GM Magnus Carlsen clinched the New in Chess Classic tournament after scoring 2-2 against GM Hikaru Nakamura on day two of the finals. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov bagged third place after winning two games against GM Levon Aronian.
Carlsen-Nakamura 2-2
Nakamura displayed better preparation in the first game and got an early edge. He built his advantage, coordinated all his forces, and was clearly better. At one point, he stumbled and gave a big tactical chance to Carlsen. Give it a try:
The aesthetic shot was difficult to spot and Nakamura clinched the first game:
Speaking of the turning point in the match, Carlsen referred to when he felt he was worse after playing 20.Qd2 in the second game. Nakamura repeated in a better position and missed his chance to level the score:
In the third game, Carlsen refrained from Nimzo-Indian and chose 1...d5. He was never in danger and slowly outplayed Nakamura in an instructive way:
Facing a must-win situation, Nakamura chose 2...g6 against the Alapin. Carlsen conducted the game in a principled way. He kept a firm check on possible advances by his opponent on the kingside and surged with b2-b4 on the queenside.
In the final position, Carlsen was a pawn up, but a draw was enough for him to win the event. So, he accepted the draw offer on the 43rd move:
"I'm really relieved. I am just so happy to have won one of these tournaments, and it feels really good. I was a little luckier this time. I feel like my play was probably better last time, but I had necessary luck this time," said Carlsen after winning the tournament.
Aronian-Mamedyarov 0.5-2.5
Mamedyarov continued his fine run with the black pieces by winning both the games in the Ruy Lopez. In the first game, the exchange of bishops on e6 gave him a free hand on the kingside. He had no problems converting the advantage into a full point:
Considering the results of day one, Mamedyarov expressed that he wanted to break the chain of losses with the white side. In the second game, he played a well-known draw in the Ragozin:
In the third game, Aronian deviated with 12.Re1 but immediately gave up a pawn on the next move after Ba2. After 13...bxa4, Mamedyarov kept piling up a lot of pressure consistently on the b-file. This proved enough to win the game and the match:
Speaking of his favorite time control, Mamedyarov shared that he prefers playing 15-minute rapid games compared to 25-minute.
"This is a fantastic result for me. I played more than 70 rapid games in this tournament, and that's quite big," said Mamedyarov after winning the match for third place.
All Games Finals Day 2
The New in Chess Classic ran April 24-May 2 on chess24. The preliminary phase was a 16-player rapid (15|10) round-robin. The top eight players advanced to a six-day knockout that consisted of two days of four-game rapid matches, which advanced to blitz (5|3) and armageddon (White had five minutes, Black four with no increment) tiebreaks only if a knockout match was tied after the second day. The prize fund was $100,000 with $30,000 for first place.
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