Magnus Carlsen

In the previous years we have experienced quite a lot of rain and wind in Wijk aan Zee. Just at the moment when we where starting to realize that this could something normal and not just tough luck, Wijk has been extraordinary pleasant this year.
Lots of sun, not much wind, a real treat for someone from the north!  

As parents we've always maintained that Magnus should focus on having fun, learning and on doing his best, and not on results, but by now we have of course realized that there is quite a lot of focus on results from the outside world. Maybe not surprising when you are a top5 chessplayer at 18 and one of the pre-tournament favourites, but anyhow a mixed blessing for a young player. 

This week Magnus is happy to have played some good games and to have won two. The tournament situation is quite unique with 6 players tied for first before the last round! 

On Wednesday Magnus played white against Dominguez and felt satisfied with the opening. He knew they followed the game Jakovenko-Mamedyarov from Elista, December 2008, and when he found the improvement 15.Qb3 he thought he was better.
Dominguez made his trade-mark response, took a lot of time, calculated extremely well, and came up with a good and active continuation, including 18...Nb4 and 19...b5!
Magnus was a bit uncertain where he went wrong, and when he had missed 22....Qb7! he realized that his opening advantage had disappeared.
However, Magnus turned down a draw offer and started to exploit the complex position and the time advantage. Black continued to find good responses and was maybe even slightly better until 29....Rbd8. If he had played Qd5 instead it would have been difficult for white to continue to play for a win, but after 31.Rb5! white is better. After 33.Rb7! white is simply winning. Magnus took his time and found the winning sacrifice on e5 after which black could not stop the mating threats. 1-0.

Aronian won again to take the sole lead at +3 ahead of Karjakin at +2 and Magnus on shared 3^rd to 6^th at +1. After another great free day and a good game of football Magnus was very focused on playing a good game as black against Morozevich in round 11.
He played 4....d5 in the Nimzo-Indian and they followed Morozevich' game against Adams until white improved with 16.Rc1.
Magnus found nice subtle moves  like h6 and a6 (which was good dispite playing a5 next) and later played actively to compensate for his isolani on d5. He never felt in any real trouble, and was hoping that white would become aggressive. However, tail-ender Morozevich seemed to be in damage-control mode and did not take any serious risks. White offered draw after 28.Rd4, but Magnus decided to play on. Although he foresaw that it would be difficult to create real problems for white due to the perpetual threats, he did come up with a few interesting ideas and white had to avoid some tactical pitfalls. Short on time white found 35.Bf4 and 37.Bh6+ forcing black to go for a perpetual in the end. Draw. 

Dominguez beat Anonian, Kamsky beat Karjakin, and Radjabov and Movsesian both won as an interesting overtyre to the final weekend.
With two rounds to go we had 4 leaders and Magnus and Karjakin half a point behind. 

Today Magnus felt he had to win as white against Smeets, and his opening choice was intended to challenge black both on the clock and getting him into unknown territory.
Smeets kept the balance until move 21 but spent too much time on the clock. Suddenly it started to go down-hill for every move, and soon Magnus knew his was winning.
In the final position, the material situation is still balanced but black cannot defend against the threats against d5, c7 etc.
With only seconds left Smeets resigned. 1-0.

Karjakin presented an interesting opening novelty against Adams. He was clearly better after the opening and proceeded to win in style.
With all the 4 leaders drawing today, we suddenly have Magnus, Radjabov, Aronian, Karjakin, Dominguez and Movsesian at 7 points.
In the last round in group A we will have a co-leader playing on 5 out of the 7 boards! 

Magnus plays black against Wang Yue. Yue played an impressive 80+ games in a row without a loss last year, but here in Wijk he has been pretty shaky and lost three out of his five white games. 

Short and Kasimdzhanov are leading the B-group with 8 points with Caruana and Volokitin in hot pursuit at 7,5.

15 year old W. Soo with an impressive 9/12, is a full point ahead of even younger A.Giri in group C.
Congratulations to the latter on securing his final GM norm! 

Henrik Carlsen
Wijk, January 31st, 2009