Champions Chess Tour 2023: Magnus Carlsen scoops third title in a row
The curtain came down on Chess.com’s $2 million Champions Chess Tour Finals for another year with GM Magnus Carlsen winning his third title. Norway’s chess superstar defeated GM Wesley So 2.5-1.5 and shared that the tour “came full circle” in the final game where he cracked So’s super-solid opening line. Carlsen won three of the six legs across the year-long event, when finishing first in just one was enough to qualify for the Finals. Pocketing the $200,000 first prize, Carlsen continues to be the only person to win the Champions Chess Tour since 2021. Carlsen won the first set on the previous day after scoring a point in game three with the black pieces. He said that his strategy against So is often to “hustle him. I use his sort of lack of aggression against him.” Although So played with 96.43% accuracy on the previous day, Carlsen put up the nearly perfect 98.1%. Our statistics team awarded Carlsen an 89% chance of victory on Saturday. Carlsen won the first set on the previous day after scoring a point in game three with the black pieces. He said that his strategy against So is often to “hustle him”. Carlsen added: “I use his sort of lack of aggression against him.” Although So played with 96.43% accuracy on the previous day, Carlsen put up the nearly perfect 98.1%. Chess.com’s statistics team awarded Carlsen an 89% chance of victory on Saturday. So had to win two sets in order to turn the match around. On the plus side, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave proved that it’s possible in the 2023 AI Cup. On the other hand, beating Carlsen on demand is a tall order in any context. Playing timidly as “Solid So” wasn’t an option for the 2022 Global Champion. As IM Levy Rozman put it: “We need to see a checkmate on the board today or it’s gonna be an early night.” The Filipino-American grandmaster started the match with the same first move as game one on the previous day, 1.b3. The flank opening didn’t seem to challenge Carlsen, who said afterward: “He felt a bit shaky in this game. I think he was on the back foot very early on.” Carlsen converted the advantage in model fashion, just once allowing a miracle defense 37.Rxb5! Rd1+ 38.Kf2! that was missed, and ultimately finished with a nicely-calculated sequence with just seconds on the clock. “Losing with White is the most heartbreaking thing as a chess professional. It’s demoralizing,” concluded GM David Howell after the game. Howell then called game two “one of the most chaotic games, one of the most unruly games, I’ve ever seen!” It was the most emotional and unstable game we’d seen from So or Carlsen in the CCT Finals. So won the rollercoaster time scramble, though after the game he said he wasn’t proud of it: “It’s such an ugly game. I probably made like six blunders or something.” He did, however, add a retort to Carlsen’s previous comment: “I was just hustling him in the end!” Rozman put it well: “These guys looked human for the first time in this event!”. 41…Nd3?? by So was both a blunder and also the move that instigated the complications that confused Carlsen, who went from winning to losing in a matter of seconds. Game three, and So’s last time with the white pieces, was a super-solid Nimzo-Indian and a super-solid draw. It was all down to game four, with Carlsen commanding the white army. The last game was quite literally worth $100,000, but So still found the time to check the Candidates race and post on X. When he arrived at the board for the last game, he also asked the arbiter if he could replace his rook with a queen before the game—a request that was not granted. The final game started as a super-solid Semi-Tarrasch Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. It was an innocent-looking queenless middlegame, which is also the kind of position the world number-one thrives in. At the award ceremony, IM Danny Rensch and Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest gifted flowers to both of the finalists. “I just want to congratulate Magnus for a well-deserved performance,” said So before Carlsen received the trophy, presented by VP of Esports Michael Brancato. Carlsen, who earned an additional $8,000 for winning eight matches in total, shared the personal significance of this final game: “I’m very, very happy with the way the event ended, the very last game, cause for me it sort of comes full circle. “When we had the first Champions Chess Tour event in 2020, I think that was when I turned 30, and I lost to Wesley in the Final, that’s exactly when, sort of, this line in the Queen’s Gambit that Wesley played today… made it just difficult to play d4 at all. “Like, it’s the Berlin versus d4. So to actually win a game, like decide the tour by winning a game against Wesley in that line, that’s really come full circle for me.” Adapted from NM Anthony Levin’s report for Chess.com. Read the full report with game analysis here. The Champions Chess Tour 2023 (CCT) is the biggest online tournament of the year. It is composed of six events that span the entire year and culminate in live in-person finals. With the best players in the world and a prize fund of $2,000,000, the CCT is Chess.com’s most important event.
European Rapid and Blitz Championship 2023: Sarana and Navara win titles
The 2023 European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships concluded yesterday in Zagreb, Croatia. The event was played from 14-16 December, with nearly 700 players from 41 European federations participating. The first event on the schedule was the European Rapid Chess Championship 2023, an 11-round Swiss tournament which took place from 14-15 and brought together over 450 players. It was a very tight competition that came down to the wire. Heading into the final round, as many as four players were on 8.5/10 tied for first place: GM Haik Martirosyan (ARM, 2634), GM Alexey Sarana (SRB, 2649), GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2623), and GM Casper Schoppen (NED, 2553). While Haik Martirosyan and Deac-Bogdan Daniel drew their Round 11 games, Alexey Sarana and Casper Schoppen were the last to finish their encounter. Sarana had an endgame with a bishop pair, offering practical chances. With perfect endgame technique, Alexey managed to pull off a victory and emerged as the sole winner of the event, scoring 9.5/11. It is the third European title for Alexey Sarana this year! After winning the European Individual Chess Championship 2023 in Vrnjacka Banja, he took gold at the European Team Championship 2023 with the Serbian team as the best individual 2nd board player! GMs Haik Martirosyan and Bogdan-Daniel Deac tied for second place, with the former taking silver thanks to better tiebreaks. Bogdan-Daniel Deac won bronze. Final standings Rapid The European Blitz Chess Championship 2023, a 13-round Swiss tournament, attracted nearly 600 participants and was played yesterday. GM David Navara (CZE, 2661) emerged as the sole leader of the event after 12 played rounds with 10.5 points, closely followed by four players with 10 points: GM Denis Kadric (MNE, 2591), GM Etienne Bacrot (FRA, 2640), GM Rauf Mamedov (AZE, 2635), and GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR, 2678). Once again, the final round determined the champion and the medalists. 12-time Czech Chess Champion David Navara had white pieces against Etienne Bacrot and gained a sizable advantage from the opening, as the French Grandmaster missed his chances to equalize the game. Navara eventually won the game and secured the title with an impressive final score of 11.5/13. After winning the European Blitz Championship 2022 in Katowice, Poland, David successfully defended his title in Zagreb. Vasyl Ivanchuk defeated Rauf Mamedov (AZE, 2635) to win the silver medal, netting 11 points, while Denis Kadric and Ivan Saric (CRO, 2586) tied for third place scoring 10.5 points each. Having better tiebreaks, Denis Kadric got bronze; Ivan Saric finished in fourth place. Final standings Blitz The closing ceremony of the event took place yesterday evening in the playing venue with the attendance of ECU President Zurab Azmaiparashvili, ECU Vice President Alojzije Jankovic, the President of the Croatian Chess Federation Ivica Brkic, Minister of Tourism and Sports of Croatia Nikolina Brnjac, Head of Croatian Prime minister office Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, famous football player Zvonimir Boban, Ambassador of Georgia in Croatia Zaza Gogsadze, FIDE Secretary General Mr. Lukasz Turlej and other distinguished guests. Text: europechess.org Photos: Luka Rifelj