MVL beats Nepo, Abdusattorov and Nakamura
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has secured his place in the Grand Final of the Chess.com Classic after winning three consecutive matches in the Losers Bracket. His path to the final included victories over Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Hikaru Nakamura, setting up a rematch with world number-one Magnus Carlsen.
The French grandmaster began the day by defeating Nepomniachtchi in an Armageddon decider. Playing black in the sudden-death game, Vachier-Lagrave accepted a draw from a better position to secure qualification under the format's rules. Abdusattorov advanced in similar fashion, drawing with black in his Armageddon game against Vladimir Fedoseev.
In the Losers Bracket semifinal - a two-game match - Vachier-Lagrave convincingly defeated Abdusattorov 2–0. Game one featured a key moment when the Uzbek grandmaster played the speculative sacrifice 37.Nxe6
The idea is that after 37...fxe6 38.Rxe6 Black is forced to play 38...Nxa8, and now 39.Ra7 should give White good compensation for the piece.
However, Vachier-Lagrave responded accurately with 37...Rc1, neutralising White's threats and ultimately holding onto the extra piece after a well-calculated sequence of moves: 38.Rd2 fxe6 39.Rxd6 Nc4 40.Rd4 e5 41.Rd7 Rxd1+ 42.Rxd1
The French number-two then converted his material advantage cleanly.
In the final of the Losers Bracket, Vachier-Lagrave faced Nakamura. After a solid performance in game one, game two appeared headed for an equal ending until a misstep with 26...Ne7 by Nakamura allowed MVL to claim the bishop pair and a lasting positional edge.
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Vachier-Lagrave's only loss in the Playoffs so far came against Carlsen in the Winners Quarterfinals. Before his trio of victories on Thursday, he had already eliminated Fabiano Caruana, Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian earlier in the bracket.
The Grand Final on Friday will be a rematch between Carlsen and Vachier-Lagrave. Under the double-elimination format, MVL will need to defeat Carlsen twice to win the tournament. Notably, he has done so once before - in the 2023 AI Cup.
Reflecting on the upcoming match, Vachier-Lagrave said: "It helps me to think that I've actually done it in the past, twice on the same day, against him. I'll need to be flawless".
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