The Opera Euro Rapid: So the Winner after Beating Carlsen in the Final
Another online rapid event, the Opera Euro Rapid, is underway (and approaching its conclusion), and once again Magnus Carlsen has had a difficult time of things. If I'm not mistaken, this is the fourth or fifth consecutive event he will not have won.
As is commonly the case these days, it's a two-stage event. First, there was a 16-player round robin, with the top eight players moving on to the knockout stage. Carlsen had a great first day (three days, five rounds a day), and despite rockier play on days two and three still finished the preliminary stage in first, taking the top seed over Anish Giri on tiebreaks. They both scored 9.5/15, half a point ahead of Wesley So, a point ahead of Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and a point and a half ahead of Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Teimour Radjabov. Daniil Dubov and Hikaru Nakamura were another half a point back, on 50%, and tied for the last qualifying spot, and it went to Dubov on tiebreaks.
The format is one that is becoming (a) standard: a pair of four-game mini-matches, followed by a playoff if necessary. If one of the matches finishes in a tie, then it counts as a draw--the mini-matches themselves have no tiebreak or playoff attached to them. The brackets go 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, and 4-5, and so Dubov's reward was to play Carlsen in the quarterfinals. Now, Dubov defeated Carlsen in a similar event last year, and the two have worked together as well, so even though Dubov isn't a member of the world's absolute elite he is better situated than almost anyone else to give the champion all he can handle.
Indeed, that was true of this match. Carlsen won the first day's mini-match easily, 2.5-.5, but lost on day two by the same margin. On to a playoff, and Dubov was winning the first game with Black before letting it slip in the complications on his way to a loss. Dubov came back once again and level the scores, forcing Armageddon. Finally, Carlsen triumphed and made it through to the next round...where almost the exact same thing happened against MVL in the semis. He won the first day 2.5-.5, lost day two by a 3-1 score, and in the playoff Carlsen once again won game 1, lost game 2, and advanced by winning the Armageddon battle.
MVL played Carlsen after squeaking by Aronian 2.5-1.5, 2-2. As for the bottom half of the draw, Giri lost a heartbreaker to Radjabov in the quarters: 2-2, 2-2, 1.5-.5. As for So, his quarterfinal progressed more smoothly: a 2.5-1.5 win over Duda on day 1 and a 2-0 clincher on day 2. (It seems odd at first, but once a player has clinched match victory, even if he hasn't clinched a win on the day, the mini-match comes to an end. Thus even if Duda had won the last two games on day 2 to secure a tie in the day's mini-match, he'd still lose the overall match 1.5-.5. Play therefore stopped after So won the second game on day 2.)
In So's semi-final match with Radjabov, the American won the first day, 2.5-1.5, and clinched match victory when the score reached 2-1 on day 2. It was therefore Carlsen-So in the finals, and as an extra treat for the spectators there would be a match for third place between Vachier-Lagrave and Radjabov. Radjabov dominated the match, winning all his games with White. MVL won his second white game on the first day to only lose by a point, but lost his white game - the last game of the match - on day two to get clinched out, 2.5-1.5, 2-0. It has to be said, however, that the way he lost that second game was frankly mind-blowing.
That leaves the championship battle - and it was a good battle. On day 1 each player won once, in both cases when So had White. In the first game So forgot his own preparation - preparation he had made public in Chessable course! - and failed to take advantage of a Carlsen error. Unfortunately for So, his failure left him in a bad way, and Carlsen went on to win. So struck back to win in game four, grinding out a positional way to split the mini-match.
The play was close to the vest on day 1, but on the second day Carlsen was very aggressive. He sacrificed a piece in the first game, but it was unsound and he lost quickly. In game three (after a comparatively sedate second game) both sides badly misplayed a tactical sequence in the early middlegame, perhaps due to the tension and the exhaustion of playing for nine straight days. Carlsen missed several opportunities, including one major chance. After a flurry of tactics (and errors), So was able to steer the game to safety. The last game was an even narrower escape for So. He played very aggressively with Black - too aggressively - and it backfired. He was losing in the early middlegame, more than once, but Carlsen missed his chances. By the time So played 28...Qh6 all was well in his world, and soon he was completely winning. With a draw as good as a win, however, So was happy to allow Carlsen a repetition at the end, and he won the second day 2.5-1.5, and with it the overall match and the tournament.
Congratulations to Wesley So, and to the chess world for continuing to successfully resist Carlsen's stranglehold! He'll be back, but it's nice to have a time where things are in flux and there's no there's no absolutely dominant figure. It may prove to be a short time, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Meanwhile, here's a big batch of games from the K.O. stage. (I don't promise to go back to any games from the preliminary stage, but if some of them caught your eye let me know, and I'll at least have a look.) Enjoy.