When we left off with the Chessable Masters, part of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, the preliminaries were over and the knockout stage has become. The winner was Wesley So, who defeated Le Quang Liem in the finals to win his third tour event and clinch a spot in the tour Finals.
Here's how the knockout stage of the Chessable Masters worked out. In the quarters, So got in trouble on day 1 against Jorden Van Foreest, drawing game 1 and losing game 2 in just 19 moves. So is nothing if not resilient, and he fought back to win game 3 and held on in game 4 - barely - to draw the first day's mini-match. On day 2, Van Foreest was up against a different player, as So won the first two games and drew the third to win the second mini-match and the match as a whole to advance to the semis.
His opponent was Vladislav Artemiev, who eked out a victory over Hikaru Nakamura. On day 1, all four games were drawn, and on day two the players exchanged wins in the first two games (first Artemiev won with White, then Nakamura returned the favor) before splitting that match as well. In the ensuing blitz playoff Artemiev won game 1 with White, but once again Nakamura fought back to equalize the scores. It came down to Armageddon, and having to win with White the young Russian was up to the task, outplaying the American in a technical ending.
In the other half of the draw, Levon Aronian speedily dispatched Shakhriyar Mamedyarov while Le was even more convincing against blitz prodigy Alireza Firouzja. On day 1, Aronian finished ahead of scheduling with a 2.5-.5 win while Le needed all four games on the way to a 3-1 victory. On day 2, Aronian won game 1, had a hiccup in game 2 when Mamedyarov won his only game of the match, but with a win in game 3 Aronian guaranteed at least a draw in the second mini-match and thus overall match victory, so they were finished. As for Le, he was even tidier: two wins and they were done.
On to the semis. So defeated Artemiev on day 1, winning game 3 and drawing the rest. Artemiev was ready on day 2, winning the first game, but So won game two and drew the rest to take the match. That was tough, but Le vs. Aronian turned out to be even tougher. Le crushed Aronian on day one, winning both white games to take a 3-1 victory, and after a draw and yet another win on day two it looked like a rout. All Le needed was a draw in the remaining two draws to clinch match victory - and he couldn't do it. Aronian won both to force the blitz playoff and then, two draws later, an Armageddon game. This finished in an unfortunate way, with Le winning on time in a completely drawn position on move 69. The reason I add this latter detail is that the tradition in Armageddon games is to award two second increments after move 60, but in the Meltwater tour that feature is absent.
On to the final. So won smoothly on day 1, 2.5-.5, but day 2 was tougher. Le's attack crashed through in round 1 to take the lead, drew a crazy second game, but lost a very interesting third game with the white pieces. (This reversed Noteboom-ish way of meeting the Colle/Zukertort system looks like an excellent approach, even if you don't have a taste for 11...g5.) Le didn't manage to win game 4 with Black - it was drawn - and thus So won the match and the event. (There was also a third-place match. Day 1 was tied 2-2, with Aronian winning game 1 and Artemiev game 4, in both cases with White. On day 2 Artemiev won games 2 and 3 to earn tournament bronze.)