Chessable Masters: Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi score convincing wins

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
6/26/2020 – Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi needed no more than three games to defeat Fabiano Caruana and Vladislav Artemiev in the first mini-matches of the Chessable Masters quarterfinals. Carlsen was ruthless against Caruana’s haphazard play in games 1 and 2, while Nepomniachtchi defeated Artemiev twice with the white pieces and showed good technique to hold a draw with black. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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A short day at the office


World Champion Magnus Carlsen and eleven more of the world's best chess players are competing in the Chessable Masters by chess24, the third event in the $1 million Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour, taking place from June 20 to July 5.


It did not take long for Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi to secure victories in the first sets of their quarterfinal matches. While Carlsen achieved clean wins in the first two games against Fabiano Caruana, Nepomniachtchi did not have it as easy against Vladislav Artemiev.

The matches are played to the best of three, so Caruana and Artemiev will get a chance to level the score in the second sets, to take place on Saturday.

Few people expected for Carlsen to get such a smooth win over Caruana after their gruelling match from the Clutch Chess International. The world champion himself does not feel his play during this period of online tournaments has been as consistent as his results show. He told commentator Anna Rudolf: 

I feel that I haven’t been consistent at all, to be honest. I’ve lost it feels like about a million games. I would say that my top level has been great, but the floor has been pretty low as well.  

The same level of unflinching self-criticism was shown by the other winner of the day, as Nepomniachtchi noted: “The stressful part was the level of my play”. Although his victory over Artemiev was not as clean as Carlsen’s, he played well at most critical moments — and also got a little lucky, as Artemiev lost by disconnection in game 1, shortly after having survived a strong attack by his more-experienced opponent.

Ding vs Nakamura and Grischuk vs Giri, the remaining two matchups of the quarterfinals, kick off Friday. 

Chessable Masters 2020

Carlsen 2½:½ Caruana

Mini-match #1 Game 1 Game 2 Game 3
Magnus Carlsen 1 1 ½
Fabiano Caruana 0 0 ½

Playing white in game 1, Carlsen obtained what Yasser Seirawan called ‘a smooth Carlsbad’. All the positional trumps favoured the world champion, and he did not falter in conversion:

 
Carlsen vs. Caruana - Game 1
Position after 33.Ne5

White’s king is perfectly safe while Black has been struggling to defend his backward pawn on c6, and after 33.Ne5 it is clear that White has what it takes to break through. The game continued 33...Rb8 34.Qa7 Nxe5 35.dxe5 Qd8 36.Be2 Kh8 37.Bg4:

 
Position after 37.Bg4

Something had to give. Black lost a pawn after 37...Ng6 38.f4 Ra8 39.Qc5 Qe8 40.Qxc6 Qxc6 41.Rxc6 and Carlsen had no trouble getting the full point in the ensuing endgame.

Caruana did not get much out of the opening in game 2, when he had the white pieces. Carlsen confessed his 12th move was in fact a ‘mouse slip’:

 
Caruana vs. Carlsen - Game 2
Position after 12.cxd4

The logical 12...Bb4 had been played in all previous games that had reached this position and most likely was the move Carlsen had planned to play. Instead, he went 12...Nxb5 by mistake, but luckily for him his position was still very much playable afterwards. In fact, he went on to score a second full point in a row after converting a superior opposite-coloured bishop endgame. The world champion said afterwards:

To win after making a mouse slip, that’s not something that happens every day.

A draw in game 3 was enough for Carlsen to secure the mini-match win.

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 a6 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 D37: Queen's Gambit Declined: 5 Bf4. Be6 7.e3 Nbd7 8.h3 White is slightly better. Bd6 9.Bd3 c6 10.Bf4 Qc7 11.Bxd6 Qxd6 12.0-0 0-0
13.Qb3!?N New and interesting. Predecessor: 13.Qc2 g6 14.Rfc1 Qe7 15.Na4 Ne8 16.b4 Nd6 17.Nc5 Nb6 18.Nxe6 Qxe6 19.Nd2 1/2-1/2 (63) Carlsen,M (2863)-Caruana,F (2835) Lichess.org INT 2020 13...Rab8 14.a4 Rfe8 15.Qa3 Qc7 16.Rfc1 Nb6 17.b4 Ra8 18.a5 Nc8 19.b5 axb5
20.Nxb5! Pin Qd8 20...cxb5 21.Rxc7 21.Nc3 Nd6 22.Qb4 Qe7 23.a6 bxa6
Black should play 23...b5 24.Rxa6 24.Ne5! 24...Rxa6± 25.Bxa6 Ra8 26.Bf1 Nc8 27.Qb2 Nd7 28.Ne2 Rb8 29.Qc3 Rb6 30.Qa5 Qd6 31.Nf4 Ne7 32.Nxe6 fxe6 33.Ne5 Rb8 34.Qa7 White has the initiative. Nxe5 35.dxe5 Qd8 36.Be2 Kh8? Black cannot hold the game after this. 36...Ra8± 37.Qc5 Kf7 37.Bg4+- Ng6 38.f4 Weaker is 38.Bxe6 Nxe5 39.f4 Nc4 38...Ra8 39.Qc5 Qe8 40.Qxc6 Qxc6? 40...Nf8 might work better. 41.Bf3 Qd8 41.Rxc6 Endgame KRB-KRN. White is clearly winning. d4 42.exd4 Nxf4 and the idea ...h5 leaves Black hopeful. 43.g3 Nd3 44.Bxe6 Ra1+ 45.Kg2 g6 46.Bc4 Nb4 47.Rc8+ Kg7 48.d5 Accuracy: White = 93%, Black = 59%.
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2881Caruana,F27731–02020Chessable Masters by chess24-KO1.1
Caruana,F2773Carlsen,M28810–12020Chessable Masters by chess24-KO1.2
Carlsen,M2881Caruana,F2773½–½2020Chessable Masters by chess24-KO1.3

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Nepomniachtchi 2½:½ Artemiev

Mini-match #1 Game 1 Game 2 Game 3
Ian Nepomniachtchi 1 ½ 1
Vladislav Artemiev 0 ½ 0

‘Nepo’ built up a strong initiative in game 1, when Artemiev, playing black, left his king almost completely undefended:

 
Nepomniachtchi vs. Artemiev - Game 1
Position after 36...fxg5

In the post-mortem interview, Nepomniachtchi remembered how Kasparov recommended for players to see how far the opponent’s pieces are from their king in order to decide when to attack. Thus, with the black queen on a8, one of the rooks on the queenside and a couple of clumsy knights, 37.Nhf5+ is the way to go. The game continued 37...gxf5 38.Nxf5+ Kg8 39.Qg3 Qxe4 40.Qxg5+ Kf7:

 
Position after 40...Kf7

Nepomniachtchi had correctly chosen to go for the attack, but at this point was not able to complete the job. 41.Qg7+ was winning — perhaps ‘Nepo’ did not see that after 41...Ke6 42.Qh6+ Kxf5, White has the strong 43.f3 and Black is lost. He played 41.Rd3 instead, which can be responded by 41...Ra1 42.Rxa1 Qxd3 43.Ra3 Qxa3 and White started checking the black king incessantly.

But when the game seemed to be heading towards a draw, Artemiev disconnected and, as the rules stipulate, lost the game. An unfortunate incident for the young Russian.

In game 2, Artemiev was a pawn up in a rook endgame, but saw his opponent demonstrating he knows how to draw with a ‘mad rook’:

 
Artemiev vs. Nepomniachtchi - Game 2
Position after 47.Kxe5

Black played 47...Re4+ and White cannot ever capture the rook without allowing a draw by stalemate, with the king and pawn completely immobile on the h-file.

‘Nepo’ won game 3 after his opponent blundered on move 25, thus ending the four-game mini-match.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.c3 a6 5.Ba4 d6 6.d4 Bd7 7.0-0 Bg7 8.h3 Nf6 9.Re1 0-0 10.Nbd2 Re8 C60: Ruy Lopez: Unusual Black 3rd moves and 3... g6. 11.d5 Ne7 12.Bc2
12...Bh6N Black should try 12...b5= Predecessor: 12...h6 13.Nf1 Nh7 14.g4 f5 15.gxf5 gxf5 16.exf5 Bxf5 17.Bxf5 Nxf5 18.Ng3 Qd7 0-1 (64) Tokhirjonova,G (2378)-Safarli,E (2598) Europe Chess INT 2020 13.Nf1 Bxc1 14.Qxc1 Kg7 15.Ng3 a5 16.c4 Qb8 17.b3 Qa7 18.Bd3 Qc5 19.a3 c6 20.dxc6 bxc6 20...Nxc6= 21.Rd1 h6 21.Qd2 21.Qc3± 21...Be6 22.b4 axb4 23.axb4 Qb6 24.Bf1 Qc7 25.Qc3 Nd7 26.Rad1 f6 27.Rd2 c5 28.b5 Nb6 Black wants to play ... Ra4. 29.Red1 Red8 30.Be2 Rd7 Threatening ...Ra4. 31.Nf1 Nec8 32.Ne3 Qb8 33.Nh4 Ra4 34.Bg4 Bxg4 35.hxg4 Qa8 36.g5 aiming for gxf6+. fxg5?
36...Qxe4= and Black stays safe. 37.gxf6+ Kxf6 37.Nhf5+!+- 37.Nf3 Re7= 37...gxf5 38.Nxf5+ Kg8?
38...Kf8 39.Qg3! Qxe4 40.Qxg5+ Kf7 41.Rd3? Inferior is 41.Nh6+ Ke8= White must play 41.Qg7++- Ke6 42.Qh6+ Kxf5 43.f3 Qe3+ 44.Qxe3 41...Ra1!= The position is equal. 42.Rxa1 Qxd3 43.Ra3 Qxa3 44.Nh6+! Ke8 45.Qg8+ Ke7 Threatens to win with ...Qc1+. 46.Qg5+ Ke6 47.Qf5+ Blacks defense is rewarded with a draw. Accuracy: White = 81%, Black = 71%. . Loss on time!?
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Nepomniachtchi,I2778Artemiev,V27691–02020Chessable Masters by chess24-KO1.1
Artemiev,V2769Nepomniachtchi,I2778½–½2020Chessable Masters by chess24-KO1.2
Nepomniachtchi,I2778Artemiev,V27691–02020Chessable Masters by chess24-KO1.3

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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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