Buettner’s bag, Aronian’s rap and Carlsen’s positional filter

The prize money for first place still has no owner, and it remains to be seen who will receive this biggest of the eight money bags on Friday. Magnus Carlsen may be the slight favorite, but Fabiano Caruana is, as in the 2018 World Championship match, an equal opponent. The two drew in the first final game on Thursday. Should they draw again on Friday, Caruana won’t fear a rapid play-off, as he stated in our interview.

Leko’s samurai sword first caught the public’s eye in August 2023 when he was commentating on the World Cup alongside Tania Sachdev – the Japanese weapon could be seen behind him in his chess room. It represents Leko’s passion for the works of the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645).

Unlike Musashi, whose path was paved by many a corpse, Leko has not yet used his samurai sword in battle. But back in the summer of 2023, he did not rule out the possibility of doing so should an emergency arise. Defending the Weissenhaus prize money would be one such situation.

WEISSENHAUS Freestyle Chess 2025

In the meantime, Leko has been warned for the 2025 edition. There will be even more money in the bag next year. In the stream of the first of two final days, Buettner announced that the WEISSENHAUS Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2025 is no longer very likely, as was the case just a few days ago, but a done deal. And with higher prize money than in 2024. Buettner also held out the prospect of further chess projects, but it would be another month or two before these were decided.

While Buettner had spent an evening and a night on intensive chess phone calls before the kick-off of the final, his super grandmasters were engaged in an intense debate. It had little to do with chess, although the second semi-final day with the dramatic Aronian-Caruana match would have provided plenty to talk about.

Instead, it was about rap and the art of rhyming, or more precisely: the question of whether “Rook e1” rhymes with “Yerevan”. After his semi-final defeat to Fabiano Caruana, Aronian devoted himself to the fine arts, which he appreciates. The freestyle rap challenge came just in time for him. Spectators of the tournament are invited to submit a rap. Aronian is the only player who takes part.

He presented his rap lines to his colleagues from the Super Grandmaster guild over dinner. And in view of Aronian’s freestyle rap, they were faced with a question that often arises when they see Aronian’s moves: Is that creativity running away with him, or is it legitimate, perhaps even brilliant?

On Thursday in the match for third place against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the answer was obvious: brilliant! In a lost rook game, Aronian spotted a clever stalemate trick that Abdusattorov missed (as did Vassily Smyslov in 1946, see below). Aronian saved himself into a draw. On Friday, at 0.5:0.5, the two will fight for third place and a somewhat smaller, but still veritably filled money bag containing 30,000 dollars.

Alireza Firouzja, who won his white game against Gukesh, has the best chance of taking fifth place (and thus qualifying for the 2025 tournament). Vincent Keymer has more than one hand on the 10,000 dollar case for 7th place. Keymer defeated Ding Liren.

You bet it’s possible!

On the board against Fabiano Caruana, Carlsen didn’t dwell for long on the weak point f7, which he knows from traditional chess. Instead, he looked for a way to play as simple a game as possible without taking any risks. Carlsen felt a little under the weather and therefore in no shape to start a complex battle against a Caruana in top form.

After pondering the first move for five minutes, the Norwegian uncorked a familiar pattern to counter Caruana’s 1.d4: the modern defense …g6, …d6 and …e5, which turned out to be an effective way to defuse White’s deployment plans in the center. Right from the start of the opening Caruana saw no more goals, no plans to gain an advantage, and instead tried to kill off the game.

“Yeah, it was very tricky,” Aronian said after the game. “I was lucky to get that move in the position. I thought I had such a nice position and then I ruined it. It’s good that I managed to survive.”