FAST Visit
Last Thursday Magnus visited his main sponsor FAST Search & Transfer for a walk-through of recent tournament games and a simultaneous display.
GM Rune Djurhuus had prepared many interesting questions regarding Magnus' perception of the critical situation in a number of the Corus games. In addition to showing lines he had calculated, Magnus also emphasised the importance of the psychological elements involved in the over-the-board decision making with good examples from a couple of the games.
About thirty FAST chess enthusiasts followed the presentation and 19 of them participated in the subsequent simultaneous display.
Just like in September, Rune was the only one scoring against Magnus. A pawn down Magnus put up a good defence and a draw has agreed around move 30.
Master level player and reknown chess blogger Hans Arild Runde presented Magnus with quite some problems. Magnus sacrificed a knight for initiative to avoid a losing position, and ended up having to play a line giving black a perpetual. Missing this Hans Arild blundered mate in two instead. Close...
Representatives from 'Sportsrevyen' had visited Magnus' chess class at the Top Athletes School (NTG) in the morning and they also filmed during the simul at FAST.
The clip is in Norwegian and the coverage of Magnus starts about 28 minutes into 'Sportsrevyen'; http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/sport/spill/verdi/37958
Again, many thanks to FAST for the ongoing cooperation!
It sure is great to see such a lively and unique chess society within a single company, the size and quality of the audience made the event a rewarding experience for Magnus.
Friday 8th Magnus left for Bundesliga in Solingen.
He conceded a draw as white against Jusupow (on Solingen) on Saturday and won as black against Bartel (on Wattenscheid) on Sunday to gain another two rating points.
His team Baden-Baden won both matches and has a full score and five point lead in the Bundesliga.
Sunday I met with Magnus in Solingen and some 48 hours later we arrived in Morelia after successful on-time flights Eindhoven-Madrid and Madrid-Mexico City as well as the 3,5 hours car drive Mexico City-Morelia.
Henrik Carlsen
Morelia, February 13th 2008
GM Rune Djurhuus had prepared many interesting questions regarding Magnus' perception of the critical situation in a number of the Corus games. In addition to showing lines he had calculated, Magnus also emphasised the importance of the psychological elements involved in the over-the-board decision making with good examples from a couple of the games.
About thirty FAST chess enthusiasts followed the presentation and 19 of them participated in the subsequent simultaneous display.
Just like in September, Rune was the only one scoring against Magnus. A pawn down Magnus put up a good defence and a draw has agreed around move 30.
Master level player and reknown chess blogger Hans Arild Runde presented Magnus with quite some problems. Magnus sacrificed a knight for initiative to avoid a losing position, and ended up having to play a line giving black a perpetual. Missing this Hans Arild blundered mate in two instead. Close...
Representatives from 'Sportsrevyen' had visited Magnus' chess class at the Top Athletes School (NTG) in the morning and they also filmed during the simul at FAST.
The clip is in Norwegian and the coverage of Magnus starts about 28 minutes into 'Sportsrevyen'; http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/sport/spill/verdi/37958
Again, many thanks to FAST for the ongoing cooperation!
It sure is great to see such a lively and unique chess society within a single company, the size and quality of the audience made the event a rewarding experience for Magnus.
Friday 8th Magnus left for Bundesliga in Solingen.
He conceded a draw as white against Jusupow (on Solingen) on Saturday and won as black against Bartel (on Wattenscheid) on Sunday to gain another two rating points.
His team Baden-Baden won both matches and has a full score and five point lead in the Bundesliga.
Sunday I met with Magnus in Solingen and some 48 hours later we arrived in Morelia after successful on-time flights Eindhoven-Madrid and Madrid-Mexico City as well as the 3,5 hours car drive Mexico City-Morelia.
Henrik Carlsen
Morelia, February 13th 2008
January 18th 2008
We received the sad news today that former World Champion Bobby Fischer has passed away at the age of 64.
He was controversial as a person but as chess player maybe the greatest ever.
His book "My 60 Memorable Games" made a great impression, and I went through a number of the games with Magnus 8 or 9 years ago.
I'll revert with Magnus comments to Corus round 5 and 6 tomorrow morning.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 18th, 2008
He was controversial as a person but as chess player maybe the greatest ever.
His book "My 60 Memorable Games" made a great impression, and I went through a number of the games with Magnus 8 or 9 years ago.
I'll revert with Magnus comments to Corus round 5 and 6 tomorrow morning.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 18th, 2008
Corus 2008
After a well deserved and needed break of a month, the 1st quarter of 2008 will be busy for Magnus with Corus, Morelia-Linares and Amber Rapid & Blindfold like in 2007.
Travelling to Holland was a delight. (5,5 hours from door to hour, and the KLM flight was in a new airplane with better seats, nice food, on time and low cost!)
Magnus (and I) arrived Thursday for the traditional "meet & greet". After changing hotel every year from 2004, we're this time in the same Zeeduin (A-group hotel) as last year. Lets hope this becomes a tradition!
Yesterdays opening ceremony was as last year on the Corus premises in Ilmuijden near by.
The opening remarks of organising committee chairman Dolf Vos and Corus top management representatives was warm, brief and to the point as usual.
The Indian Tata group is owning Corus, and the great news this year was the decision to continue the Corus tradition at least 5 more years. Thank You!
The Corus field is as strong as ever despite the progress on January 2008 FIDE rating of the only top 13 players missing (Morozevish, Svidler and Shirov).
Magnus is ranked 10 in the tournament with an expected score of 6.3 points.
This year also the B-group is very strong (with Cheparinov, Bacrot, Short etc).
In the drawing of lots statistics keep on catching up with Magnus. His early affinity to white is fading, and he got start number 12 this time.
In the first round Magnus is black against Mamedyarov. Both are considered exciting players but their first 4 tournament encounters have all ended draw.
The sun is shining in Wijk, lets hope we get lots of exciting games today and in the days to come!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 12th, 2008
Travelling to Holland was a delight. (5,5 hours from door to hour, and the KLM flight was in a new airplane with better seats, nice food, on time and low cost!)
Magnus (and I) arrived Thursday for the traditional "meet & greet". After changing hotel every year from 2004, we're this time in the same Zeeduin (A-group hotel) as last year. Lets hope this becomes a tradition!
Yesterdays opening ceremony was as last year on the Corus premises in Ilmuijden near by.
The opening remarks of organising committee chairman Dolf Vos and Corus top management representatives was warm, brief and to the point as usual.
The Indian Tata group is owning Corus, and the great news this year was the decision to continue the Corus tradition at least 5 more years. Thank You!
The Corus field is as strong as ever despite the progress on January 2008 FIDE rating of the only top 13 players missing (Morozevish, Svidler and Shirov).
Magnus is ranked 10 in the tournament with an expected score of 6.3 points.
This year also the B-group is very strong (with Cheparinov, Bacrot, Short etc).
In the drawing of lots statistics keep on catching up with Magnus. His early affinity to white is fading, and he got start number 12 this time.
| NAT | FED | ELO | WHITE | RES | BLACK | ELO | FED | NAT |
| RUS | 2799 | Vladimir Kramnik | - | Loek van Wely | 2681 | NED | ||
| AZE | 2735 | Teymour Radjabov | - | Viswanathan Anand | 2799 | IND | ||
| AZE | 2760 | Shakhryar Mamedyarov | - | Magnus Carlsen | 2733 | NOR | ||
| UKR | 2692 | Pavel Eljanov | - | Peter Leko | 2753 | HUN | ||
| ENG | 2726 | Michael Adams | - | Boris Gelfand | 2737 | ISR | ||
| ARM | 2739 | Levon Aronian | - | Veselin Topalov | 2780 | BUL | ||
| UKR | 2751 | Vassily Ivanchuk | - | Judit Polgar | 2707 | HUN |
In the first round Magnus is black against Mamedyarov. Both are considered exciting players but their first 4 tournament encounters have all ended draw.
The sun is shining in Wijk, lets hope we get lots of exciting games today and in the days to come!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 12th, 2008
Meeting with the Minister of Education.
Thursday December 20th Magnus and I were invited to the Minister of Education Baard Vegar Solhjell. Mr. Solhjell is a chess enthusiast and used to be a decent junior player.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Norwegian school system and chess.
In Norway he have a strong public school and only a very low percentage of children attending private schools. The minister was interested in our views on how to improve the school system as Magnus' background is somewhat special.
At 6, Magnus was interested and quick in arithmetic calculations in the first grade but lost interest and in fact also much of his speed by the time he finished secondary school. Obviously the process of motivating him and giving him sufficient challenges did not succeed satisfactorily.
When we travelled abroad for a year during 2003-4 Magnus and his sisters probably spent an hour or less per day on school work but anyhow they received praise at school for their level of knowledge and maturity upon their return.
We agreed that continues improvement in the qualifications of teachers, making use of available modern educational and IT tools and taking advantage of the innate intellectual curiosity of children could improve the Norwegian school further.
Mr. Solhjell was also interested in experiences from other countries on chess in school.
Combined with the aspiration of Tromsoe city to arrange the 2014 Chess Olympics, the Norwegian Chess Federation and chess enthusiasts alike are in a unique situation to make progress on introducing chess in school to help improve the school system.
Magnus duly won the blitz game but was really impressed by many of the good and natural positional moves played by the minister.
The newspaper VG reported (in Norwegian) from the meeting; http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/elevavisen/artikkel.php?artid=191600
Lastly, Merry Christmas from Lommedalen!
(We have beautiful winter weather and good skiing conditions. Here at 60 degrees north there's about 7 hours daylight but very little sunshine due to the surrounding hills.)
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, December 23rd, 2007
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Norwegian school system and chess.
In Norway he have a strong public school and only a very low percentage of children attending private schools. The minister was interested in our views on how to improve the school system as Magnus' background is somewhat special.
At 6, Magnus was interested and quick in arithmetic calculations in the first grade but lost interest and in fact also much of his speed by the time he finished secondary school. Obviously the process of motivating him and giving him sufficient challenges did not succeed satisfactorily.
When we travelled abroad for a year during 2003-4 Magnus and his sisters probably spent an hour or less per day on school work but anyhow they received praise at school for their level of knowledge and maturity upon their return.
We agreed that continues improvement in the qualifications of teachers, making use of available modern educational and IT tools and taking advantage of the innate intellectual curiosity of children could improve the Norwegian school further.
Mr. Solhjell was also interested in experiences from other countries on chess in school.
Combined with the aspiration of Tromsoe city to arrange the 2014 Chess Olympics, the Norwegian Chess Federation and chess enthusiasts alike are in a unique situation to make progress on introducing chess in school to help improve the school system.
Magnus duly won the blitz game but was really impressed by many of the good and natural positional moves played by the minister.
The newspaper VG reported (in Norwegian) from the meeting; http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/elevavisen/artikkel.php?artid=191600
Lastly, Merry Christmas from Lommedalen!
(We have beautiful winter weather and good skiing conditions. Here at 60 degrees north there's about 7 hours daylight but very little sunshine due to the surrounding hills.)
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, December 23rd, 2007
FAST simul.
Magnus has been following the World Championship closely and his favourites to win the title were clearly Kramnik and Anand.
Magnus has of course been very impressed by Anand's performance and his opening preparation has been fantastic. He is also impressed by Gelfand who could easily have added another win or two based on his positions.
After school today Magnus visited his main sponsor FAST Search & Transfer.
See article http://blog.magnuschess.com/1182505928_fast_search__transfer.html
FAST has an impressive chess community headed by GM Djurhuus, and more than 30 people had gathered for pizza and to hear Magnus present two of his most important wins this year (against Ivantchuk and Radjabov) and make a 20-board simultaneous display.
In a friendly and nice environment Magnus in the end won 19 games and drew a worse ending against Djurhuus.
After more than one month at home attending school Magnus will have a bussy 4th quarter starting with the ECC in Turkey next week.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, September 27th
Magnus has of course been very impressed by Anand's performance and his opening preparation has been fantastic. He is also impressed by Gelfand who could easily have added another win or two based on his positions.
After school today Magnus visited his main sponsor FAST Search & Transfer.
See article http://blog.magnuschess.com/1182505928_fast_search__transfer.html
FAST has an impressive chess community headed by GM Djurhuus, and more than 30 people had gathered for pizza and to hear Magnus present two of his most important wins this year (against Ivantchuk and Radjabov) and make a 20-board simultaneous display.
In a friendly and nice environment Magnus in the end won 19 games and drew a worse ending against Djurhuus.
After more than one month at home attending school Magnus will have a bussy 4th quarter starting with the ECC in Turkey next week.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, September 27th
On the World Championship cycle and privileges.
A lot has been said and meant about the format and frequent changes of the World Championship cycle as well as the privileges of former champions.
Opinions on the format are mostly subjective, while the privileges and frequent changes lend themselves to objective analytical evaluation.
V. Kramnik will be playing in Mexico. More surprisingly he will get a re-match against the winner irrespective of the outcome.There are arguments for this solution - he did beat Kasparov in 2000, defended his title against Leko in 2004 and beat Topalov in 2006, the reintroduction of FIDE WC matches combined with the fact that Kramnik has not lost a WC match yet counts in his favour. But there are also strong arguments against. He did not allow Kasparov a re-match, he was not a FIDE World Champion before 2006, to public knowledge a re-match was not part of the Elista 2006 match agreement, and it is obviously unfair to the winner and runner up in Mexico if Kramnik ends 3rd or worse.
In conclusion it is obvious that he has got a (too) good deal. Why? Maybe simply because it is easier to say yes and to push potential problems in front of you rather than say no. The right of Kramnik was a difficult issue and the proponent a strong name and representative of Russia, while the potential losers are currently nameless and less likely to speak up.
The story about Topalov's sudden right to a challenger match against the World Cup winner follows the same lines. Although it seems odd to arrange Mexico without Topalov, he fell for his own Elista rules.
The short story is; he obviously also got a (too) good deal.
FIDE yielded to a strong Bulgarian delegation at the cost of the nameless World Cup winner and runner-up.
In effect the World Cup final, as a WC match qualifier, has been relegated to a semi-final, the semi-final to a quarter-final etc.
Some of the criticism of FIDE relates the frequent changes to the purported lack of democracy and the central fiefdom of FIDE as if these are strengths. To me it is more a sign of weakness and their eager want of support. Take politics in general. Wherever we see frequent chance of mind and diverse support for initiatives in spreading directions it is usually a frenetic and populist search for public (and voters) support.
From this angle Global Chess can contribute significantly in the future. If they manage to find broad corporate sponsorship for the World Championship cycle and the planned Grand Prix series, their main concern will (and have to) be the sponsors. It will not be the whims of FIDE leadership and it will not be to win short term support from individual federations or chess professionals.
Global Chess face a difficult task. It would probably be much easier to sell chess in this future stable environment. But they need to sell it now to get there, (a catch-22). But if Bessel Kok and Jeoffrey Borg are as good as I think they are, they will get there!
On a positive note, Magnus qualified on rating and looks forward to the World Cup in Khanty-Mansyisk.
He is happy about the return to the KO format, and the memories from 2005 are of course good.
Money prices are also slightly higher than in 2005 so that the event should attract most of the world elite.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, August 21th
Opinions on the format are mostly subjective, while the privileges and frequent changes lend themselves to objective analytical evaluation.
V. Kramnik will be playing in Mexico. More surprisingly he will get a re-match against the winner irrespective of the outcome.There are arguments for this solution - he did beat Kasparov in 2000, defended his title against Leko in 2004 and beat Topalov in 2006, the reintroduction of FIDE WC matches combined with the fact that Kramnik has not lost a WC match yet counts in his favour. But there are also strong arguments against. He did not allow Kasparov a re-match, he was not a FIDE World Champion before 2006, to public knowledge a re-match was not part of the Elista 2006 match agreement, and it is obviously unfair to the winner and runner up in Mexico if Kramnik ends 3rd or worse.
In conclusion it is obvious that he has got a (too) good deal. Why? Maybe simply because it is easier to say yes and to push potential problems in front of you rather than say no. The right of Kramnik was a difficult issue and the proponent a strong name and representative of Russia, while the potential losers are currently nameless and less likely to speak up.
The story about Topalov's sudden right to a challenger match against the World Cup winner follows the same lines. Although it seems odd to arrange Mexico without Topalov, he fell for his own Elista rules.
The short story is; he obviously also got a (too) good deal.
FIDE yielded to a strong Bulgarian delegation at the cost of the nameless World Cup winner and runner-up.
In effect the World Cup final, as a WC match qualifier, has been relegated to a semi-final, the semi-final to a quarter-final etc.
Some of the criticism of FIDE relates the frequent changes to the purported lack of democracy and the central fiefdom of FIDE as if these are strengths. To me it is more a sign of weakness and their eager want of support. Take politics in general. Wherever we see frequent chance of mind and diverse support for initiatives in spreading directions it is usually a frenetic and populist search for public (and voters) support.
From this angle Global Chess can contribute significantly in the future. If they manage to find broad corporate sponsorship for the World Championship cycle and the planned Grand Prix series, their main concern will (and have to) be the sponsors. It will not be the whims of FIDE leadership and it will not be to win short term support from individual federations or chess professionals.
Global Chess face a difficult task. It would probably be much easier to sell chess in this future stable environment. But they need to sell it now to get there, (a catch-22). But if Bessel Kok and Jeoffrey Borg are as good as I think they are, they will get there!
On a positive note, Magnus qualified on rating and looks forward to the World Cup in Khanty-Mansyisk.
He is happy about the return to the KO format, and the memories from 2005 are of course good.
Money prices are also slightly higher than in 2005 so that the event should attract most of the world elite.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, August 21th
Norwegian Championship 2007
Hamar, beautifully situated by the inland Mjoesa lake, was one of the Olympic cities back in 1994. From July 7th-14th it hosted the Norwegian Chess Championship 2007.
The top (Elite) group featured four GM's, but with Agdestein and Johannessen missing, Magnus decided not to participate this time.
(He has participated in the 8 consecutive championships 1999-2006 with the results: No.13 U-11, no.1 U-11, no.6 U-20, and 5 times in Elite - 4/9, 5.5/9, 2nd on tie-break, 2nd on tie-break, 1st on tie-break).
The GM's disappointed a bit this time although top-seed GM Kjetil A.Lie did share the lead going in to the last round. In the end the Porsgrunn team took the tripple (!) with FM Espen Lie (Kjetil's younger brother) and FM Geir Sune Tallaksen sharing 1st with 6,5/9 (they will play a rematch for the title), with Kjetil 3rd at 6/9.
Other Norwegian Champions: Inge S.Skrondal U-20, Katrine Kjølsen U-16, Paal Andreas Hansen U-13, Peter Flermoen U-11 (with 9/9!), and Ragnar Hoen, +60. Congratulations!
In addition to the main tournament, side-events included a football tournament, the Blitz Championship (won by Simen Agdestein), team-Blitz with rating-based time-handicap, and team-talking-chess.
(The latter is a Hans Olav Lahlum invention. 4 players on each team play altogether 6 games simultaneously with 12 minutes each on the clock and they may walk about and talk freely within the team during the games. To me this did not sound particularly interesting when I first heard of the idea, but believe me, it's really great fun for both participants and spectators as many a Gausdal participant has experienced.)
Magnus visited the championship the last 2-3 days to be with friends and follow the event.
He also participated in the team-talking-chess joining his sister Ingrid's (13) girl team (consisting of overall U-16 winner 14-year old Katrine, and promissing 15-year old Marianne) and they duly won all their matches (with individual score +32=4) including the final against the family Moen.
Photos by Signe Oeen Carlsen
More than 500 people participated in the championship which is truly the greatest annual Norwegian chess event where you can play chess, socialize with your chess friends and enjoy local hospitality.
The Hamar organisors arranged another successful championship. Thank You!
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, July 15th
The top (Elite) group featured four GM's, but with Agdestein and Johannessen missing, Magnus decided not to participate this time.
(He has participated in the 8 consecutive championships 1999-2006 with the results: No.13 U-11, no.1 U-11, no.6 U-20, and 5 times in Elite - 4/9, 5.5/9, 2nd on tie-break, 2nd on tie-break, 1st on tie-break).
The GM's disappointed a bit this time although top-seed GM Kjetil A.Lie did share the lead going in to the last round. In the end the Porsgrunn team took the tripple (!) with FM Espen Lie (Kjetil's younger brother) and FM Geir Sune Tallaksen sharing 1st with 6,5/9 (they will play a rematch for the title), with Kjetil 3rd at 6/9.
Other Norwegian Champions: Inge S.Skrondal U-20, Katrine Kjølsen U-16, Paal Andreas Hansen U-13, Peter Flermoen U-11 (with 9/9!), and Ragnar Hoen, +60. Congratulations!
In addition to the main tournament, side-events included a football tournament, the Blitz Championship (won by Simen Agdestein), team-Blitz with rating-based time-handicap, and team-talking-chess.
(The latter is a Hans Olav Lahlum invention. 4 players on each team play altogether 6 games simultaneously with 12 minutes each on the clock and they may walk about and talk freely within the team during the games. To me this did not sound particularly interesting when I first heard of the idea, but believe me, it's really great fun for both participants and spectators as many a Gausdal participant has experienced.)
Magnus visited the championship the last 2-3 days to be with friends and follow the event.
He also participated in the team-talking-chess joining his sister Ingrid's (13) girl team (consisting of overall U-16 winner 14-year old Katrine, and promissing 15-year old Marianne) and they duly won all their matches (with individual score +32=4) including the final against the family Moen.
Photos by Signe Oeen Carlsen
More than 500 people participated in the championship which is truly the greatest annual Norwegian chess event where you can play chess, socialize with your chess friends and enjoy local hospitality.
The Hamar organisors arranged another successful championship. Thank You!
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, July 15th
FAST Search & Transfer sponsor Magnus!
As mentioned early this year, the search technology provider Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) will be Magnus' main sponsor from July 1st.
They both share a strong ambition of being the number one player in their field of expertise, and the belief that this is achievable with the right focus, hard work and the right resources.
For Magnus it is exciting to cooperate with the best Norwegian international software company. This cooperation ensures that Magnus can focus on improving his chess.
More about the kick-of (in Norwegian) at http://e24.no/selskap/FAST/article1838360.ece
H.Carlsen,
June 22nd
They both share a strong ambition of being the number one player in their field of expertise, and the belief that this is achievable with the right focus, hard work and the right resources.
For Magnus it is exciting to cooperate with the best Norwegian international software company. This cooperation ensures that Magnus can focus on improving his chess.
More about the kick-of (in Norwegian) at http://e24.no/selskap/FAST/article1838360.ece
H.Carlsen,
June 22nd
Blindfold and simul in Porsgrunn June 16th.
Last weekend Magnus visited his Elista second GM Kjetil Lie during the theatre festival in Porsgrunn (150 km southwest of Oslo) to play blindfold against Kjetil, a simul together with Kjetil making alternating moves and to practice pool.
Kjetil is taking a year off from his school job to play chess full time with the help of local sponsors.
Following his blindfold pratice in Denmark and Monaco Amber Magnus early established a promising position with the black pieces in the blindfold debut of Kjetil. A few relaxed moves by Magnus brought tension back into the game, but Kjetil allowed Magnus to mate him in the end.
In the 40 board simul Jarle Nilsen (was to close to winning) and young promissing Timmie Nygaard made draws.
You can find the blindfold game at http://www.bergensjakk.no/partier/porsgrunnblind2007.htm and pictures at Nettavisen at http://www.nettavisen.no/sjakk/article1130462.ece
H.Carlsen
Kjetil is taking a year off from his school job to play chess full time with the help of local sponsors.
Following his blindfold pratice in Denmark and Monaco Amber Magnus early established a promising position with the black pieces in the blindfold debut of Kjetil. A few relaxed moves by Magnus brought tension back into the game, but Kjetil allowed Magnus to mate him in the end.
In the 40 board simul Jarle Nilsen (was to close to winning) and young promissing Timmie Nygaard made draws.
You can find the blindfold game at http://www.bergensjakk.no/partier/porsgrunnblind2007.htm and pictures at Nettavisen at http://www.nettavisen.no/sjakk/article1130462.ece
H.Carlsen
Gausdal April 25th - round 8
Yesterday, in round 7 Magnus won a nice game against veteran and runner-up GM Lajos Portisch.
The Hungarian choose an unusual opening and tried to hang on to his acquisition on c4. Magnus was slightly better when he opted for an exchange sack with Rxd5 instead of Bxd5.
The position was probably unclear or better for white with several only-moves for black to try to secure his king.After Nxb5 Lajos should have played Qxb5 instead of axb5 with good drawing chances in the queen endgame. As it turned out white will win the b-pawn to be 2 pawns up and Portisch resigned.
Krasenkow struggled against the dangerous tactician Lie but in the end he won to keep within half a point of Magnus.
Today, as black against IM Krush Magnus thought he was slightly better after the opening, but then missed several tactics, most notably, after Qc4, Rd2, Qxb5, then c4 wins a piece for white. Afterwards Magnus was slightly worse, but Krush was happy to simplify to a drawn rook ending.
Kuloats, as black against Krasenkow won a pawn early and looked clearly better until Krasenkow got a tactical trick in the endgame to secure a draw. Portisch and Rozentalis won to reach +2 and shared third.
Before the last round Magnus is leading with 6/8 ahead of Krasenkow at 5,5/8, and as they meet tomorrow one of them will win the group (Magnus in case of draw).
Their expected scores are 6,36 and 6 points respectively so they are both on track.
In GM-B Bromberger continued his impressive performance, winning with white (yesterday) and drawing with black today reaching 6,5/8.
The Hungarian choose an unusual opening and tried to hang on to his acquisition on c4. Magnus was slightly better when he opted for an exchange sack with Rxd5 instead of Bxd5.
The position was probably unclear or better for white with several only-moves for black to try to secure his king.After Nxb5 Lajos should have played Qxb5 instead of axb5 with good drawing chances in the queen endgame. As it turned out white will win the b-pawn to be 2 pawns up and Portisch resigned.
Krasenkow struggled against the dangerous tactician Lie but in the end he won to keep within half a point of Magnus.
Today, as black against IM Krush Magnus thought he was slightly better after the opening, but then missed several tactics, most notably, after Qc4, Rd2, Qxb5, then c4 wins a piece for white. Afterwards Magnus was slightly worse, but Krush was happy to simplify to a drawn rook ending.
Kuloats, as black against Krasenkow won a pawn early and looked clearly better until Krasenkow got a tactical trick in the endgame to secure a draw. Portisch and Rozentalis won to reach +2 and shared third.
Before the last round Magnus is leading with 6/8 ahead of Krasenkow at 5,5/8, and as they meet tomorrow one of them will win the group (Magnus in case of draw).
Their expected scores are 6,36 and 6 points respectively so they are both on track.
In GM-B Bromberger continued his impressive performance, winning with white (yesterday) and drawing with black today reaching 6,5/8.
H.Carlsen
Gausdal, April 25th 20007
Round 1 Gausdal Classics
Magnus usually struggles with the evening round at Gausdal and was happy to get away with half a point as black against Kulaots yesterday with a clear pawn down. (In "Byggern Masters" in October 2005 Magnus had a lost position against T.Svendsen, a 2100 player, in the first round but came back to win the game and the tournament in style - 8/9.)
Kulaots is a frequent guest at Gausdal and our relationship goes all the way back to January 2000 when Magnus (and I) shared an apartment with him. Although Magnus at the age 9 hardly looked like world top level material, Kulaots predicted him a great future.
Magnus varied his usual opening repertoire by playing 3... Bc5 (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4) but was simply a little worse after the opening. After exchanging bishops at b3 the white queen was not misplaced as planned and after Nf5 Magnus was clearly in trouble. Magnus sacked the b-pawn with Qe8 and had to rely on Kuloats time trouble and some imprecise moves to reach a probably drawn ending where they repeated moves just before the first time control.
Krasenkow, Krush and Rozentalis won their games.
In the GM-B group most of the favourites won their first round games (and the rest of the Carlsen family have yet to secure their first points :-)
Gausdal is a winter resort. The ski lifts stay opening until April 22 while cross country skiing possibilities will be great for another week or two.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, April 19, 2007
Kulaots is a frequent guest at Gausdal and our relationship goes all the way back to January 2000 when Magnus (and I) shared an apartment with him. Although Magnus at the age 9 hardly looked like world top level material, Kulaots predicted him a great future.
Magnus varied his usual opening repertoire by playing 3... Bc5 (after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4) but was simply a little worse after the opening. After exchanging bishops at b3 the white queen was not misplaced as planned and after Nf5 Magnus was clearly in trouble. Magnus sacked the b-pawn with Qe8 and had to rely on Kuloats time trouble and some imprecise moves to reach a probably drawn ending where they repeated moves just before the first time control.
Krasenkow, Krush and Rozentalis won their games.
In the GM-B group most of the favourites won their first round games (and the rest of the Carlsen family have yet to secure their first points :-)
Gausdal is a winter resort. The ski lifts stay opening until April 22 while cross country skiing possibilities will be great for another week or two.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, April 19, 2007
Gausdal tournament starting today !
Magnus, and the rest of his family, are soon travelling to Gausdal, situated in the middle of Southern Norway, to participate in the tournament starting today at the Gausdal Hoyfjellshotell.
Organiser Hans Olav Lahlum has arranged many tournaments at Gausdal over the last 6-7 years and his efforts are finally starting to pay off in the sense that nearly 100 players will participate in the three groups (GM-A, GM-B and Elo-group) this time !
Round 1 start at 19 hours and Magnus has black against GM Kaido Kulaots.
All GM-A games are transferred live on various sites for (instance www.live.sjakk.net/ ).
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, April 18th 2006
Organiser Hans Olav Lahlum has arranged many tournaments at Gausdal over the last 6-7 years and his efforts are finally starting to pay off in the sense that nearly 100 players will participate in the three groups (GM-A, GM-B and Elo-group) this time !
Round 1 start at 19 hours and Magnus has black against GM Kaido Kulaots.
All GM-A games are transferred live on various sites for (instance www.live.sjakk.net/ ).
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, April 18th 2006
Finally an update and last Bundesliga weekend.
Picture from Bundesliga March 31st by Hartmut Metz.
After I left Monaco, and was later replaced by Peter Heine, Magnus played 6 more games out of which 4 was decided. But please don't blame his earlier draws on me.... (or his fighting spirit on Peter Heine....)
Apart from his loss to Kramnik's excellent preparation in the Botvinnik-variation ( hybrid Vienna, or whatever it's called) Magnus won his other 3 last rapid games to claim shared 2nd in the rapid segment.
Expectations have grown after his Linares success, but the rapid result is of course a great achievement for Magnus, and -1 after 22 rounds overall can also clearly be described as a success for a 16 year old in his first Monaco participation.
Congratulations to the overall clear winner (and clear blindfold winner) Kramnik and clear rapid winner Anand!
Magnus travelled to Baden-Baden last Friday together with a number of the Monaco participants and on Saturday Oos-Baden duly secured another Bundesliga title after 6-2 against Werder Bremen.
Magnus won his game against Hracek after a nice combination in the end-game.
Sunday Oos-Baden struggled and looked clearly worse on 4 or 5 boards but respectful opponents accepted draws on all boards in the end. Magnus sacked a pawn as black and put some pressure on Kempinski as black, but the rook endgame was an obvious draw.
With 3 out of 4 in his two Bundesliga weekends Magnus looks to gain some 5 rating points.
Which brings us to the April 1st rating list.
Magnus wouldn't have lost any sleep over Linares being rated in July, but anyhow it was good to see that FIDE in the end backed down and followed their earlier practice of including Linares on the April list and hence promoting Anand to a well deserved 1st spot. Congratulations !
The uncertainty with which the chess world received the Chessbase news of FIDE corrections on April 1 was indeed amusing and brought Easter excitement (probably) beyond intentions!
Magnus is happy to keep his 2nd spot on the Junior list and being 22nd on the overall top list. (Many players have climbed to or above 2700 and found it hard to maintain this level.)
Clear guidelines and timely and appropriate communication from FIDE would ensure that these incidents can be avoided in the future.
It may be interesting to take a balanced look at Magnus' performances in super-tournaments over the last 5 months. (I maintain that even at this high level, there are some partially arbitrary factors effecting the result in individual tournaments - for instance the opening choice and psyche / physical condition of your opponents in individual games, as well as your own feelings etc. Hence it is not always meaningful to try to explain in detail the reasons for player's results in individual tournaments.)
With 58 games, including rapid and blindfold, but excluding blitz, (of which 50 against 2700+ opponents) in 5 months, there should emerge a clear picture or at least a pattern as arbitrary factors start to balance out.
Tal Memorial seems to have reflected Magnus strength at the time (no real winning chances but hard to beat), while Corus clearly was a "bad" tournament (partly due to many missed opportunities and an unusual number of erroneous calculations). Intuition tells us that Linares clearly was a "good" tournament although it is not so easy to pinpoint the details of this "luck". (OK, he got some "lucky" half-points but also shed half-points to for instance Aronian and Anand that may have been saved on a "good" day.)
In Monaco, he missed several "open goals" but in the end had some "luck" so that in total the result seems fairly representative.
It seems reasonable to conclude that although Magnus still is struggling in the opening, he has already adapted to playing high level tournaments and may travel to for instance Elista, Dormund (and Biel) with a reasonable degree of self confidence.
His next tournament will be Gausdal GM A April 18-26.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, April 2nd, 2007
Anibal Hotel reception
Impressive live coverage of players and moves in the reception of Anibal Hotel. Some of the players even participated in 1991.
Round 6 - Magnus versus Peter Leko
In round 6 Magnus faced Hungarian Peter Leko. Would their tennis yesterday impact their game today ? It probably didn't, yesterday’s tennis turned out to be their fiercest clash yet in this tournament :-)
Their first chess encounter in a top tournament (Tal Memorial, November 2006) ended in a draw. On that occasion Magnus declined to repeat moves but ended up clearly worse and was probably lost at some point.
Today Magnus had a lot more confidence but was surprised in the opening. Peter does not play the Slav often. They followed the line from Magnus-Topalov (round 5), and Magnus spent some time considering deviating. On move 15, Peter did so instead with Bb4 and after 16.Rf1 Peter put his bishop back on d6. Magnus thought for a while but felt he would be worse if he avoided the repetition although (as the spectators could see from his body language) he did not really want a draw.
Maybe Peter felt Magnus should be the one to declare the draw, having made the 3rd repetition. Before playing 21.Re1 Magnus stopped the clock and a draw was agreed. It is not often you see a 4-fold repetition of moves at top level :-)
We have been asked if the recent success and taking the lead in the tournament made Magnus more inclined to accept a draw to secure his position. It is definitely not the case. With his new confidence he says he is generally more willing then ever to play on.
Aronian-Topalov was drawn even before Magnus-P.Leko, and Morozevich-Svidler followed suit. Anand seemed to struggle as white against Ivantchuk but after Ivantchuk lost his d-pawn and had 5 minutes left on 10 moves, todays draw score was completed.
This leaves Magnus in the lead with 4 out of 6 ahead of Anand and Aronian with 3.5. The next 4 have 50%, Topalov and Morozevich are trailing with 2 points.
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 24th 2007
The road to Linares - 2
Linares/Morelia opening ceremony in 4 hours! Well adjusted to local time, Magnus is ready to go.
But first, let me mention that we are sorry to hear about the experiences of Teimur Radjabov and his father and the fact that Teimur has withdrawn from the tournament. We appreciate the fact that Ivantchuk could replace him on such short notice.
In addition to what I wrote about Magnus’ trainers last week, there are also sponsors and accompanying persons who have contributed to Magnus’ road to Linares.
When Magnus began his extensive travelling to chess tournaments in 2000/1 it soon became apparent that it was a costly sport. I guess our family could afford this but it was also a question of treating all our children just, so it sure made things easier when Magnus attracted sponsors willing to help him on his road.
The IT consulting company Computas had already sponsored some chess events, and with the help of Simen Agdestein we entered a sponsor agreement with Computas for 2002 wherein they covered Magnus cost of training and travelling to chess tournaments. Due to a downturn in their business, Computas had to terminate the agreement during the year, but anyhow it was a great help!
In 2002 Magnus participated in the top group in the Norwegian Championship for the first time and he also got a lot of publicity for his shared first in the World Youth Championship - Boys under 12. With the help of Simens brother Espen, and also Simen himself, we got a sponsor agreement with Microsoft Norge for 2003, and it was subsequently extended to 2004 and 2005. In line with the business idea of their software, they wanted to support a young talent in fulfilling his potential. Microsoft covered a large part of his travelling costs as well as providing him with a strong tablet laptop. Thank you!
From July this year, Magnus will enter a sponsor agreement with IT-company FAST Search & Transfer, a Norwegian search vendor. In line with their ambition of being the best in their business, FAST wants to support Magnus’ ambition of reaching the top in the chess world!
Travelling to tournaments (more than 500 days the last 5-6 years), Magnus mainly been accompanied by family and relatives. I have accompanied him to more than half the tournaments, but significant contributions have also been made by his second Peter H.Nielsen, his whole family together (mother and 3 sisters and myself), his 17-year old sister Ellen (who started playing tournaments at 13 and is now in the women national team group), his mother Sigrun, grandpa Sverre as well as grandma Kate. Thank you!
I would also like to thank Chessbase and Fredrick Friedel who have been supportive and has provided him with lots of chess software (engines, databases and opening DVD’s).
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, Mexico, February 16th 2007
But first, let me mention that we are sorry to hear about the experiences of Teimur Radjabov and his father and the fact that Teimur has withdrawn from the tournament. We appreciate the fact that Ivantchuk could replace him on such short notice.
In addition to what I wrote about Magnus’ trainers last week, there are also sponsors and accompanying persons who have contributed to Magnus’ road to Linares.
When Magnus began his extensive travelling to chess tournaments in 2000/1 it soon became apparent that it was a costly sport. I guess our family could afford this but it was also a question of treating all our children just, so it sure made things easier when Magnus attracted sponsors willing to help him on his road.
The IT consulting company Computas had already sponsored some chess events, and with the help of Simen Agdestein we entered a sponsor agreement with Computas for 2002 wherein they covered Magnus cost of training and travelling to chess tournaments. Due to a downturn in their business, Computas had to terminate the agreement during the year, but anyhow it was a great help!
In 2002 Magnus participated in the top group in the Norwegian Championship for the first time and he also got a lot of publicity for his shared first in the World Youth Championship - Boys under 12. With the help of Simens brother Espen, and also Simen himself, we got a sponsor agreement with Microsoft Norge for 2003, and it was subsequently extended to 2004 and 2005. In line with the business idea of their software, they wanted to support a young talent in fulfilling his potential. Microsoft covered a large part of his travelling costs as well as providing him with a strong tablet laptop. Thank you!
From July this year, Magnus will enter a sponsor agreement with IT-company FAST Search & Transfer, a Norwegian search vendor. In line with their ambition of being the best in their business, FAST wants to support Magnus’ ambition of reaching the top in the chess world!
Travelling to tournaments (more than 500 days the last 5-6 years), Magnus mainly been accompanied by family and relatives. I have accompanied him to more than half the tournaments, but significant contributions have also been made by his second Peter H.Nielsen, his whole family together (mother and 3 sisters and myself), his 17-year old sister Ellen (who started playing tournaments at 13 and is now in the women national team group), his mother Sigrun, grandpa Sverre as well as grandma Kate. Thank you!
I would also like to thank Chessbase and Fredrick Friedel who have been supportive and has provided him with lots of chess software (engines, databases and opening DVD’s).
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, Mexico, February 16th 2007
Copper art apprentices, Santa Clara, Mexico
The road to Linares.
Tomorrow Magnus hits the road again. Flying to Madrid, and Friday onwards to Mexico City for a week in the mountains to adjust to Mexican time before Round 1 in Morelia Feb 17th.
Linares 2007! A few years back the odds against a 16 year old Norwegian being invited to the 8-man top event would seem pretty high, I would say insurmountable. Just to participate will be an extraordinary experience and a great achievement and I hope chess enthusiasts will appreciate his participation irrespective of the final result.
At chess events I’m often asked about his chess training and below I’ll mention the most important contributors to his climb to World Top 25 before turning 16. After starting to work on chess on his own at the age of 8 he has to a large extent been self-going, driven by curiosity and thriving on success.More than 90% of the time he has spent on chess over the last 8 years has been on his own; playing, investigating and repeating positions and games on the board, reading books, playing on ICC and playing tournament games. Anyhow, his teachers have probably been a decisive contributing factor.
In addition to teaching him the moves and playing a few games / month with him, my most important contribution is probably stopping to give him (poor) advice early in his career. At one of his first adult tournament at the age of 9 a Norwegian FM overheard our analysis and pointed out that my line of reasoning was principly flawed. I thought “OK, I will not make that mistake again!”.
During a Norwegian Grand Prix (Open) tournament at the Top Athletes School in January 2000, some of his games were brought to the attention of Simen Agdestein who took a strong interest in him. Simen told me that Magnus could become a GM in 5 years. (Exactly 4 years later Magnus achieved his first GM norm and 3 months onwards his third !) Simen offered Magnus lessons with his assistant Torbjørn Ringdal-Hansen (an FM, with a GM norm). Alone or together with another young player Magnus meet with Torbjørn for an hour or two once or twice a week when at home between tournaments for nearly two years. Torbjørn is a very good teacher, is clever with children and Magnus clearly benefited from the joyous atmosphere of the sessions.
Magnus’ strength was growing and when Torbjørn was leaving to study in another town, Simen Agdestein took over. They had about 30-50 sessions of 1-4 hours during 2002 and the spring of 2003, mainly to go through the games Magnus played at tournaments but also did some other work. Magnus obviously benefited greatly from Simens broad experience and the way he steered their analysis with his energetic and creative style. Simen has always been helpful and understanding.They kept in contact, but less frequently until 2006. Then their contact increased again in august when Magnus joined the Top Athletes School, where Simen teaches chess, to benefit from the flexibility they offer young high school athletes. When home Magnus now has about 14 hours of chess per week at school.
Magnus meet Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen when Peter was coaching the Norwegian national team in 2003 and over the last 2-3 years they have worked together for two weeks, stay in contact via Internett and Peter has seconded Magnus in 4 or 5 tournaments. Apart from being a world class opening expert, Peter is a remarkably nice man, patient and with a great sense of humour.
Another Norwegian who has provided a lot of support for Magnus is IA and organiser Hans Olav Lahlum. He has scheduled and arranged bi- or tri-annual tournaments at Gausdal over the last 6 years much with Magnus in mind. Due to his increasing strength and favourable tournament invitations, Magnus is not playing much at Gausdal any longer, but his tenfold tournament participation up there has certainly been a most valuable contribution. It is great to play on “home ground” and combine chess and cross-country skiing.
Magnus has also been fortunate enough to spend two training session with Garry Kasparov himself, and Garry and his team have been very supportive of Magnus. These sessions were of unique importance not only because of the extremely high quality Garry brings to the analysis board but also as an eye opener of the long, difficult and laborious road leading to the top. Despite being a GM, Magnus really felt like a pupil and novice in the analysis. (It was the first time he had felt like this for many years!) I’m sure these experiences has contributed considerably to his development over the last 2 years.
Thursday Magnus plays a simul in Madrid and then Linares/Morelia is next!
H.Carlsen, February 6th 2007
Linares 2007! A few years back the odds against a 16 year old Norwegian being invited to the 8-man top event would seem pretty high, I would say insurmountable. Just to participate will be an extraordinary experience and a great achievement and I hope chess enthusiasts will appreciate his participation irrespective of the final result.
At chess events I’m often asked about his chess training and below I’ll mention the most important contributors to his climb to World Top 25 before turning 16. After starting to work on chess on his own at the age of 8 he has to a large extent been self-going, driven by curiosity and thriving on success.More than 90% of the time he has spent on chess over the last 8 years has been on his own; playing, investigating and repeating positions and games on the board, reading books, playing on ICC and playing tournament games. Anyhow, his teachers have probably been a decisive contributing factor.
In addition to teaching him the moves and playing a few games / month with him, my most important contribution is probably stopping to give him (poor) advice early in his career. At one of his first adult tournament at the age of 9 a Norwegian FM overheard our analysis and pointed out that my line of reasoning was principly flawed. I thought “OK, I will not make that mistake again!”.
During a Norwegian Grand Prix (Open) tournament at the Top Athletes School in January 2000, some of his games were brought to the attention of Simen Agdestein who took a strong interest in him. Simen told me that Magnus could become a GM in 5 years. (Exactly 4 years later Magnus achieved his first GM norm and 3 months onwards his third !) Simen offered Magnus lessons with his assistant Torbjørn Ringdal-Hansen (an FM, with a GM norm). Alone or together with another young player Magnus meet with Torbjørn for an hour or two once or twice a week when at home between tournaments for nearly two years. Torbjørn is a very good teacher, is clever with children and Magnus clearly benefited from the joyous atmosphere of the sessions.
Magnus’ strength was growing and when Torbjørn was leaving to study in another town, Simen Agdestein took over. They had about 30-50 sessions of 1-4 hours during 2002 and the spring of 2003, mainly to go through the games Magnus played at tournaments but also did some other work. Magnus obviously benefited greatly from Simens broad experience and the way he steered their analysis with his energetic and creative style. Simen has always been helpful and understanding.They kept in contact, but less frequently until 2006. Then their contact increased again in august when Magnus joined the Top Athletes School, where Simen teaches chess, to benefit from the flexibility they offer young high school athletes. When home Magnus now has about 14 hours of chess per week at school.
Magnus meet Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen when Peter was coaching the Norwegian national team in 2003 and over the last 2-3 years they have worked together for two weeks, stay in contact via Internett and Peter has seconded Magnus in 4 or 5 tournaments. Apart from being a world class opening expert, Peter is a remarkably nice man, patient and with a great sense of humour.
Another Norwegian who has provided a lot of support for Magnus is IA and organiser Hans Olav Lahlum. He has scheduled and arranged bi- or tri-annual tournaments at Gausdal over the last 6 years much with Magnus in mind. Due to his increasing strength and favourable tournament invitations, Magnus is not playing much at Gausdal any longer, but his tenfold tournament participation up there has certainly been a most valuable contribution. It is great to play on “home ground” and combine chess and cross-country skiing.
Magnus has also been fortunate enough to spend two training session with Garry Kasparov himself, and Garry and his team have been very supportive of Magnus. These sessions were of unique importance not only because of the extremely high quality Garry brings to the analysis board but also as an eye opener of the long, difficult and laborious road leading to the top. Despite being a GM, Magnus really felt like a pupil and novice in the analysis. (It was the first time he had felt like this for many years!) I’m sure these experiences has contributed considerably to his development over the last 2 years.
Thursday Magnus plays a simul in Madrid and then Linares/Morelia is next!
H.Carlsen, February 6th 2007
Aronian - Carlsen, Corus 2007
January 25th: Restday in Wijk. And what a beautiful day ! The storm is long gone, the temperature is around zero and the sun is shining.
Magnus has 3/10 and no gains and is obviously not happy about this.
So what are the +'s and -'s so far ?
Most importantly his first encounter with nearly all the top chess players of the world is of course a great and valuable experience for a young Norwegian.
Drawing Aronian with black, after Aronian making the offer after only 20 moves, was an important display of strenght prior to their Candidate matches.
Magnus certainly was happy about drawing reigning World Champion Kramnik with black as well !
He has had winning positions in 2 games as opposed to Tal Memorial where he didn't have any.
His losses have mainly been caused by his own flawed calculations and not so much by a lack of understanding or superiority of the opponents.
On the minus side is the spoilt winning chances and an unusual number of decisive flawed calculations (against Navara, Motylev, Ponomariov, Svidler, Topalov).
In the remaining rounds Magnus faces relatively easier opposition. White against Van Wely and Shirov and black against Karjakin.
Lastly, all credits to the Corus organiser for staging another great tournament festival !
H.Carlsen, Wijk aan Zee
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