CCT Finals, Day 3: Carlsen vs. MVL, Firouzja vs. Nepo

When the dust settled, it was the two favourites in the top two spots: Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja earned the byes to the semifinals of the Champions Chess Tour Finals with their scores of 6/7 and 5/7. Magnus was successful in the final round robin match against Denis Lazavik to clinch first place, and Firouzja came through in his second game against Vincent Keymer to secure second place. Veterans Levon Aronian and Wesley So (2/7) finished bottom two on tiebreak, and were eliminated after the round robin. Their efforts were nevertheless rewarded with about $15,000 each.

That left Lazavik, Keymer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to fight it out in extra chess to qualify for a matchup with Carlsen or Firouzja. In the first set, third-place Nepo defeated fourth-place Lazavik to earn his spot, and Vachier-Lagrave beat Keymer to set up a showdown with Lazavik for the final spot. MVL won the second game to win the match 1.5-0.5.

To finish the day, first-place finisher Magnus got to choose who he wanted to play in the semi-finals of the final two qualifiers. He selected MVL, who has given him some good challenges in speed chess. That consequently left Nepo to the hands of Firouzja.

The six-game semifinal matches start at 12:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. CET on Friday. The winners will showdown for the title on Saturday.