Recap

Day one of the Clutch Chess International finals was an absolute thriller from start to finish. The two highest-ranked players, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana faced off in an echo of their 2018 World Championship match. This time around both players left blood on the battlefield; the commentators were enthralled and fans were left on the edge of their seats during the back-and-forth affair.

Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana qualified to the Clutch Chess International finals after defeating Levon Aronian and Wesley So in their respective matches. Carlsen’s four point lead at the beginning of the day allowed for smooth sailing to the finals, whereas Caruana had the titanic task of overcoming a four point deficit in his own match. The world’s number one and two will face off in a 12-game match, reminiscent of their 2018 World Championship match.

The semifinalists returned to action after the rest day ready to fight, as Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So took a commanding four point lead over Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana respectively. The matches mirrored each other in results, as neither Caruana nor Aronian were able to find their footing and score a single win. Even with a big score discrepancy, neither match is in the bag as wins in games 11 and 12 will be worth three points each, leaving room for big comebacks. Tomorrow, the two Clutch Chess International finalists will be decided.

Congratulations to Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana for defeating Alexander Grischuk and Leinier Dominguez respectively and qualifying to the semifinals. Both matches were highly contentious and were decided in the final clutch game. Dominguez and Grischuk are eliminated from the event, earning $15,000 each, with Grischuk picking up an extra $4,000 for his clutch game victories.

Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So for qualifying to the semifinals after defeating Jeffery Xiong and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave respectively. So clinched the match with a round to spare while the battle between Carlsen and Xiong was a close affair which was decided in the final game. Vachier-Lagrave and Xiong are both eliminated, earning $15,000 each, with Xiong collecting a bonus of $2,000 for defeating the World Champion in clutch game number 5.

Day two of Clutch Chess International featured two exciting match ups: Fabiano Caruana vs Leinier Dominguez and Levon Aronian vs Alexander Grischuk. The all American pairing was a rematch from their last encounter in the previous Clutch Chess USA, which Caruana won in a dominant fashion. He finished the first half of the match with a three point lead. Aronian and Grischuk are two of the most entertaining, creative and well-liked personalities in the chess world and their match today did not lack any flavor. The tumultuous six game struggle ended in the favor of the Armenian Grandmaster, but could have easily gone in the other direction.

The second installment of Clutch Chess has expanded internationally, featuring eight of the world’s top players and a prize fund of $265,000. The quarterfinals of Clutch Chess International kicked off with two exciting matchups: World Champion Magnus Carlsen vs the 19 year old American phenom Jeffery Xiong and the winner of Clutch Chess USA Wesley So vs France’s number one player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Woman Grandmaster Tatev Abrahamyan recaps the finals of the first Clutch Chess online knockout between Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana.

“Overall, a day with a lot of mistakes”, was GM Fabiano Caruana’s summation of day one of the Clutch Chess Finals. The world number two explained that their mistakes were understandable as all the games were complicated and difficult to play with little time on the clock.

After another exciting day of rapid chess, rivals and Olympiad teammates GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Wesley So will face off in the finals of Clutch Chess. Caruana found himself in hot water in several of the games but the 5 point lead was too much for Leinier Dominguez to overcome.