U.S. star Fabiano Caruana took advantage of fan favourite Hikaru Nakamura’s huge blunder to power into the Chessable Masters Grand Final.
The former world title challenger started Wednesday’s Winners Bracket final with a spectacular win over his fellow countryman. He then saw Nakamura overlook a one-move checkmate threat to allow 50.Rf8# in game 3.
It was a rare moment in top level chess and game over for Nakamura who now drops to the Losers Bracket. Before the blunder, Nakamura – with one game left to get back in the match – had turned down the chance of a draw by repetition. Instead he took the valiant risk of carrying on to go for the win.
Replay the action from Day 3
But it didn’t work out and the match ended abruptly and in bizarre fashion.
Caruana said it was: “Kind of ridiculous, kind of unexpected, obviously very lucky for me, but it was probably the funniest way, at least from my point of view, that it could’ve ended.”
Grandmaster David Howell added: “Maybe the most shocking moment of the Tour, of all seasons of the Tour combined!”
Caruana now has a shot at the Champions Chess Tour event’s $30,000 top prize. Nakamura, meanwhile, will have to fight to stay in the Chess.com tournament against the winner of Magnus Carlsen vs another U.S. star Levon Aronian.
Earlier, Carlsen had knocked Wesley So out of the Losers Bracket with a 1.5-0.5 win.
The Norwegian came out on top despite admitting afterwards: “I thought I was playing White in the first game… so I was a little bit surprised to be playing Black!” But, he added: “It was clearly my best day so far.”
Carlsen now progresses to the Losers Bracket semifinal, needing to win two more matches to haul himself into the Grand Final having been in the Losers Bracket since day 1.
Aronian won his match against Vladislav Artemiev, also in dramatic fashion, and gave a wild celebration afterwards. The pair took it down to an Armageddon tiebreak where Aronian got the draw he needed with a move repetition. “I think I really cannot live without drama!” Aronian said afterwards.
In Division II, Nordibek Abdusattorov beat fellow teenager Denis Lazavik to go through to the Winners Final. In the other Winners Bracket match, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was victorious in an incident-packed match against chess legend Vladimir Kramnik.
In game 2 Kramnik made a game-losing mouseslip on g4 while fiddling with the mobile phone he was using to record the match. The next game MVL showed his sportsmanship by allowing a checkmate on the same square. The Frenchman went on to win 3-2 and will face Abdusattorov next.
In Division III, the Winner Final was won by Iran’s Amin Tabatabaei 1.5-0.5 against Shamsiddin Vokhidov before Vokhidov lost again in the Losers Final against Alexey Sarana.
You can check out the full results and schedule here.
Day 4 of the Chessable Masters 2023 will be broadcast live on Chess.com here. Commentary and analysis will be provided from the Champions Chess Tour studio in Oslo, in Carlsen’s home country, with a panel of experts led by GM David Howell, FM James Canty III, GM Robert Hess and IM Tania Sachdev.
Fans can also follow the tournament on Chess.com’s website and social media channels.
