World Champion Magnus Carlsen will take on World Cup Winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the Charity Cup final after both players impressed in the semi-finals. Magnus defeated Ding Liren 3:1 in a hard-fought battle against the player he called, “clearly the best player who’s not in the Candidates at the moment”. Jan-Krzysztof Duda beat Liem Quang Le 2.5:1.5 in a match decided on a first game where Duda was on the ropes but eventually hit back to grab a crucial win.

You can replay all the knockout games from the Charity Cup, the 2nd event on the $1.6 million 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, using the selector below. 

Here’s the day’s live commentary from Peter Leko and Daniel King…

…and from David Howell, Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare.

The Charity Cup is raising money to support UNICEF helping children in and around Ukraine — DONATE HERE! 

No tiebreaks have yet been required on this year’s Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, with Magnus Carlsen and Jan-Krzysztof Duda both emerging victorious in four games.

Magnus Carlsen beats Ding Liren 3:1

“My best day so far,” was how Magnus Carlsen summed up his semi-final victory over Ding Liren. Magnus borrowed from the Richard Rapport playbook as he began 1.e3!? and it looked as though he would get off to a flying start when he won the opening battle. 

Ding Liren was forced to exchange queens into the kind of position you never want to have against Magnus, but the World Champion noted, “I should have won the first game, but he put up very good resistance”. On numerous occasions it looked as though Ding’s position might crumble.

Here he looked shocked and got down to just three seconds (Magnus had over two minutes), before finding the best move to stay in the game, 36…Ne5+!

There were inevitable inaccuracies from both sides (e.g. 45.Kb3! before 45.a4?! would have stopped Ding’s 45…Rb4!) and suddenly the position got double-edged, with 50.Kc3! by Magnus the only move that wasn’t losing. 

Now if the black rook was forced to retreat to b1 Magnus would be winning again, but in fact, as the g5-rook is also attacked, Ding could play 50…Rxa4, or the move he chose in the game, 50…Rxb5! 

Soon Magnus found himself a piece down, but he had the relatively easily drawn Rook vs. Rook + Knight endgame. Ding demonstrated his fighting spirit by playing on all the way until move 110. 

Magnus said of the next three games:

The rest of the games were just massive fights, but I didn’t feel in any of them that I was really being pressed a lot. I think we were just both kind of playing, trying to see what happens and they were generally fairly equal good fights, but fortunately I managed to strike first.

The second game, where Magnus had Black, was always tense, but was the game with the fewest clear incidents in the match. Then Game 3 would prove decisive, even though until the very end Ding was managing to walk a tightrope.

Time would be the deciding factor, however, with Magnus making full use of his extra five minutes on the clock.

It was obviously a draw earlier in that game, but I always had some hope considering how little time he had that I could somehow trick him, and I was conscious at least in that game of always keeping some time advantage at the very least, and it turned out to be decisive.

After 46.Qa7 the most obvious practical way to force a draw was 46…Qf3+! and Black can give up the g3-pawn to keep the white king in check. It turns out that 46…Kf6 or 46…Ke8 also draw, but not 46…Kg6?, as chosen by Ding. That allowed 47.Qe3! and it was game over. 

White is threatening to take on g3 with check, and there are multiple ways to force the queening of the c7-pawn — Black can’t exchange queens while that pawn is ready to win the game. 

The clash ended: 47…Kf7 48.Qxg3 Qe6 49.Qh3 Qg6+ 50.Kh1 Qf6 and Ding resigned without waiting for Magnus to queen his pawn. 

That meant that Ding had to win on demand with the white pieces in the final game and, up to a point, he got everything he could have wished for.

Castling queenside was a good decision by Magnus, however, and a sequence of very precise moves saw him not only defend but reach an endgame where he was the player with the objective winning chances. Magnus would probably have accepted a draw at any moment, but Ding kept on fighting until finally he blundered his knight and it was all over.

Magnus was in the final, but his respect for his opponent was obvious when he was asked if Ding Liren deserved a spot in the Candidates Tournament, the event that determines the next World Championship challenger. The question referred to the fact that now Sergey Karjakin is unable to play Ding has chances of getting a spot by rating, though only if he can somehow play 26 classical games in the next month or so, while also maintaining his current rating.

I think the whole question of “deserving” the spot is very, very difficult. I think he’s clearly the best player who’s not in the Candidates at the moment — except for me, maybe — but whether that means that he deserves it is a lot harder to say really. For instance, there are no chess reasons why Karjakin doesn’t deserve the spot. He qualified, but I understand that there are other reasons why he’s deemed not to deserve it.

I think that whole debate of deserved versus not deserved is very difficult, but I think to devise a system that makes it more likely that players like Ding are actually in the Candidates would be a good idea, since with the current system it’s really hard for anybody to qualify, which is in a way more equitable — it means that more players have the chance — but if you really want the best players to play for the World Championship then it’s definitely not ideal to have these spots from very, very narrow qualifying tournaments rather than something like rating, for instance, which measures performance over a longer time. So personally I would, of course, love to see him in the Candidates — he would certainly raise the level there. 

One player who is in the Candidates is Carlsen’s opponent in the final, Jan-Krzysztof Duda. 

Jan-Krzysztof Duda beats Liem Quang Le 2.5:1.5

Vietnamese no. 1 Liem Quang Le had been the player of the tournament so far, winning the Prelims in style and dominating against David Navara in the quarterfinals. He met his match against Jan-Krzysztof Duda, however, with the Polish no. 1 delighted to have reached his first ever Tour final.

It feels great! I’m very happy that I have managed to win today’s match because Le Quang is a very difficult opponent and he’s been in great form I think so far in this event. Also today, I just happened to win a not-so-great first game, and after that it was actually pretty difficult for him to come back, but I think he played very well, even in the last game.     

The first game ultimately decided the match, and Duda admitted his opening hadn’t gone to plan. He put the blame partly on his preparation for the Candidates Tournament, since he’d decided to hide his openings for that. He commented:

It also can be seen in some games, like today’s first game. Normally I wouldn’t play the Queen’s Gambit Declined. I have never played it before really with Black, but I just wanted to give it a go, a shot against Le.

It allowed Liem to build up the huge, stable advantage you can see above. Duda summed up:

In the first game I was clearly worse in the endgame, maybe it was even lost. I was just positionally much worse and without any direct counterplay, but then I somehow managed to break the pattern, to create some chances, some dynamics in the position, and then it got kind of crazy.

All it took were a few inaccuracies and Duda had broken through on the a-file and then, after 40.Rd1? (40.Be3!) was able to swing his rook over to the weakened white kingside with 40…Rh3!

Duda was better, but everything remained unclear until 51.Rh8? allowed 51…Nf4+!

Suddenly Black is winning, since Rh1+ will follow and win the b1-bishop, if the king goes onto the back rank. Le therefore blitzed out 52.Kd2, but that was met by 52…c3+! 53.Kc1 Rh1+ 54.Kc2 Bxe4+ and the bishop on b1 was finally lost anyway. 

Liem tried to play on a piece down, but it was a hopeless task. 

Duda said of the 2nd game, “I was also losing I think at one point, I just miscalculated, but I think we both just didn’t see a good way for Black”. 13.d5?! was objectively losing.

But after 13…Bxb2 14.Nxb2 cxd5 15.Bxd5 c3 16.Nc4 both players had missed the follow-up.

16…c2! 17.Qd2 (the queen has to defend the d5-bishop) and suddenly the Nc5 move played in the game would be winning. 

Instead after 16…Nc5?! 17.Bxe6 Nxe6 18.a4! Duda was able to hold on without too much difficulty. 

Game 3 was the last chance for Le to fight for the win he needed with the white pieces, and he again came close. Duda commented:

In the third game also it was very uncomfortable for me, but probably throughout the game I was ok. Even though it was very stressful because he had always this repetition or perpetual possible, and there was some very, very scary looking attack, I didn’t think there was anything particular for him, and probably there wasn’t.

It was only some very precise counterplay that held the balance for Duda. Here he went for 26…b4! 27.Rg3 bxa3!, and, with the a-pawn threatening to queen, Liem had to force a draw. 

In the final game Le needed to win with Black, which Duda felt was “a pretty hopeless situation for him”, but then noted his opponent “played very, very creatively and surely got some chances”. First, however, it all seemed to be going Duda’s way. 

Le found the best defence of 20…h5! 21.Nh6+ gxh6 22.fxe7 f5! here but objectively his position was still hopeless. Shortly afterwards, however, Duda got a shock:

At one moment I thought I was just winning by force and totally relaxed, and then I missed the 29…Rc6! move.

The computer recommends 30.Qe3!, not fearing 30…f4, but Duda instead went for 30.Qb7, when he admitted his original plan had been to fall into a “nice trick”! After 30…Rac8 he was intending 31.Rd2?, which, as he points out, would have lost to 31…Nh4+!! 32.gxh4 Rg6+, picking up the queen on b7.

Duda still had time to think, however, and said he “just stayed cool and managed not to lose” as he instead went for 31.Qa7! and, shortly afterwards, was able to force a draw by repetition. 

Duda commented, “I have struggled so much this last year that it’s very nice feeling actually to reach the final”, and he was also looking forward to the prospect of playing Magnus.

Magnus commented about their upcoming final:

Obviously there’s been some back and forth. He beat me in the World Cup and I’ve beaten him in a couple of matches in the Tour otherwise, but he seemed to hit form the last couple of days. I wasn’t as convinced by his play in the Preliminaries, but he’s a very strong player, of course, that is deserving of being here.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda knocked Magnus out in the World-Cup semi-finals by drawing both classical games and winning the second rapid game. Since then it’s mainly been Magnus, who won 2.5:0.5 on Day 1 of their Aimchess US Rapid quarterfinal. At the time Magnus famously noted that beating someone once isn’t what he considers revenge!

He scored the same 2.5:0.5 on Day 2 of their match and then also won 2.5:0.5 when they met in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals. 

In this year’s Airthings Masters, Magnus won a game in the Prelims in just 20 moves, but he was forced to settle for a 48-move draw in Round 1 of the Charity Cup Prelims. So there’s no doubting that Magnus is the favourite, but Duda has been one of the young players who’s inflicted the most pain on Carlsen. As well as the World Cup win, he also ended Magnus’ 125-game unbeaten streak in classical chess by winning their game in Norway Chess 2020. 

Don’t miss the final of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Charity Cup, live from 17:45 CET right here on chess24!

See also:

• Meltwater Champions Chess Tour home
• Charity Cup Prelims
• Magnus Carlsen triumphs in Airthings Masters
• Carlsen back to defend Meltwater Champions Chess Tour title
• Magnus Carlsen tops field for Charity Cup, a UNICEF fundraiser
• Carlsen-Duda as Charity Cup starts today
• Charity Cup 1: Ding beats Carlsen | Niemann and Le lead
• Charity Cup 2: Le leads, Carlsen and Duda follow
• Charity Cup 3: Carlsen gets Praggnanandhaa revenge
• Charity Cup 4: Le wins | Rapport, Pragg & Vidit miss out
• Charity Cup QF: It's Carlsen-Ding in the semis