NEW YORK: Magnus Carlsen, the world champion from Norway, won the overall Meltwater Champions Chess Tour championship for the second year in a row after advancing all the way to the Aimchess Rapid semifinals.

The 2022 Tour winner, who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world, won the penultimate event of the Tour while attempting to complete a hat-trick of victories. He also received a USD50,000 reward in addition to his USD192,500 total earnings thus far.

The only player who could catch him going into Tuesday's quarterfinals was the Polish ace Jan-Krzysztof Duda. However, he needed Indian teenager Arjun Erigaisi to defeat Carlsen in order to go on and win the season's last Major in November.

Carlsen will likely see an increase in overall earnings with that USD250,000 event still to play. However, the 31-year-old had to put in some effort in the first game of his quarterfinal encounter against the champion as Erigaisi played some of his greatest chess to go three pawns ahead and set up a seemingly straightforward win.
However, Carlsen never gave up and used every trick in his arsenal to help him win the game. After 137 moves, Carlsen managed to escape with a draw as Erigaisi crumbled under the strain.
Carlsen then capitalised on the Indian teenager's waning confidence to come back with two humiliating victories. It made sure Carlsen would move rather easily into the Aimchess semifinal, where the 2022 Tour champion and Duda would face off.

Playing from Krakow, Duda won the group stage and maintained his momentum into the knockout round, defeating Vidit Gujrathi of India 2.5-0.5 with one game remaining. I wouldn't call it simple, but I think it was unexpected that I won the match in three games, according to Duda. One semifinal will include Duda and Carlsen, while the other will feature Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and Richard Rapport of Romania, both of whom overcame adolescent prodigies.

It implied that all of the teenagers had been expelled from the Aimchess Rapid. Rapport defeated Gukesh D., who, like Erigaisi, had defeated Carlsen in the opening round. Rapport needed 167 moves to win the grand final match against his adolescent opponent without using tiebreaks.

The World Rapid champion Nordibek Abdusattorov was defeated by the seasoned Mamedyarov 2.5-0.5. Gukesh and Abdusattorov made extremely strong runs to the final eight. The semifinals commence later on Wednesday.

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