It turns out Magnus Carlsen is human, after all: Despite the winners’ bracket advantage, the world number one fell short against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup, with the Frenchman bouncing back from his defeat in their previous series with the back-to-back wins required to triumph over the odds.
It’s been a tough time recently for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, MVL for most, falling out of the top ten in the world rankings (sitting at number 21 at the time of writing with 2727 Elo) and missing out on the previous Candidates tournament. However, he’s been picking up form lately, as evidenced by this impressive set of victories over the oft-unstoppable Magnus Carlsen, whom he lost to just a few days ago in a grueling upper bracket final.
The day featured a set of entertaining series between two tired but battle-ready titans of the game, with both pushing as hard as they could but with the sort of tiny mistakes creeping into their games that would be inconceivable from either of them had they not been involved with a grueling schedule of play previously. The very first game saw Magnus drop a significant advantage in the endgame and eventually losing a drawn position.
Between players of this caliber, a slip like this can be enough to decide an entire series, and indeed, their first four-game mini-match concluded with three hard-fought and topsy-turvy draws. However, there was still the whole “upper bracket advantage” to take care of, meaning Magnus had an entire extra series to fall back on in this scenario.
Their second take on the grand final started with a monstrous theoretical idea, a queen sacrifice straight out of the opening by Magnus Carlsen.
Clearly, the line wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to MVL, as both players blitzed out their moves all the way to move 21. Here, the Frenchman finally made a mistake, but Carlsen wasn’t able to capitalize, and once again, he was ground down in the endgame, losing with the White pieces.
Having to win on demand to stay alive in the match, the Norwegian opted for the Sicilian Defense and was able to get a promising position with the Black pieces. However, in a stunning turnaround, MVL sacrificed his bishop for a dubious counterplay. The computer immediately offered a refutation for the ensuing attack, but on a human level, this deep into the woods, it turned out to be more than enough to secure a memorable victory for the Frenchman, breaking through just a few moves later.
This unexpected and impressive victory allowed MVL to leapfrog his direct competitors in the race for a spot at the offline finals, barely squeaking by Vladimir Fedoseev in the final standings. He will, of course, be joined by Carlsen, who long ago secured his spot, alongside Nakamura, Abdusattorov, Caruana, So, Lazavik, and Firouzja.
The grind continues: In just a few days, both players will be competing in the 2023 European Chess Club Cup, set to take place in Durres, Albania.
