GMs Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Levon Aronian transfer on to the Winners Bracket in Division I of the Champions Chess Tour AimChess Speedy 2023 after successful their matches on the primary day.

Carlsen and Caruana beat their opponents, Jorden van Foreest and Eduardo Iturrizaga, respectively, with a sport to spare. Aronian gained sport two towards GM Vladimir Fedoseev and made three different attracts for the match victory. Abdusattorov gained on demand with Black in sport 4 towards Wesley So after which gained the armageddon sport with White after dropping in sport three to spin the match round.

In Division II, eight gamers advance to the Winners Quarterfinals. The younger star GM Denis Lazavik, who made all of it the way in which to the Losers Ultimate within the final occasion, got here again with a vengeance as he defeated skilled Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo 3-1.

The identical is in Division III. Eight gamers transfer on to the Winners Quarterfinals. GM Laurent Fressinet, who defeated his boss Carlsen within the Play-In a number of weeks in the past, this time despatched legendary GM Vladimir Kramnik to the Losers Bracket. 

The knockout match continues on Tuesday, July 11, beginning at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 20:30  IST.

The AimChess Speedy is the fourth leg of the Champions Chess Tour, and simply two stay after this earlier than the Playoffs. Whereas Howell, Williams, and Sachdev have commentated on earlier iterations of the occasion, the Oslo studio welcomed two new however well-known commentators: Rensch and Tsatsalashvili.

It’s #chesschamps time! pic.twitter.com/6y2Co2pmRu

— Daniel Rensch (@DanielRensch) July 10, 2023

Three gamers have certified for the Playoffs to this point, which can happen on the finish of the yr. They’re Carlsen, Nakamura, and Abdusattorov. The clock is ticking for the 5 remaining seats to be stuffed.

Division I

Coming into this match, Carlsen was coming off the excessive of scoring 11/11 in Titled Tuesday and in addition scoring 9/9 over the board towards among the world’s high gamers in someday, multi functional week. Carlsen scored seven wins of their earlier speedy video games with only one loss (and 5 attracts). Clearly, he was the favourite—however that’s often the case no matter his opponent.

Van Foreest is thought for his artistic opening concepts and has labored as Carlsen’s second, making for an attention-grabbing scenario concerning the beginning of their sport. The large query was: which opening would we see? Carlsen answered that query on transfer one.

Carlsen performs a exceptional first transfer! 😂https://t.co/u8z2OPagse#ChessChamps #AimChessRapid pic.twitter.com/JWLdS6GB16

— chess24.com (@chess24com) July 10, 2023

Regardless of Carlsen’s historic successful streaks within the earlier week, he did lose to a different second, Fressinet, within the Play-In. Van Foreest additionally defeated GM Hikaru Nakamura within the final CCT occasion, proving he can grasp with anybody within the high-stakes speedy format.

In sport one, Carlsen responded to 1.e4 with 1…a6, the identical opening selection he utilized in each black sport in Titled Tuesday final week. In his signature type, he gained what appeared to be one other a kind of “useless drawn” endgames.

The Norwegian gained one other knight endgame within the subsequent sport. This one was even nicer as Carlsen, showcasing his status as maybe the best endgame participant of all time, completed the sport by sacrificing the one minor piece he had left.

This endgame masterclass is our Recreation of the Day, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao beneath. 

The world number-one performed 1…a6 once more and closed out the match with a draw (from a successful place), ending in three video games and never needing the fourth.

The previous world champion talked about that he is performed in two back-to-back tournaments earlier than this, the Tech Mahindra World Chess League 2023, adopted by the Grand Chess Tour: SuperUnited Speedy & Blitz Croatia 2023.

As a result of touring again residence after successful the match in Zagreb yesterday, he stated: “I used to be fairly drained at present, so my play was not so good, however I managed to eke out some video games anyway.” He talked about that Van Foreest performed within the Dutch Championship yesterday (dropping narrowly to GM Anish Giri) and should have additionally been drained, as an evidence for some uncharacteristic errors.

Caruana-Iturrizaga 2.5-1.5

These two have performed simply 5 recorded video games beforehand, their final over-the-board sport happening in 2014. Caruana gained 4 of them, and so they drew their final encounter. 

The Spanish grandmaster achieved a bonus with Black out of the opening within the first sport however agreed to attract by threefold repetition, maybe a choice he would remorse with hindsight since he would not get one other likelihood.

The American GM gained the second sport in 26 strikes and used just below three minutes of his time for your complete sport.

It was a spectacular show of opening preparation and flawless conversion after reaching the benefit. After the sport, Rensch stated: “That sport began in Fabiano’s kitchen.” One transfer after the opening novelty 17.Qxc4 (performed by Iturrizaga), White already had inadequate compensation for the change and misplaced rapidly.

Caruana gained the subsequent sport on time as Iturrizaga tried to alter his auto-queen setting. Underpromoting to a knight within the following place might have technically drawn. 

Caruana stated he wakened at 4 within the morning as a result of travels after his current super-tournament in Zagreb. About doubtlessly successful the match this time round: “It will be an excellent private success. I have been shut a number of instances, however… I’ve stumbled on the end line twice, towards Hikaru and Nodirbek,” hinting at his two unsuccessful finals performances earlier than this. 

Up to now, it is a good begin, however he’ll face Carlsen tomorrow.

Abdusattorov-So 3-2

This was the second time taking part in in Division I for each gamers, though Abdusattorov had the advantage of successful the final occasion and already punching his ticket to the Playoffs. So loved a +17 -10 =9 rating in speedy video games towards the Uzbek prodigy.

They drew the primary two video games however So properly gained a queen endgame within the third. In sport 4, Abdusattorov wanted to win on demand with Black towards one of many world’s most stable gamers—and he did.

Abdusattorov finds the one successful transfer, sacrificing his rook within the endgame, and beats So on demand to drive armageddon!#ChessChamps #AimChessRapid pic.twitter.com/Pb0ABSyX9L

— chess24.com (@chess24com) July 10, 2023

This could be the one armageddon sport in Division I. So gained the bid for the black items with eight minutes and 12 seconds towards Abdusattorov’s wager of eight minutes and 28 seconds. However he merely collapsed. After greedily capturing a pawn on transfer 18, he acquired checkmated 11 strikes later.

“That felt like not even a sport,” stated Sachdev in regards to the sport that Howell known as a “disaster-class” (reverse of masterclass) for So.

Abdusattorov stated after the match: “I used to be very completely satisfied to win on demand in sport 4. I did not imagine that I can beat him if he performs regular chess as a result of he is probably the most stable participant on the planet, I believe.” The armageddon, in his phrases, went “easily.”

Fedoseev-Aronian 1.5-2.5

Considerably surprisingly, Fedoseev and Aronian had simply performed thrice in recorded video games. They performed for the primary time six years in the past, however the Armenian-American scored his first win towards the Russian adversary within the 2021 World Blitz Championship. 

After an uneventful draw within the Berlin Protection in sport one, Aronian gained sport two. He achieved a strategically successful place with the gorgeous and instructive 23.b5! and 24.b6, when the white pawns fashioned the bars of a everlasting jail, trapping Black’s queenside items. Some fancy techniques in the long run determined the sport.

After the win, Aronian made two extra attracts to shut out the match. Within the interview, he stated: “I felt my play was of top of the range. I used to be fairly proud of it.” He talked about the final sport was an exception and that he struggled to make attracts on demand, however the engine will affirm he wasn’t as soon as worse, even when, from the human perspective, it did look messy. 

Division I Standings

Division II

Division III

It was a Catalan opening the place the French GM repeated a Nf1-e3 maneuver he performed towards GM Leinier Dominguez in 2016. He gained the opening battle and had annoying strain. Kramnik might have defended passively (maybe inhumanly), however he went for the lively method, and it backfired. The place went from worse to dropping after Kramnik ignored a slam-dunk tactic on transfer 22, though the place was extraordinarily nice already.

There was one other wild story from this division value mentioning. In his match towards GM Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian, GM Maxim Matlakov bid three minutes and selected the white items for the armageddon sport. Black would have 15 and would simply want to attract with a purpose to win the match. 

How did that experiment go? Black drew and gained the match. It isn’t clear why the Russian grandmaster selected hara-kiri on a Monday night time.

Division III Standings