Airthings Masters, Day 1
Carlsen and Nakamura roll, So squeaks by, Firouzja crushed by Erigaisi.
For the most part, it was business as usual for the favorites on day 1 of the Airthings Masters. Magnus Carlsen had no trouble dispatching Alexey Sarana, winning the first two games and drawing the third (in a winning position) to seal match victory. Hikaru Nakamura’s story in his match with Dommaraju Gukesh was similar: two victories and a draw in the third game from a position of strength to finish the match a game ahead of schedule.
The other matches were more surprising. Wesley So had all he could handle against Rauf Mamedov. The first two games were drawn, but in the first So twice erred in a drawn rook ending, giving Mamedov a couple of chances to win. Game two was a clean draw - possibly all home prep - and then in game three there were more adventures. So showed good preparation to obtain an advantage, but a series of inaccuracies and tactical oversights left him with a lost position. Mamedov had numerous chances to finish So off but missed them all, and once they reached a minor piece ending it was only So who could win - and he did. So probably should have won game four as well, but a draw sufficed to win the match.
Finally, the most lopsided match was Arjun Erigaisi’s 3-0 whitewash of nominal second seed Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja has hardly played since last year’s Candidates (I read somewhere that he’s taking fashion classes - what?!), and it showed. His opening prep looked poor and his tactics were terrible. And this after just something like eight months! I’m more impressed by Garry Kasparov’s yearly comebacks in St. Louis. For a long time he was still able to hold his own with the world’s top players, despite playing just once a year, even 10-15 years after retiring from the game. If I had finished this post a couple of hours ago it would have been reasonable to wonder if Firouzja could regain something approximating his normal form before the tournament is over…but his tournament is over.
Speaking of which: there’s today’s action. In the winners’ bracket, which will start right around the time I finish this post, there are best-of-four game matches between Carlsen and Erigaisi and between So and Nakamura. The losers’ bracket consisted of a pair of best-of-two game matches, which are over: Sarana beat Firouzja 2-0 (good thing this is an online event, or Firouzja’s FIDE rapid rating would have cratered) while Gukesh edged past Mamedov by means of an Armageddon win with White after the players swapped wins with Black. I’m not sure if they will play each other in the next round of the loser’s bracket, or if they will be paired with the losers of the Carlsen-Erigaisi and So-Nakamura matches. (I think it’s the latter, but I’m not certain.)
Enjoy today’s action, and in the meantime, here are yesterday’s games, almost all of them with some commentary.