crunchlabs

GM Alireza Firouzja has succeeded in setting up another all-French clash with GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the CrunchLabs Masters 2024 Division I Grand Final. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated GM Magnus Carlsen 2-1 in the Losers Semifinals, but the French number-one took him down in the Losers 😛Final.Division I is put on pause until Wednesday. Instead, Tuesday will focus solely on the Grand Finals in Division II, featuring GM Vidit Gujrathi vs. GM Alexander Grischuk, and Division III, with GM Arjun Erigaisi vs. GM Evgeny Alekseev. All three divisions feature a rematch of their respective Winners🏆 Final.The Grand Finals in Divisions II and III are on Tuesday, July 22, starting at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m.

Division I Bracket

Division I: Nepomniachtchi Unleashes Poisonous Prep, Firouzja Survives With Under 10 Seconds
Division II: Fedoseev Sweeps Kramnik, Grischuk Topples Nakamura
Division III: Alekseev Exploits Weak Pawns In Losers Final
Division I: Nepomniachtchi Unleashes Poisonous Prep, Firouzja Survives With Under 10 Seconds
Firouzja won the Losers Bracket on Monday to earn his rematch against Vachier-Lagrave. By reaching the Grand Final, Firouzja has also guaranteed himself a spot in Division I of the final CCT event of the regular season, while Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi qualify directly to Division I Placement Round 2.Losers Semifinal: Nepomniachtchi 2-1 Carlsen. Carlsen won their last match in the same event, in the Winners Quarterfinals, with a 3-0 sweep. This time, there was just one decisive game—the armageddon—and Nepomniachtchi came out on top. 🔝 Games one and two ended in deadlocked draws.In the first game, Carlsen played the Catalan Opening and won a pawn but never had an advantage. The second game featured an adventurous opening that Chess.com labels as "Indian Game: Accelerated Variation" (see below), but it also ended in a high-quality, (low-action) draw after 32 moves.It came to an armageddon tiebreak, with Nepomniachtchi winning the bid for Black by four 4️⃣ seconds, thus defending with seven minutes and 56 seconds. It was a little anticlimactic as the former world champion blundered a tactic shortly after the opening, 14.Bxf3.The good news was that he wasn't objectively worse after it (and lucky not to be lost); the bad news was that he was in a must-win game and the board didn't favor that outcome. Nepomniachtchi defended convincingly and ultimately won when Carlsen ran out of steam. 😰