Total Chess: Martirosyan inflicts first loss on Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen suffered his first loss in the Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot as Haik Martirosyan beat the World No. 1 and took the outright Group C lead on the third day of the Fast Classic stage here on Friday.

The Armenian won with white before drawing their return encounter, leaving Carlsen winless after six games. Martirosyan had 10 points to Carlsen’s five. R. Vaishali secured her first Fast Classic victory, recovering from a defeat against Bibisara Assaubayeva to win their second meeting with an attack.

The split results left the Indian on four points and the Kazakh on eight in Group D. Arjun Erigaisi overturned a difficult position to beat Wesley So with black before drawing the return match. His nine points put him level with Hans Niemann, three behind leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

R. Praggnanandhaa drew both games against Vladislav Artemiev in Group B, their first encounter lasting 89 moves. The Indian had four points and Artemiev five. Martirosyan’s attacking victory over Carlsen helped him move one point clear of Anish Giri, who followed a draw against Ian Nepomniachtchi with a win after a long battle.

Nepomniachtchi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had seven points each. Mamedyarov drew twice against Abhimanyu Mishra, who had five. Vachier-Lagrave drew his game against Niemann before winning the return with white to reach 12 points.

So had four. Group B leader Fabiano Caruana beat Vincent Keymer with black and drew their second game. Unbeaten with four wins and two draws, he had 14 points, four clear of Liem Le, who drew twice against Richard Rapport.

Keymer had four points and Rapport five. In Group A, Andrew Hong handed Alireza Firouzja his first group-stage defeat before the leader won their return meeting. Firouzja retained top spot with 11 points. Hong had six. Jan-Krzysztof Duda stayed second on nine after two draws against Levon Aronian, who had seven.

Jorden van Foreest beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov and drew the return, taking them to eight and five respectively. Games seven and eight follow, with each player having four group games remaining. (The writer is in Budapest at the invitation of Total Chess).