Magnus Carlsen

Whatever one wants to say about the games today, they were not short and boring.
Caissa certainly smiled at Magnus and it of course helped that he played quite well today.
In the first game a drawish endgame was suddenly lost but then drawn in the end around move 100, while the second game was pretty even for a long time until Peter made one mistake and later some inaccuracies that was punished efficiently by Magnus.
It is rapid, but of course Magnus was very happy about his first win ever against Peter! 



In the first game Peter chose the 3.Bb5+ variation in the Sicilian. Magnus more or less equalised in the opening, but he later thought that his creative plan b6 and Qb7 resulted in a slightly inferior position. 16.e5 looked a bit troublesome for black but with precise defence he was probably not worse in the ensuing complications.
After the exchange of rooks black should hold easily despite the white queen and knight against queen and bishop.
In beginning time trouble moves were repeated not 3 but 4 times (!) without any draw claims. Magnus would have been satisfied with draw at this stage but chose not to claim partly because this is a friendly rapid match.
Peter deserves praise for using the opportunity to deviate with Kf1 and Ne1 playing for a win. At this point Magnus felt he was starting to play badly and he also missed that white could play 53.Ke2!  with a clear advantage. (Magnus had seen that after 53.Ne1 d3 54.Qxd3 he could bag both white b-pawns.)
Peter spent the next 40 moves first moving his king to safety and then activating his queen and then his knight and trying to trap black.
Magnus thought he was lost but defended very well until he allowed 95.Qc3 which gives white a relatively easily winning position because black finally has to move the f-pawn (to f6).
However, Peter immediately blundered with 96.Qb3? after which Qe2! black draws. White cannot protect f2 and when Peter advanced his b-pawn to queen, the software lost trace due to the reversed rook he used as a queen.
Magnus checked on f2 and after some checks on f1 and f2 a draw was agreed. Puh! 

In the second game Magnus played the exchange variation against the Caro-Kann and felt quite comfortable with his position. The position looked ripe for a sacrifice after 18.h6, but a long thought later Magnus retreated his knight to f3 and the games was quite even throughout most of the middle game.
Playing for the initiative on each their side, Magnus thought Peter's decisive mistake was 33... Nxg5?, instead of retreating his king.
Both players were down close to the 10 second increment at this time but Magnus played very accurately and improved his position.
After 38.Bf4 black is probably lost.
After the exchange of queens Magnus won the d-pawn and advanced his own d-pawn to d6 so that the black knight is stuck on g8. Peter resigned when the c-pawn started to roll. 1-0! 

Tomorrow is free day and the above-18 section in this event are invited to a wine-tasting experience 50 kilometres from Miskolc in the morning:-) More about that later! 

The last 4 rounds will be played Saturday and Sunday.

Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 29th 2008