Magnus Carlsen on Thursday swept Fabiano Caruana off the virtual chessboard in the first quarter-final day of the TV 2 Sport 2 broadcast Chessable Masters where first place gives NOK 455,000 in prize money.
It started well for Carlsen on Saturday as well. With black chips against the man he beat in the previous World Cup match in long chess, there was a draw in the first fast chess game.
In the second game, with white tiles, it became a reasonably simple victory for the berry boy against the 27-year-old American.
– I think this is over. That’s some of the worst I’ve seen from Caruana ever, chess expert Jon Ludvig Hammer in TV 2’s studio broke out a bit in the party.
Afterwards, the criticism continued.
– This party was outrageous. The previous one was not good either. Magnus Carlsen cruiser to the semi-finals, noted a critical Hammer.
Carlsen then needed one point on the last two games to advance to the semi-finals. He secured this with victory in the third game, although Caruana then brought in a good preparation.
– Magnus hasn’t played particularly well at all. Caruana has been insanely bad, Hammer’s summary of the quarterfinals.
In an interview with TV 2 afterwards Magnus Carlsen agreed with Hammer in his assessments.
– In the last game he does not find the chances he has. Otherwise he lost largely without a fight in the others. He was not level in this match at all. That’s why it became a one-way stretch, said Carlsen, who also said he was happy with his own efforts.
Jan Nepomnashchij went to the semi-final after victory over Vladislav Artemiev. The other quarterfinals will continue on Sunday.
The semi-finals start on June 30 and are played over three days.
The finals go from July 3 to July 5.
Saturday came the announcement that Carlsen’s next World Cup match in long chess will be postponed until sometime in 2021.