Magnus Carlsen’s last event as World Champion ended in failure on Thursday as a dramatic match-losing mouseslip against Hikaru Nakamura dumped him out of the Chessable Masters.
Carlsen and his old rival, the two big beasts of online chess, had gone toe-to-toe over two drawn rapid games before the Losers Bracket Final was left hanging on a tense Armageddon play-off.
But then, in the very last seconds, disaster struck for Carlsen, who is due to vacated his world title this weekend.
Replay the action from Day 4
Intending to play 63.Qxb6, Carlsen accidentally dropped his queen on f6 and Nakamura snaffled it off it with his king. It was “the worst possible mouseslip,” according to GM David Howell and the game ended instantly.
Earlier, Carlsen had put in a dominating performance to power past Levon Aronian, but it was all in vain.
Nakamura now advances to the Grand Final of Chess.com’s $1.6 million Champions Chess Tour event tomorrow where he will face fellow American Fabiano Caruana, who remains unbeaten.
Nakamura, playing from Sunrise, Fl, said: “I think the main thing is I don’t fall apart against Magnus. In the past, I would’ve fallen apart very quickly.”
Earlier, Division II saw the Uzbek teen Nordibek Abdusattorov record a clean 3-0 win in the Winners Final against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to sail through to the Grand Final. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave bounced back however, after beating Anish Giri in the Losers Final and is set to meet Abdusattorov again.
The Division III title, meanwhile, was won by the Iranian talent Amin Tabatabaei who defeated Alexey Sarana 2.5-1.5 in the Grand Final.
The final day 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.
