Gukesh beats Mamedov, next match against So
D Gukesh bounced back from his previous day loss. He started with a victory over Rauf Mamedov. Then, he lost the second game. The teenager won the must-win Armageddon with white pieces to advance to the Losers Quarterfinal where he will face Wesley So. Raunak Sadhwani and Diptayan Ghosh lost to Daniil Dubov and Vladimir Kramnik by 0.5-1.5 each respectively in the Losers Round 1 to get eliminated from the tournament. R Praggnanandhaa defeated Pranav Venkatesh and Aleksandr Lendermann in the Winners Quarterfinals and Semifinals stage to advance to the Winners Final in Division 3 where he will face Sam Sevian.
Semifinals: Carlsen - Arjun: 2.5-2.5
Magnus Carlsen simply outplayed Arjun Erigaisi positionally in the first game. The second one ended in a draw. In a must-score third game, Arjun Erigaisi managed to beat the world no.1.
Carlsen - Arjun, Game 3
Putting the rook on d-file 34.Rd1 was a mistake. 34.Nh4 and Rh1 both were fine for White. 34...Qe4! 35.Qxg5+ Rg7 36.Qh5 Ne6 threatening Nf4+ 37.Kg1 Rh7 38.Qe8 Qxf3 Black needed to defend his own knight via Rh6 before taking at f3. 39.Qxe6+ Kh8 40.Qe5+ Kg8 41.Qe6+ Rf7 42.Qg6+ Bg7 and now White blundered again 43.Rd2. Instead, White could have taken the d3-pawn even though it looks dangerous. 43.Qxd3 Qxf2+ 44.Kh1 Rf6 and there are some interesting lines where White plays sharply to save the game. 43...Qe4 threatening Qe1+ forced White to trade the queens 44.Qxe4 dxe4 and it's over for White. Arjun leveled the score 1.5-1.5.
The fourth game ended in a draw which means the score was still tied 2-2. Thus, Armageddon was enforced. Same thing happened with So - Nakamura's Semifinal too where they drew all four Rapid games. Checkout how each player made their bid for Armageddon.
twitter.com/i/status/1623065148058398744
Carlsen missed a win and eventually drew the Armageddon which means he advanced to the 'Winners' Final where Nakamura also advanced in the exact same way. Arjun Erigaisi will have to play Alexey Sarana in the 'Loser' Quarterfinals. D Gukesh who defeated Rauf Mamedov in a must-win Armageddon, will face Wesley So in the same stage.
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Replay Division 1 Winners Semifinal and Losers Round 1 games
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Results of Divisions 2 and 3
All games will start from 9:30 p.m. IST between 6th and 10th February 2022.
