The Meltwater Tour Finals, Day 1
The show goes on, even with Carlsen having already clinched overall Tour victory.
The 2022 edition of the Meltwater Tour concludes with this eight-player round-robin, where each round consists of a best-of-four game match at a 15’+10” time control, followed by a pair of 5’+3” games (if necessary) and a 5’ vs. 4’ (with no increment) Armageddon game (if necessary). The eight players, in order of their Tour ratings, are Magnus Carlsen (2848; he has already clinched overall Tour victory), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2798), Le Quang Liem (2775), Wesley So (2774), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2756), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (2750), Arjun Erigaisi (2733), and Anish Giri (2732).
Round 1 was yesterday, and the marquee matchup between Carlsen and So was a good one. The first two games were drawn, and Carlsen won in game three when So overestimated the safety of his king on the kingside (or underestimated how safe it could have been on d7). So came very close to winning in game 4 to reach a playoff, but missed his chance to breach Carlsen’s defensive fortress and had to settle for a draw.
Duda looked like a #2 seed if you focus on the score of his match with Erigaisi; he won 2.5-0.5, finishing a game ahead of schedule. But in the first game of the match he was plainly lost, turning the tables when Erigaisi miscalculated a tactic.
The bloodiest match was between Mamedyarov and Praggnanandhaa, with three decisive games out of four. Mamedyarov easily won the first game with Black, but after a draw in game 2 it was Pragg who achieved an easy victory. No matter: it was Mamedyarov who won in game 4 after Pragg allowed him too much activity and then blundered on move 25, missing a fairly simple tactic that picked up a pawn (or two).
Finally, Giri and Le needed the blitz playoff to settle their match. The only win in the match belonged to Giri, in game 5, finally succeeding in their theoretical duel in the Open Ruy.
The games, with my notes to the decisive games (and game 4 of the Carlsen-So match), are here. Here are the pairings for today’s round 2, which starts at 3 p.m. ET:
Le - So
Giri - Praggnanandhaa
Mamedyarov - Duda
Erigaisi - Carlsen