The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals started on Monday in San Francisco with a win for the world champion. GM Magnus Carlsen toppled GM Wesley So, the latest winner of the Chess.com International Chess Championship, within the opening spherical.
The Finals, the final occasion on this yr’s Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, has the highest six gamers within the total standings within the tour—Carlsen, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, GM Praggnanandhaa R., GM Le Quang Liem, GM Anish Giri, and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov—plus GM Arjun Erigaisi and So. The latter is making his debut this season.
Carlsen, Giri, Praggnanandhaa, and So are enjoying from the San Francisco Ferry Constructing, whereas Duda, Erigaisi, Le, and Mamedyarov are enjoying from their properties. Visa points may need performed a task for among the gamers.
A stupendous day to play some chess! pic.twitter.com/2Y1g3Kve0h
— Meltwater Champions Chess Tour (@ChampChessTour) November 12, 2022
Particularly Erigaisi (beginning at 1:30 a.m.) and Mamedyarov (beginning at midnight) are considerably handicapped having to play approach after darkish of their particular time zones. Mamedyarov, who gave his post-match interview at 4 a.m. native time in Baku, mentioned he did not thoughts:
“We’re skilled chess gamers. In fact, it is OK to play at 4 or 5, or to get up and play chess instantly. It is completely regular, and for that reason I am completely comfortable to play on this event.”
The Azerbaijani GM had causes to smile after a 2.5-1.5 match win vs. Praggnanandhaa, which implies he obtained the total three factors. A win after a tiebreak yields simply two factors, with one going to the loser.
This is their decisive fourth recreation:
The large conflict of the primary day was clearly Carlsen vs. So, which began with two attracts. Curiously, within the second recreation the world champion as soon as once more performed the Pirc, a barely dangerous however preventing opening that he has tried fairly just a few occasions now in latest months.
The third was the one decisive recreation. Carlsen wasn’t shocked that his opponent performed the stable Berlin twice and felt he obtained a superb place in each of his white video games. “Apparently within the third recreation, there have been quite a few errors made, however I felt like virtually I used to be all the time doing effectively along with his weaker king,” he mentioned.
The world champion wasn’t certain about his type, calling it “not nice” and acknowledging quite a few mutual errors on the primary day: “To be trustworthy, the match as we speak was fairly weak for our requirements. I believed each of us may have executed higher.”
In a match between two gamers enjoying from their properties, Duda defeated Erigaisi. The Polish GM wanted simply three video games as he received each occasions as White. The final recreation was straightforward as Erigaisi suffered a gap catastrophe:
Giri and Le (who’s enjoying from his residence in Missouri) drew all 4 video games, so this was the one match that noticed a tiebreak. The Dutchman prevailed with 1.5-0.5, successful the primary blitz recreation.
This match additionally noticed an ongoing dialogue between the gamers within the Open Ruy Lopez:
“Yeah, I’m comfortable that I received as we speak,” mentioned Giri. “Particularly as a result of my final two matches in opposition to Le Quang, I believe I misplaced 2.5-0.5, each of them. I did not even final 4 video games, so I used to be comfortable as we speak.”
Day 1 standings
| # | Fed | Title | Rtg | Rating |
| 1-3 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2798 | 3 | |
| 1-3 | Magnus Carlsen | 2848 | 3 | |
| 1-3 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2756 | 3 | |
| 4 | Anish Giri | 2732 | 2 | |
| 5 | Le Quang Liem | 2775 | 1 | |
| 6-8 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2733 | 0 | |
| 6-8 | Wesley So | 2774 | 0 | |
| 6-8 | Praggnanandhaa R. | 2750 | 0 |
All video games day 1
The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals happen November 14-20, 2022 on chess24. The format is an eight-player round-robin; every spherical has four-game speedy matches, and the winner will get three factors. The time management is quarter-hour for every recreation plus a 10-second increment. A tiebreak follows instantly in case of a 2-2 tie and in that case, the winner will get two factors and the loser, one.
