World Cup Semifinals: Day 1

Carlsen beats Abasov in a shaky game; Caruana-Pragg is drawn.

There may not be any significance to the rest of the World Cup when it comes to its role as a qualifier for the Candidates - Magnus Carlsen is almost completely certain not to play in that event, so Fabiano Caruana, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and Nijat Abasov are in. There’s a fair amount of money at stake though, not to mention the prestige of winning such an event, so it’s still worth tuning in to the semis and the finals.

Day 1 of the semis is over, and Magnus Carlsen won the first game of his match with Nijat Abasov - but it wasn’t easy. In fact, it was almost a disaster for Carlsen. He quickly obtained a serious advantage on the white side of a Rossolimo Sicilian, but despite his disadvantage and the greatness of his opponent, Abasov started to outplay Carlsen. He equalized, held tough in a complicated position, and then had one glorious opportunity to win the game. Unfortunately for him and the hometown fans, he missed his chance, and though the game was still computer-equal the burden was more on him. Both sides made errors in time trouble, and the last key moment came on the final move of the time control. Carlsen’s 40th move was an error that gave Abasov a chance to save the game, but he erred in turn and the game ended just three moves later. He’ll have his chance to strike back with the white pieces tomorrow, but unless he has some stupendous preparation up his sleeve I’m Carlsen will be able to draw on demand - a task he has coped with countless times in his career.

In the other match, Praggnanandhaa will have no motivation to make a draw in game 2 with White against Caruana. The first game was drawn, but Caruana made him suffer for a long time. At the very least, Pragg should return the favor if given the chance, if only to tire Caruana a bit before the tiebreaks, should it come to that. We’ll see.

Today’s games, with annotations to the Carlsen-Abasov game, are here.