Hikaru Nakamura is still the only player to win a classical game in the open section of the American Cup after he powered to a 1.5:0.5 victory over Leinier Dominguez. Hikaru will face Wesley So, who overcame Fabiano Caruana in rapid tiebreaks.

Hikaru Nakamura's 1st classical games in eight months went well as he defeated Sam Sevian 1.5:0.5 in the American Cup. The other matches went to rapid tiebreaks, with wins for Leinier Dominguez (over Levon Aronian), Wesley So (Sam Shankland) and Fabiano Caruana (Ray Robson).

13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov was asked about the upcoming Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. Ding Liren World Championship match when he made an appearance during the broadcast on the first day of the American Cup. He called the 14-game match in Kazakhstan “kind of an amputated event”, explaining the difference to the situation in 1975 with, “Fischer stopped playing chess, Magnus has not!”

Anish Giri scored 3.5/4 as a replacement for an unwell Magnus Carlsen, but the Chessbrahs again struggled on the bottom boards as Alexander Grischuk’s Blitz eliminated them 9:7. The Saint Louis Arch Bishops knocked out the Croatia Bulldogs by the same score, with the heroes Fabiano Caruana, who scored 4/4, and 13-year-old Alice Lee, who defeated 2700-rated Bogdan-Daniel Deac.

Liem Le, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Fedoseev and Vladislav Artemiev will join Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana in Division I of next month’s Chessable Masters.

Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana have already qualified for Division I of the Chessable Masters, the 2nd event on the $2 million 2023 Champions Chess Tour. Today we’ll find out the four players who’ll join them, as well as the 16 playing in Division II and 32 in Division III. The Play-In qualifier is open to all grandmasters.

Alexey Sarana snatched the sole lead in the European Championship in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia with two rounds to go after beating Anton Korobov in Round 9, making it a perfect 5/5 with the white pieces for the 23-year-old. Korobov is joined half a point behind by Etienne Bacrot and six young players: Kirill Shevchenko, Andrey Esipenko, Benjamin Gledura, Valentin Dragnev and David Paravyan.

Magnus Carlsen lost only his second game in the 2023 Pro Chess League, to Aleksandr Shimanov, as the Canada Chessbrahs lost to the Levitov Chess Wizards and will now have to win on demand next week to reach the Playoffs. The Shanghai Tigers, featuring Ju Wenjun and Wei Yi, joined the Wizards in booking a Playoff place after a comeback win.

Anton Korobov reached the only perfect score after five rounds of the European Championship in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia after beating his Ukrainian countryman Ruslan Ponomariov in a wild game in Round 5. With six rounds to go, however, 42 players are still within a point of the leader.

Magnus Carlsen will join Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and four qualifiers April 3-7 for the Chessable Masters, the 2nd event on the $2 million 2023 Champions Chess Tour. The Ding Liren vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi World Championship match starts just two days later in Astana, Kazakhstan, so that this will be the last major event Magnus plays as the classical world champion, at least for the near future.