Superbet R&B 2023 Day 3: Duda tops Rapid, Carlsen ends win drought
FIDE World Cup 2021 winner, Jan-Krzysztof Duda grabbed sole after the ninth round of rapid. Poland no.1 has scored 13/18 and he is undefeated so far. He defeated the former World Blitz champion, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the eighth round. It was Duda's first win against him since August 2019 in a rated game, which was also a Grand Chess Tour Blitz event in Paris. The world no.24 drew against Levon Aronian in the final round of Rapid. Aronian is currently at second place 12/18, followed by Wesley So and MVL sharing third place with 11/18 each. Magnus Carlsen ended his win drought by winning against Bogdan-Daniel Deac and Kirill Shevchenko consecutively. He moved up to the fifth place 10/18. Blitz Round 1 starts today from 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour
Carlsen wins two in-a-row
The World no.1 played some online games, won a few and translated the same over the board on the third day of Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2023. He is now at fifth place scoring 10/18, three points behind Duda. 18 rounds of Blitz left to be played, nine today and the remaining nine tomorrow.
Kirill - Carlsen, Round 8
GM Kirill Shevchenko (ROU) decided to give up his e7-pawn 37.Nf6+ without putting up a fight. 37.Kh2 Bd6+ 38.Kg1 Bd3 39.Nf6+ Kxe7 40.Nd5+ Kf7 41.Kf2 Bxb5 would have been better to prolong the game. 37...Kxe7 38.Nd5+ Kd6 39.c4 Bd4 40.Bf4+ Kc5 41.Bxc7 Kxc4 42.Nxb6+ Kxb5 43.Nxa4 Kxa4 and winning these endgames is a cakewalk the world no.1.
Duda - Vachier-Lagrave, Round 8
Jan-Krzysztof Duda played 15.Ra4 to be ready to sacrifice his queen. 15...Bxc3+ 16.bxc3 Nc5 17.Rb4 Nd3+ 18.Qxd3 Rxd3 19.Bxd3 White has a rook, bishop and two pawns for a queen which means enough compensation and the position is not difficult to play either.
29...Qf4 was the final mistake by Black. 29...Rxb2 was a plausible exchange of rooks. 30.Rxa2 Qxd4+ 31.Kh1 h5 32.Raa1 h4 33.Rd1 Qf2 34.h3 and it's over for Black.
Photo Gallery
Highlights of Day 2
Replay Round 7-9 games
Standings after Rapid Round 9
Prize
The total prize fund for each of the Rapid and Blitz event is US$ 175000 with the first prize being US$ 40000.