Round 3 (the “Itchy & Scratchy” round) of the Meltwater Chess Final was brutal - 10 decisive games out of 12 - and so was this one. In fact, after 12 games had been played in this round, there were once again 10 decisive games (and ultimately 16 out of 20). The difference is that round 3 was completely one-sided, with all the matches finishing after just three games. This time, two of the matches finished ahead of schedule, with Wesley So shutting out Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 3-0 and Arjun Erigaisi wiping out Anish Giri 2.5-0.5, but the other two matches kept going. Not only did they see a fourth game, they went to a playoff - and not only that, but they went to Armageddon. Only then was Magnus Carlsen able to prevail over Le Quang Liem, and - by drawing with Black - was Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa able to get past Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
The round was, in different ways, disappointing for the two leaders, Carlsen and Duda. For Duda, he fell a further point behind Carlsen with his second straight match loss while Carlsen lost his perfect match score. (A reminder: the tournament scores matches 3-0 when they are finished within the four-game rapid match. If it’s tied after four games both players get a point, with a further point going to the winner of the blitz playoff.) Still, that extra point mattered for Carlsen, as he could now clinch tournament victory with a match win in the next round (if done in the rapid games), regardless of the result of his last-round match with Duda. (Of course, we already know that he won in both rounds 6 and 7.)
At this point, the standings were Carlsen 14 (out of 15), Duda 10, So (having won three consecutive matches) 9, Le 8, Praggnanandhaa 6, Mamedyarov 3. Here are the games, with my notes to almost all of them. (In addition to the value of the games as games, there’s a fair amount of useful opening information in my notes, so it’s worth a look or two, or three.)