Magnus Carlsen

I left Siberia early Tuesday morning to go back to Lommedalen and Norway, and only today I got some comments from Magnus on his four games against A.Naiditsch (2639).  

Some of the people surrounding Magnus were a bit nervous ahead of this 2^nd round encounter, but Magnus did not really share our worries :-)
Naiditsch has won Dortmund and can be very dangerous but Magnus did have a good score against him (+2=4) prior to World Cup 2007. 

In the first game Naiditsch surprised Magnus in the opening with 9.e5.
Magnus found a reasonable continuation but according to online commentators (and the computers) 13.Bd2 was a small mistake. Magnus was happy about 15.c6! and by returning the two pawns he gets a slightly better ending. He was later a full pawn up and clearly better but to enter the double rook ending was probably a mistake.
It ended in a draw as he could not find any win despite trying through the 5^th hour. 

As black in the second game Magnus was happy about the Scottish opening but allowed white a dangerous attack as he had missed 15.f5!
Later he defended well and was quite comfortable. He was again surprised by 21.Bg6 which fortunately was accompanied by a draw offer.
Magnus thought for a while and as he was tired and in his own opinion took dangerously long to see that hxg6 would lose because of the mating threats following Qh4+ and Ng5, he decided the best thing would be to go for the rapid playoff. Draw. 

The 1^st rapid game today was another Nimzo-indian but Magnus chose 8.b4 instead of Nf3. 
After exchanging queens Magnus thought he was slightly better and when he found 19.g3 sacking the a-pawn for initiative and attack against black weaknesses he was quite optimistic.
Naiditsch probably played some inaccurate moves and Magnus was soon up a pawn instead and had with a strong initiative. He efficiently converted the rook endgame into victory! 

As black in the second rapid game he chose the Ruy Lopez against 1.e4. Naiditsch chose 7.a4 and after exchanging the a-pawns and both knights white had an initiative. After the exchange of one rook and a lot of bishop manoeuvres, Naiditsch tried to utilize the Ba5 pin against the c7-pawn and queen at d8 but could obviously not find a decisive continuation. When he finally chose 39 Rxc7 he wins the pawn but after Qe8 threatening Qe1 white has nothing better than allowing a black perpetual check.
In the must-win situation he of course played on but the combined threats along the b8-h2 diagonal and the passed b-pawn soon decided the game.
2-0 to Magnus in the rapids who felt very determined today and was of course both happy and relieved to qualify for round 3. 

Most of the favourites got through to round 3 although Ponomariov again created excitement by losing (as white) only to comeback as black.
The biggest surprise was Radjabov losing 2-0 to Macieja from Polen.
12 of the 32 matches went to tie-break today but without any real surprising results. 

Tomorrow Magnus is turning 17 and is up against Dominguez from Cuba! 

Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, November 29th