Chessable Masters: MVL, Radjabov Eliminated
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and GM Teimour Radjabov have been eliminated from the Chessable Masters. The two players didn't finish among the top four of the B group. GMs Anish Giri, Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Fabiano Caruana made it to the knockout which starts Thursday.
The games of the Chessable Masters can be found here as part of our live events platform. IM Levy Rozman, WGM Qiyu Zhou, and WFM Alexandra Botez are providing daily commentary on Hikaru Nakamura's Twitch channel, embedded on Chess.com/TV.
Vachier-Lagrave's elimination on Tuesday was especially surprising. The Frenchman was tied for first with Giri in the "Candidates group" after day one, having scored 3/5. After the two drew in round six, MVL finished with a horrible losing streak of four games and ended in last place.
Also contributing is that Vachier-Lagrave was experimenting with his openings. No more Grunfelds, no 1.e4 this time. His Two Knights Tango (with a novelty on move five!) was wonderfully countered by Ding (despite missing a stronger continuation right out of the opening):
Radjabov can leave the tournament with his head high. He played a few excellent games (see also his win vs. MVL in the game viewer below), including the following, crazy battle with Caruana. We've certainly missed Radja's King's Indians.
Great event, great second day, with King’s Indian and a lot of fight! Happy to be back after day 1, but the fact that I did not qualify makes it less joyful 😁 thanks @MagnusCarlsen @chess24com @chessable for this amazing event! #chess24 #chessablemasters #magnuscarlsentour
— Teymur Rajabov (@rajachess) June 23, 2020
The other leader after day one did much better. Giri repeated his solid, undefeated 3/5 from the first day, and this time his victim was Ding. The Chinese GM suffered from internet problems and lost on time in a rook endgame that was not difficult to draw.
"I'm really happy for him that he bounced back because it would be so unfortunate for him if he had to finish last because of the disconnect," Giri later said.
Group B Final Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Giri,Anish | 2731 | 2871 | ½1 | ½½ | 1½ | ½½ | ½½ | 6.0/10 | |||
| 2 | Ding Liren | 2836 | 2815 | ½0 | ½1 | ½½ | ½½ | ½1 | 5.5/10 | 26 | ||
| 3 | Nepomniachtchi,Ian | 2778 | 2826 | ½½ | ½0 | 1 | 1½ | ½1 | 5.5/10 | 25.75 | ||
| 4 | Caruana,Fabiano | 2773 | 2792 | 0½ | ½½ | 10 | 1½ | 1 | 5.0/10 | |||
| 5 | Radjabov,Teimour | 2758 | 2760 | ½½ | ½½ | 0½ | 0½ | ½1 | 4.5/10 | |||
| 6 | Vachier-Lagrave,Maxime | 2860 | 2668 | ½½ | ½0 | ½0 | 10 | ½0 | 3.5/10 |
Games Group B, Day 2
The Chessable Masters runs June 20-July 5 on chess24 as part of the Magnus Carlsen Tour. The prize fund is $150,000 with the first prize of $45,000. The time control is 15 minutes for all moves with a 10-second increment after each move. No draw offers are allowed before move 40.
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