“Today could have gone either way” admitted World Champion Magnus Carlsen after he lost the first game of the day and only finally overcame 19-year-old Jeffery Xiong in the last clutch game. The final score was a flattering 11.5:6.5 to Magnus while Wesley So’s 13:5 score against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave looks overwhelming, but it was only the Frenchman’s collapse in a good position in the first clutch game that decided the match.

Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So advanced to the semifinals

You can replay all the games from the Clutch Chess International using the selector below:

And here’s the day’s live commentary from Yasser Seirawan, Jennifer Shahade and Maurice Ashley:

Magnus Carlsen 11.5:6.5 Jeffery Xiong

Jeffery Xiong went into the final day of his match against Magnus Carlsen trailing by a point, but within a single game he’d levelled the scores. It felt as though Magnus got burned by his own attempts to complicate matters against his young opponent, even if initially he was remaining within the bounds of acceptable risk:

31…c4! would have solidified Black’s position, with one tactical point being that 32.Bh4 can be met by 32…Ra8! and 33.Bxe7? actually loses to 33…Ra2!, threatening mate on g2. The white queen is trapped on the wrong side of the board and it's no longer possible to defend the white king.

Instead 31…Ra8 immediately allowed 32.bxc5! Ra5 33.Qb4 and suddenly 33…Raxc5? was a losing move by the World Champion, with no defence left after 34.Rxc5 bxc5 35.Qb7! Magnus briefly tried to play on a piece down but soon admitted defeat - a dramatic start to the day!

It could have gone from bad to worse for Magnus as he found himself in trouble with White in the next game, though he also missed a win in a tricky ending before playing on to move 104 trying to win a Rook vs. Knight ending. That was a 5th game in a row without a win for the World Champion after his three wins in a row at the start of the match, and he later commented:

In the first 2.5 games I was suffering quite a bit, so it was definitely not easy at all and it was a bit frustrating to go so many games without either winning or playing particularly well.

Both players felt things turned on the 3rd game, where Magnus went for a standard Sicilian exchange sacrifice on c3:

For most of the game it was an open question whether Black got sufficient compensation, but Magnus still had six minutes on his clock when Jeffery sank under a minute, and that time trouble would prove Jeffery’s undoing. The World Champion stabilised and then forced a drawish ending where only he could play for a win. 42.Kd4?! invited 42…Rf4+

Pawn endings are all about calculation, and with any time to calculate Jeffery would surely have rejected 43.Re4? Rxe4+ 44.Kxe4 Kf6 45.Kf4 c5 46.c3 g5+! 47.hxg5+ Kg6

The white king has to move away and after the black king captures on g5 Black has a very easy win. Magnus was back in the lead.

That lead was only a point, but psychologically it was much more important than that, with Jeffery admitting:

There were many ups and downs in this match. I have to say that Game 3 today was probably the critical one, where I had a very promising position but I just burnt all my time for no good reason. After that I don’t think I mentally adjusted, because I lost without a fight in this next game and then the match was more or less over… I understood from Day 1 that I needed to manage my time better but in this game I clearly didn’t do that so that was definitely a costly moment for me.

If Magnus sensed his young opponent had been knocked off balance he helped push him over the edge with an extraordinary move or two in the next game:

Magnus then launched his h-pawn up the board and if 14…e5? was meant to remind White that his king was still stranded in the middle of the board it failed miserably, since after 15.Nxd5! computers tell us White is simply winning:

White was soon able to castle queenside before launching a mating attack that saw Jeffery throw in the towel in 25 moves:

Still, the two-point lead that Magnus now had going into the clutch games only gave him “draw odds”, since a single win for Jeffery would be enough to win the match. The youngster later commented:

I think the match format helped me in a way that the match could never really be over, so there was always still a little bit of pressure on Magnus to be able to perform well in these games.

Magnus didn’t look like a man under pressure in the clutch games, however. In the first, with the black pieces, he repeated the same 23 moves he’d played against Alexey Sarana on the Isle of Man last year. Jeffery deviated, but although the game went on to move 73 Magnus never looked in danger.

That meant all he now needed was to draw with the white pieces in the final game to clinch the match and, after first getting a rock solid position, he exceeded requirements with a final flourish. 27…Bc4 was a mistake by Jeffery, but the refutation was beautiful:

28.Bxc4! Rxd4 29.a5! (29.Ba5 Nxc4 30.Bc3! Re4 31.f3! is also neat) 29…Rxc4 30.axb6!

After 30…Rxc5 31.Rxa7+ Rxa7 32.bxa7 the point is that the d2-bishop is covering the a5-square, so the rook can’t stop the a-pawn.

So it was Magnus who had made it into the semi-final with a 11.5:6.5 scoreline (that clutch game was worth 3 points for a win), but Jeffery had only enhanced his reputation. 

Magnus commented:

In general after such a tough start I think he did amazing to make it a serious match.

The other match had an even more crushing scoreline:

Wesley So 13:5 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Once again, however, the score was far from telling the whole story. “I could feel the heat,” said Wesley, and after two combative draws to start the day he lost to Maxime in Game 3, with the French no. 1 suddenly finding a way to win what seemed sure to be a drawn endgame. 62.f6! was a nice final move:

After 62…Rxf6 63.Rd7! picks up the black pawn and wins, while 62...gxf6 63.Kg6 is also an easy win for White.

Maxime was then just a move away from winning the 4th and final normal game, but though he spoilt that it didn’t bother him, since he realised it didn’t matter – trailing by 2 points or 1 point going into the 3-point clutch games made no difference whatsoever. All he needed was to win one of the games and he would win the match.

That looked a possibility as he gained a good position out of the opening, but then things began to fall apart:

Maxime put the blame on 18.dxe5!?, “suddenly wasting my position”, though he also noted that after 18…dxe5 19.g3! Rd8 computers give 20.Qb1! and White is much better. Instead after 19.Bb6!? Maxime began to lose the plot, with 22.Bd8?! winning points only for aesthetics:

After 22…Bxf5! 23.exf5 Bd6! Black was much better, with Maxime commenting, “I started to blunder everything”. Soon Wesley had an overwhelming position, but that didn’t mean there was no time for some late drama after 51.Rcc1:

Wesley explained he was wondering whether to push his b or c-pawn and, “the funny part was I was wondering why he didn’t resign”. He opted for 51…b2?, completely missing 52.Rxb2:

“For a second there I thought I was even worse, so I thought I completely messed it up,” said Wesley, and no-one watching the match live could be in any doubt about how upset he was:

It turned out, however, that 52…Ra1! was still winning, with the black pawn simply too strong after 53.Rxa1 cxb2. In the game Maxime played 53.Rbc2, but it made no difference as Wesley went on to win in a few more moves.

The match was over, and though there was still money at stake in the last game Maxime had seen enough: “Then Game 6 I already just couldn’t play chess any more after this”. He lasted only 15 moves:

Magnus will now play the winner of Aronian vs. Grischuk. Who does he expect to face?

To be fair I think they’re pretty equally strong at this point. I thought their match yesterday was extremely fascinating to follow and I’ll be watching with a keen eye tomorrow as well, but whoever I’m facing obviously I’m optimistic!

Wesley takes on Caruana or Dominguez, with the winners to be determined on Tuesday. Tune in for all the action from 20:00 CEST.

See also:

• Official website
• All the Clutch Chess International games with computer analysis here on chess24
• Carlsen tops Clutch Chess International field
• Clutch Chess Day 1: Xiong hits back against Carlsen
• Clutch Chess Day 2: Levon takes late-night lead