Magnus Carlsen pulled off a 2.5-1.5 victory over 16-year-old sensation Alireza Firouzja in one of the most awaited clashes of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational online chess tournament on Monday.
This second-round clash was followed with added interest since Firouzja stunned Carlsen 8.5-7.5 in the title-clash of the Banter Blitz Cup on April 16.
In the other match of the day, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Anish Giri by an identical scoreline. Nakamura won the first game with white pieces and drew the next three.
Carlsen won the first and third games with white pieces and drew the fourth to cross the finish-line. But the talking point of the day was Firouzja’s brilliant checkmating net in the second game. Carlsen visualised the inevitable, gave up his queen for a rook and resigned immediately.
Undeterred, Carlsen bounced back to score his seventh victory with white pieces in the tournament so far before drawing the fourth game in a positional battle.
With two more second round matches to be played, Carlsen (5 points) and Nakamura (4) occupy the top-two spots in the eight-player field.
The results:
Second round: Magnus Carlsen (Nor) bt Alireza Firouzja (FIDE) 2.5-1.5; Hikaru Nakamura (USA) bt Anish Giri (Ned) 2.5-1.5.
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