Lazavik Beats Nakamura 2-0; Dubov Plays Brilliancy

Day two of the 2024 Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters separated 56 advancing players into three divisions.

In Division I Placement, the standout was 17-year-old GM Denis "the Menace" Lazavik who defeated GM Hikaru Nakamura 2-0 before also sending GM Anish Giri to Division II. 

In Division II Placement, GM Jeffery Xiong put up a frighteningly impressive performance. He defeated GM Oleksandr Bortnyk 2-1 before taking down Kirill Shevchenko 3-0 with a game to spare.

In Division III Placement, GM Daniil Dubov played the Game of the Day against GM Tuan Minh Le. He sacrificed a pawn, then a knight, then a rook with check to add another sparkling page to chess history.

Day three begins on Friday, February 2, starting at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST.

Division I Bracket

• Division Placement: Format Explained
• Division I Placement
• Division II Placement
• Division III Placement

Division Placement: Format Explained

We've reached day two, the Division Placement stage. Based on their results in the Swiss on day one (unless they qualified through the AI Cup last year), players were sorted into three sections, Division Placement I through III. 

You can check out our video explaining the format in the X-post below, or you can keep reading for my explanation just after.

It's Day 2 of the #ChessableMasters 🔥 Today we determine placement across Divisions I, II, and III 🏆

Watch @DanielRensch break it down in detail right here! pic.twitter.com/Yhv2VJgYQD

— Champions Chess Tour (@ChampChessTour) February 1, 2024

Participants played two matches. The first one was a two-game match, the second a four-game match (with a potential armageddon tiebreak). Players who won both of their matches will play in the equivalent division in the next phase.

E.g. if a player in Division II Placement wins both matches, they make it into Division II, while if they lose one match they're bumped down to Division III. Division Placement III players get eliminated if they lose.

Division I Placement

In Division I only, the higher finishers in the Swiss earned the right to choose their opponents. While the top four Swiss finishers had a choice, the German number-one GM Vincent Keymer was left with the last unpicked player, GM Wesley So, the 2023 CCT Finals runner-up.

Round 1

The most dramatic moment of round one—if not the entire day—happened just minutes after it started. Nakamura prepared a Reversed Sveshnikov Sicilian with White against Lazavik—one that went horribly wrong. By move 13, the 17-year-old was already winning with Black—can you find the tactic?

Black to move and win.

"Probably he mixed up something in the opening. After 12.h4 Qf6, I didn't see a good move for him, and after that I think I played quite good and I was just up a rook," said Lazavik after the game.

Lazavik went on to win a crushing game two as well to knock the world number-three into Division II. He added: "I won only one game against Hikaru in Titled Tuesday, so of course to win two games it's very nice."

I won only one game against Hikaru in Titled Tuesday, so of course to win two games it's very nice.

—Denis Lazavik

Against Keymer, So used a powerful outside passed pawn to win with Black in the first game; he had no trouble drawing game two with White (after achieving a winning position).

Meanwhile, in his first game against GM Yu Yangyi, GM Alireza Firouzja showed that his knights, too, can dance—to victory. The circular maneuver of Ng5-Ngf7-Ne5, followed by the later Ndf7-Ng5 leaves quite an impression, like a pendulum swinging:

After a draw in game one, GM Rauf Mamedov, out of the opening, chased GM David Anton Guijarro's king up the board and won a piece in the process.

Last but not least, GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan relegated GM Peter Svidler to Division II. He outlasted the former world number-four in a time scramble in the first game—and masterfully saved the following position without having to defend the rook and bishop vs. rook endgame:

Round 2

The following players entered with a round-one bye: GM Jose Martinez (Swiss winner), GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (AI Cup Division I third place), GM Anish Giri (AI Cup Division I fourth place), GM Vladislav Artemiev (AI Cup Division II second place), and GM Sam Sevian (AI Cup Division III first place). Once again, nobody wanted to pick So as their opponent, and so Sevian was left the undesirable task.

The matches were four games this time, not two. In general, the favorites won every match—except for Giri vs. Lazavik and potentially the matchup of Martinez vs. Ter-Sahakyan. 

So proved why he's a favorite in the entire season by winning his match in just three games, without needing a fourth. Two black wins and a draw with White got the job done.

The first game, again with Black, showcased play on both flanks—pressure on the left, pressure on the right, and suddenly White cracked after the curtain-closer 35...Nxg2!. 

Nepomniachtchi faced an ambitious—but dubious—flank attack from Mamedov in the first game. Unfazed by flames around his own king, he refuted the idea and showed what happens to kings that stay too long in the center.

Although Mamedov won the next game, the two-time Candidates winner reasserted himself by winning the final game.

Martinez, who won the Swiss Play-in on his 25th birthday, continued his Cinderella story by sending Ter-Sahakyan to Division II. The most shocking moment of all four games had to be the one-move queen blunder in game two:

Oof!#ChessChamps #ChessableMasters pic.twitter.com/GMtFnD9TZV

— chess24.com (@chess24com) February 1, 2024

The Peruvian GM drew the rest of their games to win the match and advance to Division I. 

After three draws, Firouzja managed to defeat Artemiev in a heavy-piece endgame in game four—just barely evading armageddon. Meanwhile, Giri vs. Lazavik ended in five draws. Giri did not manage to stir things up with White in the armageddon tiebreak, which meant victory for Lazavik.

On Friday, the most compelling matchup will be GM Magnus Carlsen vs. So. Besides Titled Tuesday, it will be the 2023 CCT Champion's first tournament this year. It will also be So's shot at revenge after losing their match in December in Toronto.

Division II Placement

Xiong's performance looks fantastic on paper, but a closer look will show that Thursday could have gone very differently for the U.S. prodigy.

After losing game one against Bortnyk, he was dead in the water in the second game as well, and even a draw would have meant immediate expulsion from Division II. Down a full rook and a piece, he managed to find a checkmate in the Swindle of the Day. 

You can find the full standings for Division II Placement here. 

Division III Placement

The game for Division III was really easy to choose. In terms of authoring brilliancies, this isn't Dubov's first rodeo. GM Rafael Leitao breaks down the creative game below.

You can find the full standings for Division III Placement here. 

The 2024 Chessable Masters is the first of its four events and determines one of the players who'll make it to the in-person CCT Finals. The event starts on January 31 at 11 a.m. ET/17:00 CET and features a $300,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • Martinez Wins Play-in On His Birthday
  • Faster And Fitter: Champions Chess Tour 2024 Returns With Chessable Masters