The World Chess Championship begins in about two and a half weeks, and if Hikaru Nakamura hadn’t lost a very survivable ending against Ding Liren in the last round of last year’s Candidates, he’d probably playing Ian Nepomniachtchi for the title. That has been one of his very few failures over the last year and change, and his excellent play has continued in the ongoing American Cup. So far he has defeated both Sam Sevian and Leinier Dominguez by 1.5-0.5, winning each match in the classical games without needing a rapid tiebreak.
He will play Wesley So in the…pre-final final? It’s a double-elimination event, so while Nakamura and So are the only undefeated players so far, the winner of that match will have to play the winner of the elimination bracket (which could but need not be the player he just beat).
Let’s recap the action. Eight players started the tournament, with the following pairings: Nakamura-Sevian, Dominguez-Levon Aronian, So-Sam Shankland, and Fabiano Caruana-Ray Robson. Day one, which was Friday, had the first classical game of each match, and Saturday had the second - and the rapid tiebreaks for the matches that finished 1-1. That turned out to be three of the matches. Nakamura won on day 1, and the other seven classical games were drawn. All three of the matches that went to tiebreaks saw an additional draw in the third game, before all three winners won in game four. Dominguez beat Aronian, So beat Shankland, and Caruana beat Robson.
On day three, then, a new set of matches began, on different tracks. There was day one of the Nakamura-Dominguez and So-Caruana matches; both games were drawn. The elimination matches got underway too, and were one-day affairs, starting with a pair of 25’+10” games with the time controls getting shorter afterwards (a pair of 10’+5” games, followed by two 3’+2” games, followed by a 5’ vs. 4’ Armageddon if necessary). Aronian got past Sevian 1.5-0.5, winning the first game on his way to a smooth victory, but Shankland really had to sweat to get past Robson. After a pair of draws Shankland lost game 3 and needed to win game 4 to stay alive. He did it, and after a draw in game 5 he won game 6 to avoid Armageddon.
On to day four, the second day of the winners’ bracket matches. Nakamura got past Dominguez in the second game, winning the match (solidifying his position as the world’s #5, behind Magnus Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi, Ding, and Alireza Firouzja). The second So-Caruana game was drawn, so they went on to rapid games. So won in game 3, and was never really in trouble on his way to a draw in game 4. Caruana tried for a very long time, to move 125, but couldn’t win.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) Nakamura and So will start their match, while Dominguez and Caruana will join Aronian and Shankland in the elimination bracket. The foursome will be a twosome after Tuesday, and on Wednesday only one player will be left in that bracket…except that he’ll be joined by the loser of the Nakamura-So match. That further match will take place on Thursday, and then the winner will play the winner of the Tuesday-Wednesday Nakamura-So match. They will fight things out on Friday and Saturday.
Is that it? Not necessarily! Remember, it’s a double-elimination event, so if the previously undefeated player loses the Friday-Saturday match, he’ll have a rematch in the one-day format on Sunday, and *that* winner will, finally, be *the* winner.
If you find that confusing, maybe an example will help. Suppose Nakamura defeats So in the Tuesday-Wednesday match, and suppose Caruana wins his elimination bracket matches on Tuesday and Wednesday. That means that So and Caruana will play on Thursday, while Nakamura gets a rest day. Suppose Caruana defeats So. Then he’ll play Nakamura on Friday and Saturday. If he loses, the tournament is over, Nakamura wins. If he wins, then they play again on Sunday, and the winner of that final match wins the tournament.
Next time, some games from the event.