Magnus Carlsen

Lots of fighting chess and decisive games today.



Magnus played 1.d4 and Adams went for the Nimzo-Indian line with 10.e3 Qa5+.
Magnus thought for a long time and decided to give the exchange with b4 for a long term positional advantage rather than Bd2 with a slightly better endgame.
The problem for black is that he would like to create counterplay to utilize his material advantage but it is very difficult to find an active plan.
Magnus played quickly and energetically while Adams tried to find the right moment to return the exchange.
The opening of the h-file did not really help black, and after allowing the tactical blow 29.b5!, white is better.
Adams was hesitant to return the exchange at this point as the endgame is slightly better for white. However, the alternative was an uncomfortable position difficult to defend. 
In time trouble he was getting under pressure and by the blunder 40...Bxe4 the position goes from worse to lost for black.
Fortunately Magnus felt more clearheaded today and quickly found the winning line with 41. Rh8+ and 42. Rb8! (a line he thought he easily could have missed on a worse day.)

The endgame require some technique and when Adams tried to activate his king instead of moving it to the 8th rank, the nice shot 56.Ra6! decided the game as black cannot avoid losing his last pawn after the discovered check.
1-0, and shared 3rd place prior to the last round for Magnus, half a point behind leaders Yue and Gashimov.

Gashimove again looked very impressive with the white pieces and got Grishuk into trouble in the opening. After spending most of his time in a worse position, it soon turned ugly for black and Gashimov finished the game with a nice queen sack. His g-pawn cannot be stopped despite the black extra piece.

Inarkiev got a winning advantage from the opening against Wang Yue, but while the latter defended energetically, Inarkiev played some inaccurate moves and had to conceed a draw in the end.

Kamsky continued his downward trend. After a really impressive start of the tournament, he lost his 3rd game, this time against a well-playing Svidler.

Karjakin was a pawn up in the rook ending against Cheparinov and they played it all out for 92 moves to reach king versus king.

Mamedyarov played very agressively but did not get much from the opening as white against Bacrot. True to his style Mamedyarov sacrificed an exchange for a pawn and some initiative but the position looked fairly equal. After some inaccuracies by Bacrot before the first time control, white was slightly better but as late as around move 66 the ensuing endgame was possible to hold for black. Somewhere he went wrong in the end and Mamedyarov won to reach +2 together with Magnus and Grishuk.

Radjabov seemed to have an overwhelming attack against Navara but the latter defended well and after the time control black has the move active rooks. He rounded up two of Radjabov's pawns and the black resigned. -1 at his home turf clearly is a big disappointment for Radjabov while the Azeri's can be happy with their team performance with Gashimov in the lead and Mamedyarov on shared 3rd.

Yesterday I finally convinced Magnus to join me for a step machine workout in the hotel gym, and it did seem to work wonders!

In the last round Magnus has black against Bacrot while leaders Yue and Gashimov are white against Mameyarov and black against Adams respectively.

H.Carlsen
Baku, May 4th 2008