New In Chess Classic 2021: The Carlsen-Nakamura Final Is About To Begin

On their way to the final, Magnus Carlsen defeated Teimour Radjabov in the quarters and Levon Aronian in the semis, while Hikaru Nakamura won his matches against Le Quang Liem and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, respectively.

The Carlsen-Radjabov match was odd in that there was only one decisive game in the entire match, but that was all that was needed. They drew all four games the first day, thus splitting the first mini-match 2-2, and Carlsen won game three on the second day and won the second mini-match, and thus the overall match, 2.5-1.5.

In the semis against Aronian, he also split the first day, but with some blood--Carlsen won game 3 and Aronian game 4, in both cases with the white pieces. The first two games were also drawn on day 2, but then Carlsen won game 3 with Black and then game 4 as well to win the match.

Nakamura's match with Le Quang Liem was very smooth. He won the first game on day 1 and drew the next three to take the first mini-match, and on day 2 he again won the first game. This time he only needed to draw the next two to end the match, and it was on the to the semis. (Leading 2-1 meant he was guaranteed at least a draw in the second mini-match, which would still suffice to win the overall match. So there was no need to play the fourth game.)

The semifinal match with Mamedyarov was a much more exciting and challenging affair. Nakamura won the first game, but lost the second. No matter: he won the next two to win the first mini-match 3-1. But on day 2, he lost the second mini-match 3-0(!), necessitating a two-game blitz playoff. Those games were drawn, so it was on to Armageddon, where Nakamura prevailed, winning with the black pieces.

On to the finals between Carlsen and Nakamura - and simultaneously a match between Aronian and Mamedyarov for third place.