World Champion Magnus Carlsen worked his magic to move to the top of the chess24 Legends of Chess leaderboard today as he racked up a stunning 3-0 win over Boris Gelfand.
The Norwegian now has a perfect 12/12 points score having won all four of his matches in the $150,000 online super-tournament. Carlsen moved smoothly through the gears against Israel's number 1 and even found time to pop out to the shops in between games.
"I had more than half an hour, after the second game," he joked in the post-match interview, after revealing he'd been off to buy groceries.
In media interviews, Carlsen said: "I am not so concerned about who I will be facing in the final. I will have a good chance to win anyway."
In the other matches, China's Ding Liren - who had been woefully out-of-form - picked up his first win by ruining Peter Svidler's impressive start with a final score of 2.5-1.5.
Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vasyl Ivanchuk drew three consecutive games before the Russian triumphed in the last to win the match 2.5-1.5.
Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi (who has also won all his matches but dropped one tournament point) are now strong favorites to make it through to the semis.
Vladimir Kramnik beat Peter Leko in a similar fashion - a final game win allowed him to take the match 2.5-1.5.
Anish Giri overcame the five-time world champ, Vishy Anand, in an Armageddon tiebreak after they drew all four of their regular games. Anand, who has struggled so far, ran out of time.
Today was the fourth day of the round-robin battle for four places in the Legends of Chess semi-finals.
The event, the fourth leg of the $1 million Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour, runs until August 5 and will carry a $150,000 prize fund.
The winner will scoop a top prize of $45,000 and the last of the coveted spots in the tour’s Grand Final in August.
Commentary is provided by Jan Gustafsson, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Tania Sachdev and special guests - including more legends to be announced later. The event is also be broadcast in 10 languages by chess24.com.
Tournament rules and schedule
The time control will be a rapid 15m + 10s from move 1 played in the chess24 Playzone. There will be two stages starting with a 10-player round-robin (July 21-29) with each round consisting of 4-game matches and Armageddon tiebreaks if needed.
The top four will advance to the knockout semi-finals (July 31-August 2) and two will go through to the final (August 3-5). July 30 is a free day. All sessions will begin at 16:00 CEST.
Highlights in English:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Rmx6IFrFYxYPrNhZVtxZbRWTiMAIICvc?usp=sharing
New files at around 23.00 CEST
Rough edit highlights:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SItw6DwCyoTsZ0WiVAjw4BkVHEaGQFDI?usp=sharing
New files ready around 02.00 CEST
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Leon Watson
leon@chessable.com
+447786 078770
