The World Cup knockout is the only major individual chess event that Magnus Carlsen has never won, but this weekend the Norwegian, 32, looks poised to reach the final of the $1.8m, 206-player competition at Baku, Azerbaijan.
Carlsen’s opponent in the semi-final on Saturday and Sunday, (midday BST start, free live commentary on major chess websites) with possible speed tiebreaks on Monday, is the little-known Azerbaijani Nijat Abasov, 28. The hometown favourite has had the performance of his life, defeating all six of his opponents including the Netherlands world No 7, Anish Giri, and the eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler. Taking on Carlsen is something else, though, like a qualifier meeting Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final or a League Two team challenging Manchester City at Wembley.
Carlsen’s most significant victories have been against two leaders of the teenage generation. Germany’s Vincent Keymer, 18, gave him the hardest fight, losing only 2.5-3.5. India’s Dommaraju Gukesh, 17, has surged into the world top 10 and is now widely tipped as a future world champion, but a typically subtle Carlsen grind squeezed him to a rook endgame defeat.
This has been a landmark World Cup for India, the coming nation of international chess. Four Indians, three of them teenagers, reached the last eight. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, is the only one of them to survive into this weekend. He confidently outplayed the US No 2 seed, Hikaru Nakamura, 3-1 to set up a fluctuating quarter-final against Arjun Erigaisi, 19, which went right down to a sudden death three-minute game on Thursday before Praggnanandhaa finally won through 5-4.
Praggnanandhaa will now meet the US champion and current world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, in Saturday’s second semi-final, following Friday’s rest day. On form, the World Cup final starting next Tuesday should be Carlsen v Caruana, a rerun of their closely fought 2018 world title match in London, which Carlsen has said was the only one of his five championship matches which he really enjoyed.
According to Fide regulations, the two World Cup finalists and the winner of the third place playoff qualify for the 2024 Candidates, an eight-player contest to decide the challenger to China’s world champion, Ding Liren. Carlsen, who abdicated his world crown earlier this year after a 10-year reign, confirmed after defeating Gukesh that he will not take up his Candidates place.
“Under the current format there is absolutely no chance. I think everybody should operate under the assumption that I will not play at the Candidates and that everybody else who is in the semi-finals is qualified,” he said.
While India is the new chess superpower, Russia, which dominated the game for half a century in the Soviet era, has no male representative left at Baku. Ian Nepomniachtchi, the 2021 and 2023 world title finalist, was knocked out by India’s Vidit Gujrathi. This is the first time in the history of either the World Cup or previous knockout Fide world championships that no Russian has reached the last eight.
In the $700,000 Women’s World Cup, Russia’s No 2 seed, Aleksandra Goryachkina, will meet the revelation of the tournament, Nurgyul Salimova, in this weekend’s final. The 20-year-old Bulgarian, who has eliminated several higher rated opponents, defeated Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk 3.5-2.5 in the semi-final, and also qualifies for the 2024 Women’s Candidates, along with Muzychuk and China’s Tan Zhongyi.
It is a while since this column could report on a Guardian playing success. Our chief sports reporter, Sean Ingle, has been awarded the Frank Parr Memorial prize for the best game played in Surrey competitions in the past season. It features an imaginative attack against a much higher rated opponent including an a4-d1-h5 queen trip, doubled h file rooks, and a final assault leading to mate or win of the queen.
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 cxd5 cxd5 4 Bf4 Nc6 5 Nc3 Nf6 6 e3 g6 7 Bd3 Nh5 8 Bg5 h6 9 Bh4 Bg7 10 Qb3 g5 11 Bg3 e6 12 Nge2 O-O 13 h4 Nxg3 14 Nxg3 gxh4 15 Nh5 Qg5 16 Nxg7 Kxg7 17 O-O-O Nxd4 18 Qa4 Nc6 19 Rxh4 d4 20 Rdh1 Rh8 21 R1h3 Kf8 22 Ne4 Qe7 23 Rxh6 Rxh6 24 Rxh6 f5 25 Qd1 Qc7 26 Qh5 Ne5+ 27 Kb1 Nf7 28 Rh8+ Ke7 29 Qh4+ Kd7 30 Bb5+ Qc6 31 Bxc6+ Kxc6 32 Rf8 Ne5 33 Nd2 Ng4 34 exd4 b6 35 Qg3 Bb7 36 Rxa8 Bxa8 37 Qf3+ 1-0
The name Frank Parr brought back two memories. One was the 1938 brilliancy Parr v George Wheatcroft, whose loser captained England against the USSR in 1954, but is better known as the creator of Value Added Tax.
The other is the 1956 British Championship at Blackpool, where at the start of the final round Parr and the then England No 1, Hugh Alexander, were clear on 8.5/10. Alexander offered his opponent an early draw, but Michael Franklin declined and went on to lose. Meanwhile, I had played badly against Parr’s Dutch Defence 1 d4 e6 2 c4 f5 and was struggling to avoid defeat. The tension of the occasion got to Parr, who missed chances and eventually settled for a draw. He was unlucky, since in almost every other year 9/11 would have been a winning total.
3881: 1 Bb3! Nxb3 2 Nf7+ Kh7 3 Rh5! Qxd7 4 Ng5+ Kh8 5 Rxh6 mate.
