Ian Nepomniachtchi played the King’s Gambit as three wins and a draw took him four points clear at the top of the Airthings Masters table. World Champion Magnus Carlsen is back on track to qualify for the knockout, but three smooth wins were followed by a shock defeat to 16-year-old Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa, who also took down Levon Aronian. 17-year-old Vincent Keymer beat Anish Giri and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, but Eric Hansen stole the day by beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to tie Ding for 2nd place.
16-year-old Praggnanandhaa beat both Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen on Day 2
You can replay all the games and check out the pairings from the Prelims of the Airthings Masters, the first event on the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from Tania Sachdev and Peter Leko…
…and from Kaja Snare, Jovanka Houska and David Howell.
Ian Nepomniachtchi’s loss to Levon Aronian now seems like a distant memory as the Russian stormed to victory in six of his next seven games.
It wasn’t just the results but the play on Day 2 that impressed, with Ian starting by crushing the player he lost to in the recent World Rapid Championship gold medal tiebreak, Nodirbek Abdusattorov. By the end almost anything was winning, but 48.Qxg7+! was definitely the way to win in style.
After 48…Kxg7 he would have won the black queen with 49.Bh5+.
In Round 2 it was his 19-year-old Russian colleague Andrey Esipenko who suffered.
The position would be equal if Nepo hadn’t spotted 33…Nc5+!, exploiting the fact that if White captures the knight his own knight will be left undefended. After 34.Kc4 Rxc3+ 35.Kxc3 Nxe4+ Ian had won a pawn and went on to grind out a victory.
Vladislav Artemiev managed to end Nepomniachtchi’s winning streak, but only just, before the leader ended the day by playing the King’s Gambit against Alexandra Kosteniuk. Nepo published a Chessable course on that opening, but his World Championship second Peter Leko revealed why the opening had never been considered even when things became desperate in Dubai.
It’s a tough opening to meet over the board in a rapid game, however, and despite having some chances Alexandra fell to an 8th defeat in a row. It was always going to be tough as the lowest-ranked player in such a field, but if the Women’s World Rapid Champion had a real chance it was in Round 7 against Andrey Esipenko.
She’d done everything right, and after 31.Qe4, or better 31.Qe2!, White is winning, though in many lines you need to find one last tactical trick to clinch victory.
Instead after 31.Qd7?! Ra8 32.f4? d3+! Andrey Esipenko was winning, though he only finally sealed the deal on move 76. Andrey would then go on to turn around another lost position and win a Rook + Bishop vs. Rook ending against Vincent Keymer, to end in sole 4th place and well on target to qualify for the knockout.
For Alexandra there were only words of encouragement.
But she isn’t losing her spirit!
Norwegian TV revealed that Magnus Carlsen caught COVID in the run-up to the Airthings Masters, and from his performance on Day 1 you might feel it was affecting his play. On Day 2, however, he got right back on track by starting with three wins. He smoothly outplayed Kosteniuk and Keymer, while he was rewarded for his ambition against Hans Niemann.
He was under some pressure until finally taking complete control with his powerful bishop pair.
On paper the final round of the day against 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa was a great chance to make it 4/4 (or 12/12), but the Indian youngster, who called the Tour “a huge opportunity”, bounced back in style on Day 2 after suffering three losses in a row at the end of Day 1.
I think yesterday wasn’t so good. Today I think my play was much better, so I hope this continues for the next two days.
Pragg managed to dominate Levon Aronian in the first game of the day.
44.Nf7+! was the one way to keep a clearly winning advantage, since 44…Bxf7 runs into 45.Qxf6+, hitting the king and the d8-rook. In the game Pragg went on to win after 44…Qxf7, even if he made somewhat heavy weather of it.
He fell to a Shakh attack in Round 6, but then held a tough draw against Anish Giri before the showdown with Magnus, where despite playing with the black pieces the youngster was strategically on top in under 20 moves. Magnus went for a risky pawn grab which could already have been punished by 21…Bxh2+!
Now after 22.Kxh2 Nf4! 23.Ne5 Rxc3! 24.Rxc3 f6! Black is winning. Instead in the game the immediate 21…Nf4?! let Magnus off the hook, since he could meet 22.Ne5 with 22…Bxe5.
Most players would have breathed a sigh of relief and been willing to settle for a draw, but one of the reasons Magnus is so strong is his willingness to take calculated risks. He had an extra pawn and an objectively slightly better position, but deciding to grab another pawn was dangerous.
30.Qa5!? Qc1 31.Qxa7!? was still ok, but Pragg noted that after 31…Qe3! it wasn’t easy to play as White. In fact one mistake 32.Nc3? (32.Qa5! looks best) and it was over, since Praggnanandhaa pounced with 32…Nf4!
After 33.Nd1 Qd2! 34.Nf2 Ne2! the white queen is out of the game and can’t stop the lethal plan of the black queen going to e1 and then g1.
Magnus tried to play on with 35.h4 but Praggnanandhaa was flawless as he combined threats in the play that followed, until 39…Bc2! was an elegant final move.
Huge material losses are inevitable for White.
There was praise for Praggnanandhaa from two Indian legends.
That loss leaves Magnus in the tie for 5th place and looking over his shoulder when it comes to qualification for the knockout. You wonder if he’ll get punished for his stated goal of wanting to play a World Championship match against a member of a younger generation, just as Peter Leko thought Magnus might get punished for announcing his desire to hit a 2900 rating.
Meanwhile, it’s been a good month for streamers…
Canadian GM Eric Hansen last played a FIDE-rated game when he competed in the Grand Swiss in October 2019. It recalls a certain Hikaru Nakamura, but Eric has been focused on streaming for much longer. He admitted himself, “I had no expectations coming in”, and as the 2nd-lowest rated player you had to assume he was going to be in for a tough ride. Eric commented:
If I looked at the tournament list I would target myself! So I think it’s affecting them as well, which is helping me, at least.
Instead, however, Eric is riding high in a tie for second place after an amazing sequence of results.
In a way it’s even better than it looks, since in the first game of the day leader and world no. 3 Ding Liren went for an unnecessary exchange sacrifice and found himself dead lost.
Here simply 62.Kxb2 and White should go on to win, but Eric went for 62.Re8!? Bd6 63.Rd8? Be5 and, just like that, the win had gone! The game ended in a 74-move draw, with Eric commenting:
I thought I was going to have a very bad day, because in the first game I had such a winning position against Ding, and I don’t know how I managed to find a way not to win that, but usually I don’t recover very well after I lose a winning position, so I can’t complain about the play, not at all, but it’s been a surprise.
From there on things couldn’t have gone much better. Against Jan-Krzysztof Duda he was richly-rewarded for not taking a draw by repetition when down to his final seconds. Duda’s 44.Nxc4? ran into the crunching 44…Nf4!, hitting the e2-rook and threatening mate on g2.
Then Eric hung on a pawn down for a 92-move draw against Levon Aronian before finishing the day by defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Shakh had squandered a completely winning position, but you can’t expect to beat the world’s best smoothly every time!
Eric said, “some of the games I played today are definitely among my best rapid games ever,” and then explained what a good result in the Airthings Masters would mean to him.
What it would mean, playing well here, is probably that I should play more chess. That’s probably the main thing. I haven’t played much in the last few years and I’m itching to get back. I think a positive result would go a long way to get me competing more regularly.
Eric isn’t the only lower-rated player impressing, with Vincent Keymer tied for 5th place with Magnus despite losing to the World Champion and then, unnecessarily, to Esipenko in the final round of Day 2. Keymer had started the day with a spectacular win over Anish Giri.
22.Rxf7! is the kind of move chess players live for, with the response 22…Kxf7?! (22…Nd5 is more resilient) shocking our commentary team, which included Vincent’s coach Peter Leko.
It was still very tricky, but Vincent didn’t put a foot wrong as he went on to clinch victory with a mating attack.
It wasn’t exactly the ketchup plan of Anish…
…though he later bounced back to beat Hans Niemann and Liem Quang Le and get into the Top 8, just.
A rook endgame win over Nodirbek Abdusattorov (whose 2 wins and 2 losses gained him 6 points compared to the 4 points he got for 4 draws on Day 1!) left Vincent well-placed to qualify for the knockout, while if that fails he might still earn a prize for fighting chess!
Check out Vincent's interview after the day was over.
One underdog whose tournament took a turn for the worse, however, was 18-year-old Hans Niemann. In the first round of the day he missed some winning chances against Mamedyarov before going on to lose the next three games, to Giri, Carlsen and then finally Abdusattorov. It was a painful end.
14 moves draw for Black in this position, while of the six losing moves, there’s only one of them that doesn’t involve simply putting the rook where it can be taken. Hans did indeed find, or mouse-slip (?), that move, 49…Rd3?? After 50.h6! you can no longer stop the pawn, or promote your own pawn in time.
That leaves the standings as follows after Day 2, with 7 rounds remaining.
There’s a lot of work to do for big guns such as Mamedyarov and Duda if they hope to reach the 8-player knockout, with the current odds looking as follows (note Nepomniachtchi now has the highest Tour rating after his great start).
The Airthings Masters is live here each day on chess24 from 11:45 ET | 17:45 CET | 22:15 IST.
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