Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So to meet in the final of the Opera Euro Masters - Day 7
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Magnus Carlsen had to win an Armageddon tie-break to get past Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
in his Opera Euro Semifinals. Carlsen had won the first set so MVL needed to strike
back. After two draws MVL won the after Carlsen yet again made a simple tactical
blunder, he cut the final retreat square from his bishop and after MVL attacked it
with a pawn it was lost. In the fourth game of the set Carlsen needed to win, instead
in an equal position he again blundered simply with 23.Nd4 overlooking 23...Qe4
which caused his position to collapse. Carlsen has at least shown his fighting ability
because in the first blitz game he scored a very smooth victory. In the second
game Carlsen could have finished things quick after MVL's 13.b5? 13...Bxc3 won a lot of
material, instead 13...axb5 happened and the game continued, Carlsen did achieve
an equal position according to the computer after 26...dxc3 but it was a really horrible
position to defend and MVL went on to win. In the final Armageddon game Carlsen got
a very nice position out of the opening, MVL's position was the one that was hard to
play and after 19.Qb3 Carlsen was practically winning and was soon objectively
so too - the game ended on move 40. Carlsen's frailties in calculation are a problem
but he has still progressed to the final. In interview afterwards Carlsen seemed up beat
and did not think the mistakes were as self inflicted as against Dubov. I really can't
agree with that but other parts of his game -
opening preparation, technical conversion and blitz play seem to be working well.
Wesley So completed a comprehensive victory over Teimour Radjabov by winning games three and four. So has looked the most impressive player by far in this tournament. The Carlsen vs So final is a repeat of the Skilling Open that So won and which seemed to mark the start of Carlsen's confidence crisis. Can he take the chance to end the crisis by beating So? We'll soon see.
Final Magnus Carlsen vs Wesley So starts 4pm UK time on Saturday 13th Feb. This is a standard tour event so there is no 3rd-4th place match.