Magnus Carlsen, Norway’s world No 1, edged into the last 16 at the $1.8m World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday with a 3.5-2.5 margin over Germany’s Vincent Keymer, 18, who scored a shock win in the opening game. Their tiebreak took four hours to resolve, as Keymer put up tough resistance, while Carlsen missed wins in three epic endgames.
The format of the 206-player knockout is brutal and unforgiving, as lower ranked grandmasters seized one of their few opportunities to upstage the elite who monopolise the richly rewarded invitation tournaments.
By the start of Wednesday’s round of 32, half of the top 20 seeds had already departed, while little known players from Hungary, Serbia, Italy and Spain enjoyed their moment in the sun. England’s No 1, David Howell, lost 1.5-2.5 to Wang Hao of China in a tight match decided by a mistaken queen trade in a drawn position.
Carlsen, who has never won the World Cup, cruised through his first two mini-matches. The rising German star was a far harder test, but for a long time Carlsen was in control. He was ready for Keymer’s prepared opening, and the game was heading for a draw until the Norwegian suddenly blundered a key pawn.
The effect was catastrophic, as Carlsen’s slumped body language showed. Keymer kept his nerve, scored a historic victory, and said: “It was an equal game, but then I got a chance and used it.” He had never previously beaten Carlsen, even in online bullet.
Their return game on Thursday was a must-win for Carlsen, who got little out of the Ruy Lopez as White and seemed destined for a shock elimination. Then Keymer missed the hidden tactical coup 17…Nxe4! and Carlsen took over. His new Chessable playbook (co-authored with Howell) is titled Grind like a Grandmaster and that is what happened as he slowly, subtly and imperceptibly increased a minute endgame advantage for a win in 62 moves.
Carlsen was frank in his post-game interview: “Progressing in the World Cup is one thing … but honestly, since day one I was wondering what am I doing here, why am I spending all this time playing classical chess which I just find stressful and boring. But it’s also not a good state of mind. First of all, you should try to do well. But these were my thoughts. If I lose, that’s gonna be another humiliation in the World Cup.”
With their mini-match score at 1-1. Carlsen and Keymer faced a speed tiebreak starting at accelerating time limits: two games at 25 minutes plus a 10 second per move increment, then if still level two games at 10+10, then two games at 5+3, and finally single games at 3+2 until there was a winner. Keymer finally cracked in the second 5+3 game as Carlsen, the reigning world blitz champion, patiently converted two extra pawns in a queen ending.
Ten of the 16 fourth-round matches went to Friday tiebreaks. The upset of the round was the 3-1 victory of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, against the No 2 seed, Hikaru Nakamura, who had no answer to the young Indian’s impressive skills.
Fabiano Caruana, the No 3 seed, went through 2-0 to the last 16, but Wesley So, the world No 10, was eliminated by the European champion, Alexey Sarana.
In the £700,000 Women’s World Cup the No 2 seed, Aleksandra Goryachkina, is through to the quarter-finals, but the world champion, Ju Wenjun, was knocked out 3-1 by Elizabeth Pähtz of Germany.
The World Cup continues with the round of 16 on Saturday, starting at midday. The action can be followed, free and live, on chess24.com. The running commentary by grandmasters Daniel Naroditsky and Peter Leko is articulate, informative and aimed at strong players. Anyone rated 1800 or above should be able to benefit substantially from it.
Aleksandar Matanovic, the world’s oldest grandmaster, died in Belgrade on 9 August at age 93. Matanovic was the No 2 player for the former Yugoslavia after Svetozar Gligoric, and won one gold and seven silver Olympiad medals in the era when the former USSR dominated chess. He was the longtime editor of Chess Informant, founded in 1966 and the major source of information for international players i n the decades before databases, and he also edited the five-volume Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. This game was Mikhail Tal’s only defeat during his victory at the 1958 interzonal in Portoroz.
3880: 1 Ke1! f3 2 Rf2! fxe2 3 Rf4! Kxb5 4 Na7 mate.
