Airthings Masters: Carlsen starts with a win, Harikrishna bows out

League-topper Magnus Carlsen proved his superiority against young Russian Daniil Dubov with a precise display in rook-pawn endgame to win his opening game of the first best-of-four-rapid-game set in the quarterfinals of the $200,000 Airthings Masters online chess tournament on Tuesday.

The other three quarterfinals opened with drawn games.

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On Monday night, at the conclusion of the 11-round league, P. Harikrishna was part of the four-way tie for seventh place with five points. In spite of drawing 10 out of 11 games with the leading names, a fighting Harikrishna eventually finished ninth to bow out of the competition.

The results:

Quarterfinals: Set One (Game One): Magnus Carlsen (Nor) bt Daniil Dubov (Rus); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) drew with Wesley So (USA); Hikaru Nakamura (USA) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus) drew with Teimour Radjabov (Aze).

Preliminary league: Round 11: Radjabov drew with P. Harikrishna; Nepomniachtchi drew with Carlsen; So bt Dubov;  Nakamura bt Anish Giri (Ned); Alexander Grischuk (Rus) lost to Vachier; Aronian bt David Anton Guijar (Esp).

Round 10: Harikrishna drew with So; Carlsen bt Nakamura; Dubov drew with Aronian; Anton drew with Nepomniachtchi; Vachier drew with Radjabov; Giri drew with Grischuk;

Standings (after the league): 1-3. Carlsen, So, Nakamura (6.5 points each); 4-5. Nepomniachtchi, Radjabov (6 each); 6. Aronian (5.5); 7-10. Vachier, Dubov, Harikrishna, Grischuk (5 each); 11-12. Giri, Anton (4.5 each).