GM Magnus Carlsen was in a category of his personal on the preliminaries of the Julius Baer Generation Cup. Ending with three extra victories, he completed first with a 2937 efficiency score, earlier than giving his first interview since withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup two weeks in the past—however he did not say a lot.

Carlsen performs GM Levon Aronian within the spherical of 16 that begins on Thursday. The different pairings are GM Arjun Erigaisi vs GM Christopher Yoo, GM Hans Niemann vs. GM Le Quang Liem, and GM Praggnanandhaa R. vs. GM Vincent Keymer.

The greatest information of the day was Carlsen lastly breaking the media silence as he agreed to be interviewed on the official broadcast. Asked why he resigned after making his first transfer towards Niemann, Carlsen mentioned:

“Unfortunately I can not significantly converse on that however folks can draw their very own conclusion and so they definitely have. I’ve to say I’m very impressed by Niemann’s play and I feel his mentor GM Maxim Dlugy should be doing an important job.”

I’ve to say I’m very impressed by Niemann’s play and I feel his mentor Maxim Dlugy should be doing an important job.
—Magnus Carlsen

Right after Carlsen’s interview, a few journalists approached Chess.com to confirm if rumors of Dlugy dishonest on Chess.com had been true, however the CEO of the corporate identified that it was too early to provide a public assertion in regards to the matter.

Earlier within the day, FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky mentioned in an interview that FIDE has been in contact with Chess.com and that the International Chess Federation is predicted to return with an announcement inside a couple of days. That can be very welcome, as a result of the chess world desperately wants the state of affairs to be resolved.

Carlsen was additionally requested how the entire state of affairs affected him. He replied: “I’m doing OK, simply dwelling my life and making an attempt to do properly in tournaments. People who know me and adopted as an illustration the match in Zagreb in 2019 know that I can type of shut issues out after I play.”

With that, he was referring to his victory on the 2019 Croatia Grand Chess Tour regardless of getting a number of criticism in Norway for making an attempt to get the Norwegian Chess Federation to simply accept a $5.9 sponsorship cope with playing firm Kindred Group.

Carlsen gained that match in Zagreb with a 2943 efficiency score and returned to his highest-ever score of 2882. Also within the preliminaries of this Generation Cup, his TPR was above 2900. 

His sport with Yoo appeared fairly artistic though the idea of opening the g-file was nonetheless principle:

“I really feel like the standard of my video games maybe drifted a little bit bit, the final couple right now, however total it was superb,” Carlsen mentioned. Keymer was very near beating him within the last spherical. The German teenager certified anyway, having overwhelmed Erigaisi within the penultimate spherical.

It seems Carlsen is an inspiration for the brand new era additionally in the case of making off-beat first strikes in these fast occasions. Here, 1…a6 rapidly led to a standard middlegame place after which Keymer performed a high quality, positional sport.

15-year-old Yoo bounced again strongly from his loss to Carlsen given above. By ending with two wins, together with a must-win vs. Le within the last spherical, he made it into the highest eight.

“I form of really feel like I’ve had nothing to lose and I simply tried to play with no concern and simply tried to play, benefit from the video games and get difficult positions,” Yoo mentioned afterward. “It’s form of good to be that man that no one actually expects something of. You haven’t any expectations of your self both, so you may simply play carefree chess.”

Julius Baer Generation Cup Preliminaries | Final Standings

All Games Day 4

The 2022 Champions Chess Tour’s seventh occasion, the Julius Baer Generation Cup, takes place September 18-25, 2022 on chess24. The preliminary part was a 16-player fast (15|10) round-robin. The prime eight gamers superior to the knockout part which consists of two days of four-game fast matches, which advance to blitz (5|3) and armageddon (White has 5 minutes, Black 4 with no increment) tiebreaks provided that a knockout match is tied after the second day. The prize fund is $150,000.