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Chessable Masters Days 2-3: So Tops Preliminaries
Wesley So. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Chessable Masters Days 2-3: So Tops Preliminaries

PeterDoggers
| 12 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Wesley So has finished in sole first place in the Chessable Masters preliminaries, just ahead of GM Alireza Firouzja, Hikaru Nakamura, and GM Levon Aronian. GM Le Quang Liem and GM Jorden van Foreest just made the cut and have qualified for the knockout.

How to watch?
The games of the Chessable Masters knockout can be found here as part of our live events platform. Daily commentary is provided on GM Hikaru Nakamura's Twitch channel starting at 8:00 a.m. Pacific / 17:00 Central Europe.

Chessable Masters 2021

Just like in many earlier online events, So played very solid chess in the first three days of the Chessable Masters. The American GM scored an undefeated 11/15. Nakamura also went through the preliminaries without a loss but scored half a point less than his compatriot.

So said he was "inspired" by the absence of the world champion in this tournament: "I figured I should try and score as many points when he is not here."

His biggest win was against one of the finalists of the previous Champions Chess Tour event, GM Vladislav Artemiev, who tried the Alekhine. The Russian GM later tricked his opponent (on move 30) but then spoiled the win in time trouble:

Wesley So 2021 Chessable Masters
Wesley So. Image: Champions Chess Tour.

France's new top GM Firouzja did well as one of the players to finish half a point behind So. His only loss was in round seven against GM Pentala Harikrishna:

Chess.com Game of the Day Dejan Bojkov

We are treating you with a second Game of the Day as we're covering two days of play. Nakamura won a good game in round 13:

Chess.com Game of the Day Dejan Bojkov

The 12-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra had a tough event but did manage to avoid finishing in last place, mostly thanks to beating Harikrishna in the penultimate round. The final phase in time trouble was interesting and not flawless by either player.

"It was a dream come true to play in this event, against these players," Mishra said afterward. "It was amazing, it was full of ups and downs and at the end, I was able to win."

Abhimanyu Mishra Chessable Masters
Abhimanyu Mishra. Image: Champions Chess Tour.

Chessable Masters Preliminaries | Final Standings

# Fed Name Rtg Perf 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pts
1 So 2772 2850 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 11.0
2 Aronian 2782 2821 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10.5
3 Firouzja 2759 2822 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 0 1 1 1 1 10.5
4 Nakamura 2736 2824 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 10.5
5 Artemiev 2704 2774 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 9.5
6 Le 2709 2749 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 9.0
7 Mamedyarov 2782 2745 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 9.0
8 Van Foreest 2688 2726 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 8.5
9 Adhiban 2660 2659 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 7.0
10 Iturrizaga 2607 2662 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 7.0
11 Tari 2639 2637 ½ 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 6.5
12 Harikrishna 2730 2607 ½ 0 1 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 1 0 1 6.0
13 Anton 2673 2587 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 1 0 1 1 5.5
14 Ju 2560 2568 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 1 1 5.0
15 Mishra 2504 2413 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 ½ 2.5
16 Koneru 2586 2362 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 2.0

All Games Days 2-3

The Chessable Masters runs July 31-August 8, 2021 on chess24. The preliminary phase is a 16-player rapid (15|10) round-robin. The top eight players advance to a six-day knockout that consists of two days of four-game rapid matches, which advance to blitz (5|3) and armageddon (White has five minutes, Black four with no increment) tiebreaks only if a knockout match is tied after the second day. The prize fund is $100,000, including a $30,000 first prize.


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