The Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament will see GM Magnus Carlsen vs. GM Levon Aronian and GM Vladislav Artemiev vs. GM Ding Liren in the semifinals that start on Thursday.

Aronian and Carlsen both won their matches in the tiebreak, against GM Arjun Erigaisi and GM Wesley So respectively. Artemiev again needed just three games to eliminate GM Anish Giri. Ding started with a loss but then won three games in a row to knock out GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

Carlsen-So 1.5-2.5 | 1.5-0.5

The top clash between Carlsen and So was the big scrimmage that fans were hoping for. The Norwegian player had won the day before, so he came into the battle needing to score just 2/4. After winning an incredibly tough first game and drawing the second, he was a draw away from the final.

However, So didn’t leave the battleground without a fight. The American grandmaster started playing extremely strong chess and managed to win two games on demand, both in rook endgames, against the world champion. This was an achievement in itself.

Here’s game four, with So winning as Black:

That loss was a big setback for Carlsen, who nonetheless managed to get himself together. He ended up winning the first of two 5|3 games before holding the next to a draw:

Aronian-Erigaisi 2-2 | 1.5-0.5

Erigaisi can be very satisfied with his tournament, especially after holding the great Aronian to 2-2 twice in the rapid segments of the two matches. In only the blitz did the Armenian grandmaster manage to outplay his 17-year-old opponent. Like Carlsen, Aronian won the first and drew the second.

The endgame in the first blitz game was trickier than it looked:

Ding-Duda 3-1

With four decisive games, this was not a bad match either! Ding countered strongly after starting with a loss and put up a three-game streak. Here’s the second win of the Chinese player, who happens to be the number two in the world on the rapid rating list behind Carlsen:

Artemiev-Giri 2-1

After a devastating 3-0 win the other day, Artemiev needed just two game points. He got them with a win in the first game followed by two draws. Something went wrong early for Giri in that first game, where his novelty was a mistake:

All Games Day 5

The Goldmoney Asian Rapid runs June 26-July 4, 2021 on chess24. The preliminary phase was a 16-player rapid (15|10) round-robin. The top eight players advanced to a six-day knockout that consists of two days of four-game rapid matches, which advance to blitz (5|3) and armageddon (White has five minutes, Black four with no increment) tiebreaks only if a knockout match is tied after the second day. The prize fund is $100,000.

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