After two days of the World Rapid Championship, everything was going well for the Russians.
In men, Daniil Dubov and Vladimir Fedoseev fought for medals, and in women, Alexandra Goryachkina and Valentina Gunina competed for medals.
However, the ending of the tournament did not work out for the domestic grandmasters, and as a result, they remained in Alma-Ata without any awards.
Magnus Carlsen won the title for the fourth time in his career.
Before the last four rounds, he had a half-point advantage over Fedoseev, and not without difficulty, he managed to keep the lead.
The defeat in the match with Vladislav Artemyev made the Norwegian worry.
Up to the 25th move, the game was an equal fight, but the move of the black knight from F6 to E4 gave the Russian a significant advantage.
And then he easily brought the case to victory.
As the world champion admitted, this failure spurred him to act even better in the end.
“It is a very difficult and tense tournament, the strongest chess players play here, so I am very glad that I managed to win.
Could do it with less resources.
But there was a defeat from Artemiev - it was painful, hard, but this happens.
In general, I was confident that I could win.
Now I will note and I will not worry so much about blitz competitions, ”TASS quoted Carlsen as saying.
At the same time, Artemiev could even become a champion.
After the success in the confrontation with Magnus, he took another half a point in the match with Fedoseev and before the last round scored the same points as the Norwegian.
But it was not possible to cope with the experienced Fabiano Caruana, who won bronze, in the decisive duel.
The American with white pieces immediately seized the initiative and confidently took a point.
According to Artemyev, despite the failure, he was satisfied with the results of the tournament.
“In the decisive game, I had an unsuccessful opening, and my opponent played strongly.
I got a difficult position, Caruana counted me, and everything was on point, he conceded naturally.
In general, I performed well.
He defeated Carlsen, however, he "blundered", the position was equal.
I am satisfied with my actions, but there is a light residue, because I could have achieved more,” said the grandmaster, who eventually took seventh place.
Caruana that day became a stumbling block for Fedoseev as well.
The American, with white pieces, drove Vladimir into a dead-end defense and forced him to make a mistake.
It took 34 moves for Fabiano to win.
The domestic chess player took only sixth place, having outplayed the Chinese Yangyi in other matches and broke up with Dubov in peace.
It was Daniil who turned out to be above the rest of the Russians.
He did not lose in a single game of the World Championship, but on the last day of the competition he got too carried away with draws.
In addition to Fedoseev, he shared points with both Caruana and Richard Rapport.
As a result, the grandmaster was only half a point short of a place on the podium.
Of course, everyone was waiting for a comeback on the last day of Ian Nepomniachtchi.
But the miracle didn't happen.
He earned only 2.5 points, losing to the silver medalist of the championship German Vincent Keimer, who was among the leaders throughout the days of the tournament.
In women, Alexandra Goryachkina kept good chances for the title.
Before the last three meetings, she shared first place with Savita Shri and Tan Zhongyi.
In the very first game on Wednesday, she consolidated her lead.
Having met with a Chinese woman, the grandmaster was able to bring the match to a draw.
However, Dinara Saduakasova in the 10th round crossed out all the hopes of Russian fans.
The representative of Kazakhstan confidently acted with white pieces and gained the necessary advantage on the 31st move.
As a result, even the victory over Gunina in the last meeting was not enough for Alexandra to get into the top three.
Valentina, on the last day of the competition, continued her uncompromising game, which, alas, threw her far back from the top three.
In addition to Goryachkina, she also lost to Koneru Humpy and became only 13th, leaving two more Russians behind - Alexandra Kosteniuk (9) and Anna Bivol (7).
And the struggle for the first place unfolded between Zhunyi and Saduakasova.
Both chess players scored 8.5 points each and determined the winner in the playoffs - the Chinese woman managed to take the second game after the opening draw.
The top three was closed by 15-year-old Savita Shri.
However, the competitions in Alma-Ata do not end there: from December 29 to 30, chess players will compete for the title of world blitz champion.