Insane Battle : Champions Chess Tour Grand Finale

Hello viewers, and welcome to another post in the Astro's supercluster! As most of my posts are based on chess games, this blog post is going to be like a recap of the recently concluded grand finale of the Champions Chess tour 2023, one of the most important events of Chess.com to date. 

Before tuning in, I would like to say congratulations to all of my friends who are bloggers, and recently got the title of " Top Blogger ", and I hope that you will keep making your beautiful contributions to the chess community! 

Alright, let's get into it!

           ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT 

Only a few days after the end of the Tata Steel 2023, the Champions Chess Tour Airthings Masters began on the date of February 3rd, and was open to all Grandmasters of the world, with the winner being awarded with 2m $. 

One of the most important, or arguably the most important Chess.com event, had a fascinating format this year. It also introduced the concept of " Double Elimination ", which was not understandable by most of the viewers in the world. 

The event was full of games which were the examples of perfect chess, some insane chess battles, but the finals again rested in the hands of the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen, when he was crowned the winner after defeating his arch rival in the finals, Hikaru Nakamura. 

With Magnus reaching the final of the CCT after winning against Hikaru in an Armageddon in the winner's bracket, Hikaru Nakamura battled it out against his fellow American chess player, Wesley So, in the loser's bracket. Whenever these two Americans collide, it is a game to watch out for. But Hikaru Nakamura made a slight edge, and reached the finals, after displaying his brilliant defending skills, which had also previously given him the title of best defender in the world. 

So, before heading directly into the 4 games of the Grand Finale, why not view the game which took Hikaru into the finals? 

Hikaru Nakamura vs Wesley So, Loser's Bracket Final Game : 

Before the starting of this game, Hikaru bet 8 mins and 5 seconds for the Armageddon, and played with the black pieces. 8 mins vs 15 mins, he was down by 7 mins! But yet, he managed to win the game. How many times have you seen this type of stuff happening?

Wesley so begins this game with an almost double time advantage, plays the " Scotch Game ", which is not really the opening which he plays, he kinda likes to play the Spanish or the Italian. 

Hikaru played one of the main lines of the Scotch, but trying to play a sideline from his light squared bishop and preventing white from short castling, he gave Wesley a pawn - up position. Yes, Wesley was a pawn up very early in the game. But Hikaru was playing with tremendous speed, and it was in no time when the time gap came down to 1 and a half mins. By the endgame, Wesley, both clearly and cleanly had the game in his hands, but started to mess it up a little bit. 

But Hikaru wasn't going to let it go this easily, he fought back when the game was in its final phase, the endgame. Wesley walked his king up the board, tried his best to not throw the game, but Hikaru had excellent defensive technique. And Wesley blundered on the 52nd move of the game. Hikaru came into a position where he was up a pawn, rather than being down material!

Wesley resigned on the 70th move of the game, because he was in a losing bishop - pawn endgame. Hikaru wins this game and gets ready to face Magnus again in the final of the winner's bracket!

Let's head into the finals!

   Game 1 : Perfect Start For Magnus 

And the finals between Magnus and Hikaru begins! Magnus Carlsen had previously beat Hikaru in the winner's bracket, and starts off first of the finals with a win! Yes, not even a draw, he starts it with a win! Let's have a look at the game : 

Magnus begins with an English, which soon transferred into a Queen's Gambit Declined. 

And Hikaru played an unusual, and a bit risky line with 5....b5?!, trying to give away the pawn on b5 but capture on e4. Magnus doesn't accept the free pawn, and plays e5. He did capture the pawn afterwards, by the way. Hikaru played in a way in which he looked to create strong points mainly on the light squares. 

But then, Magnus played an unexpected move, which was h4, followed by h5! He allows black's light squared bishop to come in, but he didn't really cared. He trades off the knight for the bishop, and just moved his king to f1, and didn't castle! He soon played h6, and created a blockage on the kingside, freezing black's h7 pawn, and created some pawn weakness on that side off the board, which he was looking to utilize in the endgame ( and he did utilize it ). 

Magnus trades some pieces, and brings his rook out to h4! Black castles ( which was not a good idea according to the engine ), and all of a sudden Magnus was a pawn up. Apart from this, Magnus also had a huge time advantage, with 4 mins to Hikaru's 35 seconds, on the 32nd move. 

Magnus soon got a passed a - pawn, and a already had a dominant position on black's kingside, with the king being stuck on the back rank. Hikaru resigned on the 50th move, and it was because of his flank pawns that made Magnus won the first game! Tbh the opening experiment didn't work out well for Hikaru. 

Let's move to the 2nd game! 

    Game 2 : Magnus Hates Castling

The 2nd game of the finals ended in a draw after a repetition, but nonetheless a good result for Carlsen, and he was a up a point. Let's have a look at the game : 

The game begins with a " Double Fianchetto Variation " of the " King's Indian Attack ". 

Magnus does a queen trade very early in the game, as he knew that he has already won the first game. He soon makes a dominate pawn structure on the kingside, while Hikaru was looking for an active play on the queenside. Hikaru breaks the pawn chain with a pawn break ( wow, what a line, " breaks the pawn chain with a pawn break " ), and a lot of trades happened in the game. 

While the game was heading towards an endgame, Magnus played Kf7. My man just hates castling ( as the title suggests ). Nothing much to talk about the game then, the players repeated moves at the end to force a draw. 

Let's get into the final 2 games. !

        Game 3 : A Marathon Battle 

This game, is just unbelievable. This is complete insanity. This game was almost half the length of Titanic! It was a 132 move marathon battle, with absolute pandemonium on the board during the endgame. Magnus, was not only fighting one of the best endgame players in the world, but he was also battling it out against the clock. Let's have a look at the game : 

This game begins with a " Canal Attack Variation " of the Sicilian Defense.

Hikaru here doesn't wait for anything, and immediately plays 8...g5. The idea was to sacrifice the pawn and open up the g - file, and create up attacking chances with the rook. Hence, it was clearly visible that he was playing for a win. But Magnus follows up with a common principle, and strikes in the middle with d4. Magnus traded some pieces until the 25th move, but was down in the terms of clock. 

Soon, the queens were traded as well, and the game was now into a 2 rooks and some pawns endgame. Magnus was below 30 seconds, and Hikaru started to create a few problems for him with his pawns. Magnus had to sacrifice his d6 pawn in order to create some active play, but he was literally down to being 8 seconds on the clock, compared to Hikaru's 2 and a half mins. 

So, was Hikaru going to win this endgame and get the scorecard equal? It was of course possible, keeping in mind that Magnus was down both on time and in material. But he was trying his best, Hikaru was also slowly bringing his king into the white's territory to support his pawns. But he needed to go to the white's kingside to create some winning chances, because Magnus was still trying to force a draw, but he steps on the wrong way!

Hikaru captured white's h - pawn as well, but because he had taken the incorrect route, Magnus followed up with a series of checks, and forced a draw! Would you believe it? That was really a nasty endgame!

Guess what, we are not done yet! Yes, we still have a game left. Why to wait, let's get into it!

            Game 4 : Magnus Did It

Yes, you read the title right. This game, was again a draw, but Magnus won the finals of the CCT 2023! Let's have a look at it : 

And the game begins with the very same opening what we had seen in game 2, but Hikaru plays 6.e4. Do you remember game 2? Magnus, on the very same move, played c4. But it made no difference here, and he again traded the queens, followed by a couple of more trades. 

Hikaru tried to kick out black's knight from the middle with c3, but Magnus traded the knight for the bishop! We have seen a lot of trades by him in the past 3 games. 

Nothing much after that, Magnus played actively on both the sides of the board, and was slowly improving his position. Hikaru offered a draw on the 39th move, and he accepted it, as it was not going to make any difference in the final result. As per the engine, Magnus was +4 when the game ended! 

Hence, in this way, Magnus won the Airthings Masters, after winning against Hikaru Nakamura in the finals. 

THE " Wow, did you really make it               till the end " PART OF THE BLOG

( This part is inspired by @Lightning's blogs, make sure to check them out ). 

Wow, did you really make it till the end?! Congrats, if you did, and thanks a lot for viewing my post! I hope you enjoyed the blog, and enjoyed the games!

This will be an end to this blog, and once again, congratulations to Carlsen for winning the finals!

Regards, 

@AstroTheoretical_Physics