Carlsen 1 Set Victory Away From Third Title

GM Magnus Carlsen is one set away from winning his third title and $200,000 at the 2023 Champions Chess Tour Finals. On day one of the Title Match, he defeated GM Wesley So with the black pieces in game three, squeezing water from stone in the rook endgame.

So must win the first set on Saturday in order to reach the third. Another set win for Carlsen, who played with 98.1% accuracy on day one, secures the title.

The Title Match concludes on Saturday, December 16, starting at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CET / 10:30 p.m. IST.

• Carlsen 2.5-1.5 So: Carlsen Scores With Black In Game 3

Just like the Semifinals, the marathon final match is best of three sets, across two days. Each set is four games with an armageddon tiebreaker. 

Chess fans across the street—joined by FM James Canty III, IM Levy Rozman, GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, GM Eric Hansen, GM Aman Hambleton, GM Aryan Tari, and more—watched the games from the Belfast Love Public House. You can check out the action in the video below:

This is what a chess watch party with @chessbrahTV looks like 🍿 #CCTFinals pic.twitter.com/8YoLara6CM

— Champions Chess Tour (@ChampChessTour) December 15, 2023

The stakes are huge. $200,000 will go to the winner, while the runner-up still walks away with $100,000. There was also tuna at stake for the American player's two greatest fans, as he shared on X:

Alright. Enough. I've tweeted more than enough. Off to work. Can of tuna at stake. pic.twitter.com/iVHtMxfWyK

— Wesley So (@GMWesleySo123) December 15, 2023

Hansen, on the other hand, was involved in pre-match preparations with the former world champion, i.e. watching the Toronto home team lose live in overtime.

great idea to take @MagnusCarlsen to a Leafs game ☠️ pic.twitter.com/iC8SoAQSph

— Eric Hansen (@hansenchess) December 15, 2023

Battling against Carlsen is often an uphill battle, but So was the one player who'd already won a match against the world number-one earlier in this event. But with the latter boasting a better lifetime score and a 75% chance of winning, according to our stats team, the global chess champion still faced one of the greatest challenges of his career.

Carlsen 2.5-1.5 So: Carlsen Scores With Black In Game 3

The first two games were the calm before the storm; neither player achieved much with the white pieces. The match took a sharp turn in game three, the only decisive game, which decided the first set.

The first surprise came as early as move one of game one when So, with the white pieces, played 1.b3. It's a move that Carlsen himself said "is not a terrible move" the previous day.

So plays 1.b3 and Carlsen is visibly surprised on move one!#CCTFinals pic.twitter.com/Tt8gMCXWhd

— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 15, 2023

So managed to win a pawn, but Carlsen held the draw in a heavy-piece endgame.

Game two also ended in a draw after Carlsen failed to achieve any advantage with the white pieces. Curiously, most of the game had been played in a game before—between So and Carlsen!

The first 18 moves of game two had been played before, actually between So and Carlsen but with reversed colors, So explains!#CCTFinals pic.twitter.com/GsBnEBumdO

— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 15, 2023

Game three spilled the first (and only) blood, and it was a sharp Sicilian battle. There were many twists and turns in the opening, where Carlsen initiated most of the surprises—first playing the O'Kelly Sicilian and then transposing into some sort of "Dragondorf" structure after 6...g6.

So held his own through all the middlegame complications, but when they reached the pure rook endgame, which was generally equal, Carlsen worked his magic.

The reigning rapid chess champion said: "Once he started to play passive, I was trying to see, can I keep the game going, can I get any chances, and yeah, I'm happy with the way that it went." GM Rafael Leitao shares how it went down in our Game of the Day.

"It's kind of inexcusable to lose a white game in a short match," said So after the match, and he now had to win on demand with Black.

It's kind of inexcusable to lose a white game in a short match.

—Wesley So

Facing a visibly disappointed So, the former world champion chose the reliable Alapin Sicilian as his "drawing weapon."

So had an ever-so-slight advantage in the endgame, achieving the bishop pair, but it wasn't enough to win. Carlsen traded down to opposite-colored bishops and, with a third draw, won the first set.

Howell explained that So was "maybe taking the safer approach when he should have risked it all" and broke down a moment the global champion could have pressed harder:

After the game, Carlsen shared that he came in looking for a fight. "The way that I beat him is that I just, you know, I hustle him. I use his sort of lack of aggression against him."

"The match between Wesley and Hikaru was such a slog, you know. Just a draw after draw after draw and nothing was happening... I was thinking that, yeah, I don't want any part of that!" (Carlsen)#CCTFinals pic.twitter.com/5uz5Tqevuz

— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 15, 2023

So, who will be in a must-win situation in the next set, said that he will stay away from Twitter/X. Let's see if he stays true to his word—and if it will help.

"No tweets today or tomorrow!" says Wesley So, who needs to win the first set on Saturday to stay alive in the match.#CCTFinals pic.twitter.com/BHFxvnq0Oj

— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 15, 2023

The 2023 Champions Chess Tour Finals (CCT Finals) is the closing event of the Champions Chess Tour, Chess.com's most important event to date. The players meet in Toronto, Canada, in a thrilling last clash for the title. The Finals feature a $500,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • Carlsen, So Advance As The Last Players Standing
  • Carlsen Blunders Queen, Then Wins Match
  • Comeback Kid Abdusattorov Knocks Out Nakamura
  • So Defeats Carlsen; Nakamura On Brink Of Elimination
  • Carlsen Beats World Numbers 2 And 3 Back To Back
  • Caruana Is King Of Armageddon On Day 1, Leads With Carlsen, Wesley So
  • GothamChess And Danya Predict Who Will Win The Champions Chess Tour 2023
  • 7 Reasons You Should Watch The Champions Chess Tour Finals
  • Don't Miss Chess.com's Biggest Prediction Contest Of The Year
  • $500,000 Champions Chess Tour Finals To Be Played Live In Toronto