World number one Carlsen delivered the most dominant performance of the day, defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov in just 23 moves. The 20-year-old Uzbek grandmaster was outplayed straight from the opening and after two and a half hours, the game was over.

Carlsen played with 98.7 percent accuracy, according to computer analysis, and even found time to step into the confession booth, about 23 minutes into the game, to explain how he had unintentionally tricked his opponent.

The line Carlsen showed, suggesting Abdusattorov was afraid that White could keep his b1-rook, leads to a position where the engine thinks Black has more than enough compensation for the exchange, which shows once again how hard Chess960 really is to humans.

Carlsen: “He just thought this was bad for Black and it just shows how much we know, right, because it seems that it’s just borderline winning for Black!”

It was the only game where White’s first move 1.f4 was answered with the symmetrical 1…f5. “Nodirbek is kind of a macho guy,” Carlsen commented on that. “I think if he feels that 1.f4 f5 is kind of the principled approach, right? So, if he feels that way he’s gonna go 1…f5.”

Immediately taking White’s rook on b1 turned out to be a significant mistake. In the remainder, the main theme was White’s active queen, while its enemy counterpart hardly participated.

“I did feel really good coming into today; I felt rested and confident,” Carlsen started his interview on which the annotations below are based.

As the winner of the rapid, Alireza Firouzja could handpick Keymer the other day, suggesting that he felt he had the best chances against the 20-year-old German grandmaster. Keymer, however, impressed with a smooth and convincing victory. Playing with the black pieces, the German grandmaster delivered a strong performance, taking the lead in their match.

Keymer’s modest-looking 4…c6 was an excellent reaction, making a quick Bc7 and 0-0-0 possible, when Black is ready for a central pawn push. Firouzja’s play on the kingside with his h-pawn wasn’t working for him at all. Carlsen called it “an attempt at biting off a little more than he can chew.”

The drawn game between Sindarov and Nakamura had a twist. Sindarov’s bold decision to challenge Nakamura had raised eyebrows, and at first, it seemed like a mistake—Nakamura gradually outplayed him and looked poised for victory. But a late blunder in the endgame allowed Sindarov to find a crucial save, with his heart rate reaching 150 while executing it. (The players are all wearing Polar wrist bands to give the spectators more insight in their levels of stress during play.)

It was not the best opening for Nakamura perhaps, but at some point took over with some powerful moves. Around that time, Leko commented about Sindarov: “He was probably getting over-excited and carried away.”

It was completely unexpected that Nakamura failed to win the endgame. Judit Polgar called it “a very painful misplayed endgame. It is almost impossible to believe that he didn’t convert his advantage.”

Caruana and Gukesh played the most intense battle of the round. Both displayed exceptional resourcefulness, but in mutual time trouble, Caruana’s pressure became too much. The American grandmaster sealed the victory with the stunning final move 40…Rf3!!, making his passed pawn unstoppable.

Caruana described it as “a very tense, very difficult game. Of course, Gukesh is a very principled player so he was clearly playing fort an advantage.”

It actually went back and forth, and Gukesh definitely had winning chances as well. Only on move 33 he made the decisive mistake. By that time, both players were under three minutes.

Meanwhile, the match for ninth place also started today, played for the difference of $12,500 or $7,500 as well as either two Grand Slam points, or one. It was Levon Aronian who scored a relatively quick win against Vladimir Fedoseev, thereby redeeming himself a bit of that disappointing last place in the rapid round-robin.