As mentioned in the preceding post, two super-GM rapid events got underway today (Thursday), and this is the second one: the Chessable Masters, part of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. It follows the usual MCC format: a 16-player round robin preliminary that cuts the field in half, followed by a series of knockout matches.
As you'd expect, most of the field is very strong, consisting of 2800s, 2700s, and former 2700s. At the top, the world's #1 and #2 players, Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren, are participating; and in the 2700s there's Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Wei Yi, Santosh Vidit, Sam Shankland, Jorden Van Foreest, and Pentala Harikrishna. Everyone else is in the 2600s, except for the world's youngest-ever GM, Abhimanyu Mishra. Normally, one would expect him to be the whipping boy, but after losses to David Anton and Ding Liren (though he was beating Ding) he bounced back with wins against Eric Hansen (the second-lowest seed) and Mamedyarov. Could he qualify for the knockout stage?
The current leader is Wei Yi, who drew with Praggnanandhaa in round 1 before defeating Harikrishna, Gawain Jones, and Anton. He is half a point ahead of the murderer's row of Ding, Giri, and Carlsen, all of whom are undefeated.
I'll show one game, the round 3 battle between Nils Grandelius and the world champ. The Alapin/2.c3 Sicilian/Sveshnikov is generally solid and a little dull, and can be a safe way for the lower-rated player to pull the plug against a higher-rated opponent and head for something drawish if nothing interesting happens in the opening. (To be fair, Grandelius also played the Alapin in round 1 against Giri, so it doesn't seem that he was trolling Carlsen for a draw.) In this case, however, it royally backfired, and he was completely lost right out of the opening. Shockingly, Carlsen failed to take full advantage, though he did go on to win. Alas, this won't put an end to the Alapin, but it's still nice to see it get punished. (And it did throughout the day: in five Alapins White managed a total of two draws in five games.) Here's the game.