Chessable Masters 5: Nakamura, Firouzja & Mamedyarov knocked out

Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Jorden van Foreest were all knocked out of the Chessable Masters on Wednesday in a brutal day of quarterfinal action. Liem Quang Le needed just two games to oust Alireza, while Wesley So also started with two wins against Jorden before getting the draw he needed when both players overlooked a blunder in Game 3.

Levon Aronian won after a heavyweight exchange of blows against Shakhriyar, while Vladislav Artemiev finally defeated Hikaru in Armageddon! 

You can replay all the games from the knockout stages of the Chessable Masters, the 8th event on the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, using the selector below.

And here’s the day’s live commentary from David Howell, Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare.

And from Danny King and Tania Sachdev.

Only Artemiev-Nakamura needed tiebreaks as some of the favourites were knocked out of the Chessable Masters.

Let’s take the matches in order of how quickly they were over.

Liem Quang Le 2:0 Alireza Firouzja

When this match-up became known it looked like a great chance for 18-year-old superstar Alireza Firouzja to finally progress further in the knockout bracket of a tour event, but in fact it was Liem who seized the chance to reach the semi-finals with a dominant display. The Vietnamese grandmaster had used the preparation he’s been doing for a London System course on Chessable to help him win two games with White on Day 1, and again he was better out of the opening as he won the first game on Day 2.

He admitted it wasn’t all about the opening, however, since he let Alireza back into the game and only clinched victory after another case of, “never play f6!”

Liem unleashed 38.Nxb6! and there was nothing better than 38…axb6 39.a7 and White queened the a-pawn and went on to win.

That left Alireza with a mountain to climb — he had the win the second match so would need to win at least two of the next three games — but instead Liem played a positional masterpiece with the black pieces to clinch victory.

Liem looked absolutely calm, but admitted afterwards that’s not exactly the case.

I was kind of worried a little bit inside, but I try not to show it. Of course when I had a big advantage I was always a little bit nervous and tried not to mess it up… Being calm is one of the very important things you need to do to be a better chess player, and I’m still trying to control my emotions better.

Wesley So 2.5:0.5 Jorden van Foreest

Jorden missed a wonderful chance to beat Wesley on Day 1 of this match and it was never likely he’d be given another chance. In terms of minor victories, however, he managed to scare the US Champion away from playing his preferred Berlin Defence!

Today was a very good day. I think I played much better than yesterday. I also avoided my main opening with Black, the Berlin Defence, and I thought it was a pretty good idea to play lines that Jorden didn’t have well-prepared.

The first game was wild, but when Jorden missed a chance, Wesley took over and won convincingly. Game 2, and the match as a whole, was close to over after move 14. Wesley was able to land a dramatic blow, but one that had been seen before.

Wesley then just needed a draw in either of the next two games to clinch the match, and it looked completely over when he was a pawn up in an endgame in the 3rd game. Jorden kept pushing, however, and Wesley admitted he “almost fell asleep”, so that 53…Nxf5+?? left an open goal.

54.Rxf5+ Kxf5 55.Bd3+ is the kind of thing any grandmaster would see in a flash if you mentioned there was a win — and in fact if you didn’t as well! But perhaps the difficult thing is imagining that a player as brilliant and solid as Wesley could blunder such a thing. In any case, after 54.Kf3?? there was no way back.

Levon Aronian 2:1 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

This was a dramatic match, with Levon only winning the first game after he’d been dead lost. The second saw Shakh hit back, despite some very imaginative defence from Levon. The Armenian was critical of his play afterwards:

I think the first two games I played in the same manner as I played on the first day of this tournament — very sloppy.

When he was asked about being so critical of himself, he responded:

I’m trying to be objective, although sometimes I feel like I’m a complete patzer, and then I think, well, if I am a complete patzer, then what do some guys that are not very good at chess think? So I’m being critical because I know that I can play really well, so I expect a lot from myself!

He was happy with the 3rd game that clinched the match, however, having checked the opening before also finding some fine tactics in the middlegame.

Here Mamedyarov played what looked like the strong exchange sacrifice 19.Rxc6!?, but after 19…Qxc6 20.Nxe5+ Qf6+ 21.Bf3, Levon found a beautiful idea (his words).

21…Bxe3+! 22.Kxe3 Re8! and Levon pointed out that e.g. 23.Qb3 would now run into 23…Qb6! and there are too many pins. In the game after 23.Kf2 Rxe5 Mamedyarov gave up his queen for a rook and was eventually ground down in a virtuoso endgame from Levon.

Vladislav Artemiev 4:3 Hikaru Nakamura

This was the tightest match on Day 1, and it remained the same on Day 2, though this time we saw decisive action. First Artemiev took the lead, with a nice zugzwang at the end of Game 1.

Black has one more pawn move, but then he’ll have to move his king or knight, either of which lose instantly, with the g-pawn queening. 

Nakamura hit back immediately, with both players demonstrating fine technique with the white pieces. Two draws then took the match to tiebreaks, though Vladislav tried to delay them by fighting for 82 moves in Game 4.

Vladislav once again took the lead with the white pieces in the first blitz game, but Nakamura hit back with a beautiful, and beautifully unexpected, winning idea. 32.Rc5? was a mistake by Vladislav, but it only became fatal after 33.c4 a5? — the rook needed to escape to a5 while it still could.

34.b3! doomed the rook, since all freeing moves are now punished, e.g. 34…e4 35.d4, 34…a4 35.b4 and so on. Vladislav did what he could, but he couldn’t avoid a picturesque end to the game.

So we had an Armageddon game, and despite White having been on the rampage in the match, Hikaru stuck to his belief that it’s almost always better to be Black — he got to choose as he finished higher in the Prelims.

Vladislav didn’t think the choice was crucial.

I think it’s not important which colour and you must focus just on the game, because Armageddon is another story, it’s not a usual game, it’s more nerves and it’s more about luck, I think.

Perhaps, but Vladislav got a good position out of the opening and then won with brilliant technique to clinch victory in the match and knock out perhaps the co-favourite with Wesley So to win the tournament. On the other hand, Vladislav got to the final of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid and in fact we could still get a repeat of that Aronian-Artemiev final.

The semi-finals start Thursday at 17:00 CEST, with live commentary from 17:00 CEST.

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