Amber Round 2 & 3.
The Amber Blindfold is played by making moves on a blank computer screen board with the mouse. The last move of the opponent appears on the screen in notation form and is visible put until the player makes his next move.
Sunday Magnus played against van Wely, the lowest seeded opponent and needed a plus score after his meagre 0,5 points against Ivanchuk.
In the blindfold game Magnus chose to follow the same line as he had played with white against Naiditsch in the World Cup and after van Wely played the ambitious 16.Rb1 Magnus could start to put pressure on c4 and e4. Van Wely quickly went wrong with 19.Ke2 and after 21..... Bb7 he is losing the e-pawn. In the ensuing tactics black has the advantage and after 25.Bxe4? Bxe4 white is losing.
This was Magnus first blindfold win in Amber as he didn't score any last year.
In the rapid game Magnus chose a popular Slav set-up sacrificing a pawn for space and black weaknesses.
His 12.b3 is quite new and van Wely had to find the right continuation to avoid trouble. When van Wely missed 22.Nf7! he is clearly worse and quickly went down in the white kingside attack. 1-0.
Anand, Aronian and Ivanchuk again won their matches and was leading with 3/4 ahead of Magnus and others at 2.5.
On day 3 Magnus was up against his youth rival S.Karjakin. As white in the blindfold game Magnus went for the same line Najdorf as Radjabov played against Shirov in Linares. In Linares Shirov blundered badly in a position considered only slightly better for white. However Magnus felt he had a comfortable edge and he started manouvring to exploit black's weaknesses. After 28.g5 Karjakin quickly played f5 and h5 closing the kingside but had maybe underestimated the weekness on the queenside. Magnus played 32.b5 and after Karjakin activated his rook in the e-file and captured the h-pawn, Magnus could take the e-file with devastating effect. After some tactics Karjakin resigned as he cannot stop the a-pawn.
Magnus considers Karjakin a real elite player and was a bit surprised by the apparent ease with which he won this game.
As black in the rapid Magnus chose the Alekhine defence and white got an advantage due to the bishop pair and more space. Magnus felt that he never had serious problems in the middle game and was starting to be very optimistic in the unbalanced game after 29.....h4 30.gxh4. Karjakin had little time left and Magnus considered the position easier to play for black than for white.
However, soon after Magnus blundered a full piece as he has simply missed Rg2! in the end. 1-0 and 1-1 in the mini-match just as in Bilbao blindfold in October.
Well, the equilibrium maintains the tension ahead of their next encounter!
Anand drew his match while Ivanchuk and Aronian both lost their mini-matches to leave Anand in the sole lead with 4/6. Magnus is shared 2nd with 3.5.
Today Magnus has black in the blindfold game against Aronian at 14:30.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, March 18th 2008
Sunday Magnus played against van Wely, the lowest seeded opponent and needed a plus score after his meagre 0,5 points against Ivanchuk.
In the blindfold game Magnus chose to follow the same line as he had played with white against Naiditsch in the World Cup and after van Wely played the ambitious 16.Rb1 Magnus could start to put pressure on c4 and e4. Van Wely quickly went wrong with 19.Ke2 and after 21..... Bb7 he is losing the e-pawn. In the ensuing tactics black has the advantage and after 25.Bxe4? Bxe4 white is losing.
This was Magnus first blindfold win in Amber as he didn't score any last year.
In the rapid game Magnus chose a popular Slav set-up sacrificing a pawn for space and black weaknesses.
His 12.b3 is quite new and van Wely had to find the right continuation to avoid trouble. When van Wely missed 22.Nf7! he is clearly worse and quickly went down in the white kingside attack. 1-0.
Anand, Aronian and Ivanchuk again won their matches and was leading with 3/4 ahead of Magnus and others at 2.5.
On day 3 Magnus was up against his youth rival S.Karjakin. As white in the blindfold game Magnus went for the same line Najdorf as Radjabov played against Shirov in Linares. In Linares Shirov blundered badly in a position considered only slightly better for white. However Magnus felt he had a comfortable edge and he started manouvring to exploit black's weaknesses. After 28.g5 Karjakin quickly played f5 and h5 closing the kingside but had maybe underestimated the weekness on the queenside. Magnus played 32.b5 and after Karjakin activated his rook in the e-file and captured the h-pawn, Magnus could take the e-file with devastating effect. After some tactics Karjakin resigned as he cannot stop the a-pawn.
Magnus considers Karjakin a real elite player and was a bit surprised by the apparent ease with which he won this game.
As black in the rapid Magnus chose the Alekhine defence and white got an advantage due to the bishop pair and more space. Magnus felt that he never had serious problems in the middle game and was starting to be very optimistic in the unbalanced game after 29.....h4 30.gxh4. Karjakin had little time left and Magnus considered the position easier to play for black than for white.
However, soon after Magnus blundered a full piece as he has simply missed Rg2! in the end. 1-0 and 1-1 in the mini-match just as in Bilbao blindfold in October.
Well, the equilibrium maintains the tension ahead of their next encounter!
Anand drew his match while Ivanchuk and Aronian both lost their mini-matches to leave Anand in the sole lead with 4/6. Magnus is shared 2nd with 3.5.
Today Magnus has black in the blindfold game against Aronian at 14:30.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, March 18th 2008
Comments:
Posted by: Mattovsky
Dear Mr. Carlsen,
your descriptions of the games are really interesting but I implore you to use move numbers. Otherwise it can be very difficult to understand what you are talking about. E.g. when you start a phrase with "after g5" the reader must frantically search the whole game score to know who played g5 and when.
Thanks for your understanding.
your descriptions of the games are really interesting but I implore you to use move numbers. Otherwise it can be very difficult to understand what you are talking about. E.g. when you start a phrase with "after g5" the reader must frantically search the whole game score to know who played g5 and when.
Thanks for your understanding.
Posted by: Ron
I get addicted to this blog!
Posted by: Henrik C
Mattovsky,
good point. I've updated this blog entry and will generally do so in the future as well :-)
(I've left out the move number on Rg2 on purpose as it is the decisive last move blow.)
Ron,
I'm interpreting your comment entirely as praise. Thank you!
good point. I've updated this blog entry and will generally do so in the future as well :-)
(I've left out the move number on Rg2 on purpose as it is the decisive last move blow.)
Ron,
I'm interpreting your comment entirely as praise. Thank you!
Posted by: Li
Hello Mr Carlsen,
I just recently read on the Melody Amber site that there was an incident regarding a 'move correction' that Magnus played - could you tell us more about what happened?
Thanks,
Li
I just recently read on the Melody Amber site that there was an incident regarding a 'move correction' that Magnus played - could you tell us more about what happened?
Thanks,
Li
Posted by: Tom
Hello Henrik
I followed Magnus rapid game againt Aronian. Can you
please telle me when Magnus did a blunder like
ra3 in this game? Probably not since he was 10 year or something?
I`ve seen him - rarely - do week moves
but a blunder like this with 9 minutes to timecontrol.
What happened?
He is now among the 10 top players in the world - on the
next list. How will the Carlsen-team work in the coming
period to improve his play even more.
I do hope - anyway -
that he will keep his fantastic fighting spirit, no any of
the other players over 2700 has his figting spirit, he never
gives up a game. And it seems that he always goes to the table with the goal to win the game - whoever his opponent is. Fantastic. I do wish the whole team good luck in the future, and hope to see Magnus pass 2800 within a year or two.
Tom
I followed Magnus rapid game againt Aronian. Can you
please telle me when Magnus did a blunder like
ra3 in this game? Probably not since he was 10 year or something?
I`ve seen him - rarely - do week moves
but a blunder like this with 9 minutes to timecontrol.
What happened?
He is now among the 10 top players in the world - on the
next list. How will the Carlsen-team work in the coming
period to improve his play even more.
I do hope - anyway -
that he will keep his fantastic fighting spirit, no any of
the other players over 2700 has his figting spirit, he never
gives up a game. And it seems that he always goes to the table with the goal to win the game - whoever his opponent is. Fantastic. I do wish the whole team good luck in the future, and hope to see Magnus pass 2800 within a year or two.
Tom
Posted by: bobmutch
Thanks for giving us a report on what really happened with Carlsen on the Ra3 move.
It would have been nice to have that posted right away.
I read a number of chess blogs and quite a few people have accused Carlsen of cheating.
Even myself I was disappointed in Carlsen's actions but was glad to see this point here that has cleared things up.
Things like this could use a press release so that we are not all left wondering what happened.
It would have been nice to have that posted right away.
I read a number of chess blogs and quite a few people have accused Carlsen of cheating.
Even myself I was disappointed in Carlsen's actions but was glad to see this point here that has cleared things up.
Things like this could use a press release so that we are not all left wondering what happened.
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