Magnus Carlsen have just defeated Hikaru Nakamura to win the 1st Magnus Carlsen Invitational online chess super-GM tournament, which was held online April 18 - May 3, 2020.

In the final Carlsen managed to win 2 games with white pieces, while Nakamura won his first game with white and drew the last game, resulting in 2.5:1.5 for Carlsen.

Semifinals

While the final was interesting, the semifinal between Liren Ding and Magnus Carlsen was even more dramatic and interesting. First game was a draw. Carlsen blundered in the 2nd game, thus having to win at least one game from the next 2 games.

In game 3, Carlsen has chosen quite passive variation for white and he was pressed to the wall to find a way to at least draw the game. He managed to complicate the game and with some minor mistakes from Ding, he came back with a decisive attack and won the 3rd game, drawing the match: 1.5:1.5.

The 4th game was almost a draw, but in the last minute (exactly last minute on the clock) Ding decided to decline the draw (by moves repetition) and go for an attack in blitz-mode, thus trying to avoid going to blitz games. Carlsen defended well and after a blunder by Ding, he managed to win this 4th game and qualified for the final.

In the other semifinal, Nakamuka played against Caruana. After 2 draws, Nakamura won the 3rd game with black pieces and needed a draw in the 4th to continue to the final.

However, having the white pieces and initiative, Nakamura blundered and lost a pawn in 2-moves combination. Caruana had a good chance and won the game to draw the result 2:2, thus the match continued with 2 blitz games. Both blitz games was won by Nakamura and he qualified to the final.


We can hope to see another super-GM online chess tournament in June and/or July 2020.