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Ding Liren is up to 3rd place in the Magnus CarlsenInvitational standings after a tense and well-played match came to an abruptend in the sudden death game. Its farce, not Armageddon, commented thewatching Alexander Grischuk as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave blundered and lost in just 16 moves.Meanwhile Anish Giris quest to win a game in the event goes on as he missed agreat chance before IanNepomniachtchi picked up the full 3 match points.

You can replay all the Magnus Carlsen Invitational gamesusing the selector below (click on a game to open it with computer analysis):

That meant Ian Nepomniachtchi was the days highest scorerfor winning without the need for Armageddon, while Ding Liren took two pointsand MVL one after the Armageddon game:

You can replay the live commentary with Tania Sachdev,Lawrence Trent, Jan Gustafsson, Peter Svidler, Alireza Firouzja and laterAlexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi below:

And heres the aftershow with Pascal Charbonneau:

This was billed before it began as a heavyweight struggle,and it lived up to that reputation. The world numbers 3 and 5, or 3 and 2 ifyou took the rapid ratings, gave each other only glimmers of hope in the fourrapid games. Ding Liren perhaps came closest to breaking through with the whitepieces, but almost the greatest moment of peril in the first four games of thematch was when Ding disconnected in one of the games. Fortunately thistime the players resumed the game from the same position and times with aminimum of fuss.

That meant an Armageddon game between two players who hadlost their previous Armageddons - Ding Liren to Caruana,and MVL to Nepomniachtchi. If one thing seemed certain, it was that Maximecouldnt do worse than hed done in that game, when he was lost in 17 moves andresigned on move 20. But it turned out that was nothing!

Our commentators were already calling MVLs 4Bf5!? a blunder,while 12Nc2+? and 13Qxb2? were the final straws:

14.Ne5! is the only move that wins for White, but its absolutelycrushing, threatening mate on d7, among other things. 14b5 15.Qa5+ Ke8 16.Qc7 and Maxime threw in the towel rather thangive any spite checks:

It was a strange end to the match, but at least the breakbefore the Armageddon had given us time for an enjoyable intervention from the chessworlds most diplomatic player, Alexander Grischuk:

This match also got off to a quiet start, but in Game 2 IanNepomniachtchi showed that he meant business with 7.Qc2:

This quiet little move is not so innocent e.g. 70-0?8.Nxd5! Qxd5 9.Ng5! and Black could resign but the most noteworthy point isthat it seems to be a novelty. There was a time when no-one would "burn" anovelty in a rapid or blitz event, but this one is for serious stakes, and asFabiano Caruana said in a previous interview:

This is the only tournament that I do have for a long timeand it is also a tournament with many if not most of the best players in theworld so I do take it seriously and I really would love to do very well.

He added during Day 6, I don't know about other players,but I already showed all my Candidates ideas! referring to the virus-interruptedtournament in Yekaterinburg that will determine Magnus Carlsens next WorldChampionship challenger.

Anish wasnt going to fall into any simple traps, but he waseventually undone by a bold exchange sacrifice from his opponent:

25.Qxc7!? Bxf1 26.Kxf1 f6 27.Qxa7 and Nepos passed a-pawn eventually decided the game in Whites favour, though Giri could have done more to stop it.

That meant Anish needed to win one of the next two gamesand, in defiance of his critics, it looked as though he might make it in Game3. Critic-in-chief was that man Alexander Grischuk again, who didnt believe in the Dutchno. 1s instincts:

Of course for Anish it's very attractive to exchange queensand win a pawn - how can anything else be more attractive?

Giri, however, resisted the siren call of 27.Qxe4 Bxe428.Rxe6 and channelled his inner AlphaZero to go for 27.h6+! Kf7 28.Nf4! andonly swapped off queens when it gave him a clearly winning position. It was allgoing right until 34Rc4!, a fine double-purpose move:

The obvious threat is Rc1+ and Rh1 mate, which is not to betaken lightly, but it could have been parried by e.g. 35.f3! Instead 35.Rb1?allowed Nepo to change targets and go for the h7-knight instead with 35Rc8!and 36Rh8. In the end it was Nepo who was closer to a win.

In the final must-win game with the black pieces it wasnominally Giri who was pressing for a win, but he never came close and remainson 0 match points, tied with Alireza Firouzja:

There are still four rounds to go, a potential 12 matchpoints, for the players to improve their situation, but its approaching themust-win stage for Alireza as he takes on Fabiano Caruana tomorrow. Remember, the top four go forward to a knockout for the big prizes. The othermatch is another crowd-pleaser, as rapid world no. 1 Magnus Carlsen takes onrapid world no. 2 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

We hope you're enjoying the action...

...and if you think you can predict what will happen in Round 4 make sure to enter our Round 4 Fantasy Chess Contest.

Tune in again for all the Magnus Carlsen Invitational action from 15:30 CEST here on chess24.

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MCI Day 6: Ding Liren beats MVL in 16 moves - chess24