Magnus Carlsen's last game as world chess champion is not one that he is likely to remember fondly. Carlsen, who has held the title since 2013 but chose not to take part in.
The final three rounds of the Aimchess Rapid preliminaries were played on Monday. Eight out of sixteen players moved on to the knockout, with Jan-Krzysztof Duda the top scorer in the single round-robin. Suspense regarding who would make it through was limited to two players, as Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi entered the fifteenth round with chances of getting the coveted eighth spot in the knockout. In the end, it was Vidit who advanced to the quarterfinals, mainly thanks to Arjun Erigaisi’s victory over Giri.
India's chess star Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and world champion Magnus Carlsen made it two wins out of two as the FTX Crypto Cup favourites powered into an early lead.On Tuesday night, Praggnanandhaa narrowly beat Anish Giri in the four-game .
The FTX Crypto Cup, the second Major of this year’s Meltwater Champions Tour, kicked off at the Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel in Florida. Magnus Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Levon Aronian all started strong, beating their respective opponents ‘in regulation’ i.e. within the first four rapid games of each match. Notably, Pragg defeated Alireza Firouzja in the duel between rising stars.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda won the Superbet Rapid & Blitz tournament in Warsaw. The Polish star collected 6½/9 points on the final day of action to overcome long-time sole leader Vishy Anand in the standings table. Anand tied in second place with Levon Aronian, who scored 13½/18 points in the blitz section and thus climbed to first place in the blitz world ranking. | Photo: Lennart Ootes