the First meeting of the semifinal series to three victories ended with the score of 3.5-2.5 in favour of the American. Oaks started with a brilliant, sparkling win by putting the Mat Nakamura in 17 moves. But to develop success failed. In the second game Daniel made a mistake that allowed Hikaru to equalise, and then take the lead. The Russians did not give up, got another point and turned the game in the playoffs, consisting of two blitz games. And Nakamura was referred to as the king of blitz. However, at first, rivals played a draw, and then Nakamura showed his class with the white pieces. The match was ambiguous, but the result is the grandmaster of US completely arranged. “I won, so I’m quite happy”, – quotes the words of Nakamura official site of the International chess Federation (FIDE).
despite the fact that these two players are very rarely met over the Board in person, their online confrontation in the course Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour was always very exciting. Daniel won the tournament Lindores Rapid Challenge, where the final beat just Nakamura. He took a kind of revenge when they knocked the Russians out of the circular round Chessable Masters and would not let him in the quarter-finals. See where the mind games will lead Dubov and Nakamura at this time.
meanwhile, the second semifinal pair has already sprung a surprise. The current world champion Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who won three of the four tournaments, lost to the Chinese Ding Liren. This unexpected result is not only the previous successes of the Norwegian, but absolutely disastrous performance of the Chinese in the previous step. But apparently, he was able to switch to a new tournament and Carlsen didn’t let go. It came to Armageddon. The party of death also ended in a draw. In this case, the victory is awarded to the GM who was black. This was GM Ding Liren. Magnus shook his head, not believing the outcome. And the opponent exuded happiness, recognizing that the favorite was Carlsen.
However, the Norwegian will have the chance to change the situation. The semifinal series will continue until August 13, the final will be held 14-20 August. The winner will receive 140 thousand dollars.
