GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is again the sole leader of the event after day five. After him comes GM Magnus Carlsen with nine points, closely followed by GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Le Quang Liem and Jorden van Foreest with eight points.

Both GMs Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov follow in the standings with six points and GM Eric Hansen—with three so far—remains the last player in the standings.

How to watch?

Praggnanandhaa-Hansen: 2.5-0.5

Today’s match was very important for both players as Praggnanandhaa surely wanted to secure himself a winning spot in the event. After his loss against the world champion the previous day, this was a good chance to recover. On the other hand, Hansen needed to win the match to not completely fall behind in the tournament, as he just had three points with only three days of play left. 

Their first encounter showed very forward play from Praggnanandhaa with White in the opening while the Canadian streamer lost a lot of time in the very first moves, eventually misplacing his dark-squared bishop and giving Praggnanandhaa a big advantage.

The Indian grandmaster successfully took advantage of his opponent’s inaccuracy and smoothly went on to win the game after some plan-finding trouble in the endgame.

Game two was a very long draw in which the Canadian streamer was actually better for several moves until losing direction. Finally, as the young Indian grandmaster has gotten used to doing in this event, he wrapped up the match in game three.

He confidently improved his position until Hansen’s inaccuracies allowed him to go for another full point. Thus, he is again the sole leader of the event.

Van Foreest-Carlsen: 2.5-1.5

The match between the world champion and one of his seconds for his previous world championship, Van Foreest, was an exciting one in which Carlsen suffered a lot, mainly due to his own mistakes.

In game one of their match, Van Foreest played the interesting pawn sacrifice 7.b4 which was accepted by Carlsen. The world champion then missed the winning move 23.Rd2, after which the Dutchman forced a queen exchange and the game was agreed to a draw.

In game two, the Norwegian got a great position, suffocating his opponent, but blundered his rook with 20.Ra2??, and it was simply taken by Black. After some desperate moves, Carlsen resigned.

Game three was another draw and Van Foreest went on to win the match in the fourth game as he resisted all of Carlsen’s efforts to score a full point and take the match into tiebreaks.

Thus, the Dutchman gained three points after beating his boss, while Carlsen will have to try his best on Wednesday against Hansen.

Playing the champ today. (18:00 CEST)#ChessChamps #OsloEsportsCup pic.twitter.com/iS68vjzHRu

— Jorden van Foreest (@jordenvforeest) April 26, 2022

Van Foreest was excited to be playing his boss today.

Le-Duda: 4-2 

Duda celebrated today his 24th birthday playing against the Vietnamese speed-chess specialist Le. He did not manage, though, to gift himself a birthday present as he lost the tiebreaks.

Game one was full of fire right from the opening, with the engine loving Le’s position, and he went on to win it. The 24-year-old Polish player turned the second game around as his opponent missed chances in a won position, and won that one himself. Games three and four were hard-fought draws, and thus the players were forced to decide the final score of their match in the playoffs.

Former World Blitz Chess Champion Le successfully outplayed his opponent and was the first player in this event to beat Duda in the tiebreaks.

The Vietnamese player commented on his win today: “I would apologize to Jan for ruining his day … I once lost on my birthday, so I know it’s quite painful to lose in that way.” Asked about his biggest takeaway today, he responded: “I managed to play some good games in blitz, and I’m happy about that.”

Mamedyarov-Giri 3.5-2.5

Both players who were defeated in the playoffs yesterday had to face each other today.

Giri pretty quickly found himself in a crushing position against Mamedyarov and won game one. In game two, a very complex position arose that surprisingly ended in a draw but was objectively won for Black. Eventually, in game three, Mamedyarov scored his first win of the day. The fourth game of the match was a draw, and that took the players into today’s tiebreaks.

Game one of the playoffs was again a very equal game that ended in a draw, but finally, in the last game of Tuesday’s event, Azerbaijan´s number one played the better chess and defeated the Dutch number one.

Mamedyarov was very happy to have somehow found back his shape in this round and will face another Dutchman—van Foreest—tomorrow. He now shares with six points some of the last spots in the tournament with Giri. Both players still have two days to make the best out of their current positions.

Oslo Esports Cup Day 5 Standings

All Games Day 5

The Champions Chess Tour consists of six regular events with 16 players and three majors with eight players. Regular events adopt a 3-1-0 score, where players who win get three points, players who draw get 1, and losers get 0. Major events, on the other hand, adopt a 3-2-1-0 score system, similar to the 3-2-1 system described above but with one difference: players who win on tiebreaks get 2 points while tiebreak losers get 1.

The Oslo Esports Cup is the first major of the tour: a round-robin among eight players, with each round consisting of four-game matches (15|10) each day which advance to blitz (5|3) and armageddon (White has five minutes, Black four with no increment) tiebreaks in case of a tie.

The 2022 Champions Chess Tour’s first Major, the Oslo Esports Cup, runs April 22-28 on chess24. The format consists of one four-game match every day for each player. Play advances to blitz (5+3) and armageddon (White has five minutes, Black has four with no increment) tiebreaks only if a match ends in a tie. The total prize fund for the event is $210,000, with each win in the regular games earning the player $7,500. Each win in the tiebreaks earns the winner $5,000, with $2,500 going to the loser.

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