Carlsen Loses Four Games In A Row
Hindustan Times
Magnus Carlsen had one of the worst-ever runs of his career, suffering an astonishing fourth loss in a row on the final day of the Fide World Teams Rapid Championship on Friday.
The five-time world champion and world No.1 who is part of team WR Chess, and had lost to Arjun Erigaisi and Shant Sargsyan on Thursday, was in for two more losses on Friday in Rounds 9 and 10 — against World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov and Aydin Suleymanli, a 21-year-old from Azerbaijan rated 2556.
Against Sindarov, Carlsen’s decision to sacrifice his Queen backfired and he ended up losing. He sat out the next two rounds. Carlsen has dropped close to 30 rating points and is dangerously close to dropping below 2800 in rapid.
It came down to a three-way tie for first place between Hexamind, Dragon Chilling and Team MGD1, with the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak deciding the medals.
The Dragon Chilling team comprising former world champion Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi, Lu Shanglei, Bai Jinshi, Ju Wenjun, Lei Tingjie, Wang Zihao and Xie XiaoYang took the gold.
Defending champions Team MGD1, led by Arjun Erigaisi took silver while Hexamind, led by Alireza Firouzja, finished with bronze. Pre-tournament favourites WR Chess, which had both Carlsen and world No.2 Fabiano Caruana in the side, finished 17th.
Praggnanandhaa broke Hans Niemann’s unbeaten streak in Round 9 while former world champion Ding Liren who went winless in the last two days, finally won in the final round on Friday and saw his team through to the gold. With the rapid event done, the championship now moves to the teams blitz competition starting Saturday.