For the first time, all white players agreed on the first move: 1.c4. It was easy to see why. Just like the move 1.e4 in traditional chess, famously described as “Best by test” by Bobby Fischer in his book My 60 Memorable Games, 1.c4 in this position opened up the diagonals for both the queen and the light-squared bishop.

In this case, it was also a direct attack on Black’s h-pawn, threatening to win an exchange, while the move 2.Qb3 also looked menacing. As Vachier-Lagrave noted in the confession booth, Team Black was having a hard time coming up with a proper setup against this sort of double threat. Keymer agreed, describing the starting position as “quite tricky.”

Carlsen vs. Caruana ½-½

The clash between the two C’s, who played a classical world championship match in 2018, was one of the most interesting games – also according to Gukesh Dommaraju, who joined the commentary today.

Carlsen’s solution to White’s double threat mentioned in the intro was 1…Ng6, and Caruana seemed to agree with him that the greedy 2.Qb3 wasn’t as strong as it looked. Carlsen was planning to meet it with 1…b6 and “it’s nothing special,” as he explained in the confession booth.

Instead, we got some sort of symmetrical English, but still with an early pawn sacrifice by Carlsen. The world number one visited the confession booth in the opening phase, where he shared an incredibly deep line that he had calculated – truly impressive, even if the engine didn’t fully agree.

It didn’t come on the board and instead, another forcing line led to the elimination of all pawns on the queenside, followed by a trade of many pieces. The resulting RN vs RB endgame was just a draw, but a slightly careless Caruana almost got himself into trouble. He had to dug in a bit with knight vs. bishop, but drew the position easily.

“I was suffering from a risk-free position,” said Caruana. “Of course, it never went outside the bounds of a draw but it’s a bit stupid to suffer when I am basically pressing for free.”

“I’m happy, generally, with the way I approached the opening, compared to yesterday for instance,” said Carlsen. “Today, I was kind of more focused on trying to be solid, simplify, and I did a much better job than I have done in some other black games where I’ve been in trouble.”

On a more general note, Carlsen said that the players are already playing Chess960 at a higher level than, say, a year ago.

“We’re getting a lot better. I think we especially saw that in the rapid phase here. We’re still clueless at times, obviously, but especially in the openings we’re doing a lot better, just in the spawn of a couple of tournaments which is honestly encouraging to see. It means that even faster Freestyle tournaments can be quite playable.”

Carlsen took that into practice later in the day as he also participated in Chess.com’s Freestyle Friday!

Nakamura vs. Keymer ½-½

The players in this matchup answered a few questions in a brief interview just before the game, which is a nice thing happening here in Paris and sort of new in the chess world. Nakamura said: “For me it’s just really exciting to play Vincent because he’s obviously been the big surprise both in Weissenhaus and here so far; it should be a good match.”

About his perhaps surprising second appearance in the semifinals, Keymer said: “Most of the other players here are established top players for so, so many years so it’s kind of understandable that they are more in the heads of most spectators. I’m just happy with how the last match went and I’m now looking forward to the next one. I think in terms of preparation I did all that I could: more or less nothing except for coming here fresh and in a good mood and I think that’s the most important.”

Keymer chose a kind of “Slav approach,” answering 1.c4 with the solid 1…c6, because he did not like that 2.Qb3 move. The downside was that it allowed White to grab space with c4-c5, a “very principled” approach according to Keymer.

After the game, Nakamura noted that Caruana had told him in an earlier Chess960 tournament that he felt the c4-c5 push against the Slav structure with c6-d5 is “good in almost any position,” so he tried it. “And then somehow in the middle I couldn’t quite prove how to get the advantage,” he added.

About six moves into the game, Keymer said in the confession: “For now I don’t see a big issue with my position but I am very much aware that it can be very dangerous so I need to be very careful not to run into any kind of attack.”

While he continued to do OK on the board, things were getting slightly problematic on the clock. By move 32, he had just five minutes left on the clock vs. sixteen for Nakamura.

However, the American player then suddenly took 14 minutes for his 34th move, going under Keymer’s time and as the latter continued to play accurately, there was nothing more than a draw for a visibly disappointed Nakamura.

Afterward, the players had different opinions on what happened in the end, both thinking they were in a bit of trouble.

“I’m still kind of under the impression that in the middlegame I managed to get a slight edge and then kind of messed it up and maybe even got into an unpleasant position, although I didn’t see anything direct for him,” said Keymer. “It was very murky and at some point, I think I kind of lost control, I just lost a sense of danger. Towards the end I was probably in some trouble,” said Nakamura. The engine, however, thought it was always about equal.

Nepomniachtchi vs. Arjun 1-0

Arjun, now the world number four in classical chess, followed in Keymer’s footsteps (or the other way around) with the “Slav approach,” and like Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi grabbed space with the move c4-c5. In his case, he also prevented Black’s pawn break …e7-e5 with the Stonewall type of combo with pawns on d4 and f4.

Arjun’s other pawn break on move 10 was perhaps the first questionable decision by the Indian GM. He left the white pawn on a5 for a while, and also hesitated playing …e7-e5 (which had become an option), giving his opponent the chance to play 16.Rb6!, a typical positional exchange sacrifice (for the 518 connoisseurs, the archetype is 25…Rd4 in Liublinsky-Botvinnik, Moscow 1943).

It’s easy to give advice in hindsight and with the help of an engine, but the story comes down to: Arjun shouldn’t have taken that rook, and after his opponent pushed his a-pawn, he shouldn’t have allowed it to a7. But it’s easier said than done.

“His rook is always bound to a8,” said Nepomniachtchi. “With the pawn on a7 I felt like it has to be something. I think I have never seen this structure in my life, maybe only in studies, from e3 to a7, all pawns are connected, so this was delightful.”

Abdusattorov vs. Vachier-Lagrave 1-0

Vachier-Lagrave played Carlsen’s approach with 1…Ng6, but with a different idea in mind. In case of 2.Qb3, the Frenchman was considering the gambit 2…c5!? 3.Qxb7 Nb6 with compensation.

Abdusattorov, however, didn’t go pawn grabbing with 2.Qb3 either. Instead, it was him who went for an early pawn sac, and later won it back on h7. MVL had played well up till that point, but his push 16…g5 was the source of his future problems: his king would never be completely safe anymore.

From that moment, Abdusattorov played one strong move after another, really blow after blow, until a groggy MVL had to resign. The Frenchman later admitted: “He concluded in amazing fashion.”

“I think it was a decent game, quite decent chess, and I managed to find some good moves in time pressure so I’m very happy with my performance today,” said Abdusattorov, who is also noticing an increase in his level of play. “I feel that my general understanding of chess has improved since the first tournament. I am feeling more comfortable in the starting positions.”

Rapport vs. Praggnanandhaa ½-½

The match for ninth place started with a draw. Rapport got some slight chances in an endgame, but it was never very clear. This game also started symmetrical with both players snatching the opponent’s h-pawn. You take my rook, I take yours! After that flashy start, things calmed down and Praggnanandhaa just defended very well.