Liren, Carlsen and Gukesh in a must-win situation
Abdusattorov - Liren
The idea behind 25.c4 is quite simple. White wants to more files, b and g apart from the already accessible e-file. 25...bxc4 26.Re7 Ra5 followed by Rb5 would have been the best continuation for Black. 25...Bf7? 26.gxf5 bxc4 27.f6 and it was over for Black.
Firouzja - Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen once again made a mistake in the endgame 30...Kh7? Alireza Firouzja picked it up quite easily 31.Rf2 f4+ 32.Kf3 Rg1 33.Kg4 Kh6 34.Rxc7 White could take the pawn now as Re3 does not come with a check. 34...Re3 35.Kf5 Rge1 36.Re6+ Kh5 37.Rg6 and it's over for Black.
Photo Gallery
For more Quarterfinals Game 1 photos, please click at the following links: part 1, part 2 and part 3.
Video Gallery
twitter.com/i/status/1756701937838215577
Vidit Gujrathi tweeted about the Playoff format
twitter.com/i/status/1756577367391187244
Anish Giri praised Peter Leko's commentary in his own inimitable way
twitter.com/i/status/1756681662161645980
Format
Time: Rapid and Standard
• Round robin: rapid 25 min for the game + 10 sec per move according to A5 of the FIDE laws of chess
• Tiebreak: first direct encounter, second: number of wins, third: Sonneborn-Berger
• Quarter-, semi- and finals: Two games standard 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes rest of the game additional 30 seconds per move
In Case of Tiebreak
1:1 in quarter-, semi-final or final. Tiebreak in the evening:
• two rapid games 15 min for the game + 10 sec per move
• two blitz games 5 min for the game + 2 sec per move
• then one more blitz game until a winner is found
Replay live stream
Schedule
9th and 10th February: playoffs for starting order - Rapid
11th and 12th February: Quarterfinals - Classical
13th and 14th February: Semifinals - Classical
15th and 16th February: Finals - Classical
Replay Quarterfinals Game 1
QF Game 1 results
Nodirbek Abdusattorov - Ding Liren: 1-0
Alireza Firouzja - Magnus Carlsen: 1-0
Fabiano Caruana - D Gukesh: 1-0
Vincent Keymer - Levon Aronian: 0.5-0.5
