Norwegian Magnus Carlsen racked up his seventh straight rapid game win to snatch the sole lead at the half-way point of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals in San Francisco. The World chess champion put on another sparkling display in Round 4 of 7 as he thrashed Dutch No.1 Anish Giri 3-0 to march on towards victory in the USD1.6 million Tour's end-of-season hybrid event. Meanwhile, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Carlsen's biggest rival in this tournament and throughout the 2022 Tour, lost a catastrophic match to Vietnam's Liem Quang Le that puts a huge hole in his hopes. Duda and Liem played out two long draws before Liem broke through to win in 46 moves in the third. On screen, Duda looked devastated. Liem then turned the screw with 29...e5! in the fourth to win 3-1.He climbs to third position with seven points, behind Carlsen on 12/15 and Duda on 9.

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