It was all action today - there were no short, safe draws where the players took a little rest while getting a feel for their opponents. They dove right in and played ambitiously. In the end there were two winners: Magnus Carlsen and Arjun Erigaisi. Carlsen displayed his legendary endgame technique, grinding down Dommaraju Gukesh in a rook ending that could have been saved - but not easily. For Erigaisi, the solution leading to his win against Praggnanandhaa - with Black - was an aggressive one. He found a splendid piece sac, and Pragg had only one way to maintain equality. He didn’t find it, and Erigaisi played everything perfectly to take home the full point.
The other two games finished peacefully, but there wasn’t much peace until the games came to an end. First, Leinier Dominguez missed his opportunity to administer a sensational upset against Fabiano Caruana; that would have given him excellent chances to qualify for the Candidates for the first time in his career. He was winning, but couldn’t figure out how to deliver the knockout blow. Caruana’s defense was very impressive. Nijat Abasov also had to defend for a very long time, and though he did slip at one moment he generally managed to hold his own against Vidit Gujrathi, making a draw in 109 moves.
The games are here, with my comments to the two that finished with a winner. How many matches do you think will reach the tiebreakers?