GM Magnus Carlsen gained his fifth match in a row on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals however misplaced his good rating as GM Le Quang Liem went down solely within the armageddon recreation of their tiebreak. The Vietnamese GM thus took one match level away from the world champion, who can nonetheless clinch match victory with a win on Saturday with a spherical to spare.
Le put up an important combat and managed to beat Carlsen twice in sooner or later: within the second fast recreation and within the second blitz recreation of the tiebreak on demand. That alone deserves applause. Was he going to tug off one other match victory, as he did again in April on the Oslo Esports Cup?
Here is that on-demand blitz win:
This meant that we bought to see the primary armageddon recreation of the match. Carlsen bought the white items for what was now a must-win for him. He performed with 5 minutes on the clock, whereas Le bought 4 minutes with draw odds.
“The blitz was actually poor,” mentioned Carlsen, “however I felt within the armageddon recreation, I’m not so positive about his alternative of opening as a result of I really feel like usually it is simpler to have the minor items there than blitz.”
On the match as a complete, he mentioned: “It was clearly loads harder than a few of the different matches. It was a mixture of him enjoying a superb match and me probably not not discovering my rhythm after the primary recreation so I’ve bought to do higher within the final two matches.”

The hole within the standings with runner-up Duda elevated by yet one more level because the Polish GM misplaced his second match in a row but in addition within the tiebreak, so he bought one level. After a match that noticed six straight wins for the white items, it was Pragg who held the armageddon recreation to a draw as Black.
We take a look at the fourth fast recreation, a must-win for Pragg:

Profitable his third match in a row with out a tiebreak, So has now collected 9 factors and has jumped to 3rd place within the standings. He defeated a struggling GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in all three video games and within the first, in Karpovian type:
GM Arjun Erigaisi, nonetheless, appears to have absolutely adjusted to enjoying after midnight. He gained his second match in a row, towards an additionally struggling GM Anish Giri. Two wins, adopted by a draw, have been sufficient for a fast match victory.
Here is the primary recreation, which set the tone of the match:
Day 5 Standings
# | Fed | Title | Rtg | Rating |
1 | Magnus Carlsen | 2848 | 14/15 | |
2 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2798 | 10/15 | |
3 | Wesley So | 2774 | 9/15 | |
4 | Le Quang Liem | 2775 | 8/15 | |
5-6 | Praggnanandhaa R. | 2750 | 6/15 | |
5-6 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2733 | 6/15 | |
7 | Anish Giri | 2732 | 4/15 | |
8 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2756 | 3/15 |
All video games day 5
Lesson on how to not watch a @warriors match in US by @rpragchess pic.twitter.com/X6SFBohx56
— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) November 19, 2022
Some gamers went to the Chase Middle at evening to see (or not see!) the Golden State Warriors beat the New York Knicks 111-101.
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 fast 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.
Earlier protection: