Charity Cup Day 7: Carlsen Leads In Final After 'Fascinating' 1st Match

On Friday GM Magnus Carlsen convincingly won the first of two matches vs. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the final of the 2022 Charity Cup. Carlsen described the affair as "fascinating" and the last two games as "exceptionally interesting." The second match is played on Saturday, the last day of the event.

As pointed out by the world champion, both games two and three are very rich in content but let's first see the draw in the final's opener:

"I thought the last two games were exceptionally interesting from a strategic point of view," said Carlsen about the two games he won. "Unfortunately, neither of us really had enough time to grasp all the subtleties at the critical moment, but nevertheless it was fascinating."

Choosing the Semi-Slav in game two, Carlsen played a somewhat provocative bishop retreat in his black game, which allowed Duda to push his pawn majority on the queenside with tempo. The Polish GM could push his pawn to the sixth rank and keep it there while Carlsen, with one bishop out of play, found counterplay with a rook entering the enemy camp.

The third game was an interesting battle between the bishop pair and two knights in a fairly closed position. It was about equal until Carlsen found a breakthrough on the queenside. Then the game became quite tactical as well:

"I think when you make a draw in the first game as White, that's not something you necessarily expect," said Carlsen, who now only needs to tie Saturday's match to win the tournament. "Overall, I'm fairly happy with the way I thought today."

The 2022 Champions Chess Tour's Charity Cup Masters runs March 19-27 on chess24. The preliminary phase was a 16-player rapid (15+10) round-robin. The top eight players advance to a knockout that consists of one four-game rapid match during the quarterfinals and semifinals and two four-game rapid matches during the final. Play advances to blitz (5+3) and armageddon (White has five minutes, Black has four with no increment) tiebreaks only if a knockout match ends in a tie. The total prize fund of the event is $150,000, with $750 for each win and $250 for each draw in the preliminaries.

Previous reports:

• Charity Cup Day 6: Carlsen To Meet Nemesis Duda In Final
• Charity Cup Day 5: Carlsen-Ding, Le-Duda In Semifinals
• Charity Cup Day 4: Praggnanandhaa Eliminated Despite Brilliancy
• Charity Cup Day 3: Van Foreest Shines
• Charity Cup Day 2: Carlsen, Duda Trailing As Leader Le Hits h3 Twice
• Charity Cup Day 1: Le, Niemann Lead As Ding Beats Carlsen