Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2024: Magnus wins 7th Tournament in a Row
Magnus Carlsen won 10 games in a row after being 2.5 points down to clinch the Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2024 in Warsaw
The Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2024 was the first event of Grand Chess Tour 2024 that took place in Poland from 6th to 13th May of 2024. 10 players participated in the tournament including three Indian youngsters Arjun Erigaisi, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and World Chess Championship challenger, Gukesh D. Remaining 7 players were Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Jan Krystof Duda, Vinceny Keymer, Wei Yi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Kirill Shevchecnko.
Recap: Rapid Section
The Rapid section started with a tough loss for Gukesh against the lowest seed of the tournament Shevchenko. Round 2 saw Magnus win his first game of the tournament against Chinese GM Wei Yi. Shevchenko was on a roll on Day 1 as he defeated another Indian superstar Praggnanandhaa. In round 3, Pragg bounced back defeating Abdusattorov while Day 1 ended with Shevchenko on a 100% score, winning all 3 games of the day.
Shevchenko continued his good run on day 2 as he drew his game against the top seed and former World Champion Magnus. The all Indian clash between Pragg and Gukesh went in the latter’s favor. Wei Yi won his game against Giri which started a series of wins for Wei Yi as he won 5 in a row including this win. All games of round were ended in decisive results as Shevchenko tasted his first loss of the tournament. It was Wei Yi who scored 100% on day 2.
Wei Yi continued his amazing run on last day of rapid as he won 2 and drew the last game of the rapid section. Day 3 was tough for the Indian kids as not many results went their way but it was the Chinese superstar who stole the show with 13 points in the rapid section as he went into the blitz section as the leader of the tournament, ahead a full point then the second placed Magnus Carlsen.
Recap: Blitz Section
If you thought Wei Yi was just lucky on day 2 and day 3 of rapid, you couldn’t be more wrong. The Chinese GM, who returned to chess after a break of almost 5 years played such elegant chess that it felt like he had never left chess. After losing the first round game of blitz against Gukesh, Wei Yi made a stellar comeback with 7 wins and a draw (against Magnus!) out of 8 rounds. At the end of blitz day 1, Wei Yi was leading the tournament with 20.5 points, a whopping 2.5 points ahead of the rest of the field. With only 1 day of blitz remaining, a 2.5 points lead is surely enough to grab that 1st place, isn’t it?
With a 2.5 points difference, it felt like Wei Yi was going to run away with the tournament until Magnus decided to activate his inner AlphaZero. On the last day of the tournament, Magnus did something unimaginable. Having won last 3 games of day 1, Magnus definitely came in last day with a good momentum but to cover the lead of 2.5 points and actually topple it would require some superhuman level play. But if you are Magnus, you just have to activate the beast mode. On the last day, Magnus won first 7 games in a row, making it a total of 10(!) wins in a row. Hell yeah - 10 games in a row. Last year Magnus won 9 games in a row and the Chess World thought - yupp that’s it, no one can top it. Well, Magnus said hold my AlphaZero. Magnus topped it and did it in some style, defeating Wei Yi once and the World Chess Championship Challenger Gukesh twice in doing so.
In the end, Magnus finished with 26 points, half a point ahead of Wei Yi and clinched the first prize as well as the $40000 prize money. This is how the points table looked at the end of tournament with Magnus grabbing the 1st place:
An Afterthought: Is Magnus Carlsen the GOAT of Chess?
Magnus Carlsen is the greatest player of current generation without a doubt and arguably the greatest player of all time. Only Magnus can do superhuman level things like winning 10 games in a row to grab a tournament. you would argue that every player has a great tournament like this at some point in their life. But I guess what differentiates Magnus from other great players is that Magnus does it day in day out, again and again to win almost every tournament he plays.
Only Magnus can have a 125 games unbeaten streak in classical chess at the elite level. Only Magnus can have the courage to just leave the World Chess Championship and still destroy everyone at the elite level. Only Magnus can reach 2882 ratings in classical chess and that too twice. Even now, when Magnus is not considered to be at his top form (!), he is way ahead than the rest of the players at the elite level. This level of domination is seldom witnessed in any sports, let alone in Chess. Whether or not you are a Chess fan, whether or not you are a Magnus fan, once you look at his records, he makes you wonder “Is there anything in the Chess World this guy cannot do?” Well, possibly there isn’t. This is Magnus Carlsen’s world and we are just living in it.