Magnus Carlsen

Magnus losing the semi-final against Kamsky is old news of course. I'm sorry about late update of the blog. This is partly priorities, but mainly due to lack of internet connection at the hotel in Khanty-Mansiysk early this week, and the fact that I was out travelling when Magnus returned to Norway on Wednesday.

The purpose of this late review of round 6 is to present Magnus own comments and to put his World Cup performance in perspective. 

Magnus again got white in the first game in his 6^th round encounter with Kamsky, and he tried to surprise his opponent by playing the Scotch. He had not expected the unusual bxc6 but knew about the line with Qh4. He thought he had seen a game where Glek scored a convincing win but could not remember the variations.
Choosing the not very ambitious Qe2 and Be3, he spent a lot of time on the clock but could not think clearly.
It seems that both players assumed black was slightly better in the endgame. Magnus was satisfied to find b4! which forces a draw after cxb4 Rc7 Rc8 Rxc8 Bxc8 Rb1 Rc2 Rb4 with a complete extortion of both sides remaining forces.    

As black Magnus chose the Petroff as Kamsky seemed to have avoided this opening after his comeback. Magnus made a mistake in the opening, when playing 8...Nc6 instantly, he soon discovered that 9.Nc3 immediately led to position that he had tried to avoid all along (by playing Be7 and Bg4). Neither Bxf3 gxf3 nor Bb4 Nxe4! with a strong initiative for the exchange appealed to Magnus. After a very unusual 40 minutes think he decided to play Bg6 knowing that after Bd2 white would have a long term advantage. Kamsky later went on to develop his initiative efficiently and after some further inaccuracies from Magnus it turned out that the position was nearly hopeless. Pity for Magnus but it must be said that Kamsky with his powerful play no doubt deserved to advance to the final. (Where he is now leading 1,5-0,5 after an impressive demolition of Shirov today.)      

The World Cups arranged up to 2004 attracted a majority of the top 50 players in the world, but not necessary a majority of the top 5 or 10. The status of the championships was obviously affected by the competing parallel cycles.
The top 3 players in the World did not participate in 2005 and 3 of the top4 neither in 2007. Still, the legitimacy is enhanced with respect to the status as a qualification event for the final World Championship phase.
In 2005 four players were directly qualified for the WC Tournament and a 5^th (Kramnik) stayed sidelined until the match against Topalov. In 2007 there are just three players (Anand, Kramnik and Topalov) pre-qualified for the remaining 2009 World Championship cycle. 4 more top20 players (Leko, Morozevich, Gelfand and Polgar) decided against participating, but with 26 out of the top 33 players in the World and a total of 69 players above 2600, the World Cup was a very strong qualification tournament. (Just ask the top seeds Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov and Radjabov...) 

Through his shared 3^rd place Magnus is qualified for the Grand Prix cycle 2008-9 and hence the 2010-2011 World Championship cycle. He was among the last 7 players left in the 2009 World Championship cycle(!) and he gained valuable rating points advancing to an expected 13^th place on the FIDE January 2008 list.
His only slightly older adversary S.Karjakin showed a very impressive performance in Khanty-Mansiysk and reached the semi-final to share 3^rd with Magnus. On the January list only 1 point is expected to divide them (Magnus 2733, Karjakin 2732) at the top of the Junior list.
This bodes well for a sharp and exciting battle for the World Junior throne over the next 3 years! 

After returning to Norway Magnus is back in school.
He still enjoys the pleasant feeling of his successful achievements in Russia, and he really appreciates all the support and encouragement he has received via the internet and through blog comments!
We would also like to thank the main sponsor FAST for the successful cooperation this autumn, GM Kjetil Lie for his great help and support in Khanty-Mansiysk, his second and training partner on several occasions Peter H. Nielsen as well as his school teacher Simen Agdestein. 

My only concern after such tremendous results throughout 2007 is that expectations will rise further.
(I was expecting to be in a position to say that we should allow Magnus another year or two to stabilize around the 2700 level but with one 2750 performance after the other, this does not seem very ambitious right now.)
Still, the emphasis should be on gaining experience at top level tournaments, enjoy playing chess, learn as much as possible and not focus much on results. 

The 1^st quarter schedule for Magnus is much the same as this year; Corus A in January, Linares in February/March and Monaco in March!
It is a very tight programme, but an extenuating aspect is that Magnus is getting used to top level tournaments and no longer have to make an extraordinary effort in every game. (I've no doubts it will be tough though.)
Magnus' first ambition is to perform significantly better at Corus in 2008 than this year. 

Over Christmas he will annotate some of his recent games from Tal Memorial and the World Cup and hopefully go some skiing in the beautiful surroundings of Lommedalen!    

Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, December 14th, 2007