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.

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.