Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi may be on course for a World Championship rematch after beating Liem Quang Le and Vincent Keymer to reach the Airthings Masters semi-finals. They both won one game and drew three, but there was more drama elsewhere. Andrey Esipenko found a brilliant queen sacrifice to take the lead against Eric Hansen, and the Canadian GM’s attempts to win on demand led to another loss in the final game. Ding Liren suffered heartbreak as he was a move or two away from sealing victory with a round to spare before Vladislav Artemiev staged a comeback.
You can replay all the games from the knockout stages of the Airthings Masters using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from Tania Sachdev and Peter Leko.
There were no tiebreaks in the Airthings Masters quarterfinals, with all four matches decided in rapid chess.
This was a tough match-up for our commentator Peter Leko, who is both the coach of 17-year-old Vincent Keymer and worked on Team Nepo in the two years before the World Championship match in Dubai.
Ian said afterwards:
I guess secretly, deep inside, deep in his heart, Peter of course was rooting for Vincent, and yes, it’s a little bit heartbreaking for him, so I’m very sorry, but let’s say this is sport.
Peter explained that he hadn’t discussed openings with his student, so that he was as surprised as anyone else when Vincent picked the Najdorf against one of its best proponents.
The boldness backfired as Ian soon got an overwhelming position, but Vincent was let off the hook when Ian did what he does more often than any other top-level chess player — rushed for no reason and let his advantage slip.
Ian’s speed is also an asset, since it’s so tough to play against, but he had 14 minutes to Vincent’s two when instead of 32.Bb3!, securing the d5-square, he played 32.Rb6?!
32…d5! suddenly solved all Black’s problems, and despite the clock situation Vincent had the nominal advantage of an extra pawn when the game ended in a 55-move draw. Ian commented:
I think I missed a very, very nice chance in the 1st game, and after this it was never easy and I’m really satisfied I managed to squeeze out this slight advantage in Game 3.
Game 3 was another Najdorf, where Vincent seemed close to equality until he grabbed a pawn and entered what proved to be an incredibly difficult endgame. By the end Vincent’s dream of getting the Rook vs. Rook + Bishop endgame was denied.
The final game briefly offered a glimmer of hope for Vincent in a must-win situation, but it fizzled out into a draw, meaning Ian was through.
The post-game interview took a dark turn when Ian was asked about the impending prospect of war. He responded, “I’d like to wish basically everyone just try to be sane”. Alas, we all now know that sanity didn’t prevail. Ian tweeted:
Similar dismay was expressed by other Russian Airthings Masters players, with Alexandra Kosteniuk tweeting a black square.
19-year-old Andrey Esipenko tweeted:
Andrey now plays Nepomniachtchi in the semi-finals, with playing chess likely to be difficult in the circumstances.
Andrey went into this match as the favourite and lived up to the billing, despite spoiling a serious advantage in the first game. The second was also drawn, before in Game 3 Andrey played perhaps the idea of the day. 21.Bxe5!! prepared a stunner in reply to 21…Bb7.
The queen sacrifice 22.Bxd6!! Bxd5 23.Bxf8 Qxf8 24.cxd5 left White all the chances, with Andrey going on to win in style.
He then needed just a draw in the final game, but when Eric declined the draw and pushed on for a win it only saw him fall into a mating attack. The fairytale was over for the Chessbrah, but he’d exceeded all expectations going into the event.
Magnus had ground out an impressive win from an endgame with equal material to defeat Liem Quang Le in the Prelims, and it would be the same story in the first game of their quarterfinal clash.
A wild middlegame led to a very pleasant endgame for White.
Magnus converted it into a 47-move win.
A super-solid Game 2 was then followed by a tense 3rd game, with Magnus using 37.g3! to eliminate all the pawns and get a Rook vs. Rook + Knight endgame that he could hold with no trouble.
That meant Le had to win the final game on demand to force tiebreaks, but instead he lost any advantage and then stumbled into the tactical shot 24...Nxf2!
After 25.Rxf2 Rxf2 26.Kxf2 Qxe3+ Black would be able to win the a1-rook and the game with a later check from d4. Liem tried 25.Bc1 but after 25…Nh3+ 26.Kh1 there was nothing better than a draw by perpetual check.
Nothing better for White, that is, since Magnus could have crashed through in style, as he guessed, by capturing on g2 with his rook. He commented:
Of course there must have been some win there, for instance I can go Rxg2, but I have not come to value the Tour rating that high yet that I just forego 100% certain qualification!
In the same interview Magnus gave his view on 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa:
Give people the space to develop and don’t expect something very special every time, because that’s not realistic. I think he’s shown a lot of promise over the last few tournaments, both here and in Wijk aan Zee. He clearly has a lot to learn, but he’s on the right track. The more time and space he can get to develop at his pace then the better. But he’s obviously doing really well.
Magnus’ opponent in the semi-finals will be Vladislav Artemiev, after the most exciting match of the day.
Ding Liren recently saw his hopes of a Candidates spot evaporate due to visa issues in getting to the Berlin Grand Prix, and it would have been a heartwarming story to see him do well in the first event of the Tour. Up to a point he did, since despite having to play from midnight onwards in China he topped the Prelim standings after Day 1. He struggled somewhat thereafter, but still got through to the knockout.
In Game 1 of the quarterfinals he lived up to the description his opponent Vladislav Artemiev shared after the match.
First I would like to say that it was a very difficult match for me, because I played against a really strong chess player, Ding Liren, and I know that he’s a very universal player with very [good] opening preparation and very technical with good tactical skills, so it’s clear that it will be a very difficult challenge for me.
So it proved, as Ding posted a powerful performance in the first game, helped by Artemiev choosing the wrong moment to swap off queens. Vladislav then fought tooth and nail in the second game, but had to settle for a 69-move draw, before it seemed everything would be over in Game 3.
Ding caught his opponent in opening preparation and then did almost everything right until the position after 29…Rg8.
30.Nxf6! was the winning move, with play continuing 30…Nxf6 31.Bg5! (simple but devastating) 31…Rf8 32.Bxf6+ Rxf6 33.Rxf6 and Black is busted.
Alas for Ding, after 30.Rde1? Artemiev pounced with 30…Rc2!
Nf2+ is threatened, and 31.Rxe4, as played by Ding, fails to some nice geometry: 31…Rxh2+ 32.Kg1 Rxh6. For the record it should be noted that after 33.Rxf6 Rh3? (33…Qa5!) Ding got one last chance to save himself by putting his queen on c6 or b5, but after 34.b4? Rd3! there was no way back.
That game seemed to inspired Vladislav and break Liren’s spirits, since Artemiev dominated the final game almost from start to finish. In the end there was no way for Black to avoid losing a bishop.
That leaves the semi-final bracket looking as follows.
Don't miss the Airthings Masters Knockout right here on chess24!
See also:
We respect your privacy and data protection guidelines. Some components of our site require cookies or local storage that handles personal information.
Using chess24 requires the storage of some personal data, as set out below. You can find additional information in our Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms of Website Use. Please note that your data settings can be changed at any time by clicking on the Data Settings link in the footer at the bottom of our website.
Comments 6
Be the first to comment!