Carlsen is the winner of the Champions Chess Tour 2022
The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 ended after an epic final. The World Champion Magnus Carlsen won the Tour against the 2021 Challenger Ian Nepomniaachtchi, despite his grim start of the tournament.
.jpg)
Day 1 of the Tour was not so promising for Carlsen and certainly couldn’t foreshadow his advance to the finals.
In fact, until the last day of the prelims, it wasn’t even sure that the World Champion would be able to advance to the quarterfinals after suffering some terrible losses in the previous rounds.
On the other hand, Nepo was in excellent form, hitting the top from Day 2 and staying there with classy and accurate chess.
The tour’s finals were split in two days with the first one finishing with an epic 2-2 score. Both players pushed hard for a win, missed chances, blundered, drove the engine bar crazy, and kept us all on our feet! Commentators talked about “the most exciting games on the Tour, despite all being draws”.
On Day 2 of the finals, one draw came after the other until Carlsen decided to change his style on game 6. After a complicated game, Nepo had to resign and Carlsen was very close to winning a Tour that seemed so far away in the beginning.
The next game found Nepo in a chess-aggressive mode! Yet Carlsen played accurately and turned a piece advantage into the win he needed to win the tournament.
The Champion said afterward: “These things are always going to be about whether you can perform on that particular day. I felt I was playing better as the tournament went along and that was enough.”
