Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Rounds 3-6. The Final Four is Set With a Round to Spare
Fear not, friends; I have not (yet?) retreated into re-retirement. Some sidetracking let me fall behind in my coverage of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, and then I decided to go through and annotate most of the games. And that is just what I have done - and that's not easy when 8-10 games are played each day. (Tomorrow/today/Thursday it's even worse: 16-20 games, as all four of round 7's matches will be played on the same day.)
While each match had its drama and the tournament had its surprises, four players have dominated the proceedings: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren. The first three are tied for first with 13 points apiece, while the latter is just a point behind. (The tournament is using a 3-2-1-0 scoring system: 3 points for a match won after four games, with the loser getting 0; when a match requres a fifth, Armageddon game, the distribution is 2 points for a win and 1 for a loss.) After them Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja each have 6 points, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri further back with 5 and 4 points, respectively.
As a 6 point margin can't be made up in a single round, and there's only one round to go, we know who is going into the playoff rounds, but not what the pairings will be. We do know what the pairings for the final preliminary round are, however:
- Ding Liren (12) - Carlsen (13)
- Nepomniachtchi (6) - Firouzja (6)
- Vachier-Lagrave (5) - Nakamura (13)
- Giri (4) - Caruana (13)
What's left? The games, of course: here are all the games from rounds 3-6, inclusive, many of them with annotations. Enjoy!
Reader Comments (3)
Thanks Dennis. Really enjoying these games, I really appreciate Carlsen putting the event together.
Your work on this is amazing! Thank you and please keep blogging.
I am happy to see you un-re-retire!