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GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat GM Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge Rapid to top the standings on an unbeaten 5.5/7. That set up a Quarterfinal against World Champion Ding Liren, who made a last-round draw to scrape 0.5/7. The other Quarterfinals, played over two games of classical chess, will be GM Vincent Keymer (2nd) vs. GM Levon Aronian (7th), GM Fabiano Caruana (3rd) vs. GM Gukesh Dommaraju (6th), and GM Alireza Firouzja (4th) vs. Carlsen (5th).
The first game of the Quarterfinals begins on Sunday, February 11 at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CET / 5:30 p.m. IST.
Rapid Final Standings
The first day of the rapid opener of the G.O.A.T Challenge left the top half of the table occupied by the players aged 20 or younger. The second and final day saw Caruana break into the top half, but it so happens that all the pairings will nevertheless pit youth against experience. Let’s take a look at the four upcoming Quarterfinals and how the players have performed.
- Abdusattorov vs. Ding
- Keymer vs. Aronian
- Caruana vs. Gukesh
- Firouzja vs. Carlsen
1. Abdusattorov vs. Ding
It’s an unusual reward for winning a tournament to be paired against the current world chess champion and just one of 15 players ever to cross a 2800 rating, but on the evidence of current form the 19-year-old from Uzbekistan should be a heavy favorite. Abdusattorov said of his tournament: “Everything went very smoothly… a dream performance for me!”
Everything went very smoothly… a dream performance for me!
—Nodirbek Abdusattorov
He finished with four wins, and as the only unbeaten player.
On the final day he fought hard to survive a dangerous position against Keymer, whipped up a sudden, deadly attack to beat Gukesh, then came out on top against a player he’s made a habit of beating in big games in his young career, Carlsen. Abdusattorov identified his opponent’s third move as a mistake, while Carlsen’s desire to win saw him make an unnatural pawn capture on move six. The youngster played perfectly to reach a winning endgame…
Abdusattorov has a winning endgame against Carlsen… unless all rook endgames are drawn! https://t.co/r1VNM2yqZ3#FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/7Jz3NyNk9M
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 10, 2024
…but the world number-one almost escaped before making a final mistake in what tablebases tell us was a drawn position. A fittingly tense finish to the rapid tournament!
While Abdusattorov was flying, Ding’s tournament went from bad to worse, before what felt like a fast, mercy draw from Firouzja in the final round.
Something is up with Ding, as he confessed himself in an interview before Wijk aan Zee, but perhaps he was also suffering from one of the advantages of Chess960—that no one knows how to play for a draw in the unfamiliar openings, so the old wisdom of first stopping the bleeding with a quiet game is hard to implement.
Ding’s vulnerability has instead been inspiring his opponent’s, with Carlsen winning a fine game in round five in their first clash since the world championship title changed hands, before Aronian got to play a brilliant miniature which he rounded off with a queen sacrifice.
Levon Aronian got to sacrifice his queen to force resignation from Ding Liren! #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/Rw2ocgCHQF
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 10, 2024
That game is our Game of the Day, and has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below:
Once again, however, if Ding can right the ship before Sunday’s Quarterfinal against Abdusattorov, nothing is yet lost. No ratings are at stake in Weissenhaus, and the classical knockout to follow will decide who takes the $60,000 top prize.
2. Keymer vs. Aronian
Keymer will now face Aronian who, as we saw from the game against Ding above, can be a very dangerous player. On the final day he also had chances against Firouzja, though he was well-beaten in the final match-up against Caruana.
3. Caruana vs. Gukesh
Caruana had a great final day, scoring 2.5/3. He managed to build a fortress with Black in what seemed a desperate endgame against Carlsen, and won two brilliant attacking games with the white pieces. One was against Aronian, as mentioned above, while the other was a notable achievement: the only game a “veteran” won against one of the kids in the whole rapid tournament.
Caruana beats Gukesh in style — the first time one of the veterans has beaten one of the young guns in this event! #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/qJXmSahH8Y
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 10, 2024
It was even more notable, since Caruana took Gukesh’s spot in the top-half of the table, but now they’ll meet again in the Quarterfinals. The young Indian has been having a rollercoaster, and after his three wins in a row on Friday he went on to lose all three games on Saturday. It looks bad on paper, but such things can happen when you combine an aggressive style with facing top opposition: apart from Caruana he faced the top-two of Abdusattorov and Keymer. The U.S. number-one can take nothing for granted in the coming match.
4. Firouzja vs. Carlsen
It seems Firouzja and Carlsen simply can’t escape each other. On Wednesday they played two mini-matches in the Grand Final of the Chessable Masters, with the 20-year-old winning the first 2.5-1.5 but losing the “reset” 2-0. They were playing from their hotel rooms in Weissenhaus, but now they’re going to play a two-day match face-to-face after both players had mixed final days. Firouzja beat 2nd-placed Keymer and drew his remaining two games, so that the only rapid game he lost was to the winner Abdusattorov.
Carlsen also lost to Abdusattorov, in that last-round we witnessed above, and was frustrated against Caruana, but he got to beat the player who’s taken over as world champion, Ding, and also to play perhaps the most satisfying move of the day: the longest possible “short castles.” You can see the move in the viewer below:
Magnus Carlsen beats Ding Liren, making it a 5th loss in 5 games for the current World Champion! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/bIrHNp2DFl
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 10, 2024
All four Quarterfinal match-ups have the potential to be epic, and we’re also going to see what Chess960 looks like at a classical time control. The players have 90 minutes for 40 moves, but no increment until then. Why?
Magnus says there’s no increment before move 40: “with the sadistic idea that these GMs probably will all get into time trouble because they will spend all their time in the opening and we will get these massive time scrambles and, to be honest, I’m all for it!” #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/Vgv13wgZm1
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 9, 2024
It should be fun!
The Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge takes place February 9-16, 2024 in the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort, Germany. All games are Chess960. It starts with a seven-round rapid tournament to decide pairings before a classical knockout tournament with two-game matches. A tie is decided by two 15+10 rapid games, then, if needed, two 5+2 blitz games, then single 5+2 games until a player wins. The prize fund is $200,000, with $60,000 for 1st place.
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