FTX Crypto Cup, Round 5

Magnus Carlsen finally edges into the sole lead

It’s a good and strange day when one goes from shared first to clear first after losing a match, but that’s what happened to Magnus Carlsen in round 5 of the FTX Crypto Cup, thanks to the event’s unusual scoring system. Here’s how it works:

In every round of this eight-player round robin, pairs of players face off in a four-game rapid match. If one player makes it to 2.5 or 3 points, he wins the match and has a total of 3 points added to his overall tournament score. If the players finish the four games in a 2-2 tie, however, they contest a pair of blitz games, and if it’s still tied after that it’s time for Armageddon. The player who comes out ahead in the tiebreaker wins the match, but only scores 2 points, while the tiebreak loser gets a single point.

So now you can understand how Carlsen managed to lose the match but break the previous tie for first in his favor. He and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa had both won their first four matches - outright - and had perfect scores of 12/12. Today they both came a cropper, as our friends across the pond are wont to say, but Pragg lost in the rapid games (to Le Quang Liem, 2.5-0.5) while Carlsen lost (to Jan-Krzysztof Duda) in the blitz playoff.

While Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa have been so dominant that it’s easy to assume that the tournament is only a two-horse race, Alireza Firouzja is nipping at their heels. Carlsen has 13/15, Pragg has 12, and Firouzja is only one point further back with 11, having defeated Hans Niemann. (Niemann, unfortunately, has no points at all, but he was competitive in at least two matches, most notably in round 2 with Carlsen. He won the first game of that match and was winning or at least much better in game 3 as well. Unfortunately for the young American, he lost games 2-4 to lose it 3-1.)

After Firouzja the gap is substantial: Anish Giri (who defeated Levon Aronian today) has 7 total points, Le and Duda have 6, Aronian has 5 and Niemann has a bagel.

Two rounds remain, and the pairings we want are the pairings we’ll get: Carlsen plays Firouzja in round 7 and Praggnanandhaa in round 8.

I’ll present some games in a subsequent post. I’m generally a little less enthusiastic about presenting 15-minute and especially 5-minute games, as they are often low in quality (especially as time runs short), though high in excitement. But these chaps are so strong that they often manage to play excellent (or mostly excellent) games even with such short time controls. So, we’ll see what we can find. Meanwhile, an exciting finish is in store as the two teens, Praggnanandhaa and Firouzja, try to upend the champ.