Mainz and Tromsø
Not the best preparation but on Friday he surprised both himself and others by sharing the lead with Anand with 2/3.
He effortlessly held Anand to a draw with black. He pressed, then got into some trouble against Morozevich, but in the end the game was drawn. Lastly he won a beautiful Dragen against Polgar.
Magnus felt surprisingly fit also on Saturday and in the topical Queen Indian he was better against Anand in an interesting game until getting short on time. He finally decided to allow repetition of moves although he is probably better after Ne2 Kh1! leaving the perpetual.
Morozevich was better in the next game but missed some promising continuations and the position was defendable for black.
Magnus could even have won after 27.Ne7+? but in the time scramble he missed 29... Nd4! threatening both c6 and e3. (If white captures on d4, Qe1+ and Rxd4 pins the white rook.)
In the last round of the group play Magnus needed to draw to advance to the final and played it safe against Polgar.
Anand beat Morozevich again to qualify for the final with 4/6 followed by Magnus at 3,5, Morozevich at 3 and Polgar at 1,5. Magnus was of course very happy to reach the final.
On Sunday Magnus had slept very well but he had a complete off-day chesswise. He had problems concentrating during the games and lost quite badly in the first Dragen.
In the second game Magnus was only equal after the opening, misplayed the middle game in an attempt of being creative, and Anand efficiently exploited his better position to win again.
Also in the third game Anand played very well and Magnus was clearly worse when Anand offered a draw a pawn up in the rook plus knight ending thereby securing the overall victory. (The 4th game was a short draw.)
Hence Anand won convincingly 3-1 in the Mainz final to take his 11th victory in this prestigious and well organised event. Congratulations!
Magnus ended 2nd and Morozevich 3rd. He beat Polgar in the 4th and decisive game having escaped miraculously from the queen ending two pawns down in the 3rd game.
Magnus is staying at home this week and will join his family and his chess school mates here in Tromsø on Friday night.
In the Arctic Chess Challenge everything is working out well.
We've seen many hard fought and interesting battles and the top seed GM Malakhatko (BEL 2612) is sole leader at 4/4 before round 5 today.
Local hero and chess school student Espen Forsaa (2282) was close to beating his teacher Simen Agdestein in round 3 but the latter escaped with a draw in the end.
Two of Magnus' sisters are participating in the ACC and Ellen started very well drawing FM Sowray (2327) in round 1.
Ingrid has fought well against several much higher rated young Norwegians and is obviously making good progress.
We've had absolutely marvellous weather this week and the still somewhat cold and very crisp air highlights the clarity of the pure arctic scenery.
On Monday we hiked Storkjølen on the Kvaløya offering a magnificent view of the nearby Hollenderne peaks, the arctic sea as well as the inland mountains.
Yesterday we continued the annual tradition of climbing the 1200+ meter Tromsdalstind ( "tind" is a peak in English) offering a 360 panoramic view of the Troms and Lyngen mountains.
To the west, the relatively minor 1100 meter mountain (dark, no snow) straight up from the end of the road is planned to stage the 2018 Winter Olympic down hill event!
Behind Tromsø town the Hollenderne peaks decorate the skyline.
The organisers headed by always pleasant Sigmund Berglund offer a varied program of excursions during the event, including a fishing trip, a mountain walk and a barbecue party next Saturday.
The organisers is quite happy that more than 90 participants have found their way to ACC 2008, although one might be surprised that not even more chess enthusiasts use this unique opportunity of combining chess with experiencing the unsurpassed arctic scenery!
Henrik Carlsen,
Tromsoe, August 6th, 2008
Biel 2008 Results
Due to some problems with his laptop Magnus has generally not been reachable on Skype during the Biel tournament and consequently I have not had much to report.
It did look very promising for Magnus until round 6 when he had a clear lead and reached a personal record live-rating of 2797, one point behind Anand!
But, after the second rest day he felt rather out of form and his games suffered accordingly. During the game against Dominguez he "hallucinated" badly and was lucky to escape with a draw in the end.
Finishing with the loss against Alekseev and 3 draws, he ended on +2 like in 2006 and 2007. Two years ago it brought him shared 2nd, last year shared first and 3rd place this year after Alekseev (winner on tie-break) and Dominguez both at +3. Congratulations to both for a great tournament result!
In my opinion 6/10 is a good result for Magnus although not as good as his previous performances this year.
It's in fact quite telling that both fans and chess commentators alike look for reasons to explain the 2740 performance of a 17 year old player, when any other junior in the world would have improved his/her rating with such a tournament result!
Magnus own evaluation has to wait, but from what I understand his main concern in Biel has been the lack of form and not the result.
He played a lot of football in addition to the chess and with many friends around he enjoyed himself as in previous years. I know the organiser made every possible effort to make sure he had an enjoyable stay. Thank you!
In general it is good to have a break when you're feeling out of form, but maybe the rapid tournament in Mainz will do Magnus some good. No rating is involved and he does really enjoy the rapid format. Playing Anand, Morozevich and Polgar is certainly also a great challenge!
The rest of Magnus' family are in Tromsoe right now for the Arctic Chess Challenge starting tomorrow.
Magnus participated last year while this year he will only visit the event during the last weekend.
Upon arrival today we were meet by clouded weather and some rain showers, but the weather forecast for the next few days promises sun and slightly warmer days!
For those of you who have never been to Tromsoe; It is hard to imagine a more beautiful and exotic spot for a chess tournament! Homepage: http://arcticchess.org/2008/index.html
Let's hope Tromsoe will host the chess Olympiad in 2014!
Henrik Carlsen,
Tromsoe, August 1st, 2008
Biel 2008 Round 1
During his summer vacation he did spend some days with friends in Toensberg during the Norwegian Championship.
He participated in two of the minor events but as he wanted to keep a low profile in Toensberg I decided against blogging from the events.
(His team won the Lahlum-invented "Team-talking-chess" where a team of 2, 3 or 4 players execute 6 games simultaneously against a similar team and all team members may talk freely and cooperate on all boards.
In the the other team event (rating based time-handicap Blitz), the handicap proved sufficient and his team ended 3rd having had 30 seconds against their opponents 9min 30 seconds in most games.
His football team, featuring the Lie stars as well as many other prominent players, duely won the annual football competition as last year.
He enjoyed the time in Toensberg and really looked forward to the Biel tournament when leaving Norway on Friday.
In the category 18 double round robin tournament in Biel Magnus is by far the rating favourite this year. There are two more 2700+ players (Dominguez and Alekseev) in the field. The other players are Bacrot, Onischuk and home favourite Pelletier (2569) against whom Magnus had white in Round 1.
They played a fashionable Queen Indian line in which Magnus lately was black against Svidler in Foros round 2.(After following Cheparinov-Kamsky most of the game a draw was agreed fairly early in that game.)
Pelletier chose 10...Nc6 (instead of Qc8) and after exchanging queens white was considerably better according to the computers. Magnus found an interesting exchange sack with 18.Bg5 Nc2 19.Re7, but the chess engines suggest that Bxe7 would give black an advantage.
Pelletier chose Bxf3 which forced a fairly even but slightly better ending for white.
Again most commentators expected a draw, and Magnus was not too optimistic either.
When Pelletier played 42...Ng4 to force a seemingly drawn ending, Magnus had plenty of time left and spent a long while analysing the position. He concluded that his best winning chance was indeed to exchange knights and go for the opposite coloured bishop endgame a pawn up.
It did look drawish but Magnus kept on posing challenges for black who went astray before the 2nd time control. Magnus played precisely to force a winning endgame and Pelletier resigned facing the loss of the h-pawn and threats on both sides of the board.
1-0 and an excellent start, especially bearing in mind that Magnus drew his last 4 games in the Foros tournament.
Alekseev won against Bacrot while Dominguez-Onischuk ended in a perpetual after black had put pressure on white for a while.
Tomorrow Magnus plays black against co-leader Alekseev, Russia.
Next week I'll only have a slow mobile internet connection so please don't expect regular updates.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, July 20, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Final Round
For the record, please find a few words about the last round below.
Having already won the tournament, the last round was important to Magnus for other reasons.
Most of his rated games against his young rival S.Karjakin has ended as draws, and Magnus did not want to destroy his Foros statistics losing the last round.
At the same time he was eager to try to win. Quite a challenging combination with the black pieces:-)
Karjakin, mostly a 1.e4-player, chose 1.d4 against Magnus. Maybe it was an attempt to surprise Magnus or simply to avoid the Sicilian Dragen.
But, Sergey had played 1.d4 against Van Wely in round 9, so Magnus was not entirely surprised to see the queen pawn opening. The psychology battle continued when Magnus caught Sergey somewhat by surprise playing the Gruenfeld, an opening he has not played in classical games for several years.
According to the computers, white does not have much of an advantage in the line chosen, and when Karjakin played 13.Bh6 Magnus felt quite comfortable with his position.
The f2-f4-f5 advance creates some attacking chances for white but neither the players nor the computers could find anything decisive.
When Karjakin played 22.f6+ and offered a draw, Magnus felt confident enough to choose to play on.
However, after the exchange of queens, the position is fairly even and he probably overestimated his chances. The plan Ke8 and Kd8 may be acceptable, but after 29...Re8? black is worse.
Magnus was getting slightly short on time, and obviously the long tournament and the tension felt as the tournament leader most of the way was taking its toll. He wisely offered a draw at this point, and was happy to discover that Karjakin was still in a peaceful mood.
0,5-0,5, and a sole win with 8/11 for Magnus!
Ivanchuk followed his recipe from last year. He continued his winning streak by beating Eljanov with the white pieces in a nice game. With his 3,5 out of 4 finish and 7 points overall, the first round game Carlsen-Ivanchuk did indeed turn out to be decisive to the tournament result.
With 6/11, Karjakin took the 3rd place on tie-break ahead of Eljanov. Volokitin finished in style with a win against Alekseev and captured 5th place on tie-break so that Magnus was the only foreigner to break the Ukrainian domination of the event.
Shirov also finished in style with a nice black win against Onischuk reaching 8 decisive games out of 11 and winning his first two and last two games!
At the closing ceremony special prizes were awarded for the most black wins (Carlsen, Shirov, Ivanchuk and Eljanov two each, and with Magnus getting the trophy having beaten the others), the best endgame (Volokitin for his win against Alekseev) and best attack (Shirov winning against Onischuk). Congratulations!
I would like to thank the organisers for a nice and strong tournament held in friendly atmosphere in beautiful surroundings!
Lastly, a few words about rating.
According to Hans Arild Runde?s live rating at http://chess.liverating.org/ Magnus is unofficially #2 in the World !
(It's congested up there, he is 7 points behind Anand and just 4 points ahead of number 5 V.Kramnik).
Unfortunately the uncertainty regarding the inclusion of the Aerosvit 2008 tournament in the July list has left FIDE in a bit of a tangle.
With the long history of indecisiveness and policy changes, we do appreciate their attempt to create transparency and clear rules. However, when the Executive Board decision of having a clear deadline made in Antalya in November is accompanied by a very discreet external communication (I had to browse through the minutes twice before finding the reference at page 24 under "Qualification Commission" and I have not seen any other communication or reference at fide.com or any other chess website), by inadequate internal communication (not reaching the relevant persons within FIDE), lack of consistency by making an exception for FIDE events but not for more important top events, and finally the contradicting statements this week from FIDE officials, they have put FIDE in a less than envious position.
Well, July 1st we'll probably know the outcome :-)
With the school semester ending simultaneously with the Foros tournament, Magnus is currently enjoying summer vacation and has a full month of relaxation prior to the Biel tournament starting July 19th.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, June 22, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 10
Magnus played 1.d4 against Volokitin. He had of course noticed how the Ukrainian misplayed the middle game against Van Wely in round 8.
The appearant novelty 14.Qe4 lead to a better ending for white.
Magnus needed a draw to secure tournament victory with a round to go, and was quite happy to be in a position to put pressure on Volokitin without too much risk.
After black advanced his b-pawn, Magnus felt very comfortable with the position and played fast. Maybe too fast. Having played 23.b3? he immediately saw that Volokitin could respond b4! so that he should have played e4 instead.
Magnus might still have an edge but when he chose 30.Nd5 (instead of maybe Nh5) it might not be so difficult for black to hold.
Volokitin deserves praise, he defended very well in the rest of the game, for instance when finding only-moves like 33....Rd7 and 48....Bg2.
In the end Magnus overpressed slightly and had to suffer a rook ending a pawn down for some moves before a draw was agreed.
With 7.5/10 Magnus has already won the tournament!
He did not look that happy right after the game as he was very tired (and still a bit angry with himself for having played 23...b3), but after a while he really appreciated the outright victory and great performance in Aerosvit 2008!
We had dinner at the Foros Pizza together with two representatives of Norwegian main television (NRK) who has arrived to report from the tournament finish.
There were two decisive games yesterday.
It was interesting to see Shirov fight his way back. After his 2 out of 2 he has had many nice positions but scored miserably until his excellent win against Svidler yesterday.
Svidler had a protected pawn on f2, but couldn't avoid the nice mating net created by the white king and two rooks.
Van Wely seemed in reasonably good shape from the opening against Ivanchuk, but after one or two questionable moves he went down quickly losing a piece in Ivanchuk's king side attack around move 20.
And it was of course a great game by Ivanchuk who moved into shared second with Eljanov at 6 points.
(As predicted by many, Magnus' first round win against Ivanchuk may very well turn out to be decisive to the tournament result.)
Today Magnus has black against 4th placed S.Karjakin. He is of course interested in playing a good game against his rival youngster.
With some of the pressure gone by already having secured tournament victory, let's hope for an exciting game!
Henrik Carlsen,
Foros, Crimea, June 19th 2008
Tournament schedule Magnus Carlsen
- Aerosvit 2008 Foros June 8 - June 19 2008
Coming up:
- Biel GM Tournament July 20 - July 31 2008
- Mainz Rapid Aug.1 - Aug.3 2008
- Tal Memorial Blitz Aug.29 - Aug. 30 2008
- Bilbao Grand Slam Final Sep.1 - Sep.13 2008
Will be updated regularly
H.Carlsen, June 17th 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 8 & 9.
Onischuk managed to play the e5-break securing a reasonably equal position.
After a long thought, Magnus found an interesting continuation based on 17.Nc6 in practice sacrificing the e-pawn. But when he looked at the screen in the rest room after Bxc6, he immidiately saw that his plans had been flawed. 21.Re4 does not work with the king on g1. Black has Qf3.
Hence he had to play 21.h3 etc and although there is some compensation for the pawn but black is maybe better. At the same time the position is fairly complicated and both has to play accurately.
After 24....g6 Magnus could not find anything better than 25.Rd5 Qc4 26.Rd4 Qd3 etc.
If he captures on the c4, then Na5 c3 bxc3 is a dead drawn ending, so he repeated moves instead.
Draw on a day when he don't get much from the opening and makes a considerable oversight is a reasonable result though :-)
Fortunately we saw three decisive games.
Van Wely outplayed Volokitin to score his second win, but due to his many losses, he is still at -2.
Alekseev won seemingly effortless in slightly better ending against Nisipeanu.
Ivanchuk managed to get an edge as black against Shirov after the Gruenfeld opening, and won in style with a nice combination involving an exchange sacrifice.
After 8 rounds Magnus was still two points ahead of Ukrainian pursuers Ivanchuk, Karjakin and Eljanov.
1st tie-break is mutual result, and Magnus has beaten two of them (Ivanchuk and Eljanov).
His only realistic challenger to win the tournament seems to be Karjakin whom Magnus plays with black in the last round.
Some of the players got slighty food poisoned lately. During lunch today Jakovenko and a couple of others complained about this unfortunate incident.
This may certainly explain Jakovenko's complete lack of ambition in his game against Magnus today.
As white, Jakovenko played the English opening and a very drawish line.
When offered a draw after white's 16th move, Magnus was a bit uncertain about what to do. But as you probably already know, he decided to accept the draw offer.
Again, a reasonable result for Magnus, although,of course, the game was not what the specatators had hoped for.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for some decisive results in the remaining five games today :-)
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Volokitin. He has a terrible score against this opponent, but they haven't played for two years so it is time for revenge!
Henrik C.
Foros, Crimea, June 17th, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 7
The draws all came in battles between young players (Karjakin, Volokitin and Alekseev) having the white pieces against the more experienced Ivanchuk, Svidler and Shirov respectively.
Eljanov, with the black pieces put pressure on Onischuk along the long white diagonal and white decided to sacrifice an exchange on d5. Later Eljanov gave back the exchange in a beautiful combination to win a pawn and gain a dominant position that was quickly won.
Jakovenko beat Van Wely with the white pieces in an interesting game.
Magnus was black against Nisipeanu and encouraged by his excellent results so far was determined to play for a win. In the end he chose the Sicilian Dragen against 1.e4 and when Nisipeanu avoided the most principled variations, played Be2, castled short etc, black has already equalised.
White spent about 20 minutes deciding on the novelty 12.a4 after which Magnus felt he had the better position. White?s plan sacrificing a pawn with 15.c3?! was judged unsound by most commentators while Magnus thought it was a reasonable idea. White may enjoy excellent compensation exploiting his extra space and coordination on the king side. However, Magnus decided against taking the c3 pawn right away (and in fact never did).
Instead he responded 16...Rc8 and 18....Nc4! reducing white counterplay while getting ready to take advantage of the many white pawn weaknesses.
Magnus felt he played a good game yesterday and that he was in control in the rest of the game.
After sacrificing an exchange on d4 he had two pawns, the bishop pair and a clearly favourable position.
The computers' evaluation was that black had to find some only-moves to maintain an advantage (for instance 26.Bh6, which he did play), while Magnus felt comfortable and played rather quickly in most of Nisipeanu's time trouble.
After the exchange of a rook, the black a-pawn started to march to a2 and although white can prevent queening with Qc3, he is totally tied up and will lose the f-pawn. Soon the black pawn avalanche will decide and he resigned instead. 0-1 !
Although his opponent was not in his best shape yesterday, Magnus was very satisfied with his own play and the victory. Having had a slight trace of a cold on the free day and the evening before the free day, he felt fit for fight yesterday and thoroughly appreciate the two points lead going into the last four rounds.
At 6/7 he is followed by the Ukrainian trio Karjakin, Volokitin and Eljanov at 4 points. Last year's winner Ivanchuk has 3.5 points together with Shirov, Svidler and Jakovenko.
Magnus finished relatively early yesterday as he had plenty of time left on the clock in Nisipeanu's time trouble. And with the Euro 2008 starting later than usual, Magnus went to the internet café, while I preferred a swim in the Black Sea.
The sea temperature has improved during our stay, but it is still quite refreshing and has not yet reached the 23oC normally enjoyed during the summer.
The Black Sea has had dozens of names and the current one supposedly has several possible explanations.
Many Greek sailors and traders were surprised by the turbulent weather of the Black Sea resulting in a significant number of ship wrecks and deaths. The wife's of dead sailors wearing black headdresses of sorrow gave the sea a repute for danger and death and hence the reference to the 'black' (headdress) sea.
The sea is more than 2000 meters deep. Maritime life is limited to the top 200 meter layer below which the bottom is mainly dark mud.
Seen from the Crimean mountains nearby, the dark bottom is quite distinctive and could well be the bases for the current name.
Today Magnus is white against current tail-ender A.Onichuk, USA.
We try to focus on tournaments as excellent training for Magnus, on him doing his best and having fun while playing chess, but I guess he is aware of the fact that a win today would bring him to the #1 spot on the unofficial live rating list.
It is not important to reach that target today, but being in the position of having this possibility in itself is quite a mind-boggling achievement!
Let's hope it will be many interesting games today.
H.Carlsen,
Foros, June 16th, 2008
Aerosvit Sightseeing June 14th 2008
Courtesy of the organisers we had an excellent English speaking guide in addition to the Russian speaking.
As a major Black Sea marine base with access to the Mediterranean sea, Sevastopol held such importance during the second world war that the most numerous man-to-man battle of the war took place at the Sapun ridge sheltering the city from the south. The Germans captured Sevastopol in 1942 but in May 1944 two red army regiments conquered the ridge and finally managed to end the German seize.
Our guide, Shirov and Nisipeanu in front of the war artilleri weapon exhibition.
Afterwards we visited the diorama (a physical war scene model with a painting behind giving a vivid impression of the terrible battle) up at the ridge, and later the Balaklava harbour nearby.
Both Balaklava and Sevastopol served as Soviet submarine bases during the cold war, but it remained a deep secret that the chalkstone mountain next to Balaklava harbour also housed atomic bomb proof submarine repair and storage facilities.
On top of the hill to the left there was a chalkstone quarry, and the activities and noise in the quarry facilitated the secret building of the cavern submarine facilities from 1953 to 1961 and the subsequent use until 1991.
Although a depressing monument of the cold war, one could not fail to be impressed by the size and engineering of the facilities, with several 10 tons leaden doors shielding the interior, a capacity for 8 large submarines and the support of 3000 people for a month in case of a nuclear attack.
The atomic nuclear war heads stored in the submarine base was sold back to Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Remnants of 14th century Genovese fortresses at the entrance of the Balaklava harbour.
We were told that Sevastopol itself was in a state of somewhat chaos as they celebrate their 225th anniversary both yesterday and today, but it might be the object of next year's excursion instead.
Yesterday two photographers from a major US news paper visited Foros and Magnus spent a (too) long session posing for a portrait.
In the evening we saw the Swedish football team lose on extended time against Spain.
They might still qualify, but need to avoid a loss against the Russians later this week.
Today Magnus has black against D.Nisipeanu, Rumania. They have played three classic chess draws in the past (in 2004 and 2006). Lets hope it will be an exciting game!
Henrik Carlsen,
Foros, June 15th, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 5 & 6.
Before round 5 yesterday we tried the tennis facilities in the pleasant sunshine.
Magnus wore his FAST T-shirt and it turned out to be another lucky T-shirt!
(FAST Search & Transfer is his main sponsor and share his ambition of becoming the best in their field. They are a billion dollar search engine company and was purchased by Microsoft this spring.)
Magnus played 1.d4 again and Shirov chose the Slav defence instead of his successful Gruenfeld from round 1. Magnus again opted for the relatively innocent Bxf6-line and deviated from his 3rd round game against Van Wely with 8.Rc1. Shirov's position seemed a bit cramped and despite his bishop pair white was probably slightly better.
When Shirov played 16....Nf8 to really start his counterplay, Magnus, somewhat surprisingly for many spectators, decided to swap his powerful e5-knight against the seemingly weak black bishop on d7. The reason was that he could not find a way to maintain an advantage with other continuations and settled for another slightly better endgame.
After Shirov freed himself with the 29....e5 break Magnus felt he had winning chances due to all the black weaknesses. White consistently improved the position but at a critical moment allowed 36....Rc5, which solves most of black's problems.
In the continuation Magnus seriously considered to repeat moves on a couple of occasions as he did not seem to have any realistic winning chances.
However, also this time his opponent seemingly mismanaged his time left.
As Magnus continued to find new threats, Shirov entered time trouble around move 50.
After defending well for a while, Shirov started to go astray in the tricky position, and when Magnus set up a final mating trap, the position is objectively drawn but Shirov blundered and resigned in face of mate in 2!
Main commentator GM Golubev in the doorway of the majestetic playing venue next to the hotel.
Today Magnus was white against Alekseev and after getting only a slight edge from the Queen Indian opening, he found an interesting pawn sacrifice that probably surprised most spectators, 14.b4?!
However he had missed the response Nc5! after which black is at least slightly better.
Magnus again spent lots of time evaluating the alternative continuations.
Magnus thought the ending after 16.....Bd6 and sacrificing the rook on b7 would have been drawish despite only one pawn compensation for the exchange.
Alekseev probably wanted to avoid too much complexity and instead played the probably equally strong Rc8.
After exchange of rooks and 18.Qb1 Magnus is a pawn down but has some initiative.
Alekseev thought for more than 20 minutes, so that both players where down to 30 minutes, and finally opted for the fairly safe 18....a5 accompanied by a draw offer.
Magnus did not have a very good feeling after having missed 15...Nc5, and was also slightly worse so he accepted the early draw. After all a reasonably good result.
Shirov-Karjakin was the game of the day. Shirov sacked a piece a la Topalov-Kramnik in Corus and went on to sack his queen as well! With quite precise play from both, the game finally ended in a perpetual and drawn like all the other games today.
Entering the free day tomorrow, Magnus is in the lead with impressive 5/6 ahead of Karjakin and Volokitin at 3,5.
Time for Euro 2008!
Henrik C.
Foros, June 13th, 2008
Aerosvit Round 4
And I do think the organisers and sponsors are happy about all the fighting chess so far, witnessing more than 50% decisive games.
Yesterday was a bit of a curiosity in that we saw three decided games while the other three games were all short draws.
Karjakin won a nice attacking victory in a hot Petroff line.
Van Wely somehow managed to outplay Alekseev in a nice and interesting game.
Magnus was black against Eljanov and against the Catalan he played the 10....Bd6 line that he drew with against Kramnik in Tal Memorial in November 2007.
Eljanov played the supposed novelty 11.Ng5 and after exchanging white-squared bishops Magnus went for the sharp continuation 12....Nbd7 13.e4 e5.
Eljanov spent about half his time on the next move and then most of the remaining time on the subsequent 10 moves or so. He did seem to find very strong moves, he played the principled continuation with 15.f4 etc and probably had a small advantage when the dust settled.
Magnus was reasonably happy with his position and when Eljanov offered a draw a few moves later he decided to play on. After all the position was fairly complicated and Eljanov was already short on time.
Magnus thought 25.f5 was a bit premature from Eljanov as he does not really have a convincing attack yet.
After 27.Rc1 Magnus looked for an opportunity to complicate the position, and was very satisfied when he discovered that 27....Be3 was playable and involved some interesting continuations.
First he discarded the idea, but when he started to look at the actual continuation, recapturing with the c-pawn and playing 29.....d4, he simply had to try.
Magnus won the a pawn (the f-pawn) in addition to the rook for two knights, but with precise defence white would at least be equal, maybe slightly better. Eljanov defended well for a few moves despite the time trouble, but somewhere in the sequence 33.Qc6 Rc8 34.Qxa6 Rc2 35.Nd2 g5 36.Qxh6 (?) g4! he went wrong.
Magnus spent a lot of time until the time control to make sure that he avoided perpetuals and found the best continuations. Commentators has pointed out that he probably missed a couple of slightly better moves, but anyhow he was playing for two results only, from move 37 onwards.
The rook plus 4 pawns against two knights plus 2 pawns is extremely difficult due to the pawn islands across the board and the time trouble. Magnus thought Eljanov was within the draw limit until he made a final mistake around move 70, while the commentators claim Magnus had a winning position early on but both players made subsequent inaccuracies.
At one point Magnus missed 70....Kc5! but Ra3 is probably also winning.
The rook and pawn versus knight and pawn ending is a tablebase win and Magnus quite quickly found the winning plan. 0-1.
Despite his fantastic start, Magnus is only half a point ahead of his young rival S.Karjakin (and one point ahead of todays opponent Shirov).
Karjakin, who went +3 here last year, has won both his white games in style.
He has white against Magnus in the last round, and as many have pointed out already this may turn out to be an exciting decisive final.
Fortunately for Magnus he has 4 white and 2 black games prior to the last round while Karjakin has the opposite.
Although I know Magnus quite well, I'm more or less continuously surprised by his fantastic results.
The continued progress this year was not at all something we could expect. After all he is just 17 and has some obvious weaknesses relative to the rest of the elite players (inexperience, opening repertoire etc). Somehow he seems to have been able to compensate fully with his apparant strenghts (rational objectivity over the board, good intuition, fighting spirit and inner motivation).
My only concern is that expectations may take on unreasonable proportions.
Lets enjoy his games and his progress, but please expect and accept some down's as well as all the up's in the time to come.
Henrik Carlsen,
Beachside internet cafe, Foros, June 12th 2008
Round 3 Results
Jakovenko won the slightly better rook endgame against Volokitin.
Alekseev won a pawn after the opening against Svidler in a nice long tactical sequence, and subsequently the game. Eljanov somewhat surprisingly won from a fairly equal position against Shirov, while Magnus did the same against Loek Van Wely.
Magnus did not get much from the opening against Van Wely, although black faced some potential problems related to his bad white-squared bishop which Magnus consistently tried to keep out of play thoughout the game.
Magnus admits he had slightly overestimated his possibilities when playing 17.Nc5. Loek took the pawn and after 23....Rc7 Magnus thought for a long time. He obviously looked at Nxh6 but found the continuation too risky relative to the potential upside. He chose Ne5 after which he did not have much of an advantage, if any, but also very little risk.
When Loek exchanged bishop for knight with 33....Bxc5, the position is evaluated as completely equal by the computers.
However, it is more tricky to play black than white, and when Loek offered draw with 35....g5, Magnus felt he could and should play on, as there was no risk at all for him.
At this point I was a bit worried as I knew Magnus did not eat enough before the game to enter a long tiring endgame in top shape. Fortunately most of the difficult choices lay on black, and Loek, relatively short on time, soon went astray with 38....g4?
Later, having a winning position Magnus also made a significant mistake with 43.Kc3.
(In the post mortem analysis he was a bit disgusted to discover that he had missed the "obvious" Ke4.)
When Loek continued to make some inaccuracies, Magnus did not miss the chance to finish him off and take the sole lead in the tournament with 2,5/3!
He is half a point ahead of Shirov, Karjakin and Eljanov.
During the game commentators said that the endgame would be easy to draw for black, probably due to the computer evaluations. And maybe it was relatively easy, I don't know.
The interesting point is that the computer analysis available obviously distorts the realism of spectators and commentators with regard to what is easy or not so easy to find over the board under time pressure in the 4th or 5th hour of the game.
As we have seen many many times, in practical play even top players go astray in seemingly "easy" endgames and this is one of the aspects making competitive chess interesting.
The margins are often very small.
Maybe Caissa has smiled at Magnus so far in this tournament, as opposed to what I think was the case during most of the Baku Grand-Prix.
Today Magnus plays black against pursuer Eljanov (and I'll make sure he eats properly before the game:-). )
Thursday and Friday Magnus will have the white pieces twice in a row before going into the free day.
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 11th 2008.
Aerosvit 2008 Round 3
Balcony view from our rooms at the 14th floor of the Foros Sanatorium Complex.
Such surroundings are a comfort when away from home for so long :-)
Peter Svidler and Loek Van Wely in pleasant conversation while Magnus is filling in his notation sheet.
Loek is both known for his sharp play as well as some excellent opening preparations. Magnus is trying to surprise Loek. 1.c4, your turn!
Tournament officials and the emblem of the Aerosvit tournament in Foros.
Loek responded 1....c6 and they entered the Slav Moscow variation. Magnus deviated from the main line pretty early capturing on f6.
They have reached move 24 by now, and there is that many pieces left. The position is fairly equal according to commentators but I expect Magnus to put some pressure on Loek in the endgame :-)
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 10th, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Foros Round 2
Shirov also won in round 2 to take the sole lead with 2/2 !
The two non-decisive games yesterday were not so exciting. Eljanov played the same Grunfeld line against Van Wely that Shirov (won with) the day before, and it ended in a fairly early draw.
This winter the elite has mainly played 1.e4 against Magnus. Despite his broad repertoire they have probably felt that he is vulnerable. But lately Leko resorted to 1.d4 in the final Miskolc game and yesterday Peter Svidler chose 1.d4 as well. It could of course be a coincident, or a general trend in elite chess, but it could also be that his opponents are considering him less vulnerable against 1.e4 after winning several games with black in various openings.
Anyhow, Magnus chose the Queen Indian line with 4....Ba6 and Peter started spending time. The rest of the game followed Cheparinov-Kamsky, Baku 2008. None of the players were especially happy to draw in this manner but despite spending about an hour each none of them could find any improvement during the game.
Rybka prefers white in the end position after 22.b3 but Peter obviously did not think he had any significant edge and offered a draw that was accepted by Magnus.
Not an interesting game of course, but a good result for Magnus.
1,5 points after having played his two highest rated opponents is just a great start.
With 50% decided games, the organiser should be happy about the fighting spirit. No vacation mood in the playing hall.
Our luggage arrived yesterday during the game, and I would like to thank the organiser for all the help received to this end.
Yesterday we had heavy rain and thunder, and consequently the air is lighter today. Finally time to go for a swim in the sea.
Today, in round 3 Magnus plays white against Dutch Look Van Wely who should be in a great mood after Holland crushed Italy 3-0 in the European Championship in Football yesterday.
Magnus has a good score against Van Wely this year, but the Dutchman is notoriously dangerous over the board and we should be looking forward to an interesting game!
H.Carlsen,
Foros, Ukraine, June 10th 2008
Aerosvit Foros 2008 Round 1
The home page did not have a direct link to the live-games but www.ruschess.com had.
Early in the game yesteday, Ivanchuk showed the same dynamic play as in the previous successful weeks. In addition to the captured pawn, he obviously had some positional compensation for the exchange sacrificed on f8. After thinking for a while, Magnus typically sacrificed another pawn in order to activate his bishop. He considered ceeding the c5 square to a black knight to be less of a problem in this specific position.
Magnus continued to put his pieces on the right squares to defend against the black kingside attack.
When he avoided the repetition of queen moves, he did not really see how either of them could make progress. White has to defend against the intrusion of the black bishop to e3 or d2, and it is difficult to support the a5 advance and recapture simultaneously. Blacks tactic simply does not work.
When Ivanchuk moved his knight from c5 via d7 and f6 to h5 Magnus was not sure if it was an attempt to win or an active defense. White was better although the advantage was not decisive until Ivanchuk impatiently played d5? Maybe he had missed Rce2! after which white is much better. None of the players had time trouble, and Magnus was a bit surprised by Ivanchuks impatient play. After the exchange of queens on f3 and rooks on f5, black is lost despite the two extra pawns. 1-0.
The luggage that arrived yesterday had supposedly been marked with our names by helpful airport officials but unfortunately it was not ours.
Latest news are that they have found two pieces of luggage in Simferopol with luggage tag numbers matching ours. So maybe the pictures from round 2 will feature Magnus in a different outfit than his NTG T-shirt worn yesterday (and the day before, and the day before, and...)
Today Magnus has black against Svidler, not an easy task.
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 9th 2008
Aerosvit tournment Foros June 7-20 2008
Having to choose between a Baltic Air route via Riga arriving in Simferopol less than five hours after leaving Oslo Gardemoen and other alternatives taking 12 hours or more, the decision was an easy one.
And it sure looked good until we arrived in Simferopol, without our luggage.
As it turned out, no big problem really. With sunny weather, a good hotel and around 25 oC, we have managed fine without the luggage. The organisers have been helpful and several happy faces have told us the luggage had arrived in Simferopol today and will be brought to the hotel soon. Thanks!
Aerosvit is even stronger this year, featuring 7 2700+ players and a 2712 rating average.
With regard to strenght and composition, itt is a clear resemblance with the recent Grand-Prix tournament in Baku. There are 12 players here though versus 14 in Baku.
Magnus is top seeded although Ivanchuk unofficially has passed him after his fantastic Mtel performance.
And interestingly, the two of them are playing right now, and Magnus has just avoided a repetition of moves!
Magnus was lucky to draw no.3 and an aditional white. After Ivanchuk he will be black against Svidler, white against Van Wely, black against Eljanov, white against Shirov and Alekseev before the free day June 14th.
The hotel is the Foros Sanatorium Complex, beautifully situated at the black sea. The complex is quite old, but the rooms (at least ours) have been elegantly refurbished lately.
I sure look forward to try the inviting sea water (when the luggage arrives)!
H.Carlsen, 08 June 2008
Beachside internet cafe, Forus, Ukraine
Leko & Carlsen Miskolc Final Day
Would Caissa smile at Magnus again today, or would Peter again get a decisive advantage and finally also win a game?
A distinguished professor started the game with 1.d4! and Peter watch Magnus closely to see his reaction to the deviation from his first three white games.
Magnus quickly decided to play the Slav defence with 4..... Bf5.
Peter played 6.Nh4 and exchanged the bishop on g6. Later he maneouvred his bishops into nice positions on d4 and e2/f3 and put pressure on the black kingside pawns. Magnus spent most of his time and probably defended quite well. He felt that he was close to equalising by the time he played 22.....b6.
Peter could have chosen to exchange material and enter a slightly better endgame a couple of times, but he obviously wanted more. After the exchange of a-pawns and one rook and one bishop Magnus put up a black square blockade and it was hard to see how white could make progress.
When Peter played h4 and later tried to activate his rook on the c-file the risk of black counterplay was starting to be significant. Magnus got his rook to the 2nd rank and after 41....Qf6! white could enter a drawn ending with Qc3 while other alternatives are bad.
Both players were low on time and the pattern of previous games repeated. After a good opening game and middle game, Peter made a mistake in time trouble with 42.Qxb6??
Magnus checked with Qa1 and played Qe1! (and not Qxa2?). Peter checked with his rook and doubled on the 8th rank threatening mate on h8, but black has several winning continuations.
Magnus was confused by Peter having played Qb8 instead of Kh3 and momentarily forgot his original plan with Nxe3+ and a quick mate, and played Rxe2+ instead which is also winning.
With the increment he had sufficient time to decide the game by chasing the white king, winning the bishop and in the end forcing the white king to the 8th rank after which white does not have any direct threats anymore. 0-1.
Consequently Magnus had already won the match and this was of course great news. The downside was that the tension was gone, Magnus felt quite drained and not at all ready for another game.
We resorted to bringing in a bottle of Coke to bring up his energy level, and Magnus showed Peter he could also play 1.d4 :-)
He played a line which he has defended as black earlier, with some problems. However, 11.Bc2 was not really good and when Peter played 13....Nb4 instead of recapturing on d5, black is probably slightly better.
Peter later took the pawn on d4 with his queen while another interesting possibility was to take with the bishop.
After 17.Rad1 Qh4 the ensuing exchanges was more of less forced and a draw was agreed with a rook and 3 pawns each.
At the press conference Magnus expressed his satisfaction with the event, with Miskolc and of course with the great result 5-3!
He volunteered that the final score was very flattering taking into account Peter's near wins and also the time trouble win today. His play had been a bit up and down while he had generally played well in time trouble and in the endgames.
Mayor (Polgarmester in Hungarian) Sándor Káli congratulates Magnus with the victory.
Media wanted some interviews. Our impression is that the coverage of the match has been very good both in Hungary and abroad!
Finally, many thanks to the organisers for a great event!
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, June 1, 2008
Leko & Carlsen - Miskolc Day 3
The weather in Miskolc has been very sunny with temperatures up to 30oC. Yesterday was very humid as well and the dark afternoon clouds promised rain that never came. Today is another beautiful day and we will surely see 30 oC again.
In game 5 yesterday Peter played the slightly unusual 10.Qe1 variation in the Sicilian Dragen, and Magnus chose the variation with 12..... cxd5 instead of the more normal Sxd5.
Magnus thought he was alright after the opening but he was not prepared for 20.Qa5! after which he spent more than 10 minutes evaluating the possibilities. Later he thought he should have exchanged queens and played the slightly worse rook ending. It may be better for white but black should hold with precise play.
Too late he realized that his plan Qc7-e7-h4 was giving white a serious advantage. He still thought he could create difficulties for white with 24....c3 but had missed 26.f4! after which he is was short on time as well as a pawn down with no compensation.
After 34.Qe5 black looked lost. Qh4 loses to Qg5! and Qb6 probably to f5!
Magnus found Kg7! to activate his king.
Exchanging queens brought white a very good rook endgame with 3 versus 1 pawn on the queenside and 2 versus 3 on the kingside. Fortunately for Magnus his king was slightly better placed to support the advance of pawns and the commentators say the position was theoretically drawn after about 40 moves.
Magnus generally played well in the endgame but supposedly made a mistake with 44....g4? instead of Kg3. Afterwards Peter supposedly also went wrong and when Magnus found 48.....Rg6! he has excellent drawing chances.
If white plays c5 Magnus checks on g4 and the rook goes to h4 in which case there will be a queen ending with white having an additional pawn. Theoretical drawn but black could easily make a mistake.
Peter may have thought that he could win with the two advanced pawns and played 51.Rxh3 Kxh3 52.c5.
Magnus had about 50 seconds (plus increments) at this time and after eliminating the other possible defences he found the drawing plan Rg4+ 53.Ka5 Rc4 spending two valuable tempi getting the rook into the right position. Afterwards it was a fairly straight forward draw as the black king arrives just in time to capture one pawn while sacrificing the rook on the other.
An exciting game and a narrow escape for Magnus. Peter again was well prepared and played excellent in the middle game while Magnus excelled in the endgame.
As white Magnus played 1.d4 this time and Peter entered the variation d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Qc7 and two moves later captured the pawn on c4. Magnus supposedly have good compensation for the pawn, and Kasparov has beaten Kramnik in the same line. Peter deviated from normal theory with 12.....Nxe4 instead of dxe4. Magnus felt he had some counterplay but never enough to play for a win. In the end he settled for rook and opposite colour bishop endgame which is drawn as long as he can keep the black rook out of play. Peter sacrificed his c-pawn, but as Magnus still can prevent black activating his rook blocking with his rook or bishop a draw was agreed after move 32.
In summary Magnus is very satisfied with the results so far and the lead 3,5-2,5 in the match while not entirely happy about his play. He has had serious difficulties in two games and only an advantage in the one game he won.
We expect Peter to really go for a win in game 7 today and it will surely be an exciting day!
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, Jun 1st 2008
Miskolc Free Day
Peter and Magnus responded to a broad range of questions from the audience and afterwards went through and commented upon a favourite game each.
Magnus chose his win as white in the Semi-Slav in the Copenhagen part of Sigeman 2004 against P. H. Nielsen, Denmark. Nielsen had been well prepared and improved upon the game Magnus had played in the same variation in the European Championship U-14 the autumn before.
Magnus chose to counterattack instead of keeping the offered material. Nielsen, playing for a win, failed to adapt to the slowly deteriorating position and in the end succumbed to the white kingside attack.
Peter Leko showed his brilliant win in a sharp Najdorf variation against V.Anand in their rapid game in the Amber 2008 in Nice.
And of course, autographs!
Earlier in the day some of us (but not Magnus) enjoyed a visit to the beautiful Degenfeld castle and winery in the Tokaji region outside Miskolc. The old winery was renovated and expanded in 1996. High quality white wine is produced in magnificent surroundings featuring many hectares of both vineyard and park, and they offer hotel facilities as well as exquisite meals in the castle.
There is even a swimming pool and tennis court in the park area.
We were welcomed by hotel director Aladar Dome and we got an interesting introduction to the wine making process. Harvested grapes are crushed and the subsequent grape juice is fermented and matured through storage.
They produce both dry light coloured wines as well as sweet deep yellow dessert wines. The dry light wine is produced by maturing in steel vessels without access to oxygen. Wine stored in breathing oak barrels is allowed to oxidise.
The young man is our excellent guide Balazs.
The sweetness (sugar content) is based on the amount of handpicked noble rotted and dehydrated Aszu grapes (containing little water but lots of sugar) mixed into the base wine.
Afterwards we were treated to a four-course lunch accompanied by the most excellent Tokaji wines in the out door restaurant in front of the castle. Wow, what a meal!
Game 5 and 6 will be played at 16:30 and 18 hours tomorrow Saturday.
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 30th 2008
Miskolc Game 3 & 4
Caissa certainly smiled at Magnus and it of course helped that he played quite well today.
In the first game a drawish endgame was suddenly lost but then drawn in the end around move 100, while the second game was pretty even for a long time until Peter made one mistake and later some inaccuracies that was punished efficiently by Magnus.
It is rapid, but of course Magnus was very happy about his first win ever against Peter!
In the first game Peter chose the 3.Bb5+ variation in the Sicilian. Magnus more or less equalised in the opening, but he later thought that his creative plan b6 and Qb7 resulted in a slightly inferior position. 16.e5 looked a bit troublesome for black but with precise defence he was probably not worse in the ensuing complications.
After the exchange of rooks black should hold easily despite the white queen and knight against queen and bishop.
In beginning time trouble moves were repeated not 3 but 4 times (!) without any draw claims. Magnus would have been satisfied with draw at this stage but chose not to claim partly because this is a friendly rapid match.
Peter deserves praise for using the opportunity to deviate with Kf1 and Ne1 playing for a win. At this point Magnus felt he was starting to play badly and he also missed that white could play 53.Ke2! with a clear advantage. (Magnus had seen that after 53.Ne1 d3 54.Qxd3 he could bag both white b-pawns.)
Peter spent the next 40 moves first moving his king to safety and then activating his queen and then his knight and trying to trap black.
Magnus thought he was lost but defended very well until he allowed 95.Qc3 which gives white a relatively easily winning position because black finally has to move the f-pawn (to f6).
However, Peter immediately blundered with 96.Qb3? after which Qe2! black draws. White cannot protect f2 and when Peter advanced his b-pawn to queen, the software lost trace due to the reversed rook he used as a queen.
Magnus checked on f2 and after some checks on f1 and f2 a draw was agreed. Puh!
In the second game Magnus played the exchange variation against the Caro-Kann and felt quite comfortable with his position. The position looked ripe for a sacrifice after 18.h6, but a long thought later Magnus retreated his knight to f3 and the games was quite even throughout most of the middle game.
Playing for the initiative on each their side, Magnus thought Peter's decisive mistake was 33... Nxg5?, instead of retreating his king.
Both players were down close to the 10 second increment at this time but Magnus played very accurately and improved his position.
After 38.Bf4 black is probably lost.
After the exchange of queens Magnus won the d-pawn and advanced his own d-pawn to d6 so that the black knight is stuck on g8. Peter resigned when the c-pawn started to roll. 1-0!
Tomorrow is free day and the above-18 section in this event are invited to a wine-tasting experience 50 kilometres from Miskolc in the morning:-) More about that later!
The last 4 rounds will be played Saturday and Sunday.
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 29th 2008
Miskolc Day 1
Having slept very well, Magnus was both in a good mood and in good shape prior to the first game against Peter Leko.
With about 30 oC in the shadow, we appreciated the air-conditioned drive down to the National Theatre.
Everything was well organised and Magnus got his own rest room before and between the games.
On behalf of Peter, the mayor Sandor Kali pushed the white e-pawn to e4.
Again choosing the Sicilian Dragen Magnus was well prepared and when Peter deviated from the game Karjakin-Carlsen in Baku with 19.Nb3 Magnus quickly responded Rac8 rather than the passive Re6. Peter took the pawn on d6, but black enjoyed excellent counterplay on the queenside. After 22..... a5 Peter should maybe had captured with the knight to create any real winning chances. Either he did not like the continuation or he avoided the worst complications and played 23.Qg5 instead. After the exchange of queens, Peter tried to activate his knight but Magnus kept control of the open d-file and Peter proposed a draw in the rook endgame. His extra pawn is not giving any advantage as any attempt exchanging rooks or advancing pawn leads to a worse end-game. Draw.
The second game was introduced.
Magnus played 1.e4 and Peter somewhat to his surprise responded 1.... c6. Magnus went for the slightly obscure 5.Nc5 line. He thought he got a small advantage but after Peter continued with precise moves not allowing white's main plan Ne5, the position was probably very equal.
After 13..... Rfe8 14.Rac1 Bg4 Magnus could not find anything better than 15.Qc2 and when Peter moved his bishop back to f5, moves were slowly repeated three times.
Interestingly this is the third time of a early repetition as white against Peter.
In Tal Memorial 2006 Magnus avoided the repetition and accepted a worse position. He was probably lost at one point but managed to escape and draw in the end.
In Morelia in 2007 they again repeated moves, but as none of the players were happy to draw nor to propose draw, they repeated 4 times before Peter took responsibility of the situation and offered his hand!
Yesterday Magnus repeated 3 times but continued to hope that Peter would deviate. After a long thought Peter offered his hand and the draw was agreed.
During the press conference Magnus praised Peter for his accurate play in the second game and appologized to the audience for the unfortunate short draw.
Anyhow, avoid losing on the first day gave both players a reasonable start to the match.
Miskolc is one out of four university cities in Hungary outside Budapest, and this morning chief arbiter Veroci and mechanical engineering student and driver Sandor showed me the impressive university. It has 11,000 students and faculties include engineering, economics, law, medicine and veterinary stuidies, many of which are available to English and German speaking foreign students.
As a former industrial city, Miskolc should be well prepared for the transition into high-tech industries and a project is already under way to establish industry based on nanotechnology.
Miskolc is also well known for the Cave bath with both outside pools as well as pools inside natural caverns.
Let us hope for some interesting fights today!
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 29th 2008
Leko - Carlsen match Opening ceremony.
In 2005 Peter Leko played Adams in a fascinating fight. The result was 4-4 after three initial wins by Adams and a fantastic comeback by Leko.Two years ago Leko beat Karpov 4,5-3,5, but last year he lost with the same digits against Kramnik.
Yesterday the welcome dinner was held in a very elegant castle up in the hills outside Miskolc.
New BMW's featuring posters with "Leko & Carlsen match" bring the participants to and from throughout the event, and the transportation is very much in style with the organisation so far; well planned, comfortable and in great style!
Many thanks to organisers Katalin Tömösi, Attila Barva and the rest of the organisation!
A double digit number of journalists showed up at today's press conference headed by Miscolc mayor Sándor Káli. The variety and ingenuity of the questions were impressive.
Magnus expects the match to be hard fought and even. He has a poor score against Peter but having made steady progress lately, the chances of scoring a win and also of winning the match has improved.
Regarding the upcoming European Championship in Football, Magnus admitted that he will root for our fellow Scandinavians (the Swedish), while if any, he would probably pick Portugal as favourite this year.
The opening ceremony was held in the National Theatre of Miskolc.
The initial 20 minute play that was presented has been created solely for the match, and we thoroughly enjoyed the music, the Viking's and the farmer maidens song!
Chief Arbiter and WGM Zsuzsa Veroci introduced the players, and next was the drawing of lots.
Magnus was allowed to choose between two green leather cases, and inside he found a black art figure which translated to black in the first game on every match day (in game 1, 3, 5 and 7) and white in the second.
After the reception / cocktail party held in the 2nd floor of the theatre, Magnus has retreated to his room for preparation and rest.
Round 1 starts tomorrow at 16:30 and round 2 at 18:00. Live games at the excellent match homepage: http://www.lekocarlsen.hu/eng
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 27th 2008
Madrid Simul May 24, 2008
Today we visited the Bernabeu stadium for a sight-seeing through the impressive complex which houses museums, restaurants, a separate mall and a three store Real Madrid shop.
A (somewhat depressing) sign of the times is that the Real Madrid museum supposedly is visited by more people than the extraordinary Prado museum down the street (which features a special Goya exhibition this week).
Anyhow, Magnus enjoyed both the Bernabeu visit as well as the subsequent lunch at Mexican "Si Senor" close by.
Simultaneous displays may take the form an exhibition event or a tough match against challenging opponents. Today's simul hosted by, and at, the Institute of Fine Arts in cooperation with the Madrid Chess Federation was certainly of the second category.
Magnus faced "just" 20 opponents, but hardly any was easy prey and the first player did not yield until an hour had passed. Among the opponents, which included the Madrid U12, U14, U16 and U18 champions, there were several 2200+ as well as many players around 2000 rating strength.
Based on the serious look in his face, maybe Magnus had a premonition of the opponent's true strength. After Magnus overpressed slightly in a rook ending, the opponent declined a draw offer (!) but a few moves later a draw was the result anyhow.
Magnus generally adapted to the strong opposition and played somewhat slower than usual.
After more than 2,5 hours, the result was 18 wins and 2 draws, and Magnus was well satisified with the result.
(In addition one opponent had created an easily drawn position but seemed confused at the time and resigned instead of performing the necessary additional four checks needed to claim a draw.)
The organiser had planned to broadcast some 6 games live on internet but due to technical problems the games will probably be uploaded later instead. (I will update this blog entry with a link as soon as I know if and where it can be found.) Link; http://www.ajedrezfma.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=308
Anyhow the conclusion was; a well organised and interesting simul!
Many thanks to the Institute of Fine Arts, the Madrid Chess Federation as well as event coordinator and owner of Jaque magazine, E.Morejon.
Tomorrow we are off to Hungary and will arrive in Miscolc on Monday for the Leko-Carlsen match. The opening ceremony takes place on Tuesday and the match starts Wednesday 28th.
Henrik Carlsen,
Madrid, May 24th 2008
Dutch league Final Round
Having spent 5 days at home he travelled to Holland yesterday choosing to celebrate the Norwegian National Day (or Constitution Day) May 17th playing round 9 in the Dutch league.
He was supposed to be a surprise weapon in the potentially decisive final round, but his team Hilversum had already secured the top spot with one round to go.
All 10 teams played the final round at the same venue taking place in the town-hall of Hilversum.
Magnus played black on board one for the home team against GM Jan Werle (2581) from Hotels.nl.
The opening choice came as a bit of a surprise for Magnus, but he soon was better as white's 13.d5 is a mistake loosing a pawn.
(Magnus made the same mistake as white against Aronian in the Elista Candidates blitz)
Magnus thought he made some inaccurate moves later in the game but far ahead on the clock he felt quite comfortable.
Werle actively tried to take advantage of his advanced d-pawn but the attempt failed and he resigned after 39 moves a piece and a pawn down.
Here in Lommedalen, having had nearly to weeks of beautiful summer lately, we were reminded that the May weather at 60 degrees north is volatile.
This morning offered sleet, 2 oC and a white blanket covered the surrounding forest above 250 meters.
The weather improved slightly during the day and May 17th could be celebrated the traditional way with marching band and children parade, songs and games for the children at Lommedalen school.
With reference to the excellent top live-list maintained by Hans A. Runde at http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~ha/toplist.php, Magnus at 2775 recaptured the 5th spot (from Morozevich) that he lost to Ivanchuk last week.
Due to their excellent Mtel performances, Topalov and Ivanchuk are 2 and 1 points respectively, ahead of Magnus. For the first time I can remember (and probably ever) the top 6 players are now within a mere 25 rating points (between 2798 and 2775)!
There is more than 30 points from Magnus and Morozevich down to Radjabov in 7th place.
Next week Magnus will play a exhibition simul in Spain and travel onwards to Miscolc in Hungary for the 8-game rapid match Leko-Carlsen starting Wednesday May 28th.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, May 17th 2008
Baku Final standing and closing ceremony.
The last round is old news, we have already received lots of congrat's on the previous posting. Thank you!
As might be expected Magnus was very very pleased with his last round victory against Bacrot.
What do you do when you are faced with the challenge of choosing strategy in the final round as black against a player who have lost his last two games when you don't want to lose because a draw will give you a very decent result while going for a win and a superb result is tempting?
Personally I would chicken out and play safe, but fortunately Magnus did not!
His opening choice and early manoeuvres was directed at creating an unbalanced position providing winning chances, of course preferable without taking too much risks.
After 13....Nd7 14.Nb3 f5, he knew he was slightly worse, but never felt in any real danger of losing.
24.Qa4 was probably a mistake, and Bacrot admitted after the game that he had missed the Re3-d3 plan.
26....Nf6 deserves an exclamation mark, making it very easy for white to go wrong.
Instead of 27.R7h6, the alternative Rg6 would have been strong in Magnus' opinion.
After 28.....Rxd3 black is probably already slightly better, and Magnus chose the continuation 29....Nxd5 instead of Qa4 to not allow the complications after 30.Qxf5.
After the mistake 37.Rg6, Magnus played a5 following his long term plan but missing the tactical shot Re8! winning a piece.
However, he was quite convinced that he had a winning position and it is difficult to find a clear save for white.
In the continuation Magnus played consistent while Bacrot probably made a few more accuracies, and after the white king and bishop was trapped on the 2nd row, it was just a matter of technique. 0-1.
Both Svidler and Navara enjoyed a winning streak in the last two rounds to improve their position considerably while the other top boards ended in draw.
During the tournament the tournament home page gave me the impression that the tie-break would favour his opponents Gashimov and Yue, but this was an illusion.
The regulations are very clear, there are no tie-break in each individual tournament. (The SB and Rp in the final standing of the Baku GP has no bearing what so ever.)
Consequently Carlsen, Gashimov and Yue, in alphabetical order :-), shared 1st place in Baku.
With regard to the Grand-Prix combined standing, the winners bring along 153 and a third GP point each, and for potential tie-break the 8 points may be significant (tie-break 2) and also in theory number of wins (tie-break 5) of which Magnus had 4 and the others 3 each.
We would like to thank the organiser and Global Chess for a well organised event, and the playing venue and hotel was excellent! Thank you!
Prior to the Leko 8-game rapid match in Miscolc May 28th-June1st, Magnus will attend some promotional events, starting with two simuls in Stavanger May 10th.
H.Carlsen
Lommedalen, May 7th 2008
