Julius Baer Gen Cup, Day 3
Carlsen retakes the lead; are we heading for another Carlsen-Niemann showdown?
On day 3, comprising rounds 9-12 of the preliminary stage of the Julius Baer Generation Cup, Magnus Carlsen rebounded from a difficult second day by scoring 3.5/4, or rather 10/12 on the tournament’s 3-1-0 scoring. He thereby reclaimed first place in the preliminaries going into the the final three rounds. In one sense, it’s not important, as the top 8 of the 16-player-field qualify for the knockout final, and as scores don’t carry over it doesn’t matter if a player sweeps the prelims with a perfect score or squeaks by in the eighth spot.
Where it can matter, however, is in the pairings for the knockout matches. The pairing system is familiar and used in the brackets of many sporting events: 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7, and so on. Right now Carlsen is #1, just a point ahead of Arjun Erigaisi, while Hans Niemann is #7, two points ahead of Anish Giri in 8th. If Carlsen and Niemann end up #1 and #8, or #2 and #7, they will be paired in the first round of the knockout. If that happens, will Carlsen quit the event, either without playing or by resigning games the way he did in round 6? I suspect that he would, and it would be a pity.
An aside: there are last-round scenarios in which Carlsen could conceivably avoid a match with Niemann if he (Carlsen) lost his game with Vincent Keymer. One way that might happen is if a loss guaranteed that Carlsen would finish in second (we’re assuming Niemann is in eighth), and another way is if a Keymer victory would knock Niemann out of the top eight. It would obviously be utterly unethical for Carlsen to take a dive, and doing so would be beneath him. I don’t believe for a moment that he would do so, but he might be subconsciously attracted to such possibilities and fail to play his best. Let’s hope he won’t be faced with any such temptation.
Back to the day 3 summary. Erigaisi led after day 2 and started day 3 on a high note, quickly defeating Vasyl Ivanchuk. Things went south in the next couple of rounds, however, as he lost to Jan-Krzystof Duda and only managed to draw against tailender Boris Gelfand. He righted the ship with a win in the day’s final round, against Christopher Yoo, and is only one point behind Carlsen and four points ahead of his next closest competitor. That competitor is Le Quang Liem, who had an excellent day, sandwiching draws in rounds 10 and 11 with wins over Levon Aronian in round 9 and Vasyl Ivanchuk in round 12.
The trio of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (who had been tied for second coming into the day), Keymer, and Duda are tied for 4th-6th with 19 points apiece. Niemann is in 7th with 18 points, and Giri currently holds the final qualification spot with 16 points. He’s not safe there, as Christopher Yoo, Wojtaszek, and Ivanchuk are only one point behind him and two more players are another point behind them. Given the 3-1-0 scoring, the player in 13th is just one win away from leapfrogging into 8th. In short, it’s a mess, and 13 of the 16 players still have a reasonable shot of making the final 8.
As usual, here’s a selection of games from day 3.