Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi will revisit their World Championship match in Dubai after both players made it through to the Airthings Masters final with a game to spare. Magnus crushed Vladislav Artemiev with the white pieces, ground out a 102-move win with Black and eased into the final with a draw. Ian confessed “I can’t calculate any lines” as he both survived and missed a win in the 1st game before going on to defeat Andrey Esipenko twice to reach the showdown with Magnus.
You can replay all the knockout games from the Airthings Masters, the 1st event on the $1.6 million 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.
After no tiebreaks were needed in the quarterfinals, things were over even sooner in the semi-finals, with both matches wrapped up with a game to spare.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen came into the Airthings Masters still suffering from COVID symptoms. It seemed to be reflected in his play, but despite some shaky moments he ultimately finished 2nd in the Prelims, behind only runaway leader Ian Nepomniachtchi.
From then onwards, Magnus has been picking up speed. In the quarterfinal he outplayed Liem Quang Le in the first game and then drew the next three, but if he’d needed to he could have won the final game as well. His victory in the semi-final was even more impressive, and he would sum up afterwards:
There were certainly some iffy moments, but overall it’s going in the right direction!
Magnus opened 1.c4 and couldn’t be disappointed with the position he achieved.
He went on to grab space before we got a complex sequence of play where both sides made mistakes.
Here taking the pawn with 15…Bxh3! was best for Artemiev, leaving Nf5 in reserve to play only if a piece appeared on d6. Instead he played 15…Nf5?! immediately and after 16.N2c3 White was much better.
Magnus didn’t initially find the best follow-up, but soon he had total control of the d6-square and in the end his queen, knight and c-pawn were too much for Artemiev to handle.
Artemiev had White in Game 2, but it was Magnus who gradually took over. The position still looked holdable, but Vladislav made a questionable choice on move 42.
42.e4+?! fxe4 43.fxe4+ Nxe4 gave up a pawn to reduce the material on the board. Magnus commented:
I think in that game it was just a case of being really patient, since there’s clearly no way to win immediately, so you just have to probe a little bit here and there and hope your opponent makes a mistake, and fortunately he did.
It felt like he’d already messed up a little bit when he went for this e4 thing, which was unnecessary. I don’t think he had to give up a pawn like that, but, as has been the theme for him in all of these tournaments, he always gets into time trouble, and he does play very well in time trouble, but there is always this added pressure on him.
In fact it was only on move 72 that Artemiev cracked with 72.Ng5.
72.Nd8! was the winning move, taking away the e6 and f7 squares from White’s knight and forcing White to allow either Ne6 or Kg4. After 73.Kg2 Kg4 the h4-pawn fell a dozen moves later, and finally on move 102 Vladislav was left with no good moves.
If the knight moves it’ll be taken, and the g-pawn queens.
That left Vladislav Artemiev with a mountain to climb, and he didn’t manage. Magnus’ strategy of trading off material to reach a drawish position worked out in the 3rd game, with some adventures, and after 41 moves the game and the match were over.
Magnus was asked about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and how it had affected him.
Of course I’ve been following like a lot of others, but then again I’m more of a concerned bystander than somebody who lives in or represents a country that’s involved in the conflict, so I suppose for others it’s rather more difficult. Generally you should not invade a foreign country, it’s as simple as that!
The other semi-final clash was an all-Russian encounter.
Ian Nepomniachtchi described playing in the current circumstances as especially challenging, and, despite having been the standout player of the event so far, complained about how he was playing.
Play is very bad. So I can’t think, I only rely on intuition and I can’t calculate any lines. So far it brings me some good results, but I’m afraid it can’t last forever.
It feels as though the 1st game was a case of both players going on intuition and getting into trouble. At first it was 19-year-old Andrey Esipenko calling the shots. He won a pawn, and his 31…Ra1! was a nice move to consolidate his advantage.
It wasn’t winning material, as we’re so used to seeing something similar doing in Tactics Trainers, but the threat of Qxc5 provoked 32.Kh2, when after 32…Rxc1 the exchange of rooks increased the c-pawn’s chances of scoring a touchdown.
Soon Andrey was completely winning, until he let it all slip with 39…Kg8? (39…Kh8!). Ian didn’t need to be asked twice and played the only move that didn’t lose 40.Nh5!
In fact it’s completely winning, since after 40…gxh5 41.Rg3+ the combined forces of the rook and queen make it impossible to defend the black king, despite having an extra piece.
Instead after 40…Qb7 41.Nxf6+ it just seemed a matter of time until Nepo would win, but instead another win slipped away, on move 48.
It turns out best here was simply 48.Kg2!, defending the f2-pawn, which after 48.Rc7? Rf8! became a problem. Soon Andrey was able to force a draw by perpetual check.
It seemed as though escaping a lost position, and having the white pieces in the next game, gave Esipenko a slight advantage, but the opening had already gone badly wrong for the youngster before 26.Nf2? allowed Nepo to capture a knight on d2 with 26…Rxd2!
Suddenly it was over, with the point soon demonstrated on the board. After 27.Bxd2 Ian immediately continued with 27…Nxg2!
28.Kxg2 Qxf3+ and White will soon get mated, but 28.Re4 did nothing to alter the evaluation of the position after the correct response 28…Qxf3! The game only lasted a few more moves.
That left Esipenko needing to win one of the next two games, but his aggressive bid to open up the kingside in Game 3 only worked in Nepo’s favour. There was a chance to survive at the very end, but, down to 16 seconds on his clock, Andrey faltered.
34…Qh6! forces the combination 35.Qxg5! Qxg5 36.Bh7+ Kxh7 36.Rxg5 when Black has good chances to hold in a rook ending a pawn down.
Instead in the game we saw 34…Ne4, which allowed Nepo to finish with a flourish: 35.Qxe4!
Esipenko resigned, since after 35…Rxe4 36.Rd8+ Qf8 37.Rxf8 Kxf8 38.Bxe4 White is simply a piece up.
That means that we have a final between the players who finished 1st and 2nd in the Prelims, and who know each other perhaps too well after their World Championship match: Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Is Nepo out for revenge?
I think the revenge for the World Championship match can be only satisfied in another World Championship match.
He has a point, but the 2-day clash on Friday and Saturday should still be enthralling. This time there are two 4-game matches, with tiebreaks only if the match score is level after the 2nd. What does that change? Magnus explained:
I think it’s very simple — it just means that you have to do well on two days rather than one, and I think in a lot of these matches I’ve got off to great starts and then maybe gotten a bit complacent. This time the format makes sure I cannot do that.
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