Carlsen-Caruana Final Starts With Draw As Firouzja, Keymer Win
World number-one Magnus Carlsen missed a chance for more as he made a draw with Black against GM Fabiano Caruana in game one of the 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge Final. GM Levon Aronian found a miracle escape against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the third-place match, while GMs Alireza Firouzja and Vincent Keymer took the lead against GMs Gukesh Dommaraju and Ding Liren respectively.
The last day will be Friday, February 16, starting at 7 a.m. ET / 13:00 CET / 5:30 p.m. IST.
There were two decisive results on the first day of the final matches, but the games that mattered most finished all-square—though not without some adventures!
Final Day 1 Results
Caruana ½-½ Carlsen
Playing classical Chess960, or Freestyle Chess, may be a novelty, but the players who've risen to the top are not. Carlsen, after a shaky start, is playing like the G.O.A.T. from the tournament's title, while Caruana is displaying the form that made him arguably the player of 2023. Just as when they clashed in a world championship match back in 2018 they're ranked world numbers one and two, and once again it seems there's little to divide them. They made 12 classical draws back then. This time it's just one so far, but some are never satisfied!
Short solid 25 move draw, of course.
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) February 15, 2024
Carlsen-Caruana snooze fest is back.😅 pic.twitter.com/r2rJVdB19K
As always in Freestyle Chess, it's hard to predict the first moves, with commentator GM Peter Leko certain that Carlsen wouldn't copy Ding and go for 1...g6. The timing was perfect!
Peter Leko: "I'm certain that Magnus will not play the move 1...g6"
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 15, 2024
You know what happens next! 😂#FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/oIjyAuTxff
Carlsen commented, "It really felt like such a solid starting position that I could make common sense moves and be fine," and he also took the time for a classy knight manuever Ng8-f6-d7 before putting a pawn on f6 and restricting his opponent's knight. Caruana's 5.b3!? was described as "probably a structural mistake" by Carlsen, and soon it was just a question of how significant Black's advantage was.
There were nuances that both players overlooked, while the biggest chance was gone almost before it appeared on the board. Caruana's 17.Bxe6?! achieved its goal of heading for a quick draw, since Carlsen replied with the most natural move in the world 17...Bxe6?!. It turns out, however, that 17...Rxe6! would have given Black real chances. When shown the move the world number-one understood instantly, but talked of "positional filters," before regretting, "it didn't even occur to me! If I'd spent more than one second on taking back..."
The game hurtled toward a draw.
The first game of the #FreestyleChess final ends in a draw — Magnus will have White in tomorrow's final classical game! pic.twitter.com/E9p4uENc7F
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 15, 2024
Small misses aside, both players could be relatively satisfied. Carlsen explained he'd felt "pretty sh*tty and unenergetic from the morning" and was in no mood to take risks, while Caruana had realized mid-game that he was in some danger:
"I felt there was a great deal of strategic risk, because his pieces are just better than mine. My knight on f3 is misplaced, my king is potentially more vulnerable. I think the mistake I made was that I assumed that because he can’t castle so easily he would have some long-term difficulties with his king, but his king is very stable on b8, where it stands, and I don’t have targets, and I thought that maybe tactically I would be able to find some way to disturb him, but it wasn’t really the case."
🤓@FabianoCaruana gives us insight on his gameplay in his match against @MagnusCarlsen in the finals. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/jswQ5EvJpB
— freestyle-chess (@chess_freestyle) February 15, 2024
Tomorrow's second game, and potentially tiebreaks, will decide who takes home $60,000 in cash—if the money is still there when the event ends!
Peter Leko regrets not having brought his Samurai sword to protect the $60,000 top prize! #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/6xnpLFUhDj
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 15, 2024
That was one of the quietest Chess960 games we'd witnessed this week, but the same couldn't be said about any of the remaining games.
Abdusattorov ½-½ Aronian
Abdusattorov and Aronian are battling for $10,000, i.e. the difference between $30,000 for third place and $20,000 for fourth. An intense first game saw Abdusattorov outfox Aronian in the U.S. star's time-trouble, but then added more evidence to the maxim that "all rook endgames are drawn." The key position of the game never actually appeared on the board:
It looks dead lost for Aronian, but what he'd spotted, and the commentators suddenly realized, was that it's in fact a draw after capturing the pawn on g4. When White takes back it's stalemate, as Black has no moves, but isn't in check.
Leko spots the amazing stalemate that looks to be saving Aronian after Abdusattorov blundered into it! #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/7MJU3dzBgZ
— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 15, 2024
That idea was why Aronian's 46...Kc4!! had been a stroke of genius, and a very rude awakening for Abdusattorov.
The battle for the lower places in the tournament saw two decisive games.
Firouzja 1-0 Gukesh
Firouzja had come close to the main Semifinals after taking the lead against Carlsen, but being knocked down into the lower bracket has some advantages. He commented after his win: "I’m playing ambitiously with nothing to lose!"
I'm playing ambitiously with nothing to lose!
—Alireza Firouzja
Both Firouzja and Gukesh have found their form, and their clash was predictably enjoyable, with sharp tactics everywhere. That's our Game of the Day, and has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below:
Alas, there's one player who has never found his feet in Weissenhaus.
Keymer 1-0 Ding
World champion Ding is yet to win a game and has now suffered nine defeats. It was the same story on Thursday, when his fourth move already appeared to be a serious positional mistake. By move 16, when Keymer spotted 16.Qg1!, the writing was on the wall, with Ding, a fantastic calculator when on form, putting up next to no resistance.
Keymer is now a draw away from taking seventh place, the very least he deserves for his enterprising play in the event.
All four matches must end Friday, when ties after classical chess will be decided in rapid, blitz, and potentially armageddon tiebreaks.
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 finally an armageddon game. The prize fund is $200,000 with $60,000 for first place.
The live broadcast of the day, hosted by IM Tania Sachdev, GM Peter Leko, GM Niclas Huschenbeth, and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni.
Previous posts:
- Day 6: Caruana Blunders 2 Rooks But Still Sets Up Carlsen Final
- Day 5: Carlsen, Aronian With One Foot In Freestyle Chess Final
- Day 4: Carlsen Storms Back To Join Abdusattorov, Caruana, Aronian In Semis
- Day 3: Carlsen, Ding Defeated In First Classical Chess960 Games
- Day 2: Abdusattorov Beats Carlsen To Win Rapid, Plays Ding In Quarterfinals
- Day 1: Gukesh Beats Carlsen As Keymer Takes Early Freestyle Chess Lead
- Carlsen, Ding, Caruana In New $200,000 Classical Fischer-Random Event
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
