The Week in Chess

Fabiano Caruana joined Magnus Carlsen in the lead of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational hosted by Chess24. Both matches on the second day of round 2 finished 2-2 and went to Armageddon tie-breaks where the winner scored 2 points and the loser 1.

Caruana beat Ding Liren after coming from behind to win the final fourth rapid game and then surviving an initially awkward position in the Armageddon game when he dropped a pawn. The first game of their match was a very wild game where Ding as white sacrificed a whole rook for a lot of compensation, this eventually burned out to a draw. Game two saw a very nice drawing idea played by Ding where he had to see he held an endgame a queen down a long way off. In game three Caruana was doing fine as black but made a miscalculation that lost his queen for insufficient compensation. Ding looked to be very comfortable in game four at one stage in seeking the draw he needed but 49...Rc3+? was simply losing whilst the alternative 49...Rf6! would have left him much better.

Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Maxime Vachier Lagrave with black in an Armageddon tie-break where MVL didn't seem to know some rather basic French Defence theory as white and so allowed black at least equality straight away, MVL then dropped material a couple of moves later to end the game. Earlier Nepomniachtchi lost with white in game one where there was an incredibly sharp English Opening where he sacrificed a piece for huge compensation. Nepomniachtchi had to continue to be accurate but already after 20.Rab1 white wasn't better anymore (20.Re6! or 20.Rac1 were better) and after 21.Rb3 (21.Re5!) MVL was better and went on to win handily. Game 2 was a hugely complicated struggle where the computers said MVL had a winning position at some stages but the game eventually blew out to a draw. Game 3 was another complicated game where Nepomniachtchi was winning after 51.Bd4+ but needed to find 53.h4+ as well and didn't so the game was drawn. MVL tried to shut things down with a draw with white in the final game but ended up worse and was ground down in 75 moves.

Scores after Round 2: Carlsen, Caruana 5 points, MLV, Nakamura, Ding 4pts, Nepomniachtchi 2pts, Firouzja, Giri 0pts.

Round 3 Day 1 Pairings 22nd April 2020 3pm BST: Carlsen-Caruana, Firouzja-Nakamura.

Round 3 Day 2 Pairings 23rd April 2020 3pm BST: MVL-Ding, Giri-Nepomniachtchi.