Chessable Masters quarterfinals: Giri, Grischuk play out five back-to-back draws

Catch all the live updates, highlights and more from our coverage of Chessable Masters, the third event of the million-dollar Magnus Carlsen Chess tour.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen and 11 more of the world's best chess players are competing in the Chessable Masters, the third event in the $1million Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour.

Good evening! Hello and welcome to the highlights of Chessable Masters, the third event of the $1million Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour.

It was hard to imagine World champion Magnus Carlsen dominate World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana   the way he did on Thursday.

The world’s best player simply destroyed his nearest challenger in the world rankings by handing out a 2.5-0.5 drubbing in the first set of rapid games in the quarterfinals of the $150,000 Chessable Masters.

In the other quarterfinal of the day, Ian Nepomniachtchi,

  too, scored a 2.5-0.5 over his young Russian compatriot Vladislav Artemiev.

Carlsen won the first game with white pieces after gaining a pawn-advantage. In the second, Carlsen worked a bit harder to score another authoritative victory with black pieces. In the third, Carlsen realised Caruana misplayed the opening phase and pushed his rival on the defensive. Carlsen did not press too hard for the win and forced a draw by perpetual checks for the half-point needed to close the first set of rapid games.

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“It was a pretty good day but I just got to keep it up,” said Carlsen after winning the match. He also revealed that in the second game, a mouse slip did not prove costly, as he got lucky to get a counter-attack going.

Ian Nepomniachtchi gained from a connectivity issue faced by Artemiev in the first game and ‘won’ in a completely drawn position.

In trouble, Nepomniachtchi sacrificed a rook to get into a position where he could force a draw by perpetual checks. When the internet connection was lost for Artemiev, he had an extra rook and a knight. Unfortunately, Artemiev’s lost connection decided the game.

In the second game, Artemiev raised visions of levelling the score but Nepomniachtchi defended well to earn a draw.

In the third, Nepomniachtchi traded a bishop for a rook and easily converted his advantage to close the clash, and match Carlsen’s scoreline.

The quarterfinals involve best-of-three sets of best-of-four rapid games and if needed, blitz games. Today, the other two quarterfinals - Hikaru Nakamura vs Ding Liren and Alexander Grischuk vs Anish Giri - will take place.

The results Quarterfinals, Day 1:  Magnus Carslen (Nor) beat Fabiano Caruana (USA) 2.5-0.5; Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus) beat Vladislav Artemiev (Rus) 2.5-0.5 Quarterfinal line-up Magnus Carlsen (Nor) v Fabiano Caruana (USA); Ding Liren (Chn) v Hikaru Nakamura (USA); Vladislav Artemiev (Rus) v Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus); Alexander Grischuk (Rus) v Anish Giri (Ned).

Follow all the live action from Friday's 'Final 8' matches:

THE QUARTERFINALISTS:

Name	Country	Age	Rapid rating	World ranking	Blitz rating	World ranking	Classical rating	World ranking
GROUP A
Magnus Carlsen	Norway	29	2881	1	2887	2	2863	2
Alexander Grischuk	Russia	36	2774	7	2799	14	2777	14
Hikaru Nakamura	USA	32	2829	4	2900	1	2736	18
Vladislav Artemiev	Russia	22	2769	13	2783	12	2716	29
GROUP B
Fabiano Caruana	USA	27	2773	11	2711	35	2835	2
Ding Liren	China	27	2836	3	2788	8	2791	3
Ian Nepomniachtchi	Russia	29	2778	9	2785	10	2784	4
Anish Giri	Netherlands	25	2731	24	2752	22	2764	10