Gukesh makes a grand debut at GCT
"I'm completely spent. I had no energy to play today. Yesterday was such a great day. I felt today that I didn't have much to give, so I was really just trying to get over the finish line. But I am really happy that I did and it always feels great to win" - Magnus Carlsen on winning his second consecutive Grand Chess Tour event of the season. "I thought that if I had like a normal to good event, it would be tough. I think Alireza scored about as expected. I think he made 13/18 points (in Blitz) if I am not mistaken which is really good (+12). Also, Ian and Fabi performed fairly normally. I had my best Blitz result ever in the Grand Chess Tour. That's obviously why it was not close." - Carlsen on his statement of his opponents needing to have a great tournament to stop him from winning this event, after the Rapid portion concluded.
"...I love playing chess... There are tournaments that I can still sort of win but to be honest, that achievement feels sweeter than almost any tournament win. It's something I have never done before..." - Carlsen on his 9/9 in Blitz and a streak of 11/11, counting the last two Rapid wins before that.
Rapport - Gukesh, Round 10
The above position is equal. Black's only breakthrough is b5. Gukesh (2629) could have easily taken a draw by not doing much in the above endgame. However, he went for the break, arrived at a lost position and eventually went on to win the game. After all, it's blitz, he is not going to waste his opportunity of beating Richard Rapport (ROU, 2761) twice in two consecutive days. The teenager lost their last two rapid encounters at the recently concluded Tech Mahindra GCL last month.
twitter.com/i/status/1678027312623767559
Fun fact: The last time the maestro Vishy Anand defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi at a rated game was at the exact same event almost a year ago.
twitter.com/i/status/1678082782977748994
Magnus Carlsen tweeted on his performance
twitter.com/i/status/1678136085455462405
Gukesh tweeted on his GCT debut
twitter.com/i/status/1678100656261935110
Replay Blitz Round 10-18 games
Blitz Round 18 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||||
| 1 | 10 | 2858 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 1 - 0 | GM | Lupulescu, Constantin | 2576 | 5 | PGN | ||
| 2 | 4 | 2896 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | 1 - 0 | GM | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | 2783 | 6 | PGN | ||
| 3 | 3 | 2733 | GM | Anand, Viswanathan | ½ - ½ | GM | Saric, Ivan | 2576 | 7 | PGN | ||
| 4 | 2 | 2626 | GM | Gukesh, D | ½ - ½ | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2781 | 8 | PGN | ||
| 5 | 1 | 2832 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | 0 - 1 | GM | Rapport, Richard | 2707 | 9 | PGN |
Final standings after Blitz Round 18
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000 with the first prize being US$ 40000.
