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On the second day of the semifinals at the Freestyle Weissenhaus Tournament, perennial favourite Magnus Carlsen faced the toughest challenge. He was the only player, apart from those competing for places 5th to 8th, to have lost on the first day of the semis. In fact, Carlsen was in an inferior position against Keymer for most of the game and eventually found no way to defend. The other players had kept their mini-matches completely open, with drawn games on Tuesday.
The view at the Weissenhaus Luxury Resort | Photo: Nils Rhode
Carlsen had the white pieces in the second game, though in Freestyle Chess, this usually does not provide much of an advantage. Once again, Keymer made the stronger start and was the first to seize the initiative. It took Carlsen some time to untangle his position, but once he did, he improved his setup and took the lead after sacrificing a pawn.
A draw, however, was not enough for the world number one to equalise the match score. Carlsen is eliminated, and Keymer advances to the final. German chess fans are delighted.
Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Stev Bonhage
In the second semifinal, Fabiano Caruana and Javokhir Sindarov drew for the second time, this time with the Uzbek player having the white pieces. Caruana had a completely winning position, but settled for a draw by repetition.
The tiebreak between Caruana and Sindarov turned into a thriller. The rapid games ended in draws. In the blitz games, Sindarov took the lead, Caruana equalised, and then won the Armageddon game.
Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes
In the matches for fifth place, Nodirbek Abdusattorov won his second game against Alireza Firouzja. Gukesh Dommaraju and Hikaru Nakamura also drew for the second time, sending their match, like Caruana and Sindarov's, into a tiebreak.
Nakamura won his tiebreak against Gukesh in the rapid games.
Replay all games of the rapid round-robin on Live.ChessBase.com
