Magnus Carlsen’s dominance of online chess has continued this week as the world No 1 defeated Hikaru Nakamura in two matches to retain the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the annual Champions Tour which the Norwegian has won every year since it was launched in 2020. For 2025, the tour is also a qualifier for the Esports World Cup at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July-August, where the chess prize fund will be $1.5m.
Carlsen began with a smooth 3-1 victory against Russia’s Andrey Esipenko, then defeated China’s Yu Yangyi by 2.5-0.5. He was leading 2-1 in his semi-final against India’s world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, when they reached white king at f8, white rook at g7 and white pawn at g5 against black king at f5 and black bishop at c4. Now 1 g6 Kf6 2 Rc7! attacking the bishop and following up with 3 g7 wins, but Carlsen missed it, only drew with rook against bishop, allowed Erigaisi to equalise at 2-2, and was also losing their Armageddon tie-break game as Black before escaping with a draw by threefold repetition of position. A draw counts as a win for Black under Armageddon scoring rules.
