlsen won the first game and drew the second. In game 4 Carlsen played 1.f4 to try the Bird Opening, but the game quickly transposed into structures of the Modern Defence or the Closed Sicilian. Carlsen won it with his unique endgame technique and moved on to the next round.

 

Carlsen, Magnus2864

1–0

Anton Guijarro, David2691

GM

Chessable Masters KO 2022 chess24.com INT23.05.2022[Schulz,A]

GM

1.f4 g6 2.e4 White could have started with 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.e3 insisting on his opening idea. Or 3.g3 2...d5 3.d3 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.h3 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 Nc6 7.c3 f6 8.Bb5 Qb6 9.Ba4 0-0-0 10.0-0 Bg7 11.Bxc6 bxc6 12.e6 f5 13.d3 c4+ 14.Be3 Qxb2 15.Nd2 Nf6 16.Nxc4 Qxc3 17.Rfc1 Qxd3 18.Ne5 Qe4 19.Rxc6+ Kb7 20.Qxe4 Nxe4 21.Rb1+ Ka8 22.Rc7 d4 23.Nc6 1-0 (23) Moussard,J (2626)-Shirov,A (2662) Chess.com INT 2021 3...Bg7 Without fear of exchanging queens. 3...dxe4 4.dxe4 Qxd1+ 5.Kxd1 4.Nf3 c5 5.Be2 Nc6 6.0-0 e6 7.c3 Nge7 8.Be3 b6 9.Qc2 Ba6 10.a4 Rc8 11.Rd1 0-0 12.Na3

Black stands very comfortably and is the first on to get creative. 12...Nd4 13.Bxd4 Sadly necessary. 13.Qd2? Nb3-+ 13...cxd4 14.c4 Qc7 15.Qd2 dxe4 16.dxe4 Rfd8 17.Bd3 e5?! Not very productive. 17...Nc6!? with the idea of Na5. 18.Nb5 Qb8 19.Nxe5 Bxe5 20.fxe5 Nc6 A knight on e5 would be nice, but White thwarts the idea. 21.Nd6 Rc7 22.Qg5 Rcd7 22...Re7= 23.b4 While Black loses time with getting back the pawn, White creates counterplay. Nxe5 24.Qxe5 Rxd6 25.c5 bxc5 26.bxc5 Rc6 27.Qxb8 Rxb8 28.Bxa6 Rxa6 29.Rxd4 White kept on calculating and won a pawn. As a result, one can once again admire Carlsen's unique endgame technique. Rc6 30.Rc1 Rbc8 31.Rd5 Kf8 32.Kf2 Ke7 33.g4 h6 34.h4 34.Ke3!? 34...Rb8 35.g5 hxg5 36.hxg5 Ke6 Better was 36...Rb4 37.Re5+ Kf8 38.a5 Ra4 37.Ke3 Rb3+ 38.Kd4 Rb4+ 39.Rc4 Rb1 40.Re5+ Kd7

41.Kd5 White has built a mobile position, and he marches forward. Rd1+ 42.Rd4 Rxd4+ 43.Kxd4 Ra6 44.a5 Kd8 44...Rxa5?? 45.c6+ 45.Kd5 Rxa5 46.Kd6 Rb5 47.Re7 Rxc5 48.Rxa7 Rc8 49.Rxf7 Ke8 50.Rf6 Ra8 51.Ke5 Ra5+ 52.Kf4 Rb5 53.Rxg6 Kf7 54.Ra6 1–0

In the fourth match of the quarterfinals Wei Yi faced Praggnanandhaa. As a youngster the Chinese had made rapid progress and had topped the junior rankings for many years. His results prompted many to see a potential challenger for Carlsen in him. However, after his quick rise to the top, Wei Yi stagnated in his development, and he still has to make it to the very top. However, at the age of 22 Wei Yi has definitely not yet reached the end of his development.

But in the match against the 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa Wei Yi was quickly on the defensive. He lost the first two games but then won the third game and thus needed a win in the fourth game to force a tiebreak. However, game four ended in a draw and Praggnanandhaa advanced to the semifinals.

Karsten Müller took a look at an interesting endgame which occurred in this match:

In the semifinals Giri will play against Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen will play against Ding Liren - the world's number one against the world's number two.

Games

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