Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, is favourite for the $210,000 Meltwater Tour final going into the decisive weekend rounds but the Norwegian, 31, will meet his most difficult opponent in Sunday’s best-of-four games mini-match, right at the end of the eight-player tournament.
Carlsen faces Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Poland’s No 1, the grandmaster who has been his nemesis on more than one big occasion. It was Duda who ended Carlsen’s world record sequence of 125 games unbeaten in autumn 2020 and who the following year knocked him out of the World Cup in their semi-final match.
Duda has continued to be a problem rival for Carlsen during online tournaments and is currently in second place in the overall Tour standings.
Duda’s round-three win this week against Anish Giri included a combination so exceptionally brilliant that it is already being labelled a 21st-century Immortal. Starting at move 28, Duda launched a nine-move (11 moves counting hopeless interpositions) all-checking sequence where he sacrificed first a rook, then his queen and finally a knight for a forced checkmate.
He visualised it all in a few seconds and said later: “ I did see it very, very quickly but you calculate 1,000 times to make sure it’s really checkmate, that I don’t blunder anything, because otherwise it would be a disaster, and it’s very, very nice.”
The Carlsen v Duda series will start at 8pm and can be watched live and free on Chess24.com. It will be a mini-match of four games, with two blitz games and an Armageddon to follow if tiebreaks are needed.
Viewers have a choice of two commentary teams. Strong players can listen to expert analysis by the former world title finalists Peter Leko and Rustam Kasimdzhanov while those less experienced may prefer the English team, consisting of the 2022 Olympiad gold medallist David Howell, England’s No 1 woman, Jovanka Houska, and the popular streamer Simon Williams. Norway’s Kaja Snare does the post-game interviews.
The hybrid tournament format is a mixture of four players physically present in California, while the other four compete from their homes. Due to the time difference, both Shak Mamedyarov in Baku and the Indian champion Arjun Erigaisi in Warangal face playing in the small hours.
Carlsen struck in fine style in game three of his opening match against Wesley So, using what he called the Anti-Berlin to counter a well known drawing sequence: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 and now 4 d3!? instead of 4 0-0 Nxe4. Carlsen had already played 4 d3 with success against So in 2016, and there could be more of 4 d3 in future tournaments.
So could have made it 2-2 in game four, but in a winning position allowed a fortress where his queen could not infiltrate Carlsen’s defensive set-up of rook, bishop and king’s side pawns. During his 2016 world title match with Sergey Karjakin, Carlsen famously declared that he did not believe in fortresses, and since then he has had his fair share of them and been quizzed every time about his statement.
This week he made a fuller explanation: “There are a lot of positions that look like fortresses that can be broken down … but some positions are obviously fortresses.”
England has been dominant this year in senior chess for over-50s and over-65s, winning the world team championships in both categories, plus the European team title. This week GM John Nunn is the top seed and favourite in the 11-round world 65+ championship, staged at Assisi in Italy. At his peak Nunn was ranked among the world top 10 grandmasters, and his 2580 rating outranks his nearest rival by more than 100 points.
The Fide president, Arkady Dvorkovich, made the ceremonial first move for Nunn in Tuesday’s opening round, where his Lebanese opponent tried a surprise with the O’Kelly Sicilian 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 a6, and was swiftly crushed as Nunn played the theoretical refutation and won in 23 moves. Nunn has since advanced to 4/4, but is still in a multiple tie for first among the huge 192-player field. Free live coverage (2pm start) is available at Chess24.com.
3842: 1...Qb4+ 2 Kd5 Be4+! 3 Qxe4 Qc5 mate.
