Chessable Masters Day 1: Artemiev tops leaderboard

June 21, 2020
11:47 am

CHESS NEWS

Tags: #CarlsenChessTour, #OnlineChess, #RapidBlitz

Vladislav Artemiev crashed the party on day one of the Chessable Masters to finish unbeaten on top of Group A. The 22-year-old Russian, playing in his first Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour event, burst out of the blocks early with two straight wins. He then cruised through three more rounds bagging draws to leave the big pre-tournament favorites in his wake.

Group A features World Champion Magnus Carlsen, speed chess specialist Hikaru Nakamura and Daniil Dubov, the winner of the last Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour event. But none of them got into top gear and will have to play well on Monday to guarantee making it through to the knockout stage.

Meanwhile, Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna, the other tour debutant, had a tough time early on but pulled it back in the last two rounds to draw against Nakamura and win against Alexander Grischuk. Harikrishna had earlier missed a clear win against Carlsen.

“I can’t complain,” he said afterward. “It was disappointing but of course I was happy to draw against Hikaru. I was completely lost, but it was just lucky.” He added he was “very happy” to win the last round and admitted, “after two games, everyone wanted to win against me”.

The event, broadcast live on chess24, is the latest stage of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour which carries a total prize fund of $1 million, a record for online chess.

With both players hoping to kick-start their campaign with a win against a key rival, Carlsen had the best of it but Nakamura – sporting a new, clean-shaven look – defended stoutly.

Round 2 upped the tempo as Artemiev won again, beating his in-form countryman Dubov to post a 2/2 start and install himself as the early tournament leader.

Carlsen overpowered Harikrishna – but not without the scare – to get his first win and leave the Indian pointless. Meanwhile, Alexander Grischuk and Nakamura agreed to a tame draw.

Round 3 saw Nakamura and Artemiev end their game early with a draw by repetition. Carlsen ran into trouble against Grischuk but the champion escaped with a draw after the Russian let him off the hook when his clock was down. Meanwhile, Harikrishna’s nightmare start continued as he went down against Dubov.

Carlsen’s luck ran out in Round 4 though as he blundered badly against Dubov to tumble down to 50%. Seconds later Nakamura also blundered in a strong position against Harikrishna to clock up another draw. Grischuk-Artemiev also ended in a draw.

Nakamura ended a quiet day for him unbeaten with five straight draws on 2.5/5 after sharing the final round point with Dubov, who finished a half-point better. Carlsen drew with Artemiev in the last round to finish on 2.5 alongside Hikaru.

Asked how his day went afterward, Carlsen said: “It was… pretty bad.”

About the tournament

The event, which runs until July 5, is being put on in association with Chessable and the tour’s Education Partner, leading Swiss private banking group, Julius Baer.

Players are split into two groups (A and B) of six which play on alternate days for the preliminary stage before eight progress to the knockouts.

The A Group consists of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Daniil Dubov, Alexander Grischuk, Vladislav Artemiev and Pentala Harikrishna.

The B Group features Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Anish Giri.