Magnus Carlsen

During the event Magnus has discovered that playing a match is more stressful than a tournament, even when it is rapid games. In a match every game is very important as your loss gives your opponent both a full point edge as well as a psychological advantage. You also have the continuous dilemma of whether to change or try to repair the opening variations played earlier in the match.

Would Caissa smile at Magnus again today, or would Peter again get a decisive advantage and finally also win a game?



A distinguished professor started the game with 1.d4! and Peter watch Magnus closely to see his reaction to the deviation from his first three white games.
Magnus quickly decided to play the Slav defence with 4..... Bf5. 
Peter played 6.Nh4 and exchanged the bishop on g6. Later he maneouvred his bishops into nice positions on d4 and e2/f3 and put pressure on the black kingside pawns. Magnus spent most of his time and probably defended quite well. He felt that he was close to equalising by the time he played 22.....b6.
Peter could have chosen to exchange material and enter a slightly better endgame a couple of times, but he obviously wanted more. After the exchange of a-pawns and one rook and one bishop Magnus put up a black square blockade and it was hard to see how white could make progress.
When Peter played h4 and later tried to activate his rook on the c-file the risk of black counterplay was starting to be significant. Magnus got his rook to the 2nd rank and after 41....Qf6! white could enter a drawn ending with Qc3 while other alternatives are bad.
Both players were low on time and the pattern of previous games repeated. After a good opening game and middle game, Peter made a mistake in time trouble with 42.Qxb6?? 
Magnus checked with Qa1 and played Qe1! (and not Qxa2?). Peter checked with his rook and doubled on the 8th rank threatening mate on h8, but black has several winning continuations.
Magnus was confused by Peter having played Qb8 instead of Kh3 and momentarily forgot his original plan with Nxe3+ and a quick mate, and played Rxe2+ instead which is also winning.
With the increment he had sufficient time to decide the game by chasing the white king, winning the bishop and in the end forcing the white king to the 8th rank after which white does not have any direct threats anymore. 0-1.

Consequently Magnus had already won the match and this was of course great news. The downside was that the tension was gone, Magnus felt quite drained and not at all ready for another game.



We resorted to bringing in a bottle of Coke to bring up his energy level, and Magnus showed Peter he could also play 1.d4 :-)
He played a line which he has defended as black earlier, with some problems. However, 11.Bc2 was not really good and when Peter played 13....Nb4 instead of recapturing on d5, black is probably slightly better.
Peter later took the pawn on d4 with his queen while another interesting possibility was to take with the bishop.
After 17.Rad1 Qh4 the ensuing exchanges was more of less forced and a draw was agreed with a rook and 3 pawns each.



At the press conference Magnus expressed his satisfaction with the event, with Miskolc and of course with the great result 5-3!
He volunteered that the final score was very flattering taking into account Peter's near wins and also the time trouble win today. His play had been a bit up and down while he had generally played well in time trouble and in the endgames.  



Mayor (Polgarmester in Hungarian) Sándor Káli congratulates Magnus with the victory.



Media wanted some interviews. Our impression is that the coverage of the match has been very good both in Hungary and abroad!

Finally, many thanks to the organisers for a great event!

Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, June 1, 2008