The quarterfinal stage of the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam began on Wednesday, featuring four classical games as the top eight players from the round-robin phase began their battles for a place in the semifinals. While three matches were drawn, Magnus Carlsen secured the only win of the day, defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov with the white pieces.
Carlsen's victory came from a game that initially resembled a King's Indian Defence, though the Norwegian noted its structural similarities to the French Defence. A strong positional approach with a solid pawn structure allowed Carlsen to seize the initiative early, and although Abdusattorov sought counterplay by sacrificing a couple of pawns to activate his queen.
In the resulting position with a queen and a rook per side, Carlsen gradually converted his material advantage into a crucial victory.
Abdusattorov will now need a win on Thursday to force a tiebreak.
Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Elsewhere, the most exciting game of the day featured Arjun Erigaisi playing white against Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura opted for the "Nepo Gambit" - 1.e4 f5 followed by 2...g6, giving up a pawn for the initiative. Before the game, Ian Nepomniachtchi had suggested this was a good line in the analysis session, but he did not play it since his opponent, Vincent Keymer, opened the game with 1.d4
The engine liked the initial pawn sacrifice, but Nakamura later faltered and found himself in trouble, and Arjun quickly took control. Nakamura quipped: "For pretty much the first one and a half hours, I literally wanted to get up from my board and strangle Nepo".
Known for his defensive skill in unorthodox positions, Nakamura gradually complicated matters. Though the US grandmaster eventually gained an edge, he chose not to push further, and the game concluded in a balanced rook endgame.
The remaining two games of the quarterfinals were drawn.
Ian Nepomniachtchi suggested a playable gambit, which was tried by Hikaru Nakamura in his game against Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Lennart Ootes
In the matches for 9th-12th places, Richard Rapport and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu started with wins, as they both scored with white in their initial games against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and Vidit Gujrathi, respectively.
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu defeated Vidit Gujrathi | Photo: Stev Bonhage
Gukesh Dommaraju | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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