A match for the ages!

The Quarterfinals of the Opera Euro Rapid produced the same matchup as we saw in the Quarterfinals of the Airthings Masters. World Champion Magnus Carlsen vs the People's Champ, Daniil Dubov! Last time around Dubov produced the upset, what happened this time around?

You can look at the video recap first if you want but I will have the key games also beneath it.

Lets start the action on the first day of action.

Magnus strikes first on the first day of Quarterfinal action. A solid game. Magnus then held reasonably comfortable with the black pieces in the second game and had the chance to close out day 1 with the white pieces in the third game.

Ouch! Dubov basically got SMASHED on day 1 and they didn't even need to play the fourth game of the minimatch as it was already over.

How do you recover from this? Well....seems like Dubov did! He striked back on the second day...or did he?

Does Magnus have a tactic here? Let's see if you can work through it!

Here is the rest of the game.....

Dubov finally on the board and with the black pieces!

Just like Carlsen on day 1, he got the chance to finish the minimatch in the 3rd game with the white pieces.

But why was the Queen basically lost? See if you can figure it out.....lets say black moves the Queen to a3, finish the job for white!

This meant it was time for a blitz tiebreak!

So again Carlsen strikes first and now Dubov needs to win on demand with the white pieces to force the Armageddon game!

This beautifully set up an Armageddon game!

What can one say after such a match? Just WOW!! Drama and excitement almost too much to take at times!

Congrats to the winner and hopefully the semi-finals produce more dramatic matches!