Chess: Carlsen wins again as he qualifies for the $1.5m Saudi Esports World Cup

The Guardian

21-02-2025

Magnus Carlsen's dominance of online chess has continued this week as the world No 1 is in pole position for the concluding stages of the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the annual Champions Tour which the Norwegian has won every year since it was launched in 2020. For 2025, the tour is also a qualifier for the Esports World Cup at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July-August, where the chess prize fund will be $1.5m.
Carlsen began with a smooth 3-1 victory against Russia's Andrey Esipenko, then defeated China's Yu Yangyi by 2.5-0.5. He was leading 2-1 in his semi-final against India's world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, when they reached white king at f8, white rook at g7 and white pawn at g5 against black king at f5 and black bishop at c4. Now 1 g6 Kf6 2 Rc7! attacking the bishop and following up with 3 g7 wins, but Carlsen missed it, only drew with rook against bishop, allowed Erigaisi to equalise at 2-2, and was also ­losing their Armageddon tie-break game as Black before escaping with a draw by threefold repetition of position. A draw counts as a win for Black under Armageddon scoring rules.
On to the final against his old rival and current world No 2, Hikaru ­Nakamura, and Carlsen's endgame skills again wobbled. He won the first game and was well ahead in the second, until a shocking blunder at move 89 which allowed the American to reach the textbook draw of king against rook pawn and wrong coloured bishop, where the bishop does not control the pawn's queening square and the game is halved by stalemate.
Carlsen obviously knows the bishop and rook pawn rule, so how did this happen? The clue is in the time control, which for this online Champions Tour and for the Esports World Cup is 10 minutes per player per game, crucially without a per move increment.
This time control, designed to make the game more exciting for spectators, led to some chaotic scenes at last year's Global Chess League matches, where it was used for over-the-board games. Knocked over pieces, illegal clock pressing, and banging down moves were frequent until the arbiters belatedly stiffened their interpretation of the rules.
In the Nakamura v Carlsen online game, they were down to less than 20 seconds each before flagfall when Carlsen blundered by 89…Kxe4?? The most plausible explanation is that the oversight was a pre-move. It also follows that Nakamura's 90 g5!? which with a normal play would accelerate defeat, may have been a brilliant split second trap, accurately anticipating his opponent's thought process.
In the end, it made no difference, as Nakamura lost to Carlsen 0.5-2.5. A round earlier, the popular streamer had eliminated Alireza Firouzja 3-2 in Armageddon with a coup which the commentator called 'one of the nicest moves I've ever seen'.
Carlsen and Nakamura will meet again on Friday after the American qualified for a rematch. The best of four games series will start at 4pm GMT, and can be viewed live on chess.com or lichess.
England's over-50s and over-65s are both seeded No2 at Prague this week in the World Senior Team Championship, which has a record entry of over 100. England 65+ won their first four matches and shared the fourth round lead with the top seeds, Germany Lasker, who they meet in Friday's fifth round (2pm GMT start, all games live with computer assessments on lichess). The strong German team includes the former world title candidate Artur Yusupov, so this could be the gold medal match.
Not such good news for England 50+, who lost 1.5-2.5 to Italy in round four. Italy now share the lead with Kazakhstan on a maximum 4/4, with the two top seeds, England and the US, a point behind.
In England v Denmark 50+ the eight-time British champion Michael Adams outplayed the chess author Jacob Aagaard, gradually setting up the white king for a winning counter.
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The future for England's senior teams is uncertain beyond 2025, due to the withdrawal of the DCMS £500,000 grant for elite chess. This valuable government support had financed high class achievements in the past two years, notably in women's and junior chess, and had created hopes of emulating the 1980s, when England was the No 2 chess nation after the Soviet Union.
Manx Liberty, the Isle of Man-based team and 2023 champions, are strong favourites to regain the 4NCL British League title after their rivals, Wood Green, lost last weekend. Leaders after six of the 11 rounds are Manx 12/12, Wood Green 10, Cheddleton Savills Catering 9, Wood Green Youth 8.
A feature of Cheddleton's victory was a mature attacking win by Max Pert, 14, whose father, Richard, and sister Nina were also on the team, against Wood Green's IM James Jackson. A critical turning point was 17 h5? d4! which gave the Brentwood School pupil central control and allowed the later 22…Qd5! attacking a2 and f3, enabling the black queen to rampage among White's weak pawns. At the end after 41…d3 42 Rf2 Rh1+! forces mate.
After four of the nine rounds of the Wightlink International, which finishes at Ryde on Sunday, Spain's Marcos Camacho Collados led with 4/4, half a point ahead of a group which included England's Danny Gormally, Yang-Fan Zhou, 15-year-old Stanley Badacsonyi, and David Spence. Matthew Wadsworth won a 15-move miniature in round two.
3960: 1…Rxc4! 2 Rxc4 Nh3+ 3 Kh1 Nxf2+! 4 Rxf2 Qd1+ and mates. The 2025 British Rapidplay is still open to entry here.
Firouzja v Nakamura: 1...Qh4! and if 2 Qxh4 Bxf3 mate. The game ended 2 Kg2 Qxf4 and White resigned a bishop down.