Magnus Carlsen is the first player through to the Grand Final of the top division of the Airthings Masters after bidding just one second less than his great rival Hikaru Nakamura to get the black pieces in Armageddon. Hikaru can still reach that final, but he’ll first have to beat either Wesley So or Arjun Erigaisi, who knocked out Alexey Sarana and Gukesh.

On Wednesday, Wesley So was knocked down to the Losers bracket of the Airthings Masters despite not losing a game in the tournament, and on Thursday the same fate befell Hikaru Nakamura after he made a draw in Armageddon when he needed to win on demand with the white pieces.

The match got off to a delayed start after Magnus Carlsen was surprised by the early finish of the games in the Losers bracket. He later commented:

What the match may have lacked in quality it more than made up for in excitement, with Magnus getting a grip early on in the first game. Jan Gustafsson, who seconded Magnus Carlsen for three World Championship matches and recently helped Anish Giri win the Tata Steel Masters, immediately flagged 9…Bd5!? as a small mistake by Hikaru Nakamura in the opening.  

Magnus was able to take over and could have played a nice tactical shot on move 21.

21.Nd5! is based on 21…Rxc6 22.Nxe7+ (or 21…Rxd5? 22.Rxc8+), though after 21…Kf8 there’s no killer blow, and Carlsen’s choice to play 21.Rxc8 also led to a very promising knight endgame.

The decisive moment in what follows appears to have been when Magnus didn’t play the move an amateur would blitz out, picking up a pawn with 34.Kxa4, but instead went for the subtle 34.Kb5?!

Hikaru defended the pawn with 34…Nc5 and in what followed Magnus even looked in some trouble, at least on the clock, before the game finished in a draw — with Hikaru pre-moving at the end and getting up before the game had formally ended.

Our commentators wondered if Magnus was “mildly tilted” in Game 2 when he went for a double fianchetto of his bishops with the black pieces, but in fact neither player’s moves were convincing. “The players are overthinking things”, said Peter Leko, while Jan suggested that if you guessed the rating of the players simply based on the game you wouldn’t think it was arguably the world’s two best rapid players.

Magnus would echo that sentiment later, when he commented, “this was I think a match that was not representative of any of our levels.”

It was Magnus who was pressing, however, and on move 25 he missed a big chance.

25…Qe7! or 25…Qc7! would have opened up an attack from the f6-bishop on the a1-rook, with 26.Rc1 met by 26…Rxa3, while 26.Raa2 runs into 26…Bc3! and the rook has nowhere to go, since 27.Rd6 is hit by 27…Bc8! and the pin is fatal.

That was tricky, but what was surprising was that Magnus failed to realise it was a critical position in which he could have invested some of the seven minutes remaining on his clock. Instead, perhaps acutely conscious of how difficult the previous game had been to play in time trouble, he spent just 20 seconds on 25…Kg7?, later lamenting:

26.a4! by Hikaru eliminated the weakness on a3 and justified the bishop’s position on d7, and though Black was still better the advantage almost immediately fizzled out before a draw was agreed on move 44.

In Game 3 Magnus again had White, but this time he got no advantage and briefly looked to be getting outplayed before he sacrificed a pawn to force a draw by repetition, with the white bishop chasing the black queen.

In Game 4 the big question was whether we’d see a repeat of the day before, where Hikaru Nakamura had forced an instant 14-move draw against Wesley So to take the match to Armageddon.

Magnus paused 13 seconds on move 3 before deciding not to repeat the Berlin Defence from that game, and instead we got a Marshall. Magnus confessed afterwards that his thoughts were already on Armageddon.

Magnus looked somewhat surprised, and relieved, that Hikaru nevertheless just decided to follow the plan and take a quick draw rather than attempt to squeeze out a win.

And so, after four draws, we came to the crucial bidding process, where the players compete to bid the lowest amount they're willing to accept to get the black pieces and need only a draw. The day before Nakamura had outbid So with 9:28 to 9:44, while in the final we got a stunning outcome — Hikaru bid 8:59, planning to undercut Magnus if he bid 9:00, but Magnus had bid 8:58!

“I think what I deserve the most credit for is my bid — that was a soul read!” said Magnus.

It meant Hikaru, who got White and the default 15 minutes, would have over six minutes more on the clock. Did Magnus think that a risk?

The game was a thriller, with Hikaru getting a promising position out of the opening, though the four minutes he burned up on moves 23-24 lessened the chances that he’d be able to flag the world champion. In fact one imprecise move and then a blunder in a row and Magnus could have wrapped up the match.

The winning line was 29…Nxe5! 30.fxe5 Qc6+ 31.Kh2…

…and here the only winning — and also not losing — move was to play 31…f4!, cutting off the bishop’s defence of the h6-square so that Rh6 for Black becomes a lethal move. Hikaru pointed out in his recap of the Armageddon that he’d seen Nxe5 but missed that follow-up.

Perhaps the reason Magnus missed it was that he had a very good alternative, 29…Nb4, with Hikaru seeing nothing better than to give up the c2-pawn.

Hikaru rightly noted that despite queens soon coming off the board he still had practical chances, but Magnus handled what followed excellently. Although he “missed” a number of winning moves, Hikaru explained, “it’s more important to take risk out of the equation”, which is what the world champion did by trading down into a position he couldn’t lose.

Magnus talked about his rivalry with Hikaru:

We may well get a rematch on Friday, since although Magnus has already booked his place in the Grand Final — when $30,000 and a place in the 8-player Champions Chess Tour Playoffs in December will be up for grabs — Hikaru can return in that match, after a day in the Losers bracket.

He'll be waiting to play a 2-game match against the winner of Wesley So vs. Arjun Erigaisi. Let’s see how they won on Wednesday.

Wesley So found himself in the Losers bracket despite not losing a game on Tuesday, either in the Champions Chess Tour or in two Titled Tuesdays. He commented:

The first game against Alexey Sarana went almost perfectly for Wesley, who got a big edge out of the opening.

Here he thought for five minutes, before going for the winning line with 25.Ne2! Rxe3 26.Ng3+ Rxg3 27.Rxe8 Bxf4 and emerging an exchange up. Wesley went on to win smoothly.

The second game was a must-win for Alexey Sarana, and for once he was unable to apply serious pressure with the white pieces. He could have made a draw, but instead kept fighting. As so often in such situations, however, the reward was a defeat, which ended what had been a brilliant tournament for the young Russian.

This all-Indian match-up between Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh was great fun. Despite Arjun noting his opponent “walked into” preparation (up to move 13) in Game 1, he gave Gukesh chances to escape, with the last coming on move 39.

39…Nxe6!, which could have been played on the previous move as well, equalises, with 40.fxe6 Rxh5! leaving the white knight in danger.

Instead in the game after 39…a5? 40.Rc5! Arjun took complete control and went on to score a crushing win.

That meant Gukesh was in a must-win position in the second game, and he went for a new idea with 10.h4!? and 11.Kf1!?

Arjun said he quickly realised the idea “made a lot of sense”, but when Gukesh failed to find the right follow-up it was only Arjun who had real winning chances until the game ended in a 72-move draw.

Afterwards Arjun explained the soft toys behind him.

There’s nothing soft about Arjun’s play, however, and on Thursday he’ll be fighting for his tournament life as he plays a 2-game match against Wesley So. The winner will then immediately start a match against Hikaru Nakamura, with the prize of a place in the Grand Final against Magnus Carlsen on Friday.

Elsewhere we already know the Grand Final in Division 3, where Praggnanandhaa will take on Sam Sevian for the $5,000 1st prize — Pragg showed Nakamura what he needs to do, since he lost to Sevian in Armageddon in the Winners final before fighting his way back into the Grand Final.

Meanwhile in Division 2 Yu Yangyi and Fabiano Caruana will play in the Winners Final, while the most memorable action took place in the Losers section as Vladimir Kramnik knocked out Ian Nepomniachtchi.

23.Nxe4!, grabbing a pawn on e4, was the start of a combination so good it was worth giving up the beautiful knight on d6.

23…dxe4 (Nepo lets the brilliancy appear on the board — other damage limitation moves were unlikely to save the game) 24.Qc4+ Kg7 25.Rxd7! Rxd7 26.e6+

Kramnik won back the rook with a decisive advantage. He also then went on to knock out Matthias Bluebaum, but he still needs to win three more matches in the Losers bracket to reach the Division II Grand Final, starting against Nodirbek Yakubboev.

Div I Winners | Div I Losers
Div 2 Winners | Div II Losers
Div 3 Winners | Div III Losers

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