Magnus Carlsen declared he's "pretty optimistic" about a Lindores Abbey semi-final clash against Hikaru Nakamura after breezing past Wesley So today. The World Champion went ahead quickly, drew, and then won a wild third game as he dominated the second day of his last-eight match with So.
Carlsen's quick 2.5-0.5 win sets up a mouth-watering Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge semi-final against blitz king Hikaru Nakamura on Thursday. Speaking about his next opponent, Carlsen said: "He's done tremendously well, but... I'm pretty optimistic."
On today's win, Carlsen said: "I'm obviously happy about the result. But I have got to say the last game was just a ridiculous mess and I had very little clue about what was going on. "I felt like I was doing pretty well early on and then at some point the wheels came off and I might as well have been lost."
In the commentary box, IM Lawrence Trent had been full of praise for the champion. "It is what it is," he said when Carlsen's match ended. "Sometimes the WC does a number on you and today it was Wesley So. Magnus Carlsen was sublime."
Today's other quarter-final tuned in to a real roller-coaster. Russia's Daniil Dubov showed a touch of magic to fight back after losing the first game against countryman Sergey Karjakin, then in the third game of the mini-match, the famously solid Karjakin appeared to implode.
Dubbed the "Minister of Defence", Karjakin played too quickly, mixed something up in the opening, and simply collapsed after Dubov played the offbeat Scandinavian against him. Dubov only needed a draw with white to seal the match, but it did not happen as he blundered easy tactics in a roughly equal position in game four.
It all came down to Armageddon in which the younger Russian had white pieces. Dubov launched a crushing attack on the kingside but when it was time for a final blow he unexpectedly went astray. First Daniil missed a couple of not-so-hard-to-find winning continuations then went for an exchange and all of the sudden position became unclear. This turn of events threw Dubov off completely and he went down in severe time trouble.
“Speaking about the last game, of course, it was just winning for white, but when you play Armaggeddon you try to play fast, but when you play fast you are not so good. I just want to say that in the fourth game I was trying hard as I knew that I can win some decisive games because of my experience against Peter.” Karjakin said in a short interview, referring to his famous final match with Peter Svidler at FIDE World Cup 2014, which he won after being 0-2 down.
Karjakin and Dubov are now to play a decider for a spot in the semifinals.
The event, which runs until June 3, is being put on in association with the Lindores Abbey Heritage Society, which maintains the historic site.
Coverage begins with commentary in 10 languages at 16.00 CEST.
You can watch it live here
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Leon Watson
leon@chessable.com
+447786 078770
