8/16/2023 – Magnus Carlsen and Arjun Erigaisi both won with black to take a 1-point lead in their quarterfinal matches against Dommaraju Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa, respectively. Leinier Dominguez got winning chances but failed to find precise continuations against Fabiano Caruana, while Vidit Gujrathi and Nijat Abasov signed a 109-move draw on Tuesday. In the women’s section, Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated Tan Zhongyi, also with black. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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A dream start
Magnus Carlsen and Arjun Erigaisi have excellent chances of reaching the semifinals in the open section of the FIDE World Cup after scoring wins with black against Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa on Tuesday. Needing to win on demand, the fighting Gukesh and Pragg are likely to go for lively variations right out of the opening in the rematches.
While Carlsen showed his well-known mastery in an endgame (more on that below), Arjun was stronger than his good friend Pragg once a tactical sequence led to an extremely sharp position. Arjun’s passed d-pawn gave him an all-important win that gets the 19-year-old closer to qualifying to his first-ever Candidates Tournament.
35...Nxg3!A promising piece sacrifice.36.fxg3d337.Bg2?White misses the narrow path to a draw.After37.Kh1Rf238.Qd6Qg539.Rc8!Black has nothing better thanRxf1+40.Kg2Rg1+41.Kxg1Qxg3+mit Remis durch Dauerschach.37...Qb6+38.Kh2Qf239.Rg1Re240.Qe7d241.Qf6+Qxf642.exf6+Kxf6Black has two pawns for the piece, but the strong passed pawn on the d-file more than makes up for the material disadvantage.43.Rf1+Ke544.Kg1Kd445.Bf3Ke346.Bg4h547.Bxe2Kxe248.Rf2+Kd349.Rf1Kc250.Rf2Kc151.Rxf7d1Q+52.Rf1e553.b6Qxf1+
White gave up. The pawn endgame is easily winning for Black.0–1
In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.
Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
Carlsen’s endgame technique
In an interesting, tense struggle, Carlsen got the upper hand early on despite playing black, as Gukesh’s strongest suit is not deep theoretical preparation. Carlsen ended up getting a superior rook endgame, and showcased his great technique to convert his advantage into a win.
The king blockades the passed pawns, the rook attacks.
This is a typical distribution of roles in rook endings:35.Ra7+?This
check just wastes time.35.Ra5defends due tof436.Kc2White's king
must deal with Black's passed pawns. Then his activity draws, e.g.Rxg2+37.Kd3Rg537...e538.Rxb5Rg3+39.Kc4Ke640.Rb8Kf541.b5=38.Ke4Rf539.Ra7+Only now the check can be given.Kf640.Kf3e541.Ra6+Kg542.Re6=35...Kf636.Ra2f4!37.Rc237.c4?!Rg3+-+37...Rg3!?
Paralysing White is good technique.The direct37...e538.c4Rg3+
wins as well.38.Ka2Ke539.Kb2Kd540.Rd2+Ke441.Kb3e542.Re2+Kf5!?Backwards is the way forward.42...Kd3?43.Rxe5Rxg244.Rxb5=43.Rd2e444.Rd5+Kf645.Rxb5e346.Rb6+46.Kc2is met byRxg2+47.Kd3Rd2+48.Ke4e2-+46...Kf547.Rb5+Ke448.Rb8e248...e249.Re8+49.b5Re3-+49...Kd350.b5Re351.Rd8+Ke452.Re8+Kf5-+0–1
Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!
Aleksandra Goryachkina entered the Women’s World Cup as the second seed. The Russian grandmaster has already qualified to the next edition of the Candidates Tournament.
According to the FIDE regulations, unlike in the open section, if Goryachkina finishes among the top-3 in Baku, the spot in the Candidates will not be filled by the next best player in the World Cup, and instead will be decided by the January 2024 ratings list. Thus, Tan Zhongyi, Nurgyul Salimova and Anna Muzychuk are now fighting for two spots at the knockout event.
While Salimova held Muzychuk to a 32-move draw with black on Tuesday, Goryachkina managed to beat Tan with the black pieces.
18.Nf5?This knight excursion proves to be superficial, and only a little later the knight retreats again. In the further course of the game White failed to find convincing position for her pieces and was gradually outplayed.Better was18.Rc1although Black has a very comfortable position even in this variation.18...h519.Rc1g620.Ng3Qb821.Ne2Qb522.Rcd1Raa823.b3Rac824.Qd3Kg725.Rd2Qxd326.Rxd3c527.dxc5Nxc528.Nxc5Rxc529.Nf4d430.e4Rc231.Rf2Rec832.Rfd2Rxd233.Rxd2Bg534.g3h435.Rxd4Rc1+36.Kh2Rc2+37.Ng2Rxa238.e5Bd239.Rd7a440.e6Kf841.bxa4b342.Rb7b243.f4fxe644.Nxh4Bb445.Nxg6+Kg80–1
In this Videocourse we deal with different aspects of the middlegame which are important to study and improve your general understanding of chess structures.
Aleksandra Goryachkina | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
2nd Move Anti-Sicilian Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12090 games from Mega 2025 or the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 874 are annotated.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes, Andrew Martin guides you through all the key ideas you need to know to play with confidence. Whether you’re looking to surprise your opponents, or simply want a straightforward weapon against e5, the Centre Attack has you covered.
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