GM Velimir Ivic had the performance of a lifetime on day two of the Champions Chess Tour Chess.com Classic 2024. After surviving elimination from Division I thanks to a mouse slip by his opponent, he defeated GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in armageddon—and then went on to send GM Fabiano Caruana to Division II as well.
Ivic is joined in Division I by GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alexey Sarana, Denis Lazavik, and the three pre-qualified players, GMs Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, and Vincent Keymer.
In Division II Placement, six players won both of their matches. One player to keep an eye on is GM Vidit Gujrathi, who after a difficult FIDE Candidates Tournament and then a less-than-ideal performance in Wednesday’s Play-in, has started to punch back.
In Division III Placement, 20 players won their match (only one was played). GM Liem Le played two exceptional attacking games to eliminate GM Christopher Yoo. We will go over the second, in which he managed to promote a pawn in the middlegame. Also notable is GM Hans Niemann’s 3-0 clean sweep against GM David Anton.
Day three begins on Friday, May 10, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET / 18:30 CEST / 10 p.m. IST.
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