Magnus Carlsen

The chess community in the Oslo area responded well to the Glitnir Blitz in Oslo City shopping mall yesterday.
I've never seen so many current and former chess players visit a chess event in Norway. People were standing on chairs and in the shop windows on the floor above to follow the excitement.


Ready to go!

During the group play the internet broadcast shown on the big screen worked for some time, but unfortunately not during the cup play. 

IM Bjoern Tiller was the only lower ranked player to advance from the group play after beating GM Stefansson in one game and holding Grischuk to a draw in another. Equal on tie-break with Stefansson Tiller won the drawing of lot. 
Magnus lost one game after blundering against Nyback, but was never in any really danger and advanced together with Nyback. 

In the quarterfinals Magnus beat GM Johannessen 2,5-1,5, Grischuk beat Tiller 3-0, Agdestein beat Nyback 2,5-1,5 and Nielsen Lie 3-1. 

In the semifinals Agdestein showed an immense fighting spirit and won both the first game (as black!) as well as the 4^th game against Grischuk. 2-2, but in the Armageddon Grischuk won with white. 

Magnus played his second and friend Peter H.Nielsen and after drawing the first game with black, the audience really got some excitement in the second game. Magnus seemed to be losing due to a pinned knight on d4, but after the creative Bg3-h4-e7 the board was on fire and Magnus came out with a queen and a pawn against rook, bishop and knight. Due to lack of coordinated pieces Peter had trouble and with a few seconds left on the clock he faced a mate.
But.... Magnus had left his advanced pawn on h8 not substituting it for a queen, in principle an illegal move. Peter could maybe have protested but decided to resign instead. A true gentleman.
In the  3^rd game Magnus relatively easy drew with black.
In the final game he did not take any chances. He was better in the endgame when he blundered his bishop. But with a black-squared bishop and his only pawn on a6 for Heine the ending was drawn anyway, securing 2,5-1,5 for Magnus. 

Peter had obviously spent most of his energy during the initial 14 games including tight matches against Lie and Magnus, and simply lost 3-0 to the never-tiring fighter S.Agdestein in the losers final. 


The audience seemed well satisfied with Magnus against Grischuk in the final.

As white in the first game, Magnus had a tempo or two from the opening and open lines, and thought he was clearly better. But after Grischuk's manoeuvre Bf5-e4-f3, Magnus did not find any better alternative then the repetition of moves with Qc7 Qg5+ Qg3 Qa5 Qc7 etc.
In the second game something went seriously wrong in the opening. Magnus had to give his queen for a rook and a bishop and did not have sufficient counterplay. Grischuk swapped pieces and advancing his c-pawn. 1-0. 
In the third game, a Spanish opening, Magnus really fought hard to try to win. In the bishop versus knight ending probably only very precise defence from Grischuk saved the draw. 

In a must-win situation with black Magnus went for the Benoni. He seemed to be in trouble when he had to play f5 to free up his position, but as the white rooks invaded the 6^th and 7^th rank it looked very difficult for Magnus with his knight and rook still on b8 and a8. His only active piece was the black-squared bishop, but somehow he managed to create sufficient counterplay with his b- and a-pawn and after Magnus sacked his knight on d7, Grischuk had to give a whole rook for the b-pawn. Magnus was simply winning and had 50 versus 18 seconds on the clock when he blundered his bishop. He could still have won with Ke4 going after the only remaining black pawn, but instead Grischuk was allowed to sack his last rook on the a-pawn and advance his own f-pawn. In the must-win situation Magnus let Grischuk queen his pawn, hoping to win on time (I guess) in the queen versus rook ending.
But Magnus lost his rook and when suggesting a draw as Grischuk did not have time to mate, Magnus' own time went out (I think). 3-1 to Grischuk in a spectacular final. Congratulations!
 
Magnus was quite upset with himself after the final game, but soon calmed down and was ready for TV interviews and the closing cermony.



Many thanks to Glitnir and the Norwegian chess federation for staging this great event! 

After the closing ceremony the Norwegian European Team Championship-team headed for the airport and Crete where Magnus is facing Shirov, Spain with the black pieces in round 1.       

Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, October 28^th