Keymer said in the confession booth: “This starting position was again kind of interesting and weird!” We saw 1.f4 f5 three times today, incidentally in games that all ended in draws (Carlsen-Keymer, Sindarov-Caruana, Gukesh-Nakamura), and once a “Caro-Kann” with 1.e4 c6 (Firouzja-Abdusattorov) which ended decisively.

Carlsen-Keymer 0.5-1.5

Organizer Jan Henric Buettner called it “the Boris Becker moment” for Vincent Keymer, hoping for a similar uplift in chess as what Becker meant for tennis in Germany. We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the coming years, but it’s clear that the 20-year-old grandmaster from Mainz – a city that hosted several Chess960 World Championships around the time he was born there! – achieved one of the best results of his career so far.

Playing on home turf, Keymer reached the final and secured at least $140,000 (and at least 18 Grand Slam points). On top of that, he has qualified for the second leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Paris, alongside Carlsen and Caruana who will surely be there on rating.

“Of course playing a match against Magnus… I felt quite decent about my form or shape in general so I was hoping at the very least to give a very good fight,” said the match winner afterward. “Playing Magnus you can’t really expect to win the match, so I was quite relaxed in that sense, just trying to play good chess and see what happens.”

Carlsen, in a must-win game, didn’t get a good position out of the opening. In the confession booth he called his first move 1.f4 “maybe a bit superficial” and was not reading his opponent well as he expected a “double Stonewall structure” whereas Keymer refrained from playing …d5 actually. The local hero got a great position, but didn’t handle it well.

“Out of the opening, my position was so great, I was up on the clock and everything was perfect,” said Keymer. “Then I got ambitious in the sense that I didn’t even want to let him play, I kind of wanted to finish it off, which ended really badly. It’s kind of ridiculous to mess up such a position so badly.”

After the tables turned, Vladimir Fedoseev, who joined the commentary, said: “This is his kind of position,” referring to Carlsen having a better, perhaps winning endgame after 30.Bh3. But Keymer showed strong mental resilience there as he found the practically excellent try 30…Na5. His main idea, 32…b6, was missed by Carlsen, who was visibly upset when it was played on the board. In the remainder, Keymer skillfully steered the game into the drawing haven.

Sindarov-Caruana 3-4

“The chairs are shaking because the players are shaking,” noted Judit Polgar at some point and this described the mini-match between Caruana and Sindarov pretty well. A lot of ups and downs and a lot of tension provided the fans with a truly exciting and long day of chess.

Just like in his semifinal match with Levon Aronian last year, Caruana went all the way to Armageddon to clinch his spot in the final. Seven and a half hours after the start, and not without fortune, the 32-year-old American grandmaster managed to outsmart 19-year-old Sindarov in that Armageddon game after surviving a dead lost position in the second blitz game.

The second classical game between Sindarov and Caruana was already quite the affair. “A complicated starting position again,” said Caruana in the confession booth. “Maybe a bit dangerous for Black but it shouldn’t be bad if we’re playing it accurately.”

Well, he failed to do so because it was the Uzbek GM who missed a big chance on move 16 to get a very big advantage. Then, at the end of the game, Caruana went for a repetition of moves in time trouble where he actually had a forced win which required a bit of calculation that the American player should have been capable of. But, at the board, with all the tension, it’s never easy.

In the first rapid playoff game, the drama continued as it was Sindarov who missed a win in the knight endgame:

The second rapid playoff game was another tremendous fight with, this time, no huge mistakes and so the game ended in a draw after 87 moves. Next on the menu: two blitz games! Both of them followed the same scenario, with White doing very well but eventually losing…

First, it was Caruana who spoiled a good position and then went down in an attack on his king:

The second blitz game quickly looked like standard chess: some kind of English opening where Black chose a King’s Indian setup. This version, however, was very good for White and Caruana was just hanging on by a thread. He went for his last chance with a piece sacrifice, and it worked:

For the Armageddon game, White would always start with five minutes and both players were bidding for the time they wanted to play with the black pieces, with draw odds. Caruana’s time (4:15) was lower than Sindarov’s (4:45), so the American player got the black pieces.

In another game that quickly looked like standard chess, Caruana managed to equalize without too much trouble and then he won a pawn. Sindarov later found some dangerous tactics, but this time Caruana kept a clear head and ended up with an extra piece.

Sindarov resigned on move 36 and when the arbiter asked Caruana whether it was a draw or a win for him, he replied: “It doesn’t matter!”

Firouzja-Abdusattorov 0.5-1.5

Abdusattorov was the first player to reach the match for fifth place without needing a tiebreak. Firouzja, who blundered terribly in today’s second classical game, who will now have to play for seventh place, a disappointing turn of events after he won the rapid round-robin.

This game, which started with the “Caro-Kann” moves 1.e4 c6, was another one of those games that went Firouzja’s way, until a certrain point. The French-Iranian grandmaster outplayed his opponent and got a close to winning position, but the complicated matters too much and eventually blundered the game away.

Gukesh-Nakamura 1.5-2.5

Nakamura initially had another disappointment to deal with as he outplayed Gukesh from the black side in their second classical game, only to spoil a winning advantage once again, just like he had done in the quarterfinals. But this time, the American grandmaster did manage to win the playoff as he clinched the second game after a draw in the first.

Gukesh was in fact much better in that second playoff game, if only he had secured his kingside with the move g2-g3 at some point. As it went, the classical world champion allowed a tactical shot that should have led to a draw, but after a blunder, he ended up in a lost endgame:

This means we have the following matchups for the coming two days:

Caruana-Keymer (Final)

Carlsen-Sindarov (3rd/4th Place)

Abdusattorov-Nakamura (5th/6th Place)

Gukesh-Firouzja (7th/8th Place)