Carlsen Is The New World Blitz Chess Champion! (with game analysis)

Magnus Carlsen is the new World Blitz Chess Champion. On the second day of the tournament in Dubai he scored 8 points out 10 games, making a total of 17 out of 21!

Carlsen went into the second day with half a point lead, but things were not so easy, especially since Ian Nepomniachtchi was on a roll today starting with six wins in a row(!) and Carlsen only drawing against such cracks as Anand, Aronian, Morozevich and Grischuk. This even meant that after the 16th round Nepo had taken over the lead by half a point.

In round 17 Nepo and Carlsen beat Yudin and Dreev respectively keeping Nepo in the lead. Also in round 18 the standings did not change when both matadors drew their games against Mamedov and Morozevich. But after round 19 Carlsen had leveled the field again by beating Mamedov when Nepo only drew against Korobov. All was to be decided in the last two rounds!

In round 20 Carlsen quickly beat tournament revelation Yudin while Nepo... lost to Aronian! So, being a point ahead, a draw was sufficient for Carlsen to win the tournament. In the 21st and last round Carlsen however, played a coldblooded Capablance-like game beating Korobov and making him the new World Blitz Chess Champion!

Carlsen lost only one game this tournament, against first day tournament revelation Lu Shanglei from China. At the press conference when asked what's left in chess to achieve, Carlsen answered: "Well, I can do it again!" He also stated that he would like to retain his titles for a long time to come.

Below you can find all of Carlsen's games from the 2nd day. I have annotated them lightly:

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