Magnus Carlsen advanced to the Grand Final of the Airthings Masters by beating Hikaru Nakamura in the winners’ bracket final. All four 15-minute games were drawn in the all-star showdown, leading to a sudden-death decider. Carlsen, who presented a bid merely one second shorter than Nakamura’s, drew with black in Armageddon to win the match. Nakamura will face either Wesley So or Arjun Erigaisi in the final of the losers’ bracket.
The two strongest and most consistent online-chess players in the world reached the final (in the winners’ bracket) of the Airthings Masters. Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura both drew their rapid encounters against Arjun Erigaisi and Wesley So, respectively, and went on to draw with black in Armageddon deciders to set up a much-anticipated showdown. Meanwhile, Alexey Sarana and Dommaraju Gukesh remain in contention in the losers’ bracket.
The Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with a gala on November 16th. However, the gala event was not the last event of the year as there was one more work session left. In the week before Christmas, from December 16-18, Garry Kasparov trained six talented youngsters, who had an average age of 13 and an average Elo rating of 2490. | Photos: Kasparov Chess Foundation