The pressure ramped up in the $300,000 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals today as Magnus Carlsen had a point chipped off his lead.
Norway's World Champion needed a blitz playoff to beat the tricky Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who was dangerous right to the death. Carlsen got pegged back twice in the match and had to settle for two rather than three points. He is, however, one round closer to victory.
"I feel very good," said Carlsen after his win. "
All eyes were also on the leader's nearest rival, Wesley So, who picked up the maximum in his match against Vladislav Artemiev to keep the pressure up. The American is now 5 points behind Carlsen with six rounds to play - but these two are yet to face each other.
So said afterwards that Carlsen had a "huge lead", but the tournament still had a long way to go.
Carlsen had started perfectly with a quickfire win in game 1. Following a draw in game 2, the third was then a game to forget for the champ.
Carlsen struggled out of the opening and never recovered. Finding himself in a hopeless position, the 30-year-old was eventually forced to resign. The Frenchman levelled the score.
The fourth then ended in a draw as the match headed into tiebreaks. Carlsen crashed through in the first to break MVL's resistance before a draw in the second handed him the win.
America's blitz king Hikaru Nakamura had a strong return to form as he posted a 3-1 win over Levon Aronian. The loss effectively ends Aronian's faint hopes of catching Carlsen and So.
Meanwhile, Shakrhiyar Mamedyarov and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, two of the tournament's most exciting players, traded blows in an explosive match that went to tiebreaks. Duda took the first blitz game, and then a draw secured the two-point win.
Anish Giri also launched a comeback to level his match 2-2 against the super-solid Teimour Radjabov before turning the screw to win in the tiebreaks.
The Finals of the 2021 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour sees the world's best chess players face off across nine rounds of rapid chess from September 25 to October 4.
Tune in on www.chess24.com, YouTube or Twitch starting at 17:00 CET each day.
For further information, please contact:
Leon Watson, PR for Play Magnus Group
leon@chessable.com
+44 7786 078 770
