Magnus Invitational Online Supertournament

[LawrenceCooper]

TWIC

Round 5 Standings: Carlsen (5 matches) 11pts, Nakamura (4) 10pts, Caruana, Ding (4) 8pts, MVL (5) 5pts, Nepomniachtchi (4) 5pts, Giri (5) 4pts, Firouzja (5) 3pts.

Round 5 Day 2 pairings Mon 27th April 2020 15:00 BST: Caruana-Nakamura and Nepomniachtchi-Ding

Caruana wins an armageddon game whilst Ding wins 2.5-1.5. The gap between 4th and 5th is now five points with two rounds to go.

[Mick Norris]

Right, so we have:

11 - Carlsen, Ding, Naka
10 - Caruana
5 - MVL, Nepo
4 - Giri
3 - Firouzja

Top 4 qualify; 2 matches each to go

[Steven DuCharme]

Congrats to herr Carlsen on his magnificent streak

[LawrenceCooper]

Magnus blunders on move 7 with white and goes one down v Nepo

[Roger de Coverly]

Magnus blunders on move 7 with white and goes one down v Nepo

First 7 moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Bc4 Nxe4 6. Qh5 e6 7. Bxe6 which fails to 7. .. Bxe6 8. Bxe6 Qe7

Was move 5 just a mouse slip?

[PeterFarr]

First 7 moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Bc4 Nxe4 6. Qh5 e6 7. Bxe6 which fails to 7. .. Bxe6 8. Bxe6 Qe7

Was move 5 just a mouse slip?

No, it seems not,as he played it in round 7 against MVL, but MVL declined the sacrifice. Apparently you should play 7.Bb5+ before taking on e6, though it still looks dodgy.

[LawrenceCooper]

Magnus wins his match after winning the armageddon game. Firouzja is 2-1 up against Giri.

[MartinCarpenter]

Naka was on commentary for a bit and he'd looked briefly and the idea after 5.. Nxe4 seemed to just be 6 o-o and playing for a bit of compensation.

Goodness knows what happened. Deeply impressive that he could mentally reset afterwards!

[LawrenceCooper]

Nakamura beats Ding in an armageddon game after four draws whilst Caruana beats MVL 2.5-1.5.

[LawrenceCooper]

Naka beat MVL in an armageddon game to top the league. Ding beat Carlsen 3-1 to finish second. I think that Carlsen finished third on head to head v Caruana. Caruana lost 1.5-2.5 to Giri whilst Nepo won an armageddon game against Firouzja.

"The Final Four knockout will see the following semifinal pairs: Nakamura - Caruana (May 1) and Ding Liren - Carlsen (May 2)."

[Mick Norris]

The final four matches will be over 4 rapid games, if tied two pairs of blitz games will be played to try and resolve the match before a final single decisive Armageddon game.

according to TWIC

[LawrenceCooper]

The final four matches will be over 4 rapid games, if tied two pairs of blitz games will be played to try and resolve the match before a final single decisive Armageddon game.

according to TWIC

Nakamura beat Caruana 4-2.

[David Sedgwick]

Nakamura beat Caruana 4-2.

Rapid Game 4 and Blitz Game 1 are well worth a look.

[Chris Rice]

Carlsen blows game 2 of the semi final where he looked like he was pushing for a win.

[Chris Rice]

Carlsen, after an awful opening, levels with a win in Game 3.