Magnus Carlsen on Thursday swept Fabiano Caruana off the virtual chessboard in the first quarter-final day of the TV 2 Sport 2 broadcast Chessable Masters where first place gives NOK 455,000 in prize money.
Fabiano Caruana. Foto: Koen Suyk
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It started well for Carlsen on Saturday as well. With black chips against the man he beat in the previous World Cup match in long chess, there was a draw in the first fast chess game.
In the second game, with white tiles, it became a reasonably simple victory for the berry boy against the 27-year-old American.
– I think this is over. That’s some of the worst I’ve seen from Caruana ever, chess expert Jon Ludvig Hammer in TV 2’s studio broke out a bit in the party.
Afterwards, the criticism continued.
– This party was outrageous. The previous one was not good either. Magnus Carlsen cruiser to the semi-finals, noted a critical Hammer.
Carlsen then needed one point on the last two games to advance to the semi-finals. He secured this with victory in the third game, although Caruana then brought in a good preparation.
– Magnus hasn’t played particularly well at all. Caruana has been insanely bad, Hammer’s summary of the quarterfinals.
In an interview with TV 2 afterwards Magnus Carlsen agreed with Hammer in his assessments.
– In the last game he does not find the chances he has. Otherwise he lost largely without a fight in the others. He was not level in this match at all. That’s why it became a one-way stretch, said Carlsen, who also said he was happy with his own efforts.
Jan Nepomnashchij went to the semi-final after victory over Vladislav Artemiev. The other quarterfinals will continue on Sunday.
The semi-finals start on June 30 and are played over three days.
The finals go from July 3 to July 5.
Saturday came the announcement that Carlsen’s next World Cup match in long chess will be postponed until sometime in 2021.
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