In the second round of the semifinals of the third stage of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin organised by World Chess, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Hikaru Nakamura made a second draw and will continue fighting for a spot in the final on the tiebreak tomorrow. After a huge blunder by Wesley So, Amin Tabatabaei bounced back in the second game of the semifinal and took their match to the tiebreaker.

With today's half-point, Hikaru Nakamura has secured his overall victory in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix Series. Even if he loses the tiebreak tomorrow, he still edges out Richard Rapport in the total number of points scored in classical games.

Both matches will be decided on the tiebreaks tomorrow, with Hikaru Nakamura and Amin Tabatabaei starting their matches with white pieces. On the 1st of April, we will know the names of the finalists.

Amin Tabatabaei tried to surprise Welsey So in the opening, and after an interesting move order, the Romanishin Variation in Nimzo-Indian Defense appeared on the board. Wesley, playing with Black, managed to exchange his side-pawn b5 for the central pawn on d5 and not only solved his opening problems but got a quite comfortable position. The critical moment of the game came on move 23. After spending only one minute on his clock, the American suddenly went for a piece sacrifice and completely missed a very strong reply 24.Rd1-d3! which effectively parried all Black's threats and created his own ones.

Amin Tabatabaei - Welsey So

The key variation in the position is 24...Nf3 25.Rxf3 Bxf3 26.Qc3 with a double attack.

"That's basically a one-move blunder from Wesley So, which is very uncharacteristic of him," said the commentator of the tournament GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko.

"What happened was just crazy. I played 23.Rd1 and I completely blundered 23...Nh4 – I thought everything falls apart. And after 24.Rd3 it is so strange that White is completely winning," shared Amin Tabatabaei after the game. "I was incredibly lucky at that moment."

"My opponent is a great player, fighting, very aggressive, very tactical. And yeah, I just blundered Rd3 – that's all I can say about the game. Blunders happen," said Wesley So. The game went into an ending with an extra pawn and the bishop pair advantage for White. Wesley decided not to check Amin's technique and resigned on move 30.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was quite satisfied with his position in one of the Queen's Gambit Declined variations with 5. Bf4. By advancing his pawns on the queenside, White created certain threats, but Hikaru Nakamura found an interesting way to regroup his pieces and took control over the c-file. After White's 25.a4, Hikaru probably could have put more pressure on his opponent by keeping the pawns on a-file on the board but went for a forced line, leading to massive exchanges. None of the opponents had real chances in the drawish ending, but they kept playing until the peace was finally signed on move 51.

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Photo: Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press kit and Niki Riga