Carlsen, Ding Defeated In First Classical Chess960 Games
World Champion Ding Liren and world number-one Magnus Carlsen both have to hit back on Monday to keep alive hopes of winning the 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge after they erred in the opening and were put to the sword by GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja respectively. GM Fabiano Caruana won a wild game against GM Gukesh Dommaraju, while GM Levon Aronian needed all his resourcefulness to make a draw against GM Vincent Keymer.
The second day of the Quarterfinals begins on Monday, February 12, at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CET / 5:30 p.m. IST.
The first-ever top-level classical Chess960 games were all that we could have hoped for, with four intense battles that very nearly produced decisive results on all boards.
Quarterfinals Game 1 Results
Abdusattorov 1-0 Ding
Ding suffered a nightmare six-loss start before drawing the final game of the Rapid, but if he could withstand that blow nothing was yet lost in the tournament. His colleague GM Wei Yi, in an upcoming interview for New in Chess, describes the greatest strength of Ding as his "mentality," pointing to his recovery from world championship losses. In the first game of the Quarterfinals, however, everything would go Abdusattorov's way.
In a confessional booth appearance during the game, Ding noted, "The opening didn't go so well for me" and added that his second move was already likely a mistake. As early as move four, fearing White's powerful plan of castling short and pushing f4, Ding decided to offer a pawn with 4...d5?!.
Ding himself described it as in the style of the Marshall Gambit, but GM Peter Leko, in the live commentary, remarked that it was a Marshall without the Marshall compensation for the pawn. From that point on, Ding made many strong moves but once again his overly-fast play in complex positions—often a sign of nerves—let him down. A rushed and bad sequence of moves condemned him to defeat, and the heart rates near the end told the story.
Ding's heart rate: 122 bpm
— Chess.com (@chesscom) February 11, 2024
Nodirbek's heart rate: 72 bpm 🥶🥶🥶 pic.twitter.com/L00qyfGOYt
Ding played on to the bitter end, but even in his current form, it wasn't because he had any illusions that the position could be saved.
Abdusattorov blitzes out the final moves to beat Ding Liren, who now has to win tomorrow if he wants to retain chances of winning the #FreestyleChess GOAT Challenge! pic.twitter.com/m6RbEZckRA
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 11, 2024
So Abdusattorov continues to fly, while if Ding does strike back from here, it really would be epic.
Firouzja 1-0 Carlsen
Ding wasn't the only world champion to fall for the Nh3, f4 plan in the opening, with Carlsen going to the confessional to explain a 21-minute think on 3...Nce7!?.
The world rapid champion commented:
He’s found a very interesting idea in the opening connected with Nh3, quick castles, and then playing f4, and I was thinking for almost 20 minutes now, which means that I’ve spent a third of my thinking time already, but that’s kind of the point of this game. Anyway, I went for a really drastic measure, bringing the knight from the queenside to the kingside.... It was more of a desperate measure than anything else because I don’t like my position!
It was more of a desperate measure than anything else because I don't like my position!
—Magnus Carlsen
Firouzja was ruthless in what followed as he maneuvered to win a pawn and left Carlsen attempting to defend a miserable endgame, much as he'd tried the day before against Abdusattorov. The one thing working in Carlsen's favor is that the young Frenchman is nowhere near as ice-cool as the Uzbek star. Leko, armed with the heart rate data, was worried...
"But stay alive, Alireza!!" Leko is worried by Firouzja's heartrate in time-trouble against Carlsen! #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/5C1GLTqP60
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 11, 2024
...and, in fact, Firouzja complicated his task, as you can see in that video. For Carlsen, however, that long think in the opening was coming back to haunt him, as were his earlier words about the tournament not having an increment before move 40, "with the sadistic idea that these GMs probably will all get into time trouble."
Carlsen was down to just over 30 seconds for five moves at the moment he overlooked a trick and suddenly had to resign when his opponent spotted it—a brutal finish!
Carlsen gets down to 30 seconds for 5 moves (no increment!), blunders, and Firouzja wins. Both the World Champion and the World no. 1 have lost on the same day!#FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/LJYuxCEGtv
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 11, 2024
As GM Rafael Leitao points out in our Game of the Day, however, Firouzja would likely have won even without that blunder:
Carlsen also needs to hit back on demand with the white pieces on Monday to force tiebreaks, or he's not going to win the G.O.A.T. Challenge.
The remaining two games featured 1.c4, with Caruana noting that the plan had been cooked up by himself, Keymer, and Abdusattorov before the games began, but that the latter had gone rogue with 1.e4.
Caruana 1-0 Gukesh
Caruana continues to be the only "veteran" in the field to prosper, and he's now won two games with the white pieces against his young Indian opponent. Gukesh started well, but the U.S. number-one seized the chance to sacrifice a pawn with 20.d5!, commenting, "He misplayed it, and I got incredible activity!" There were a lot of twists and turns ahead before Caruana eventually crashed through.
"Not a good game!" is Caruana's summary, but it was certainly a fun one, which can also be said for the day's only draw.
Keymer ½-½ Aronian
Aronian said he met 1.c4 with 1...c5!? because he'd worked alone when the position was revealed 10 minutes before the game and didn't want to run into team preparation: "At least I'm not being overpowered by four people analyzing the position while I’m just analyzing it alone!"
As with most of the day's attempts to avoid trouble, it failed badly, and for a while it was an open question if he'd survive the opening—and the brewing attack that followed. Keymer remarked in the confessional booth, "I'm a pawn down, but I'm rather happy with my position!" His confidence was justified, but so, it turned out, was Aronian's!
"The only advantage I have is that I'm up on the clock... It should be practically lost, but we're hopeful, because this is not the worst position I ever got!" #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/qE8951c4Bf
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 11, 2024
Aronian found a fantastic defense and even threatened to take over in Keymer's time trouble, but in the end the game ended in a fair draw.
Their second game will be the only one in which neither player needs to go all-out for a win on Monday.
Ding, Carlsen, and Gukesh must hit back to force rapid (and potentially blitz/armageddon) tiebreaks. It's worth noting, however, that players "knocked out" in the Quarterfinals will remain in the tournament, battling in their own mini-knockout for fifth through eighth places.
The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge takes place February 9-16, 2024 in the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort, Germany. All games are Chess960. It starts with a seven-round rapid tournament to decide pairings before a classical knockout tournament with two-game matches. A tie is decided by two 15+10 rapid games, then, if needed, two 5+2 blitz games, then finally an armageddon game. The prize fund is $200,000 with $60,000 for first place.
The live broadcast of the day, hosted by IM Tania Sachdev, GM Peter Leko, GM Niclas Huschenbeth, and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni.
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Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
