Magnus Carlsen scored 7/9 and beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda to wrap up a 5-game winning streak that put him within half a point of the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland leader. The day’s next best score was 5.5/9, by Wesley So and Kirill Shevchenko, with Wesley beating Magnus and ending the day just half a point behind. Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are also within striking distance with nine rounds of blitz to go.

Magnus Carlsen began the blitz in Warsaw three points behind Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but by the end of the day was just half a point behind.

The gap was immediately narrowed to two points when Duda lost the first blitz game to Richard Rapport, while Magnus scored a remarkably smooth victory over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Garry Kasparov once again made Magnus Carlsen's first move | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

Magnus wasn’t, however, expecting an easy day at the office.

In Round 2, Magnus played the Scandinavian (1.e4 d5) against Wesley So and got a seemingly completely safe position out of the opening. One loose king move, however, and Magnus was in trouble, and he soon had almost no time while Wesley was demonstrating just how dangerous he can be when provoked.

Here he found 29.Rd1+!, which made all the difference. After 29…Kc8 30.Bg7! Rg8 31.Bxh6! Magnus would be winning if the king was still on d7, so that 31…Rg6 32.Nf7 could be met by Ke8, while in the game Wesley had simply won a key pawn and went on to win.

After that loss, Magnus had another couple of shaky rounds, before he began a 5-game winning streak that transformed his fortunes.

Magnus confessed that luck had been a factor, explaining:

The run began with a convincing demolition of the Dragon Sicilian of one of the day’s top performing players, Kirill Shevchenko.

Then came Richard Rapport, before the wild Giri-Carlsen.

Carlsen arrives for the game against Rapport | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

Anish Giri had woken up and chosen violence, playing only one draw and going for bold attacks in game after game. They usually worked, at least up to a point, with Magnus here helpless if Anish had gone for 37.Ne7+! — it wasn’t necessary to see as far as mate-in-15.

The problem was that 37.Qxa4, as played by Giri, was also a winning move, though after that Anish lost control and, ultimately, blundered his queen in a tragi-comic manner.

48.Qa2?? was not the best move in the position.

At least Magnus had the decency to look apologetic | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

Everything was going right for Magnus at this point, and he managed to beat Levon Aronian, who started the game a point ahead, by playing the Danish Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.d4!? exd4 3.c3!? It was in honour of the 50th birthday of Magnus’ Danish coach, Peter Heine Nielsen.

The finale of the day was set up perfectly, since Magnus faced Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who was 1.5 points ahead and could have taken a huge step towards overall victory with a win.

Duda-Carlsen was the perfect way to end the day's action | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

The opening went as well as Magnus could have hoped for with the black pieces, though he admitted to struggling for a plan later on.

In fact there was little wrong with Carlsen’s instincts — 32…f4! is the computer’s first choice — but his execution with 32…g5 33.Nc2 g4!? 34.Bg2 f4 wasn’t perfect. Duda managed to equalise, but Magnus noted that his position was easier to play in practical terms, and by move 90 his passed pawns had forced his opponent to resign.

Duda ended the day with a 50% 4.5/9, which given his lead at the start of the day was enough to retain a half-point lead with 17.5 points to Carlsen’s 17. At least the top five have an excellent chance, however, with Wesley So on 16.5, Levon Aronian on 16 and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on 15.5.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is two points behind Duda and can still fight for first place if he hits top form | photo: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

Wesley looked in form and could have scored more than his 5.5/9, especially since he was completely winning in the final position where he took a draw against Richard Rapport.

Down to seconds it was understandable to end things in a position where Black can give perpetual check, but simply giving a check (e.g. 43…Qb2+) and then picking up the b3-pawn would win the game. With the queen on e6 attacked, White has no useful discovered checks.

Wesley beat Magnus (“Maybe he should thank me, actually, because he got very motivated afterwards”), and the one game he regretted was his only loss.

It was, however, a fantastic game by Anish, who pounced on 20.b4?

20…Nxa4! 21.Rxa4 Rxc2! 22.Bc1 f3! 23.Qf1 Bh4! 24.g3

24…Bxg3! 25.fxg3 e4! and the attack kept flowing until its logical conclusion. It’s a minor tragedy that Giri was the joint lowest scorer with Deac on 3.5/9 given how many winning positions he created with his attacking play.

Magnus said of the standings, “it’s nicer to look at it when you’re doing well!”, but by the end of Day 1 of the blitz he had no reason to avoid looking.

Magnus capped off the day with a little football.

“It’s anyone’s game”, he commented, and it’s likely Jan-Krzysztof Duda will have to perform much closer to his best if he’s going to retain the title he won in 2022.

The Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland starts at 14:15 CEST (8:15am ET, 17:45 IST) and will be live here on chess24.

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