Magnus Carlsen will play in the Grand Final of the Chess.com Classic after defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Hikaru Nakamura in the final stages of the Winners Bracket. Carlsen's final match in the bracket was a clash against Nakamura - widely considered the two strongest players in online chess based on previous Champions Chess Tour results. Their encounter produced a shocking result in game four.
The first two games of the match were drawn, but Carlsen demonstrated fine technique in game three, pressing home a positional advantage in a queenless middlegame to take the lead. Game four, however, delivered an unbelievable twist.
Carlsen blundered with 28...Rxg2, a move based on a miscalculated sequence. But a few moves later, after 32...Bg4, Naka failed to find the refutation that would have given him the victory he needed to even the score in the match. Not only that - he also resigned the game!
The US star missed 33.Rfg3, when 33...Bxh5 fails to 34.Rxg8#. The best Black can get here is 33...Qf3+ 34.Rxf3 Bxh5 35.Rxg8+ Kxg8, and White is winning with his extra exchange. To the astonishment of viewers and commentators alike, Naka had just resigned in a position that was in fact winning.
🤯 Hikaru, not seeing 33.Rfg3!, resigns in a winning position and loses the match when the comeback was around the corner!https://t.co/uvuzoPNsFi#ChessChamps pic.twitter.com/mubRLqtkdq
— chess24 (@chess24com) May 21, 2025
Earlier in the day, Carlsen had advanced to the Winners Bracket final by defeating Abdusattorov with a 3–1 score. Nakamura's path included a narrow victory over Ian Nepomniachtchi in an Armageddon tiebreak in the other semifinal. Nepo had already gone to Armageddon twice in the tournament and once again saw his run decided in sudden death.
A tactical oversight by Nepo with 32...Nd6 allowed Naka to win the exchange with 33.Ne7+ followed by 34.Qxa8, and White went on to convert the material advantage into a win.
With these results, Nepomniachtchi, Abdusattorov and Nakamura dropped into the Losers Bracket, where they joined Vladimir Fedoseev and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as the remaining contenders. Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Wei Yi, Arjun Erigaisi, Vladislav Artemiev and Levon Aronian were all eliminated from the competition after losing their respective matches.
The next round in the Losers Bracket will see Abdusattorov face Fedoseev, while Nepo takes on Vachier-Lagrave. The winners of those matches will then meet in a final mini-bracket, with the last player standing earning the right to face Nakamura. The winner of that match will move on to Friday's Grand Final against Carlsen. Under the double-elimination rules, the finalist emerging from the Losers Bracket must beat Carlsen twice to win the tournament.
According to the points gained by the remaining contenders in the 2025 Champions Chess Tour, all places at the upcoming Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia have been determined. From this point on, the competition is focused solely on the prize fund
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