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The CrunchLabs Masters came to an end on Wednesday. After Alexander Grischuk and Arjun Erigaisi claimed victories in Divisions II and III on Tuesday, the finalists of Division I played a nervy match to decide the winner of the top event. In the end, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Alireza Firouzja to secure overall victory.
Before reaching the Grand Final, MVL defeated Dmitry Andreikin, Magnus Carlsen and obtained a first win over Firouzja. The youngster, however, set up a rematch by winning the losers' bracket by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi.
In the all-French matchup, queenless battles were the norm, with the contenders looking for small chances to get an edge in tense encounters. Good technical efforts by both sides led to four draws in the 10-minute games, though, thus setting up an Armageddon.
The decider saw Firouzja getting the black pieces, draw odds and almost a 3-minute disadvantage on the clock in a game without increments. The contenders entered a Berlin Defence, and by move 43, a position with passers on opposite flanks was seen on the board - the kind that needs to be played with extreme precision to avoid mistakes.
Engines here give Black an advantage, and Firouzja found the strong 43...b5. However, after 44.Bxa5+ Kd7 (...Kb7 is better) 45.Bb6, the youngster failed to play the continuation that would have kept his winning chances alive - instead of 45...c4, he went for 45...bxa4
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Of course, getting rid of the a-pawn is perfectly natural, and Firouzja only had 55 seconds to MVL's more than 3 minutes on the clock at this point.
Still, even after this missed chance, the position was evaluated as balanced, and a draw was all the youngster needed to set up a Grand Final Reset. Soon after, however, Firouzja faltered again while pressed by the clock, and Vachier-Lagrave went on to grab the 57-move that granted him tournament victory.
Remarkably, this is the third time (in as many events) that Firouzja reached the Grand Final in this year's Champions Chess Tour. The 21-year-old lost the final of the Chessable Masters against Carlsen, and then beat the Norwegian in the final of the Chess.com Classic. Firouzja's strong showing in the online series has left him atop the standings of the tour with one 'regular' tournament to go before the season-ending Finals.
MVL, on his part, qualified to Division I of the Chessable Masters, where he was knocked out by Nepomniachtchi, and then won Division II of the Chess.com Classic after defeating Wesley So in an exciting confrontation. The Frenchman stands in third place in the tour standings.
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