Carlsen Beats MVL In Playoff, Wins Paris Grand Chess Tour

Magnus Carlsen defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a playoff to clinch the Paris Grand Chess Tour. Both players had finished on 24 points out of a possible 36, and shared the first two prizes to earn $31,250 each. Hikaru Nakamura came third on 23 points and made $20,000.

Whereas everything was quiet around the multiple Canal+ buildings along the Seine, with all regular employees enjoying their (sunny!) free day, the fireworks appeared right from the start inside the studio. Unlike any round before in Paris, "Championship Sunday" started with five decisive results.

All the more surprising was that both tournament leader Magnus Carlsen and runner-up Hikaru Nakamura lost their games. The latter went down against local star Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the inception of another splendid blitz day for the French number one.

Nakamura managed to get his opponent out of his comfortable Grünfeld zone, but Vachier-Lagrave clearly knows his way in Benoni structures too.