In the 2024 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland, GM Magnus Carlsen was just one game away from defeating GM Gukesh Dommaraju and securing the lead, but he had to settle for a tie for first place with GM Wei Yi, who won all three of his games on day two. With two victories, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and former leader GM Kirill Shevchenko are only one point behind.
Carlsen Makes Progress, But There’s Potential for More
In the opening match of the day, Carlsen took against Shevchenko, the unbeaten leader, and it appeared like a perfect chance for the world champion to establish his dominance. Thus, it should come as no surprise that he appeared unhappy throughout the 57-move draw in which he had no meaningful opportunities.
But as it happened, the Norwegian’s chances of winning the championship were not affected by the outcome. Shevchenko lost the next two games, sadly, while Carlsen did his usual Carlsen thing, turning a strong knight against an average bishop position into a stronger queen endgame that he won in 107 moves against GM Nordirbek Abdusattorov, a player who has before outplayed him in queen endgames. The recognition was well-earned.
That set up the matchup with Gukesh, a contender for the world championship, wonderfully. The players gave us an exciting opening before the 17-year-old withdrew with 10.Nf3.
He continued: “Obviously 10.Qh5 is the main move here, but I couldn’t remember all the details, and I thought it was risky to play this without proper knowledge, so I tried to play something simple but he just easily matched.”
It was worse than that because Carlsen took command and developed a strong sense of leadership. Then, an exchange sac made accuracy crucial, and one mistake put Gukesh in a losing position. But neither side took it lightly, and the world number one missed the opportunity to win.
Wei, the winner of the Tata Steel Chess Masters this year, jumped into a joint lead on day two with a perfect 6/6 score thanks to Carlsen’s mistake.
Wei Yi Shows New Tata Steel Form![Rapid & Blitz](https://boardofchess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/php8RqfN8.jpg)
On day one, Wei had two draws and lost to Carlsen; but, on day two, he recovered. He opened with a win over GM Anish Giri, which he acknowledged was a little lucky given that his opponent had a strong position up until he ran into time issues, lost the plot, and was eliminated by an evil attack.
Move 28: Black is totally out of the game, with weak pawns on b7, d6, and h5, while White’s pieces have excellent outposts. All of the pieces are still on the board.
Wei’s win over Shevchenko in the last round was yet another master class; he maintained constant pressure, made perfect tactics against his opponent’s Alapin Sicilian, and then scored flawlessly—up to a point. Wei had a queen and four extra pawns against two rooks when the position became simpler.
With a weak smile, he said, “I thought every move was winning, but then I found the only way to draw!” It seems like the win never really went away technically (based on tablebases), but Shevchenko was able to build what felt to be a stronghold before Wei’s effort finally paid off in 75 moves.
A Positive Day for India
For the Indian three, their first day in Warsaw was really difficult, but by day two, everything fell into place. GM Arjun Erigaisi lost his opening game against Duda, but he came back and beat Shevchenko, the tournament leader, in a textbook game.
The other two Indian superstars, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa, faced off against one another at first, with Gukesh believing his opponent overly aggressively played a strong position. Though it was effectively game over, it may have paid off, with the computer noting out that 25…Rxf1+! would have been strong instead of 25…Rf2? 26.Qg4!.
When the argument was brought out to Gukesh, he was taken aback, but he also noticed that his opponent had too little time. too was where he believed he had improved on day two: “Yesterday it was a long time since I’d played some rapid and my time management was so bad, but my games were quite good, so I was not that worried about my games, but today I just made sure I managed my time better, and I’m quite happy.”
Keymer was next penalized by Gukesh for failing to castling in a tricky game that included a questionable king travel and a tempting queen sacrifice at the end.
The candidates for the world championship had recovered to 50% and finished strongly by pushing over Carlsen.
Although a bad start to the day, Praggnanandhaa was able to bounce back by defeating Giri in a wild game that offered yet another terrifying look at the limitations of modern computer preparation.
“There were many options for Black, but most of them go into some crazy issues and he went wrong there, and I had to find a couple of correct moves, which weren’t too difficult,” stated Praggnanandhaa, adding that both players were aware of the line but his opponent was unclear of what it meant.
“It would have been nice if I’d taken Rxf1+ in the previous game to show to the kids, but I didn’t, so I have to show this now,” he said in response to a question about whether he would want such a strange game presented to children.
It was a day to forget for the German number one, as he ended the day by trapping Keymer’s queen in a far simpler way.
Praggnanandhaa is tied for third place, only one point behind Carlsen, whom he will play against in round seven and might pass with two points if he wins. With Gukesh and Arjun just one point back, the Indian stars have everything to gain heading into the last day of the fast and the upcoming blitz weekend.