Magnus Carlsen

Having slept very well, Magnus was both in a good mood and in good shape prior to the first game against Peter Leko.
With about 30 oC in the shadow, we appreciated the air-conditioned drive down to the National Theatre.
Everything was well organised and Magnus got his own rest room before and between the games.



On behalf of Peter, the mayor Sandor Kali pushed the white e-pawn to e4.
Again choosing the Sicilian Dragen Magnus was well prepared and when Peter deviated from the game Karjakin-Carlsen in Baku with 19.Nb3 Magnus quickly responded Rac8 rather than the passive Re6. Peter took the pawn on d6, but black enjoyed excellent counterplay on the queenside. After 22..... a5 Peter should maybe had captured with the knight to create any real winning chances. Either he did not like the continuation or he avoided the worst complications and played 23.Qg5 instead. After the exchange of queens, Peter tried to activate his knight but Magnus kept control of the open d-file and Peter proposed a draw in the rook endgame. His extra pawn is not giving any advantage as any attempt exchanging rooks or advancing pawn leads to a worse end-game. Draw.



The second game was introduced.



Magnus played 1.e4 and Peter somewhat to his surprise responded 1.... c6. Magnus went for the slightly obscure 5.Nc5 line. He thought he got a small advantage but after Peter continued with precise moves not allowing white's main plan Ne5, the position was probably very equal.
After 13..... Rfe8 14.Rac1 Bg4 Magnus could not find anything better than 15.Qc2 and when Peter moved his bishop back to f5, moves were slowly repeated three times.

Interestingly this is the third time of a early repetition as white against Peter.
In Tal Memorial 2006 Magnus avoided the repetition and accepted a worse position. He was probably lost at one point but managed to escape and draw in the end.
In Morelia in 2007 they again repeated moves, but as none of the players were happy to draw nor to propose draw, they repeated 4 times before Peter took responsibility of the situation and offered his hand!

Yesterday Magnus repeated 3 times but continued to hope that Peter would deviate. After a long thought Peter offered his hand and the draw was agreed.

During the press conference Magnus praised Peter for his accurate play in the second game and appologized to the audience for the unfortunate short draw.

Anyhow, avoid losing on the first day gave both players a reasonable start to the match.

Miskolc is one out of four university cities in Hungary outside Budapest, and this morning chief arbiter Veroci and mechanical engineering student and driver Sandor showed me the impressive university. It has 11,000 students and faculties include engineering, economics, law, medicine and veterinary stuidies, many of which are available to English and German speaking foreign students.
As a former industrial city, Miskolc should be well prepared for the transition into high-tech industries and a project is already under way to establish industry based on nanotechnology.

Miskolc is also well known for the Cave bath with both outside pools as well as pools inside natural caverns.

Let us hope for some interesting fights today!

Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 29th 2008