Carlsen, Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi and So advance to semis
The second day of the Skilling Open quarterfinals was a day of comebacks. Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, and Teirmour Radjabov started the day with a significant advantage after winning their first quarterfinal matches and needed just a draw to advance. However, only the World Champion was up to the task drawing his match with Anish Giri, whereas Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Wesley So bounced back by beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, and Radjabov respectively and leveled the score. In tiebreaks, Nakamura was stretched thin as he lost the first game and was an exchange down in the second. To his credit, Hikaru did not give up, consolidated his position, and using the opponent’s inaccuracies tilted the balance in his favor. In Armageddon, the American chose to play with Black and reached so much needed draw. After So and Radjabov drew two blitz games it came down to Armageddon as well. Wesley opted for Black and easily sealed a draw in a won position after Teimour made a terrible mistake on move 22 that cost him a rook. Nepomiachtichi was simply unstoppable in the tiebreak blitz games – the Russian GM handily won both encounters and punched his ticket to the semifinals. The action resumes today with the first day of the semifinals. Skilling Open official website: https://championschesstour.com/
Five-way tie after Day 1
Day 1 of the Airthings Masters, the second leg of the Champions Chess tour, saw only 7 decisive outcomes in 24 games. Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Daniil Dubov, Teimour Radjabov, and Wesley So, all scored +1 (2½ out of 4) and now are tied for first place. Alexander Grishuk, Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Pentala Harikrishna are sitting on 2 points just a half-point behind the top five. Even the worst performers of Day 1 Anish Giri and David Anton are trailing the leaders only by 1½ and still have a chance to make it into top-8 and qualify for the next stage. The $200,000 event features a 3-day preliminary battle, with only the top 8 players going through to the knockout stages that continue into the New Year. The participants play each other once at 15-minute rapid chess, with a 10-second increment after each move. The first prize is not only $60,000, double that on offer for the Skilling Open, but direct entry to the Grand Final next September. Official website: championschesstour.com/