By A.E. Boy Espejo Jr.
The Magnus Carlsen Invitational Online Rapid Tournament got underway over the weekend with eight of the world’s top grandmasters competing on the chess24.com Playzone for a $250,000 prize fund.
The players are, of course, Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Liren Ding, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxim Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, and Aliresa Firouzja.
The eight GMs will first play a single round robin with each match consisting of four 15m+10 seconds increment games. The top four in the round robin will advance to a final four knockout showdown where the eventual champion will pocket a $70,000 purse. The scoring will be 3 match points for the winner if the match does not go into Armageddon and 2 points if the match winner wins via Armageddon tiebreak. The Armageddon loser gets 1 point
The
opening round results saw Ding beat Firouzja, 2½-1½; Carlsen defeat Nakamura,
3-2; Caruana edge Nepomniachtchi, 2½-1½; and Vachier-Lagrave crush Giri, 3-1.
Round 1 standings: 1-3. Vachier-Lagrave, Ding, Caruana, 3; 4. Carlsen, 2; 5.
Nakamura, 1; 6-8. Firouzja, Nepomniachtchi, Giri, 0.
The Round 2 pairings are Carlsen vs Firouzja, Nakamura vs Giri, Nepomniachtchi vs Vachier-Lagrave, and Ding vs Caruana.
Firouzja, A (2728)-Ding, L (2791) [B90]
chess24.com (1.2) 2020
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 h5 9.Qd2 Nbd7 10.0-0-0 Be7 11.Kb1 b5 12.a3 Rc8 13.h3 h4 14.f4 0-0 15.f5 Bxb3 16.cxb3 Nc5 17.Bxc5 dxc5 18.Qe1 Qc7 19.g4 hxg3 20.Qxg3 Rfd8 21.Be2 Bf8 22.h4 Qb7 23.Qg2 Rd4 24.h5 Nxe4 25.Bf3 Nxc3+ 26.bxc3 e4 27.cxd4 exf3 28.Qg4 Qd5 29.Rd3 c4 30.Qxf3 Qd6 31.bxc4 bxc4 32.Rc3 Qxd4 33.Rhc1 Bxa3 34.R1c2 Be7 35.Qb7 Qd8 36.Rd2 Qf8 37.Kc2 Bf6 38.Rd7 Rb8 39.Qc7 Bxc3 40.Kxc3 Qb4+ 41.Kd4 Qd2+ 42.Kc5 Rb5+ 43.Kxc4 Qc2+ 44.Kd4 Qxc7 45.Rxc7 Rxf5 0-1
Nakamura, H (2736)-Carlsen, M (2863) [B80]
chess24.com (1.5) 2020
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be3 Be7 7.Be2 Nc6 8.f4 0-0 9.Nb3 a6 10.a4 b6 11.0-0 Bb7 12.Bf3 Nd7 13.g4 Na5 14.g5 Nc4 15.Bc1 e5 16.Be2 Rc8 17.h4 exf4 18.Rxf4 Nde5 19.Nd5 Ng6 20.Rf2 Bxd5 21.exd5 Nxh4 22.Qd4 Bxg5 23.Bxc4 Bxc1 24.Rxc1 Qg5+ 25.Kf1 Nf5 26.Rxf5 Qxf5+ 27.Kg2 Qg5+ 28.Kf3 Qf5+ 29.Kg2 Qg5+ 30.Kf3 Qf5 31.Ke2 Rfe8+ 32.Kd2 Re4 0-1
Giri, A (2764)-Vachier-Lagrave, M (2778) [D43]
chess24.com (1.2) 2020
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 g6 8.Ne5 Bg7 9.f4 0-0 10.Qc2 c5 11.dxc5 Nc6 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.Bd3 Qe7 14.Na4 e5 15.fxe5 Qxe5 16.0-0 Qxe3+ 17.Kh1 Be6 18.cxd5 Bxd5 19.Bc4 Rad8 20.Rae1 Qg5 21.Re2 Bxc4 22.Qxc4 Rd4 23.Qa6 Be5 24.g3 Qh5 25.Rg2 Rd1 26.Qc4 Qf3 0-1
Nepomniachtchi, I (2784)-Caruana, F (2835) [C84]
chess24.com (1.4) 2020
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 d6 7.c3 0-0 8.Nbd2 Re8 9.Re1 Bf8 10.d4 b5 11.Bc2 Bb7 12.b3 b4 13.Bb2 a5 14.d5 Nb8 15.Nc4 c6 16.dxc6 Nxc6 17.a3 Ba6 18.Ne3 g6 19.Qd2 Qb6 20.h3 Rac8 21.Rad1 Red8 22.c4 bxa3 23.Bxa3 Nb4 24.Bb1 Bh6 25.Qe2 Bb7 26.Ng4 Nxg4 27.hxg4 Na6 28.Rd3 Nc5 29.Bxc5 Rxc5 30.Qd1 Bc8 31.Nd2 Be6 32.Ba2 Qb4 33.f3 Rc6 34.g3 Ra8 35.Kg2 a4 36.Re2 axb3 37.Bxb3 Ra3 38.Nb1 Ra1 39.Rb2 Bxc4 40.Qc2 Kg7 41.Bxc4 Rxc4 42.Qf2 Qa5 43.Nd2 Rcc1 44.Nb3 Rg1+ 45.Qxg1 Rxg1+ 46.Kxg1 Qe1+ 47.Kh2 Qf1 48.Rc3 Bg5 49.Rg2 Qe1 50.Rd3 Qb1 51.Rc3 h5 52.gxh5 gxh5 53.Nd2 Qd1 54.Rd3 Kf8 55.Rf2 h4 56.gxh4 Bxh4 57.Rg2 Ke7 58.Rb3 Qe1 59.Nc4 Bg5 60.Rxg5 Qh4+ 61.Kg2 Qxg5+ 62.Kf2 Qc1 63.Ne3 Qd2+ 64.Kg3 Ke6 65.Nf5 Qd1 66.Rb2 Qg1+ 67.Rg2 Qe1+ 68.Kg4 Qc1 69.Ng7+ Kf6 70.Nh5+ Kg6 71.f4 Kh6 72.Kf5 Qc8+ 73.Kf6 Qe6# 0-1
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Rf4!. Black’s futile options are: 1…Bg5/xf6 2.Rh7#; 1…Rc4 2.Rc7#; 1…g2 2.Rd3#; 1…Bc4 2.Rd5#./PN
