Julius Baer CCT Finals: Praggnanandhaa storms into Semifinals
GM R Praggnanandhaa completely dominated IM Volodar Murzin (RUS) as he beat him in three consecutive games to storm into the Semifinals of Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour Finals. Pragg did not give a single fragment of opportunity in all three games. The battle between IM Christopher Yoo and GM Lei Tingjie was very close. The only female player in the Finals bounced back in the second game after suffering a loss. The next two Rapid games and the first Blitz tie-break was also drawn. Yoo made a fantastic comeback in the second blitz tie-break to win the game from a completely lost position. Keymer-Leon and Liang-Abdusattorov Quarterfinal matches will take place today from 7:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Rupali Mullick
Yoo swindles Tingjie in tie-breaks
Praggnanandhaa will face the winner between Vincent Keymer and Leon Mendonca, Yoo will be up against the winner of Awonder Liang and Nodirbek in the Semifinals which will take place tomorrow 16th October 2021.
Murzin - Praggnanandhaa: 0-3
IM Volodar Murzin (RUS) dropped a pawn in an increasingly difficult position against GM R Praggnanandhaa.
Murzin - Pragg, Game 1
Both a2 and c5-pawns were under attack. White decided to remove the guard for c5-pawn too and Black immediately took it 22...Nxc5. The c-pawn flew to c4 and then invited d-pawn to join the party. Black scored an academic victory.
Murzin castled on the wrong side of the board and put the king in jeopardy in the second game.
Praggnanandhaa - Murzin, Game 2
Position after 22...0-0
22...Qd7 with a future plan for a long castle would have been a safer choice. Black's position rapidly fell apart as 23.f3 Qd7 24.fxg4 fxg4 25.Bh6 h4 26.Bxf8 Rxf8
Find out the finishing blow for White in the above position.
Murzin being down by 0-2 was in a must-win situation in the third game. However, he was unable to launch any kind of offense and eventually suffered third consecutive loss and got eliminated from the event.
Replay all games of Quarterfinals Day 1
Replay the live stream
Quarterfinal results
Schedule
Every day between 14th and 17th October, game starts at 7:30 p.m. IST.
Format
The format for the final eight-player knockout will be four rapid games with 10 minutes per player for each game, plus a 5-second increment added each move. If the score is level at 2:2 a playoff will feature two 5+3 blitz games. If needed, there will be Armageddon to decide the winner of the match.
