Chessable Masters: Preliminaries, Day 4: The Elimination Bracket is Set

Anish Giri continued his efficient play in the qualifying stage of the Chessable Masters, and finished with an impressive, undefeated 11/15, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen (who only lost one game, to Praggnanandhaa) and a point ahead of Ding Liren (who was also undefeated).

A further point back was the trio of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, early leader Wei Yi, and Praggnanandhaa. Finally, in seventh and eight and taking the last two qualification spots, were David Anton and Aryan Tari. Fortunately, as tiebreaks without playoffs always have some element of arbitrariness to them, the player in ninth place, Pentala Harikrishna, was a full point back.

However...those aren't really the scores, because they used a 3-1-0 scoring system for the preliminaries. This doesn't change the qualifiers - the top 8 remains the top 8 - but it does change the order of finish for the players who were tied for 4th-6th. Instead of Mamedyarov, Wei Yi, and Praggnanandhaa, in that order, it's now the reverse: Praggnanandhaa, Wei Yi, and Mamedyarov. (In fact, Pragg was even with Ding Liren on points, with 25 apiece, but behind him on tiebreaks.)

I don't see the pairings on the official site, but assuming that the traditional knockout format of 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc. takes place, we'll have Giri vs. Tari, Carlsen vs. Anton, Ding vs. Mamedyarov, and Praggnanandhaa vs. Wei Yi. N.B.: In previous years, Meltwater tour events required two-day knockout matches comprising a two four-game mini-matches, with an Armageddon game if necessary at the end in case the matches were split 1-1. That format will still be in place for the final, but the quarter-final and semi-final matches will be one-day only.