Magnus Carlsen Invitational Winner Anish Giri will return to the FIDE Candidates next week.
The second annual Magnus Invitational was held March 13-21. The event is a serious one in its own right, but it s also a direct preparation for the upcoming FIDE Candidates chess tournament for some of the participants.
The Magnus Invitational players who are also preparing for the upcoming Candidates tournament included Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier Lagrave (known as MVL), and Ian Nepomniachtchi; each of them had very different trajectories in the recent tournament.
MVL, who is tied for first place with Nepomniachtchi after the first half of the Candidates, surprisingly failed to advance to the Magnus Invitational Semifinals. Saving his preparation for the Candidates, MVL avoided critical lines and instead played more innocuous lines. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, his plans backfired.
What Is the Bongcloud Opening? Magnus Carlsen Plays Meme Chess Move Against Hikaru Nakamura
On 3/16/21 at 7:10 AM EDT
An unorthodox chess move known as the Bongcloud has surged in popularity after reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen used it in a competitive match on March 15, amusing spectators and his opponent.
The match in question featured Carlsen versus American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura as part of the 2021 Magnus Carlsen Invitational tournament. Nakamura has played a part in popularizing the move himself and has also used it in professional games.
The Bongcloud has become known as something of a meme in chess circles because it immediately places the player who uses it at a disadvantage from the beginning. It is known as an opening because it is the first move a player makes.
2021 Magnus Carlsen Invitational Day 1: Giri Early Leader
How to watch?
The games of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational preliminaries can be found here as part of our live events platform. IM Levy Rozman and IM Anna Rudolf are providing daily commentary on GM Hikaru Nakamura s Twitch channel starting at 8:00 a.m. Pacific / 17:00 Central Europe.
Last year, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational was the first of what soon became a series of online super-tournaments during the pandemic. This year, the event is the fourth leg of the 2020-2021 Champions Chess Tour, after the Skilling Open (won by So), the Airthings Masters (won by GM Teimour Radjabov), and the Opera Euro Rapid (won by So again).
Carlsen & Firouzja back for Norway Chess in May
Magnus Carlsen will be out to defend his Altibox Norway Chess title just 7 months after the 2020 tournament ended, with the organisers planning to return to a 10-player global event in May with the likes of Ding Liren and Wesley So back in Stavanger. There are more World Champions in action, with Anatoly Karpov set to play in the Tepe Sigeman & Co. Chess tournament in April, Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik to play in Dortmund in July, and we can dream of a return for Garry Kasparov as Chess9LX and the US Champs have been announced for Saint Louis.