In a surprising twist of fate, four of those who easily qualified to the quarterfinals of the Airthings Masters being played at the chess24.com server were eliminated after an action-packed second day of knockout matches.
Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi were all unceremoniously booted out by Daniil Dubov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov, respectively, in contrasting fashions.
Dubov and Aronian drubbed Carlsen and Nakamura, respectively, via similar 2Ā½-Ā½ scores, while So and Nepomniachtchi took their matches versus Vachier-Lagrave and Radjabov, respectively, into overtime after winning the second set. Vachier-Lagrave and Radjabov traded wins, respectively, with So and Nepomniachtchi in the twin blitz tiebreakers and then both drew their Armageddon as black to finally show the latter two the door.
The semifinal pairings will be Dubov vs Radjabov and Vachier-Lagrave vs Aronian.
So, Wesley (2770)-Vachier-Lagrave, M (2784) [A15]
chess24.com (1.21) 2020
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qb3 Nb6 6.d4 Bg7 7.Bf4 Be6 8.Qa3 Nc6 9.e3 0-0 10.Be2 a5 11.Qc5 Nd5 12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.Qc3 a4 14.0-0 Qd7 15.b4 axb3 16.axb3 Bd5 17.b4 Qf5 18.Bd3 Qd7 19.Rxa8 Rxa8 20.b5 Nd8 21.Qxc7 Qxc7 22.Bxc7 Ne6 23.Bg3 Ra3 24.Rd1 f5 25.Be5 Bxf3 26.gxf3 Bxe5 27.dxe5 Rc3 28.f4 Nc5 29.Bf1 Kf7 30.Rd8 Ne4 31.Bd3 Nc5 32.Be2 Rc2 33.Bf1 Ne4 34.Bd3 Rc1+ 35.Kg2 Nc5 36.Bf1 Ne4 37.Rh8 h6 38.Rh7+ Kf8 39.Rh8+ Kf7 40.Bd3 Nc5 41.Be2 Rc2 42.Bf3 Rb2 43.Rh7+ Kf8 44.Bd5 e6 45.Bc4 Rc2 46.Bf1 Ne4 47.Bd3 Rxf2+ 48.Kg1 Rf3 49.Rxb7 Rxe3 50.Bc4 g5 51.b6 Re1+ 52.Kg2 Rb1 53.Bxe6 Rb2+ 54.Kg1 Nc5 55.Rb8+ Ke7 56.Bxf5 gxf4 57.Rc8 Na6 58.Rc7+ Ke8 59.Rc8+ Ke7 60.Rc7+ Kf8 61.Rc6 f3 62.b7 Rb7 63.Ra6 f2 64.Kf1 1-0
Aronian, L (2781)-Nakamura, H (2736) [D02]
chess24.com (1.21) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 Bd6 5.Nbd2 c5 6.Bb5+ Nc6 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.Bxd6 Qxd6 9.Nb3 cxd4 10.exd4 Nd7 11.Qd2 0-0 12.Qc3 f6 13.0-0-0 Ba6 14.Rhe1 Rfe8 15.Re3 Rac8 16.Rde1 Kf7 17.Nc5 Nxc5 18.Qxc5 Qxc5 19.dxc5 Ra8 20.Nd4 e5 21.Nf5 Red8 22.f4 Bc8 23.Nd6+ Rxd6 24.cxd6 e4 25.c4 Ke6 26.c5 Ba6 27.Ra3 Bb5 28.b4 Kf5 29.Ra5 Bc4 30.a4 a6 31.g4+ Kxf4 32.b5 cxb5 33.c6 Ke5 34.c7 Ke6 35.Rxa6 1-0
Radjabov, T (2765)-Nepomniachtchi, I (2784) [D42]
chess24.com (1.21) 2020
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.d4 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Bd3 Be7 8.a3 cxd4 9.exd4 0-0 10.0-0 b6 11.Qc2 Nf6 12.Rd1 h6 13.d5 exd5 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Qxc6 Be6 16.Qa4 Qc7 17.Bd2 Rad8 18.Rac1 Qb7 19.Qe4 g6 20.Bxh6 Bf5 21.Qa4 Bxd3 22.Bxf8 Be2 23.Bxe7 Bxd1 24.Rxd1 Qxe7 25.Qd4 b5 26.h4 Rd7 27.Ne5 Rd6 28.g3 a6 29.Ng4 Rd7 30.Qe5 Qe6 31.Qxe6 fxe6 32.Rxd5 1-0
Dubov, D (2702)-Carlsen, M (2862) [E10]
chess24.com (1.23) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Nbd2 dxc4 6.Bg2 a5 7.a3 Bxd2+ 8.Bxd2 b5 9.a4 c6 10.Qc2 Bb7 11.h4 Nbd7 12.h5 h6 13.Ne5 Nd5 14.Rh4 N7f6 15.Kf1 Qc7 16.Kg1 Nb4 17.Qc1 Rd8 18.axb5 cxb5 19.Bxb4 axb4 20.Ra7 Nd5 21.Rg4 Rg8 22.Qc2 c3 23.bxc3 bxc3 24.Ra3 Rc8 25.Nd3 Nf6 26.Bxb7 Qxb7 27.Nc5 Rxc5 28.dxc5 Nxg4 29.c6 Qxc6 30.Rxc3 Qb6 31.e3 Ke7 32.Rc6 Qd8 33.Qc5+ Kf6 34.Rd6 Qe7 35.Qd4+ Kg5 36.f3 f5 37.fxg4 Rc8 38.Qf4+ Kf6 39.Qxf5# 1-0
Vachier-Lagrave, M (2784)-So, Wesley (2770) [C67]
chess24.com (1.31) 2020
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.h3 Bd7 10.Rd1 Be7 11.g4 Nh4 12.Nxh4 Bxh4 13.Nd2 Kc8 14.Ne4 b6 15.Bg5 Bxg5 16.Nxg5 h6 17.Nxf7 Re8 18.e6 Bxe6 19.Ne5 Kb7 20.Re1 g5 21.Rad1 a5 22.a3 Bg8 23.f3 Re6 24.Kf2 Rf8 25.Re3 a4 26.c3 Ra8 27.Rd7 Rae8 28.Nc4 b5 29.Rxe6 Rxe6 30.Ne3 Rf6 31.Kg3 Kb6 32.Rd8 Be6 33.Rd4 c5 34.Re4 c6 35.Re5 Kc7 36.Nf5 Bxf5 37.gxf5 Kd6 38.f4 gxf4+ 39.Kxf4 Rf8 40.Re6+ Kd5 41.Rxh6 b4 42.cxb4 cxb4 43.axb4 Rb8 44.f6 Rxb4+ 45.Kf5 Rxb2 46.Rh8 Rf2+ 47.Kg6 a3 48.Ra8 a2 49.f7 Ke6 50.Re8+ Kd5 51.Re1 Rg2+ 52.Kf6 Rf2+ 53.Ke7 Re2+ 54.Rxe2 a1Q 55.f8Q Qa3+ 56.Ke8 1-0
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PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Qe6!, and Blackās futile options are: 1…fxg5/f5 2.Qxe5#; 1…Sb5/d5/a4/a2/e2/b1/d1 2.Q(x)d5#; 1…Sxe4 2.Sb5#; 1…Sba4/c4/xd3/d1 2.Q(x)c4#./PN
