16-year-old Praggnanandhaa is the sole leader of the Oslo Esports Cup after winning with a game to spare for a second day in a row, this time against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Magnus Carlsen mouse-slipped away his queen in the first game against Liem Le, and though he bounced back in style in Game 3 his pushing for a win with Black in Game 4 backfired. There were first wins for Jorden van Foreest, who beat Eric Hansen with "the novelty of the year", and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who powered to a 2:0 victory in blitz after drawing all four rapid games against Anish Giri.
Praggnanandhaa beat Mamedyarov in Shakh's own trademark attacking style
You can replay all the games from the Oslo Esports Cup using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev (with a Pre-Show featuring Sagar Shah, Laurent Fressinet and Lawrence Trent)…
…and from David Howell, Jovanka Houska, Kaja Snare and Simon Williams.
Day 2 of the Oslo Esports Cup saw the first tiebreaks, with Giri-Duda settled only in blitz chess.
Magnus Carlsen had a long, tough day on Saturday, since he began by playing four rapid games in a Norway-Ukraine friendly match. He beat Vasyl Ivanchuk (on time) and Alexander Moiseenko, but then lost the last two games to Yuriy Kuzubov and Kirill Shevchenko.
It would then become three losses in a row, when he lost the first game to Liem Le in the Oslo Esports Cup. It was no ordinary loss, however, since when he spoilt a good position it should only have meant a draw.
Magnus suddenly had no option but to force a draw with 39.Qd4 Qxc3 40.Qe4+ and the white queen gives perpetual check to the black king from e4 and e8.
Magnus was clearly disgusted that things had come to that, but it was nothing compared to how he felt when he accidentally played 39.Qe4+?? instead, and after 39…Qxe4 he could only resign.
Liem, who said at the time “I wouldn’t dream about winning that position”, felt the need to apologise afterwards.
I’m sorry for Magnus for his gifting me a big win in the first game, and perhaps it didn’t have to be like that, but ok, mouse-slips happen in online chess and it’s a part of the game. Yesterday I also had a mouse-slip in the game I lost to Mamedyarov.
Game 2 saw Magnus follow the old Soviet Chess School advice of consolidating after a run of losses with a solid draw. Liem said afterwards, “The next game definitely will be critical — if I can hold then I have very good chances,” but instead Magnus hit back with a vintage performance. He played the Catalan and sacrificed pawns with abandon to Liem on the queenside while building up a crushing attack on the kingside.
33.d5! was a final decisive pawn sacrifice, and after 33…exd5 Magnus ended the game with 34.Rh1!
It’s mate-in-3, with Qh8+ Bxh8 Rxh8# the most aesthetically pleasing finish.
Magnus was therefore level again and, in normal circumstances, would be a clear favourite, despite having Black in the 4th rapid game. Circumstances weren’t quite normal, however, since the World Champion was obviously under the weather, as you could see afterwards. He summed up, before a coughing fit curtailed his final interview:
It’s been a struggle. The last game I didn’t really want to play a tiebreak, so I tried to play very complicated, but he navigated it better than me, so that’s ok.
Liem was taken by surprise when Magnus played the Benoni.
Kudos to Magnus, who really tried to complicate the game and play as if he was in a must-win situation. I think that was not really necessary of him, but ok, he got a very interesting position and I managed to calculate some nice tactics in this game.
The opening didn’t look convincing, but briefly Magnus could have taken over.
16…Ne5! (or 16…c4!?) could have exploited Liem’s last move, that removed support for an f4-advance, but Magnus continued with the previously planned but less critical 16…f6!?.
Again and again, it seemed that Magnus was working on instincts and intuition rather than calculation, and though the approach put Liem under pressure on the clock, it meant Magnus also missed a number of chances to get a decent game.
A critical moment came on move 34.
34…Kh8! would have been a much better square for the king, but Magnus took just 4 seconds of his remaining 7 minutes to play 34…Kg7?! The problem with that move was that soon the threat of a rook coming to c7 with check was a major factor in the position.
Magnus spotted his mistake, but when he “corrected it” with 37…Kh8? a few moves later, that turned out to be the losing mistake. Liem was ruthless as he wrapped up victory.
Liem was understandably thrilled.
It means a lot to me. I believe this is the first time I really beat him in a game, and also in a match, and I think not too many people can manage to beat Magnus in a match… It gives me a lot of joy and fun and motivation to try to do better in the rest of the tournament.
The big beneficiary of Magnus Carlsen’s stumble was 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa, who our Pre-Show team of Tania Sachdev, Sagar Shar, Lawrence Trent and Laurent Fressinet had expected to struggle against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Pragg did struggle, but only up to a certain point in the first game. Once again, as with Jorden the day before, Pragg was hit by an early novelty!
Once again Pragg was offered a pawn with check, and once again, this time after thinking for over 5 minutes, he rejected the pawn, with 17.f4!? Shakh lost no time to play 17…b4 and was soon dominating on the queenside. Pragg tried to hit back on the kingside, but things might have gone very differently after 22.h4.
Shakh would later lament:
First game I missed a winning chance. It was an absolutely winning position for me, and I just missed and I lost, and for this reason everything is finished in the first game.
22…Rxh4! looks to be strong for Black, but things turned around fast, with 22…Nxg4?! 23.hxg5 Kg7 24.g6!
Pragg agreed it was all about the first game.
I think the first game was very crucial, I was having a bad position at some point, but then I got this g6. I think the position was already very dangerous for him. In a rapid game it’s very hard to defend after that.
24…Ncxe3 (24…Ngxe3!) already left Pragg on top, while after 25.gxf7 Nxg2? (25…b3! is the computer’s amazing defence) 26.Rhg1! Rh2 Pragg was crashing through.
27.Bf4! was brutal, with 27…Nxf4 28.Rxg4+ Ng6 29.Ne5! leaving Black absolutely busted. The end was worth witnessing, however, for the beautiful final touch 32.Rg2!
32…Rxg2 33.Qh3+ and checkmate would be just around the corner. “It was a crazy game and I’m just happy to win!” said Pragg.
Praggnanandhaa then comfortably held a draw in the second game, before again wrapping things up with a game to spare with a powerful performance in Game 3. It was the kind of game Magnus Carlsen would have been proud of, with Pragg dominating positionally until Shakh had nothing better than to resign, despite almost no sharp attacking moves needing to be played.
In the final position the f7-pawn can’t be defended. That meant Praggnanandhaa is the only player to have scored 6/6, and earned a maximum $15,000, after two rounds of the event. He’s keeping his feet firmly on the ground, but it’s been good also to see his confidence in front of the camera grow.
I didn’t expect to win like this today and I’m just happy about it and it just gives me confidence. I think the last game I outplayed him, so it definitely feels good.
“I guess Pragg is just a little too good for all of us!” said Jorden van Foreest, but after losing to Praggnanandhaa in Round 1 he bounced back to defeat Eric Hansen in Round 2. Initially everything went Jorden’s way in Game 1.
White couldn’t keep the files closed in front of his king, but in the play that followed Eric managed to get right back into the game. Jorden needed to win it all over again, but to his credit that’s just what he did.
Then in Game 2, when Jorden van Foreest played 12.Kd2!?, Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev were at first convinced it was a mouse-slip!
Then, as the king quickly ran to b1, Peter wondered if it was the “novelty of the year”! Soon Jorden’s second in Oslo, Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, revealed it was all planned in advance.
In fact the idea was something of an open secret.
Jorden himself explained after the day was over:
Since I won the first game I figured Eric might not play his usual repertoire and he would go for something a bit more crazy, so he went for the Sicilian, and I kind of knew, because I’m a big fan of his stream, that he usually plays this line, and actually this Kd2 move, I wouldn’t say it’s very famous, but it’s kind of typical in these positions. I’ve seen it more often, and I don’t think it’s the best move in this position here, but it’s just very aesthetically pleasing to play this move, so I couldn’t really refrain from playing it… It’s such a pretty move to play — it looks like a mouse-slip basically!
“I think it worked out pretty well”, said Jorden, which was something of an understatement, even if he made hard work of the final stages.
With a 2:0 scoreline the match looked over, especially as it was Jorden, who needed only a draw, who was pushing for a win with the black pieces in Game 3, but 24…Kb8? instead of 24…Kd7! was a blunder that was punished with 25.Nxc6+!
After 25…bxc6 26.Qe5+ Kb7 27.Rxg3 it was just a mopping up operation. Suddenly Eric had reason to hope. He summed up how the final game went:
Psychologically in this most recent game I had a nice position, because he’s just trying to get a draw to win the match, so I’m trying to play for a win and I got a good position… I’m just not playing good moves. I didn’t deserve to win.
40…h4? was the final mistake.
Jorden pounced with 41.g4! Bg6 42.Rxe6+ and was completely winning, though he settled for a draw that meant he clinched match victory.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda summed up his victory over Anish Giri:
It’s been a very tough day, a long one, for sure. I’m just happy to play reasonably well, maybe a little bit too solid, for my taste, but I didn’t commit too many errors, I think and I’m also happy with my blitz game with the white pieces. I think it was very nice.
If felt like perhaps he’d forgotten the first two rapid games, since Anish had been much better in the first and at times completely winning in the second. Jan-Krzysztof is one of the most resourceful players around, however, as shown, for instance, by his 30…Rfc8!
Giri couldn’t pick up an exchange because of the threat of checkmate on c1, though it has to be said that Anish still got more chances in that game before it ended in a draw. Then the 3rd and 4th rapid games really were much quieter.
That meant we got the first tiebreak of the Oslo Esports Cup, with the action switching to 5+3 blitz. Suddenly Duda was in his element, getting an attacking position that almost seemed to play itself — though he noted afterwards one moment where he wasn’t sure how to respond to 28…g5 instead of Giri’s 28…Qf6.
I was a little bit low on time. I couldn’t figure out what to do after g5 at some point and didn’t realise the Qd1 tactics, which were very important actually to see beforehand.
29.Qd1! and suddenly you can’t stop checkmate, since Rxf7 or gxf4 both run into Qh5#
That meant Giri then had to win on demand with the white pieces to force Armageddon, which made 15.Qe5?! puzzling.
When Anish then missed a chance to get his knight to c6 it looked all over, though Jan-Krzysztof was surprised the game dragged on and admitted “it got a little bit crazy at some point” before he was finally able to wrap things up in style by delivering checkmate.
Duda even managed to grab some dinner…
It was a tough end to the day for Giri, but for losing in tiebreaks he still earned 1 point (Duda got 2), which was enough to put him in clear 2nd place.
“I play Magnus tomorrow? That’s great,” said Anish, when informed that he’d be playing Magnus Carlsen in Sunday’s Round 3.
Praggnanandhaa taking on Carlsen’s conqueror Le will be another big match-up, while we’ve also got Van Foreest-Duda and Hansen-Mamedyarov.
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