Carlsen reached the Chess World Cup final for the first time

In the standard two game of the semi-finals on August 20, Abasov was late when he was forced to win. When the referee signaled the start of the game, Carlsen held out his hand to shake hands, even though the opponent had not yet appeared. After a while, the new Azerbaijani player arrived and shook Carlsen's hand before sitting at the table. Even if it's just a draw, the Norwegian player still tries to win, but in the end still has to divide the points. That result was just enough for Carlsen to enter the chess World Cup final for the first time, after losing two semi-finals.

After the game, Carlsen said that his handshake before the opponent arrived was just a joke for the viewers. Videos of his actions attracted hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube, as Carlsen's joke was responded to.

Carlsen reached the final without having to face a single top player, except for the rising talent Gukesh Dommaraju in the quarterfinals. His opponent in the final is world number three Fabiano Caruana or another young Indian talent Praggnanandhaa. The semi-final match between Caruana and Praggnanandhaa must determine the winner and loser through a series of fast chess tie-breaks from 6pm today 21/8.

The last and only time the number one seed reached the final of the chess World Cup was Boris Gelfand in 2009, when he defeated Ruslan Ponomariov to win the title. If he is crowned this time, Carlsen will be the first player to win standard chess, fast chess, world blitz and chess World Cup.

In the women's group, 20-year-old player Nurgyul Salimova missed the opportunity to be crowned when he drew against second seed Aleksandra Goryachkina in the final on August 20. Therefore, the two players will have to tie-break to compete for the championship today. In the third place match, Anna Muzychuk defeated Dam Trung Di (Tan Zhongyi) 1.5-0.5 to win a place in Candidates 2024.