BUDAPEST: Magnus Carlsen continued to suffer on the penultimate day of the group stages of the pilot edition of the Total Chess World Championship. His winless streak continued but he held on to his World No. 1 ranking on the live lists by the barest of margins. Fabiano Caruana, who has never been never been closer to claiming the World No. 1 spot, also drew both of his games when he could have put real pressure on the Norwegian's 15-year reign as the top dog of chess if the US Super GM had won even one of his games.
Caruana, Carlsen's 2018 World Championship opponent, had the chance to breach the 2800 club but could only draw his second match on Saturday against Liem Le. What would have frustrated Caruana is that he had a winning chance before the Vietnam GM slammed the door shut. On the day of a frantic eighth round at the Anantara New York Palace hotel, Carlsen's live rating was 2804, just 5.4 points ahead of Caruana. The Norwegian ace, who has been World No. 1 for the last 15 years, will face Ian Nepomniachtchi to close out a very disappointing campaign in Budapest.
Also, the Norwegian can no longer win this tournament as he can no longer advance from Group C as the top player. The most he can reach is 13 points, but one of Anish Giri or Shakhriyar Mamedyarov will be higher at the end of the group stages on Sunday night.
To give you a perspective on how disappointing this has been for him: in the first eight rounds, he has ended up shedding as many as 19 rating points. Coming into the tournament, he was on 2823. To compound matters, Caruana has added 15.6 points in just four days; it's why the gap between the first two places has never been this close in a long time. And considering Carlsen doesn't play too many Classical games, he could take some time to regain all of the lost points. And even if he does, Caruana could conceivably overtake him in the next few days or as early as Sunday.