Dresden Olympiad update November 18th
The organiser really deserves praise judging from just three aspects of the Olympiad; the vast and high quality media coverage, hotel standard (at least for the Norwegian team) and the fighting chess seen so far.
Before dwelling on the Norwegian team performance in general and Magnus' in particular, let me congratulate GM Kjetil Lie with his birthday November 18th!
The same Kjetil is reporting from Dresden at the home page for the Tromsø 2014 bid for hosting the chess Olympiad. An English version is provided also; http://www.tromso2014.no/2008_11_12_diary_dresden.htm
In the Open group Norway got off to an excellent start with 6/6 points after beating Austria and Germany2 3-1 and subsequently 3rd seed China by 2,5-1,5 without a single lost game!
The main contributor among our heroes was the above mentioned Kjetil Lie with 3/3 but all five did well.
In round 1 Magnus got a comfortable advantage from the opening against Markus Ragger on board 1 but 'fell asleep' in the middle game and 'woke up' in a precarious position.
Fortunately for Magnus and for Norway Ragger missed the probably winning continuation (38.h3 instead of f3). The end game looked even but Magnus managed to make it difficult for Ragger and won two pawns in a nice combination. When the latter exchanged rooks instead of going for a rook versus rook and bishop end game he was suddenly lost. 1-0.
In round 2 Magnus played G.Meier (who has performed close to 2800 so far) and managed to more or less equalise as black. But in the pursuit of activity he ended up slightly worse in the ending and willingly repeated moves when the opportunity arose. Draw.
Kjetil won another god game as black against young promising F.Bindrich and Jon L.Hammer was in control the whole game on board 4 to secure our 3-1 victory.
Round 3 against China clearly demonstrated the psychological battle involved in team competitions.Magnus faced the Chinese star Yue Wang who has had a remarkable breakthrough at top level this year. Wang chose a very drawish opening as white probably because the Chinese were clear rating favourites at the three other boards. Early on Magnus discovered that at least two team mates had less than favourable positions and felt he should play quite hard for a win despite the drawish position and having the black pieces. He thought for a long time before moving his knight to f5 but gradually discovered that the white counterattack in the h-file was very strong. Wang found an exquisite exchange sacrifice and with f5! Instead of Rxg4+ white would probably have been winning.
Also the game continuation looked very difficult for black, but Magnus did what he does well, he went for active play and felt in good control in the rook endgame despite being two pawns down.
By the time they entered the endgame the situation had changed dramatically on the lower boards. K.Lie had continued to present challenges for much higher rated X.Bu and the latter went wrong in time trouble. Lie, who certainly is a great tactical player, was much better and did not miss the opportunity to enter a won knight endgame with the nice g6+! sacrifice followed by 42.Nf5! 1-0 !!
L.E.Johannessen created sufficient counterplay to neutralize the slightly advantageous position against Ni Hua and drew with the black pieces. Young J.L.Hammer was slightly better with the white pieces and steered the endgame into a draw without too much problems.
Beating 3rd seed China was probably the greatest Norwegian team chess feat ever!!
After this remarkable victory the slightly higher rated English team did look very manageable in round 4. Magnus played M.Adams against which he has a great score with white.
He went for the unusual 7.Bf4 and after the ensuing exchanges white has a small but comfortable advantage due to the isolani on d5. Magnus played a positional game trying to create new weaknesses in the black position and allowed black to gain space and control of the c-file.
Interestingly the computers even prefer black at this stage although the players would probably agree that it is much easier to play white. Just before the time control Adams seemingly became slightly impatient and exchanged the white bishops when Magnus allowed a discovered threat against his queen. The ensuing ending was difficult for black. Adams made another few inaccuracies while Magnus found the right moves and after 46...Rd7! black simply resigned.
Simen Agdestein has historically done well against the higher rated Nigel Short and seemingly drew without too much problems. He maybe even had the better chances in the endgame.
On board 3 Johannessen spent a lot of time in the opening against young (but experienced) GM Howell. His position looked promising but deteriorated quickly when he allowed black to capture the initiative. Howell never looked back and won quite convincingly.
The other Norwegian hero of the day was J.L. Hammer. Having walked into a nasty opening preparation as black against Gawain Jones, the ending looked quite miserable. Down a pawn and with little activity the prospects was meek. But Jon Ludvig did not give in, defended stubbornly, traded of pawns and when Jones exchanged bishops as well the rook ending it is probably a draw. Jon Ludvig defended accurately to secure another very good team result, 2-2 against England.
Before round 5 Norway was number five with just Germany, Russia, Armenia and Hungary ahead of us!
Against Azerbaijan Norway were clearly underdogs again despite the Azeri's playing without top ranked Radjabov. Maybe they are alternating when playing lower ranked teams or maybe he did not feel like playing black against Magnus taking into account his losses in Baku and Bilbao this year.
Magnus instead faced Shakriar Mamedyarov on board 1 and played 1.c4 to reach a positional set-up. Mamedyarov refused to accept the exchange offered by Magnus and gradually expanded on the kingside and in the centre. Magnus did not have a good day at work and instead of closing the position with d4 he went for the slightly dubious piece sacrifice 20.Nb5?!
Fair enough the position is filled with tactics, but not very surprisingly Mamedyarov found a good continuation and was the only one who could play for a win after winning the piece for three pawns. Later maybe he could not find anything better than trading of pieces or maybe he looked at the promising positions of his team mates. Anyhow, the game ended in a draw well before the time control.
Kjetil Lie had another promising position at board 3 but after declining to take the pawn on b4 his advantage disappeared and he was probably happy to repeat moves shortly after.
Both Simen and Jon Ludvig had interesting positions and could well have scored half points. Jon Ludvig if he had found a better continuation before the time control and Simen after the time control despite being an exchange down.
In the end they both lost to fix a 'normal' 1-3 team result.
The Norwegian girls are doing well. They have scored 6 points and lost only to much higher rated teams Bulgaria in round 1 and USA in round 5. All the girls has scored reasonably well and Silje Bjerke exceptionally well with 3,5/4.
The first ranking criteria is team points instead of individual points in this Olympiad. And maybe even more importantly, the second ranking (tie-break) criteria (TB2) is a 'team-Sonnenborn-Berger' reached by multiplying the individual points scored in each match with the team points of the opponents.
(This is clearly preferable to using only individual points in which case all other teams than the medal candidates would gain from losing 2,5-1,5 purposely early in the competition in order to score many clear victories later against weaker opposition.)
After five rounds the Norwegian open group team, together with Hungary and Netherlands, have a high TB2 among the teams at seven team points having been 'up there' all the way, faced strong opposition and lost round 5.
The Norwegian team is currently number 19, same as the pre tournament ranking!
With marvellous 3.5/4 against strong opposition Kjetil Lie is in contention for the board prize on board 3 while Magnus has also done very well with a performance above 2800 on board 1.
Tomorrow we face Finland on board 11.
Norway is clearly higher rated but the Finns has performed well so far and are always a difficult opponent.
On board 1 Finland has young GM Tomi Nyback, already a top-100 player and very dangerous with the white pieces.
Let's keep our fingers crossed for the Norwegian teams!
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen 18.11.2008
Before dwelling on the Norwegian team performance in general and Magnus' in particular, let me congratulate GM Kjetil Lie with his birthday November 18th!
The same Kjetil is reporting from Dresden at the home page for the Tromsø 2014 bid for hosting the chess Olympiad. An English version is provided also; http://www.tromso2014.no/2008_11_12_diary_dresden.htm
In the Open group Norway got off to an excellent start with 6/6 points after beating Austria and Germany2 3-1 and subsequently 3rd seed China by 2,5-1,5 without a single lost game!
The main contributor among our heroes was the above mentioned Kjetil Lie with 3/3 but all five did well.
In round 1 Magnus got a comfortable advantage from the opening against Markus Ragger on board 1 but 'fell asleep' in the middle game and 'woke up' in a precarious position.
Fortunately for Magnus and for Norway Ragger missed the probably winning continuation (38.h3 instead of f3). The end game looked even but Magnus managed to make it difficult for Ragger and won two pawns in a nice combination. When the latter exchanged rooks instead of going for a rook versus rook and bishop end game he was suddenly lost. 1-0.
In round 2 Magnus played G.Meier (who has performed close to 2800 so far) and managed to more or less equalise as black. But in the pursuit of activity he ended up slightly worse in the ending and willingly repeated moves when the opportunity arose. Draw.
Kjetil won another god game as black against young promising F.Bindrich and Jon L.Hammer was in control the whole game on board 4 to secure our 3-1 victory.
Round 3 against China clearly demonstrated the psychological battle involved in team competitions.Magnus faced the Chinese star Yue Wang who has had a remarkable breakthrough at top level this year. Wang chose a very drawish opening as white probably because the Chinese were clear rating favourites at the three other boards. Early on Magnus discovered that at least two team mates had less than favourable positions and felt he should play quite hard for a win despite the drawish position and having the black pieces. He thought for a long time before moving his knight to f5 but gradually discovered that the white counterattack in the h-file was very strong. Wang found an exquisite exchange sacrifice and with f5! Instead of Rxg4+ white would probably have been winning.
Also the game continuation looked very difficult for black, but Magnus did what he does well, he went for active play and felt in good control in the rook endgame despite being two pawns down.
By the time they entered the endgame the situation had changed dramatically on the lower boards. K.Lie had continued to present challenges for much higher rated X.Bu and the latter went wrong in time trouble. Lie, who certainly is a great tactical player, was much better and did not miss the opportunity to enter a won knight endgame with the nice g6+! sacrifice followed by 42.Nf5! 1-0 !!
L.E.Johannessen created sufficient counterplay to neutralize the slightly advantageous position against Ni Hua and drew with the black pieces. Young J.L.Hammer was slightly better with the white pieces and steered the endgame into a draw without too much problems.
Beating 3rd seed China was probably the greatest Norwegian team chess feat ever!!
After this remarkable victory the slightly higher rated English team did look very manageable in round 4. Magnus played M.Adams against which he has a great score with white.
He went for the unusual 7.Bf4 and after the ensuing exchanges white has a small but comfortable advantage due to the isolani on d5. Magnus played a positional game trying to create new weaknesses in the black position and allowed black to gain space and control of the c-file.
Interestingly the computers even prefer black at this stage although the players would probably agree that it is much easier to play white. Just before the time control Adams seemingly became slightly impatient and exchanged the white bishops when Magnus allowed a discovered threat against his queen. The ensuing ending was difficult for black. Adams made another few inaccuracies while Magnus found the right moves and after 46...Rd7! black simply resigned.
Simen Agdestein has historically done well against the higher rated Nigel Short and seemingly drew without too much problems. He maybe even had the better chances in the endgame.
On board 3 Johannessen spent a lot of time in the opening against young (but experienced) GM Howell. His position looked promising but deteriorated quickly when he allowed black to capture the initiative. Howell never looked back and won quite convincingly.
The other Norwegian hero of the day was J.L. Hammer. Having walked into a nasty opening preparation as black against Gawain Jones, the ending looked quite miserable. Down a pawn and with little activity the prospects was meek. But Jon Ludvig did not give in, defended stubbornly, traded of pawns and when Jones exchanged bishops as well the rook ending it is probably a draw. Jon Ludvig defended accurately to secure another very good team result, 2-2 against England.
Before round 5 Norway was number five with just Germany, Russia, Armenia and Hungary ahead of us!
Against Azerbaijan Norway were clearly underdogs again despite the Azeri's playing without top ranked Radjabov. Maybe they are alternating when playing lower ranked teams or maybe he did not feel like playing black against Magnus taking into account his losses in Baku and Bilbao this year.
Magnus instead faced Shakriar Mamedyarov on board 1 and played 1.c4 to reach a positional set-up. Mamedyarov refused to accept the exchange offered by Magnus and gradually expanded on the kingside and in the centre. Magnus did not have a good day at work and instead of closing the position with d4 he went for the slightly dubious piece sacrifice 20.Nb5?!
Fair enough the position is filled with tactics, but not very surprisingly Mamedyarov found a good continuation and was the only one who could play for a win after winning the piece for three pawns. Later maybe he could not find anything better than trading of pieces or maybe he looked at the promising positions of his team mates. Anyhow, the game ended in a draw well before the time control.
Kjetil Lie had another promising position at board 3 but after declining to take the pawn on b4 his advantage disappeared and he was probably happy to repeat moves shortly after.
Both Simen and Jon Ludvig had interesting positions and could well have scored half points. Jon Ludvig if he had found a better continuation before the time control and Simen after the time control despite being an exchange down.
In the end they both lost to fix a 'normal' 1-3 team result.
The Norwegian girls are doing well. They have scored 6 points and lost only to much higher rated teams Bulgaria in round 1 and USA in round 5. All the girls has scored reasonably well and Silje Bjerke exceptionally well with 3,5/4.
The first ranking criteria is team points instead of individual points in this Olympiad. And maybe even more importantly, the second ranking (tie-break) criteria (TB2) is a 'team-Sonnenborn-Berger' reached by multiplying the individual points scored in each match with the team points of the opponents.
(This is clearly preferable to using only individual points in which case all other teams than the medal candidates would gain from losing 2,5-1,5 purposely early in the competition in order to score many clear victories later against weaker opposition.)
After five rounds the Norwegian open group team, together with Hungary and Netherlands, have a high TB2 among the teams at seven team points having been 'up there' all the way, faced strong opposition and lost round 5.
The Norwegian team is currently number 19, same as the pre tournament ranking!
With marvellous 3.5/4 against strong opposition Kjetil Lie is in contention for the board prize on board 3 while Magnus has also done very well with a performance above 2800 on board 1.
Tomorrow we face Finland on board 11.
Norway is clearly higher rated but the Finns has performed well so far and are always a difficult opponent.
On board 1 Finland has young GM Tomi Nyback, already a top-100 player and very dangerous with the white pieces.
Let's keep our fingers crossed for the Norwegian teams!
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen 18.11.2008
Dresden Chess Olympiad 2008
The Norwegian team is ranked 19th out of 154 participating countries in the Open group and is probably the best possible team Norway could put together for this event.
Apart from Magnus, the team consists of GM S.Agdestein, GM K.A.Lie GM L.E.Johannessen and 18 year old school-mate-of-Magnus IM J.L.Hammer.
(Hammer does have above 2500 and 3 GM norms, but only 25 games so he needs another norm).
The Norwegian women team is also the best we can muster and is ranked as no 39.
Magnus would consider a top-20 result in the Open group a success despite the pre tournament 19th rank as there are many strong teams with only a slightly lower average rate (for instance Netherlands, Poland, Serbia and Belarus to mention those above 2600).
Russia is top ranked with an amazing 2756 average rating, USA is no 10 with 2673 while Germany on 11th has 2647 and is only 36 points ahead of Norway.
In the two previous Olympiads, USA has beaten Norway in the last round 3.5-0.5 to capture bronze medals and simultaneously pushed Norway far down the list. The effect of the last round result will be less significant this year with ranking based on match points (and not individual points) but maybe we can hope for a revenge match this year!
After the Bilbao tournament the Dagbladet newspaper had a long article discussing the status of chess, is it a sport or not?
Lately the main Norwegian newspaper (judging from the combined criteria of number of readers, quality and profile) Aftenposten, has had several articles about chess and Magnus in the sport section.
Norwegian media chess coverage has been good this autumn, probably as a result of Tromso's bid to host the 2014 chess Olympiad as well as Magnus' September visit at the top of the live rating list.
I think we can expect very good coverage also from the Olympiad in Dresden.
I was planning to provide more info about the games Magnus played against Bu and Ivanchuk in Cap d'Agde, but frankly I haven't got enough comments from Magnus to make in worth while this time.
I'm still hoping to catch up on this later as these games were both highly exciting and probably high quality. It would be interesting to have a detailed look at for instance the Ng4+ line in Bu-Carlsen. Magnus did miss the (probably) winning line with the decisive Re8+ when suddenly white is losing despite the extra piece.
With Anand's impressive win against Kramnik in Bonn, I think everyone agrees that the chess world has been united with one undisputed champion. Most people would also agree that the path ahead looks fairly reasonable with the winner of Kamsky - Topalov playing Anand next year and the winner of the match 'World Cup 2009 winner' against 'Grand Prix 2008-2009 winner" plays the reigning champion next.
Unfortunately the preparation for the Kamsky - Topalov match has been everything but smooth. Maybe we can hope for a somewhat humble approach from both of them from now on considering how the manager of one of them has deceived the chess world for half a year and the other got a slightly questionable wild card from FIDE.
Anyhow, Magnus and the other Grand Prix participants should continue to pursue their excellent opportunity to play high level chess tournaments in a predictable World Championship cycle. We do look forward to the next GP in Doha after Dresden!
The Norwegian teams travelled Oslo - Praha early this afternoon and proceeded to Dresden by bus. In round 1 tomorrow Norway will probably play a team with about 2250 average rating in the Open group.
Henrik Carlsen
Engerdal, 12.11.2008
Apart from Magnus, the team consists of GM S.Agdestein, GM K.A.Lie GM L.E.Johannessen and 18 year old school-mate-of-Magnus IM J.L.Hammer.
(Hammer does have above 2500 and 3 GM norms, but only 25 games so he needs another norm).
The Norwegian women team is also the best we can muster and is ranked as no 39.
Magnus would consider a top-20 result in the Open group a success despite the pre tournament 19th rank as there are many strong teams with only a slightly lower average rate (for instance Netherlands, Poland, Serbia and Belarus to mention those above 2600).
Russia is top ranked with an amazing 2756 average rating, USA is no 10 with 2673 while Germany on 11th has 2647 and is only 36 points ahead of Norway.
In the two previous Olympiads, USA has beaten Norway in the last round 3.5-0.5 to capture bronze medals and simultaneously pushed Norway far down the list. The effect of the last round result will be less significant this year with ranking based on match points (and not individual points) but maybe we can hope for a revenge match this year!
After the Bilbao tournament the Dagbladet newspaper had a long article discussing the status of chess, is it a sport or not?
Lately the main Norwegian newspaper (judging from the combined criteria of number of readers, quality and profile) Aftenposten, has had several articles about chess and Magnus in the sport section.
Norwegian media chess coverage has been good this autumn, probably as a result of Tromso's bid to host the 2014 chess Olympiad as well as Magnus' September visit at the top of the live rating list.
I think we can expect very good coverage also from the Olympiad in Dresden.
I was planning to provide more info about the games Magnus played against Bu and Ivanchuk in Cap d'Agde, but frankly I haven't got enough comments from Magnus to make in worth while this time.
I'm still hoping to catch up on this later as these games were both highly exciting and probably high quality. It would be interesting to have a detailed look at for instance the Ng4+ line in Bu-Carlsen. Magnus did miss the (probably) winning line with the decisive Re8+ when suddenly white is losing despite the extra piece.
With Anand's impressive win against Kramnik in Bonn, I think everyone agrees that the chess world has been united with one undisputed champion. Most people would also agree that the path ahead looks fairly reasonable with the winner of Kamsky - Topalov playing Anand next year and the winner of the match 'World Cup 2009 winner' against 'Grand Prix 2008-2009 winner" plays the reigning champion next.
Unfortunately the preparation for the Kamsky - Topalov match has been everything but smooth. Maybe we can hope for a somewhat humble approach from both of them from now on considering how the manager of one of them has deceived the chess world for half a year and the other got a slightly questionable wild card from FIDE.
Anyhow, Magnus and the other Grand Prix participants should continue to pursue their excellent opportunity to play high level chess tournaments in a predictable World Championship cycle. We do look forward to the next GP in Doha after Dresden!
The Norwegian teams travelled Oslo - Praha early this afternoon and proceeded to Dresden by bus. In round 1 tomorrow Norway will probably play a team with about 2250 average rating in the Open group.
Henrik Carlsen
Engerdal, 12.11.2008
CCAS Cap d'Agde 2008 Closing ceremony
After beating X.Bu in the quarterfinal, Magnus lost the blitz-tiebreak to Ivanchuk in the semi.
The rapid games against Bu was quite interesting, as was the first double-edged encounter with Ivanchuk.
I'll revert soon with more comments regarding these games.
In the other semifinal Nakamura rightly trusted his blitz skills. Having held Karpov to a draw with the black pieces, he repeated moves early with white in the second rapid game and won the blitz convincingly 2-0.
In the final Ivanchuk with white looked worse in the ending but a draw was agreed in the end. In the second game, the symmetrical pawn ending with two rooks and a bishop versus a knight looked very drawish but after Ivanchuk allowed the exchange of rooks Nakamura outplayed him in the ensuing ending. 1-0 and a great tournament victory to Nakamura. Congratulations!
Overall Magnus played quite well in the rapid games and scored 8/11 in total, but it would be putting it mildly to say that he was unhappy with the blitz games against Ivanchuk.
As usual the closing ceremony was held in an extraordinary pleasant mood. The head of the french chess federation spoke for everyone concluding that they all needed this week of chess in Cap every 2nd year.
Many thanks to the organiser for a pleasant and enjoyable tournament!
Next tournament for Magnus is the Olympics in Dresden starting November 12th.
Henrik Carlsen
Cap d'Agde, France, November 2nd 2008
CCAS Rapid 2008 October 28th
Looking at the CCAS Rapid playing schedule back in 2006 we thought it was a bit slow and relaxed, but was surprised by how intense even the qualifier was.
With the rounds spread over many hours every day the players are in practice occupied with the tournament as much as or more than in a classical tournament.
This time it did not come as a surprise, and I also suspect that Magnus has been trying to preserve some energy until his prestigious encounter with co-leader Radjabov today.
Yesterday in round 3 Magnus played black against Nakamura. In the opening Nakamura had the chance to repeat moves but bravely played on despite being equal or worse after the opening. In the ensuing endgame Magnus got his knight to c3 and was fairly optimistic.
Having calculated variations with Kf8 followed by Nd5 he then suddenly decided that Nd5 right away was even better, and played it quickly having missed the simple continuation Bxd5 followed by Nb5 taking control over the c-file.
White was clearly better and Magnus had to pulled himself together to try to create counterplay.
Nakamura may have missed a win with Rxg5 instead of Rxa5 after which Magnus had sufficient compensation. In the mutual time scramble Magnus repeated moves while both players had missed a fairly easy win by black with Rf5! threatening both mate and Rg5! after which white has to give up his rook for the pawn on g3.
So it ended in a draw after a good fight.
Two years ago Magnus conceded a draw with the white pieces against Skripchenko and was eager to improve the result this year. He sacrificed a pawn in the opening and avoided the mainline to reach an interesting position several tempi up, but without a clear way to exploit the lead in development.
After a long thought he went for a queen sack getting 3 light pieces and some initiative for the queen plus two pawns. Later he must have gone wrong somewhere as Rybka finds the black position clearly advantageous due to the threat f4 and Bh3!
In the actual game continuation black slowly was outplayed and resigned without much time left, two more pieces down facing imminent mate.
The rating favourites took the lead after 4 rounds in group B with Magnus and Radjabov at 3.5/4 and Nakamura and Karpov at 2.5.
In group B young Fabiano Caruana continued his winning streak to take a sole lead with 4.5/5.
Today Magnus played black against Karpov in the early round (11AM). Watching the two sit down for the game reminded me of their first encounter in the Reykjavik rapid tournament blitz qualifier back in March 2004. Mentally that tournament represented an important break through for Magnus. His time scramble blitz win against Karpov and subsequent rapid draw against Kasparov demonstrated that they were not invincible despite their iconoc status.
It cannot have been pleasant for Karpov to lose to the 13 year old boy (who looked even younger) but his behaviour afterwards certainly was commendable. He was most accommodating with a Norwegian film crew giving a long interview praising Magnus. He has also talked favourably about Magnus on several subsequent occasions.
This morning, Magnus played the Nimzo-Indian and they continued along a drawish line. Magnus blitzed out the whole game while Karpov spent some 20 minutes maybe trying to look for alternatives to the game continuation. Magnus was happy to return to his room early to relax and prepare for Radjabov at 4 PM.
In round 6 Radjabov played the Philidor against Magnus' 1.e4 and equalised according to the computers. Still it is probably easier to play white due to the bishop pair and better pawn structure. Radjabov posed enough tactical problems to Magnus in the middle game but after 26...d5 27.exd5 cxd5 white is clearly better.
Magnus missed the continuation 36.Nxd5 Nxd5 37.f4! but also his choice 36.Nb5 gives white an edge. He activated his king and despite missing a tactic shot (and losing his knight) his queen side pawns decided the game. 1-0.
After dinner (and desert) in an Italian restaurant in Cap Magnus faced 17 year old GM S.Feller from France in the last round of the qualifier (at 9PM). In a complex position Magnus played the flashy 15.... Nf4. He did not really consider it good for black but it was both complex and very tempting.
Feller found a good continuation and got active play and two light pieces for a rook and two pawns.
He was still better when he short on time went for repetition checks. Draw.
Nakamura beat Karpov with black to tie Magnus at 5.5/7 but Magnus has the better Sonnenborg-Berger.
Hou Yifan beat Skripschenko to tie for 4th but lost the second round of blitz playoff to Karpov.
In the B-group leaders Ivanchuk and Caruana drew the last round and the latter won the group with 5.5 points, ahead of Ivanchuk (5), Vachier-Lagrave and Bu (4.5).
Early leader Cheparinov ended at 4/7 but it was not enough to qualify.
Overall the female participants obtained many promising positions also against the top ranked players, but was quite consistently outplayed in time trouble. Hou Yifan was of course closest to qualify but also Kosteniuk and Koneru would well have qualified with the margins on their side.
Magnus is fairly happy about his performance in the qualifier. As in the ECC he has made some blunders but generally been in control and avoided time trouble.
We have the following Quarter finals:
Caruana - Karpov (at 2:30 PM) and Ivanchuk - Radjabov (at 6 PM) tomorrow.
Vachier-Lagrave - Nakamura (at 2:30 PM) and Bu - Carlsen (at 6 PM) on Thursday.
Each match consists of two rapid games and if 1-1, two plus two blitz games and if necessary sudden death.
Tomorrow is consequently a rest day for Magnus and maybe we can play some more football if the weather allows :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Cap d'Agde, October 28th 2008
With the rounds spread over many hours every day the players are in practice occupied with the tournament as much as or more than in a classical tournament.
This time it did not come as a surprise, and I also suspect that Magnus has been trying to preserve some energy until his prestigious encounter with co-leader Radjabov today.
Yesterday in round 3 Magnus played black against Nakamura. In the opening Nakamura had the chance to repeat moves but bravely played on despite being equal or worse after the opening. In the ensuing endgame Magnus got his knight to c3 and was fairly optimistic.
Having calculated variations with Kf8 followed by Nd5 he then suddenly decided that Nd5 right away was even better, and played it quickly having missed the simple continuation Bxd5 followed by Nb5 taking control over the c-file.
White was clearly better and Magnus had to pulled himself together to try to create counterplay.
Nakamura may have missed a win with Rxg5 instead of Rxa5 after which Magnus had sufficient compensation. In the mutual time scramble Magnus repeated moves while both players had missed a fairly easy win by black with Rf5! threatening both mate and Rg5! after which white has to give up his rook for the pawn on g3.
So it ended in a draw after a good fight.
Two years ago Magnus conceded a draw with the white pieces against Skripchenko and was eager to improve the result this year. He sacrificed a pawn in the opening and avoided the mainline to reach an interesting position several tempi up, but without a clear way to exploit the lead in development.
After a long thought he went for a queen sack getting 3 light pieces and some initiative for the queen plus two pawns. Later he must have gone wrong somewhere as Rybka finds the black position clearly advantageous due to the threat f4 and Bh3!
In the actual game continuation black slowly was outplayed and resigned without much time left, two more pieces down facing imminent mate.
The rating favourites took the lead after 4 rounds in group B with Magnus and Radjabov at 3.5/4 and Nakamura and Karpov at 2.5.
In group B young Fabiano Caruana continued his winning streak to take a sole lead with 4.5/5.
Today Magnus played black against Karpov in the early round (11AM). Watching the two sit down for the game reminded me of their first encounter in the Reykjavik rapid tournament blitz qualifier back in March 2004. Mentally that tournament represented an important break through for Magnus. His time scramble blitz win against Karpov and subsequent rapid draw against Kasparov demonstrated that they were not invincible despite their iconoc status.
It cannot have been pleasant for Karpov to lose to the 13 year old boy (who looked even younger) but his behaviour afterwards certainly was commendable. He was most accommodating with a Norwegian film crew giving a long interview praising Magnus. He has also talked favourably about Magnus on several subsequent occasions.
This morning, Magnus played the Nimzo-Indian and they continued along a drawish line. Magnus blitzed out the whole game while Karpov spent some 20 minutes maybe trying to look for alternatives to the game continuation. Magnus was happy to return to his room early to relax and prepare for Radjabov at 4 PM.
In round 6 Radjabov played the Philidor against Magnus' 1.e4 and equalised according to the computers. Still it is probably easier to play white due to the bishop pair and better pawn structure. Radjabov posed enough tactical problems to Magnus in the middle game but after 26...d5 27.exd5 cxd5 white is clearly better.
Magnus missed the continuation 36.Nxd5 Nxd5 37.f4! but also his choice 36.Nb5 gives white an edge. He activated his king and despite missing a tactic shot (and losing his knight) his queen side pawns decided the game. 1-0.
After dinner (and desert) in an Italian restaurant in Cap Magnus faced 17 year old GM S.Feller from France in the last round of the qualifier (at 9PM). In a complex position Magnus played the flashy 15.... Nf4. He did not really consider it good for black but it was both complex and very tempting.
Feller found a good continuation and got active play and two light pieces for a rook and two pawns.
He was still better when he short on time went for repetition checks. Draw.
Nakamura beat Karpov with black to tie Magnus at 5.5/7 but Magnus has the better Sonnenborg-Berger.
Hou Yifan beat Skripschenko to tie for 4th but lost the second round of blitz playoff to Karpov.
In the B-group leaders Ivanchuk and Caruana drew the last round and the latter won the group with 5.5 points, ahead of Ivanchuk (5), Vachier-Lagrave and Bu (4.5).
Early leader Cheparinov ended at 4/7 but it was not enough to qualify.
Overall the female participants obtained many promising positions also against the top ranked players, but was quite consistently outplayed in time trouble. Hou Yifan was of course closest to qualify but also Kosteniuk and Koneru would well have qualified with the margins on their side.
Magnus is fairly happy about his performance in the qualifier. As in the ECC he has made some blunders but generally been in control and avoided time trouble.
We have the following Quarter finals:
Caruana - Karpov (at 2:30 PM) and Ivanchuk - Radjabov (at 6 PM) tomorrow.
Vachier-Lagrave - Nakamura (at 2:30 PM) and Bu - Carlsen (at 6 PM) on Thursday.
Each match consists of two rapid games and if 1-1, two plus two blitz games and if necessary sudden death.
Tomorrow is consequently a rest day for Magnus and maybe we can play some more football if the weather allows :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Cap d'Agde, October 28th 2008
CCAS Rapid 2008 Round 1 & 2
The CCAS (Caisse Centrale a'Activites Sociales du Personnel des Industries Electrique et Gaziere) Rapid takes place in the Cap d'Agde vacation centre of the Union of the Electicity and Gas workers (at the seaside Cap of the inland town Agde).
In addition to the Rapid events there are several Opens with about 700 participants in total.
Yesterday Magnus drew no 1 and consequently played 2 white games today. In round 1 he played Hou Yifan, China and in round 2 Humpy Koneru, India.
Group A had battled it out first (at 2 PM) with 4 decisive games, and two hours later B-group was introduced and got started as well. (The time control is 25min + 10s increment from move 1.)
The "theatre" in which they play is very intimate. Not because it is small, it does room several hundred spectators. Still the atmosphere is very special, the playing area is compact and with heavy spotlights and spectators circling most of the floor the players probably feel like boxers in a ring.
An obvious highlight of round 1 was Nakamura - Radjabov.
Radjabov played his usual King Indian and after a fierce fight he broke through on the kingside and won.
Magnus was quite satisfied with his game against Hou. The opening was not very ambitious but when black spent a tempo with Qe7, Magnus could play d4 and they entered a quite usual line with white a tempo up. Magnus had several defensive resources, but chose the interesting exchange sack with Bf3 after Ng3 with a pawn and lots of positional compensation for the exchange. Black was pushed back and it was hard to create counterplay. When she did try Magnus decided to go for an ending a pawn up and better pieces. When Hou lost another pawn she resigned.
In group A most of the rating favourites won round 1 with the exception of Bu who lost as black against young Caruana. In round 2 three games ended draw. Ivanchuk, Lagrave, Cheparinov and Caruana all have 1,5 points.
In round 2 in group B the rating favourites Magnus, Radjabov and Nakamura won while Karpov conceded a draw to young Hou Yifan.
Magnus did not get much from the opening. After having built up a little pressure on the kingside he played 20.Re3 having missed the response Nb3! However, Humpy defended a bit passively and Magnus could enter the rook and knight ending with a clear initiative. He won one pawn and after a lot of manouevring another one. 1-0 and Magnus share the lead with Radjabov with 2/2 in group B. An excellent start.
Tomorrow the A-group will play 3 more rounds (at 11AM, 4PM and 9PM) while the B-group plays 2 rounds at 2PM and 6 PM. On Tuesday its the other way round, and if needed tie-breaks will be played from 10:30 PM onwards Tuesday night.
Another beautiful summer day in Cap today, and it is supposed to last for another day or two :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Cap d'Agde October 26th 2008
In addition to the Rapid events there are several Opens with about 700 participants in total.
Yesterday Magnus drew no 1 and consequently played 2 white games today. In round 1 he played Hou Yifan, China and in round 2 Humpy Koneru, India.
Group A had battled it out first (at 2 PM) with 4 decisive games, and two hours later B-group was introduced and got started as well. (The time control is 25min + 10s increment from move 1.)
The "theatre" in which they play is very intimate. Not because it is small, it does room several hundred spectators. Still the atmosphere is very special, the playing area is compact and with heavy spotlights and spectators circling most of the floor the players probably feel like boxers in a ring.
An obvious highlight of round 1 was Nakamura - Radjabov.
Radjabov played his usual King Indian and after a fierce fight he broke through on the kingside and won.
Magnus was quite satisfied with his game against Hou. The opening was not very ambitious but when black spent a tempo with Qe7, Magnus could play d4 and they entered a quite usual line with white a tempo up. Magnus had several defensive resources, but chose the interesting exchange sack with Bf3 after Ng3 with a pawn and lots of positional compensation for the exchange. Black was pushed back and it was hard to create counterplay. When she did try Magnus decided to go for an ending a pawn up and better pieces. When Hou lost another pawn she resigned.
In group A most of the rating favourites won round 1 with the exception of Bu who lost as black against young Caruana. In round 2 three games ended draw. Ivanchuk, Lagrave, Cheparinov and Caruana all have 1,5 points.
In round 2 in group B the rating favourites Magnus, Radjabov and Nakamura won while Karpov conceded a draw to young Hou Yifan.
Magnus did not get much from the opening. After having built up a little pressure on the kingside he played 20.Re3 having missed the response Nb3! However, Humpy defended a bit passively and Magnus could enter the rook and knight ending with a clear initiative. He won one pawn and after a lot of manouevring another one. 1-0 and Magnus share the lead with Radjabov with 2/2 in group B. An excellent start.
Tomorrow the A-group will play 3 more rounds (at 11AM, 4PM and 9PM) while the B-group plays 2 rounds at 2PM and 6 PM. On Tuesday its the other way round, and if needed tie-breaks will be played from 10:30 PM onwards Tuesday night.
Another beautiful summer day in Cap today, and it is supposed to last for another day or two :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Cap d'Agde October 26th 2008
CCAS Cap d'Agde Rapid Chess Trophy 2008 - La rencontre
Europe is a small, densely populated continent and I've always considered the logistics of moving within Europe to be well developed and efficient. Normally direct travelling or two-flights via a hub is available, but planning Magnus' trip from Halkidiki (Thessaloniki airport) to Cap d'Agde (Montpellier airport) was surprisingly complex.
Together with several others playing both ECC and Cap Magnus ended up flying via Vienna (and enjoyed a good restaurant and free high quality internet connection at the airport).
From Vienna the players chose different routes. Magnus went Vienna-Barcelona instead of two more flights and an overnight stay on the way. I came from Oslo via Madrid, meet him in Barcelona, and we were picked up by the organiser for a three hour drive arriving in Cap 02:15 this morning.
In the ECC Magnus scored 3/6 on table 1 for 2nd ranked MIKA. MIKA beat the winners Urals but ended 12th after losses in round 5 and 6.
Magnus was not very happy about his own performance nor his result, but there were several positive aspects.
He was satisfied with the way he managed to outplay Movsesian in a fairly equal ending (before blundering and losing in time trouble), he did get a good position against Svidler, and the last round win as black against Huzman was both exciting and a well played game by Magnus.
With only 6 games, half a point to or from makes a lot of difference, and he does not put too much emphasis on the overall result.
In the ongoing World Championship match the outcome is very much decided with 4 rounds to go. No way Anand is going to give up his 3 points lead. A magnificent performance from Vishy so far!
This evening the opening ceremony of the CCAS Cap d'Agde Rapid 'Le Rencontre' took place over in the town hall of Cap.
We were received by a spendid brass band and flamboyant organiser Bachar Kouatly introduced all the players followed by the drawing of lots and one or two interesting questions for all the players.
Posing for the photographers after the opening ceremony.
The 16 players are divided into groups A and B and the first four in each of the 7-round-robin groups (Sunday - Tuesday) play quarterfinals (Wednesday and Thursday), semi-finals (Friday) and final (Saturday November 1st).
This is the 8th edition of the bi-annual CCAS Rapid, and Anatoly Karpov has participated in all of them!
Magnus participated also in 2006 edition where he qualified from the round robin but lost the semi-final against Karjakin.
The 2008 edition is even stronger with the world #3 Ivanchuk, #4 Magnus, 2006-winner Radjabov, rapid and blitz specialist Nakamura and many other strong players including most of the dominant female players in the world.
Magnus drew start no. 1 and plays young Chineses super talent Hou Yifan in round one tomorrow.
Cap had beautiful summer weather (by Norwegian standards) today with sunshine and 20oC plus, and I'm planning to try a dive in the Mediterranean sea as in 2006 :-)
I expect the games will be sent live on internet via the home page ; http://www.capechecs.com/trophee_ccas.php
Henrik Carlsen
Cap d'Agde, October 25th, 2008
Together with several others playing both ECC and Cap Magnus ended up flying via Vienna (and enjoyed a good restaurant and free high quality internet connection at the airport).
From Vienna the players chose different routes. Magnus went Vienna-Barcelona instead of two more flights and an overnight stay on the way. I came from Oslo via Madrid, meet him in Barcelona, and we were picked up by the organiser for a three hour drive arriving in Cap 02:15 this morning.
In the ECC Magnus scored 3/6 on table 1 for 2nd ranked MIKA. MIKA beat the winners Urals but ended 12th after losses in round 5 and 6.
Magnus was not very happy about his own performance nor his result, but there were several positive aspects.
He was satisfied with the way he managed to outplay Movsesian in a fairly equal ending (before blundering and losing in time trouble), he did get a good position against Svidler, and the last round win as black against Huzman was both exciting and a well played game by Magnus.
With only 6 games, half a point to or from makes a lot of difference, and he does not put too much emphasis on the overall result.
In the ongoing World Championship match the outcome is very much decided with 4 rounds to go. No way Anand is going to give up his 3 points lead. A magnificent performance from Vishy so far!
This evening the opening ceremony of the CCAS Cap d'Agde Rapid 'Le Rencontre' took place over in the town hall of Cap.
We were received by a spendid brass band and flamboyant organiser Bachar Kouatly introduced all the players followed by the drawing of lots and one or two interesting questions for all the players.
Posing for the photographers after the opening ceremony.
The 16 players are divided into groups A and B and the first four in each of the 7-round-robin groups (Sunday - Tuesday) play quarterfinals (Wednesday and Thursday), semi-finals (Friday) and final (Saturday November 1st).
This is the 8th edition of the bi-annual CCAS Rapid, and Anatoly Karpov has participated in all of them!
Magnus participated also in 2006 edition where he qualified from the round robin but lost the semi-final against Karjakin.
The 2008 edition is even stronger with the world #3 Ivanchuk, #4 Magnus, 2006-winner Radjabov, rapid and blitz specialist Nakamura and many other strong players including most of the dominant female players in the world.
Magnus drew start no. 1 and plays young Chineses super talent Hou Yifan in round one tomorrow.
Cap had beautiful summer weather (by Norwegian standards) today with sunshine and 20oC plus, and I'm planning to try a dive in the Mediterranean sea as in 2006 :-)
I expect the games will be sent live on internet via the home page ; http://www.capechecs.com/trophee_ccas.php
Henrik Carlsen
Cap d'Agde, October 25th, 2008
18.okt.2008
Today it is five weeks since the last round in Bilbao Masters, and Magnus has had an unusual long break from regular tournament activity.
In the future we will probably have to get used to more frequent long breaks. His current 200+ travelling days/year does not look sustainable taking into account the need for a reasonable balance between tournaments, training, rest and activities outside chess (school etc).
Following his brief but exciting appearance at the top of the live rating list during Bilbao and also the overall excellent 2nd place, there has been a lot of media interest.
Magnus has not given it the highest priority, but anyhow there have been a lot of articles in various media ranging from the local newspaper to chess magazines as far away as Iran!
On the October 1 official rating list Magnus is #4 at 2786 (tied with Ivanchuk in 3rd) and only 5 points behind #1 Topalov!
In the amazingly even top 6 field Anand and Kramnik is down to 5th and 6th, but nobody should be misguided by ratings. The ongoing World Championship match is a real match between worthy contenders.
Congratulations to V.Anand on his superb black pieces victory yesterday.
Magnus has of course spent time on chess related activities since Bilbao. Earlier in his career progress in classical chess has gone hand in hand with progress in blitz although sometimes there has been a short lag in one relative to the other. It is fair to say that he has made a lot of progress also in blitz lately. In addition to the 3rd place in Tal Memorial Blitz in end of August, he has had a dominant role in internet chess blitz this autumn.
Over the next two weeks he will play the ECC October 17-23 and the Cap d'Agde rapid October 26 - Nov.1.
He was very motivated when leaving for Greece Thursday, and he will this time play board 1 for the Armenian 'MIKA' Chess Club (together with Aronian, Gelfand, Sargissian etc) which is second ranked in the immensely strong event (after Russian Ural Sverdlovskaya).
In round 1 MIKA, without Magnus, won comfortably 4,5-1,5 against Panevezys but many of their strongest opponents made a clean sweep 6-0.
Two Norwegian teams participate this year. OSS and SK1911 are both from Oslo.
They lost against strong opposition in round 1 but school mate of Magnus, IM Jon.L.Hammer (2522) got an excellent start by holding Zvjaginsev (2646) to a draw on table 1 for OSS.
In round 2 MIKA play home favourite ESTH Thessaloniko with GM D. Mastrovasilis (2572) on board 1.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, October 18th, 2008
In the future we will probably have to get used to more frequent long breaks. His current 200+ travelling days/year does not look sustainable taking into account the need for a reasonable balance between tournaments, training, rest and activities outside chess (school etc).
Following his brief but exciting appearance at the top of the live rating list during Bilbao and also the overall excellent 2nd place, there has been a lot of media interest.
Magnus has not given it the highest priority, but anyhow there have been a lot of articles in various media ranging from the local newspaper to chess magazines as far away as Iran!
On the October 1 official rating list Magnus is #4 at 2786 (tied with Ivanchuk in 3rd) and only 5 points behind #1 Topalov!
In the amazingly even top 6 field Anand and Kramnik is down to 5th and 6th, but nobody should be misguided by ratings. The ongoing World Championship match is a real match between worthy contenders.
Congratulations to V.Anand on his superb black pieces victory yesterday.
Magnus has of course spent time on chess related activities since Bilbao. Earlier in his career progress in classical chess has gone hand in hand with progress in blitz although sometimes there has been a short lag in one relative to the other. It is fair to say that he has made a lot of progress also in blitz lately. In addition to the 3rd place in Tal Memorial Blitz in end of August, he has had a dominant role in internet chess blitz this autumn.
Over the next two weeks he will play the ECC October 17-23 and the Cap d'Agde rapid October 26 - Nov.1.
He was very motivated when leaving for Greece Thursday, and he will this time play board 1 for the Armenian 'MIKA' Chess Club (together with Aronian, Gelfand, Sargissian etc) which is second ranked in the immensely strong event (after Russian Ural Sverdlovskaya).
In round 1 MIKA, without Magnus, won comfortably 4,5-1,5 against Panevezys but many of their strongest opponents made a clean sweep 6-0.
Two Norwegian teams participate this year. OSS and SK1911 are both from Oslo.
They lost against strong opposition in round 1 but school mate of Magnus, IM Jon.L.Hammer (2522) got an excellent start by holding Zvjaginsev (2646) to a draw on table 1 for OSS.
In round 2 MIKA play home favourite ESTH Thessaloniko with GM D. Mastrovasilis (2572) on board 1.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, October 18th, 2008
Bilbao 2008 Final rounds
Some may have noticed a tendency of more frequent updates of this blog when Magnus does well.
Well,... you are right! (And there are some fairly obvious psycholocical arguments supporting this approach.)
I should add that I had planned to update the blog after round 9, but yesterday (and today) the internet broadband connection at the (otherwise excellent Sheraton) hotel was not functioning (after having served us well for nearly 14 days).
Today we drove to Madrid and enjoyed Real Madrid - Numancia live (in the honorary section with an excellent view). It was a fire-work of a game and after 6 goals in the first half the home team won 4-3 in the end.
Back to Bilbao, Magnus went astray early in round 7 against Ivanchuk. He played 13.Be2 as he thought b5! wouldn't work. When he discovered that he could not capture on b5, he realized he was in trouble but did not manage to save the position. Ivanchuk played an excellent game and won in style.
As we know Topalov lost as well so that Magnus kept the lead despite the loss.
Wanting to hit back after the round 7 loss, Magnus chose the Dragen 12...a6 against Topalov, but despite being quite well prepared, he succumbed to the continuous white threats in the end. The first decisive mistake was probably Rc6? when Rc8 was required.
Ivanchuk won again, and so did Aronian when Anand blundered in the rook ending after the time control, and both where suddenly in contention for the top spot!
Before the round Magnus' sisters (and I) visited the Guggenheimer museum. The architecture of the museum is breathtaking (and so is the flower dog in front of the entrance), but the modern art inside is beyond me I must admit.
Late Wednesday night we were informed that the players were expected to appear in the town hall at 11 the next day. It may not sound like a serious problem to get up at 10, but when you are used to sleep until 2 PM and look forward to the rest day it is obviously bad news. At 4 AM Magnus finally decided to accept the organiser's request and (and after a short night sleep) he did show up in the town hall on the free day.
According to Rybka Magnus had equalised against Radjabov in the early middle game in round 9.
With batteries still very low Magnus again found it hard to calculate accurately. He thought white had serious mating threats after Bg5 and consequently went for a slightly worse ending instead of the sharp c5.
Later Radjabov was better, but probably not winning.
Magnus looked somewhat unhappy and some spectators thought this might indicate that he was losing. That was not the case, he looked somewhat miserable simply because he could not see how he could hope to win the endgame!
After precise defence by Magnus and some white inaccuracies black was probably at least equal despite being a pawn down. Radjabov wisely chose to trade off kingside pawns and the rook to enter a clearly drawn opposite color bishop ending.
Ivanchuk looked set to win his third in a row after having outplayed Aronian in the middle game and early endgame only to fall into a nice trap in time trouble. Draw.
Before the last round 4 players were still potential winners, although Topalov seemed a clear favourite having a one point lead as well as white in the last round.
As it went Magnus did not get much out the opening against Anand and with settled for an early repetition of moves in an equal position.
Later the outcome of the two remaining games turned out favourable to Magnus.
Topalov won an interesting opposite color bishop (plus rooks) ending against Ivanchuk with the d7-pawn deciding the game.
After this is was clear that Aronian would be second both with a win and a draw. But with a clear advantage on the board against Radjabov, (and maybe partly because of the the tense relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan), he played for a win.
Suddenly he discovered that black's king could escape the white attack while the white king was very vulnerable. Probably missing the best defence white was soon lost and resigned in face of imminent mate. 0-1 and Magnus captured 2nd place (on better tie-break than Aronian).
Congratulations to Topalov for an impressive win in the strong Bilbao tournament!
In addition to the money prize Magnus was awarded the brilliancy prize for his win against Radjabov and all the players received the huge Athletico Bilbao mascot :-)
Aronian ended 3rd, Ivanchuk 4th and Radjabov took the 5th place following his last round victory.
V. Anand finished last with 8 draws and 2 losses. He did not seem very motivated and is of course focusing on the Kramnik match next month. Still, we're so used to see Vishy perform excellently under any conditions, with any time control and against any opposition that his 8 points (or -2) does come across as the big surprise of this tournament.
The Bilbao football score has been much debated, but the final score table would have showed the same ranking with for instance traditional score and number of wins and direct encounter as first and second tie-break, or simply based on number of wins (!) and with direct encounter as 1st tie-break.
As mentioned before the tournament, the most important feature of the football scoring is probably the psychological effect. It is unlikely to make much difference to the final ranking.
The Grand Slam Final in Bilbao was a great follow up of the Grand Slam tournaments in Corus, Linares and Sofia. Despite some issues related to late or missing information, the organisers deserve a lot of praise for having staged this extremely strong tournament with unprecedented money prizes and great fighting chess, and for bringing top level chess closer to the audience (in the class cube at the Plaza Nueva).
I would like to add that Bilbao is a beautiful city well worth a visit!
Henrik Carlsen,
Madrid, September 14th, 2008
Well,... you are right! (And there are some fairly obvious psycholocical arguments supporting this approach.)
I should add that I had planned to update the blog after round 9, but yesterday (and today) the internet broadband connection at the (otherwise excellent Sheraton) hotel was not functioning (after having served us well for nearly 14 days).
Today we drove to Madrid and enjoyed Real Madrid - Numancia live (in the honorary section with an excellent view). It was a fire-work of a game and after 6 goals in the first half the home team won 4-3 in the end.
Back to Bilbao, Magnus went astray early in round 7 against Ivanchuk. He played 13.Be2 as he thought b5! wouldn't work. When he discovered that he could not capture on b5, he realized he was in trouble but did not manage to save the position. Ivanchuk played an excellent game and won in style.
As we know Topalov lost as well so that Magnus kept the lead despite the loss.
Wanting to hit back after the round 7 loss, Magnus chose the Dragen 12...a6 against Topalov, but despite being quite well prepared, he succumbed to the continuous white threats in the end. The first decisive mistake was probably Rc6? when Rc8 was required.
Ivanchuk won again, and so did Aronian when Anand blundered in the rook ending after the time control, and both where suddenly in contention for the top spot!
Before the round Magnus' sisters (and I) visited the Guggenheimer museum. The architecture of the museum is breathtaking (and so is the flower dog in front of the entrance), but the modern art inside is beyond me I must admit.
Late Wednesday night we were informed that the players were expected to appear in the town hall at 11 the next day. It may not sound like a serious problem to get up at 10, but when you are used to sleep until 2 PM and look forward to the rest day it is obviously bad news. At 4 AM Magnus finally decided to accept the organiser's request and (and after a short night sleep) he did show up in the town hall on the free day.
According to Rybka Magnus had equalised against Radjabov in the early middle game in round 9.
With batteries still very low Magnus again found it hard to calculate accurately. He thought white had serious mating threats after Bg5 and consequently went for a slightly worse ending instead of the sharp c5.
Later Radjabov was better, but probably not winning.
Magnus looked somewhat unhappy and some spectators thought this might indicate that he was losing. That was not the case, he looked somewhat miserable simply because he could not see how he could hope to win the endgame!
After precise defence by Magnus and some white inaccuracies black was probably at least equal despite being a pawn down. Radjabov wisely chose to trade off kingside pawns and the rook to enter a clearly drawn opposite color bishop ending.
Ivanchuk looked set to win his third in a row after having outplayed Aronian in the middle game and early endgame only to fall into a nice trap in time trouble. Draw.
Before the last round 4 players were still potential winners, although Topalov seemed a clear favourite having a one point lead as well as white in the last round.
As it went Magnus did not get much out the opening against Anand and with settled for an early repetition of moves in an equal position.
Later the outcome of the two remaining games turned out favourable to Magnus.
Topalov won an interesting opposite color bishop (plus rooks) ending against Ivanchuk with the d7-pawn deciding the game.
After this is was clear that Aronian would be second both with a win and a draw. But with a clear advantage on the board against Radjabov, (and maybe partly because of the the tense relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan), he played for a win.
Suddenly he discovered that black's king could escape the white attack while the white king was very vulnerable. Probably missing the best defence white was soon lost and resigned in face of imminent mate. 0-1 and Magnus captured 2nd place (on better tie-break than Aronian).
Congratulations to Topalov for an impressive win in the strong Bilbao tournament!
In addition to the money prize Magnus was awarded the brilliancy prize for his win against Radjabov and all the players received the huge Athletico Bilbao mascot :-)
Aronian ended 3rd, Ivanchuk 4th and Radjabov took the 5th place following his last round victory.
V. Anand finished last with 8 draws and 2 losses. He did not seem very motivated and is of course focusing on the Kramnik match next month. Still, we're so used to see Vishy perform excellently under any conditions, with any time control and against any opposition that his 8 points (or -2) does come across as the big surprise of this tournament.
The Bilbao football score has been much debated, but the final score table would have showed the same ranking with for instance traditional score and number of wins and direct encounter as first and second tie-break, or simply based on number of wins (!) and with direct encounter as 1st tie-break.
As mentioned before the tournament, the most important feature of the football scoring is probably the psychological effect. It is unlikely to make much difference to the final ranking.
The Grand Slam Final in Bilbao was a great follow up of the Grand Slam tournaments in Corus, Linares and Sofia. Despite some issues related to late or missing information, the organisers deserve a lot of praise for having staged this extremely strong tournament with unprecedented money prizes and great fighting chess, and for bringing top level chess closer to the audience (in the class cube at the Plaza Nueva).
I would like to add that Bilbao is a beautiful city well worth a visit!
Henrik Carlsen,
Madrid, September 14th, 2008
Bilbao Round 6
Another victorious day for Magnus yesterday and a very exciting game!
Aronian deviated from his normal lines and after 14 moves they had the position of Gelfand-Kramnik in the Mexico City World Championship 2007.
Yesterday was an extremely warm September day here in Bilbao and driving to the round we had 34oC and high humidity. The round was delayed due to the malfunctioning air condition, and when the round started 35 minutes late, is was still very hot in the cube.
Magnus spent many minutes contemplating the continuation. In the end he went for a second pawn sacrifice with 15.d5! despite being unable to fully calculate all lines properly in the heat.
It is difficult to see that white has anything concrete, but with the lead in development and the strong bishop diagonals black obviously has to defend very accurately, and the computers give white good compensation for the material.
After the game Aronian said that he did not think d5 was very good and that he later thought black was clearly better and he decided to play for a win.
In fact, maybe this slight tendency to become too optimistic with his own prospects is his only minor weakness. Commentaries and computers generally thought black at best could play for a draw, white was never worse during the game despite the material imbalance. Black on the other hand is in constant danger as his king is trapped in the centre.
In beginning time trouble Aronian probably went wrong with both 25.....h4 and 27....axb4? which simply loses on the spot. Magnus again checked the lines and thought Aronian might have missed 28.Ra1! with winning threats.
Anonian played on a rook down as long as his b-pawn was alive but gave up well before the time control.
Despite the heat, spectators gathered around the cube and my young photographers chose to shoot from a distance.
Topalov was clearly better against Radjabov but before the time control the latter improved his position and in the equal endgame black was the one trying to win. It ended in a draw.
Ivanchuk-Anand was a relatively early and not very inspired draw having traded all pieces except a rook before move 32.
Consequently Magnus is in the lead after 6 rounds with 11 points followed by Topalov at 10!
Aronian is still third at 6 points with the other three now at 5.
On the nice boat trip Sunday my daughters took some pictures of the famous steel bridge out in Portogalete and also the posh apartment area by the seaside outside the harbour.
We're planning to visit one of the beaches if the weather stays warm.
Today Magnus has another white and faces Ivanchuk.
Irrespective of the results in the final four rounds we should all be happy about Magnus' performance in Bilbao, but let's anyhow hope to see another interesting game today!
Henrik Carlsen
Bilbao, September 9th, 2008
Aronian deviated from his normal lines and after 14 moves they had the position of Gelfand-Kramnik in the Mexico City World Championship 2007.
Yesterday was an extremely warm September day here in Bilbao and driving to the round we had 34oC and high humidity. The round was delayed due to the malfunctioning air condition, and when the round started 35 minutes late, is was still very hot in the cube.
Magnus spent many minutes contemplating the continuation. In the end he went for a second pawn sacrifice with 15.d5! despite being unable to fully calculate all lines properly in the heat.
It is difficult to see that white has anything concrete, but with the lead in development and the strong bishop diagonals black obviously has to defend very accurately, and the computers give white good compensation for the material.
After the game Aronian said that he did not think d5 was very good and that he later thought black was clearly better and he decided to play for a win.
In fact, maybe this slight tendency to become too optimistic with his own prospects is his only minor weakness. Commentaries and computers generally thought black at best could play for a draw, white was never worse during the game despite the material imbalance. Black on the other hand is in constant danger as his king is trapped in the centre.
In beginning time trouble Aronian probably went wrong with both 25.....h4 and 27....axb4? which simply loses on the spot. Magnus again checked the lines and thought Aronian might have missed 28.Ra1! with winning threats.
Anonian played on a rook down as long as his b-pawn was alive but gave up well before the time control.
Despite the heat, spectators gathered around the cube and my young photographers chose to shoot from a distance.
Topalov was clearly better against Radjabov but before the time control the latter improved his position and in the equal endgame black was the one trying to win. It ended in a draw.
Ivanchuk-Anand was a relatively early and not very inspired draw having traded all pieces except a rook before move 32.
Consequently Magnus is in the lead after 6 rounds with 11 points followed by Topalov at 10!
Aronian is still third at 6 points with the other three now at 5.
On the nice boat trip Sunday my daughters took some pictures of the famous steel bridge out in Portogalete and also the posh apartment area by the seaside outside the harbour.
We're planning to visit one of the beaches if the weather stays warm.
Today Magnus has another white and faces Ivanchuk.
Irrespective of the results in the final four rounds we should all be happy about Magnus' performance in Bilbao, but let's anyhow hope to see another interesting game today!
Henrik Carlsen
Bilbao, September 9th, 2008
Bilbao 2008 Round 5
Round 5 became a bit of an anticlimax after the bloody round 4.
Some of the players mentioned that they needed the rest day coming up and this does make a lot of sense in that the high prestige, the no-draw-without-permission rule and the recurring time trouble puts extra pressure on the players.
With free days both tomorrow and after round 8 we will hopefully see real high level chess throughout the tournament.
The players arrive in two different cars to ensure a relaxed mood without direct opponents sharing the same car. Above we see the "black" players Topalov, Aronian and Magnus on the way into the cube before round 5.
Magnus decided to extend his opening repertoire today and played the Jaenisch variation against Anand's 1.e4. (When Radjabov has started to play Magnus' Dragen, why shouldn't Magnus copy Teimur's Jaenisch? :-)
Anand chose a variation reaching a position that Magnus has had as white earlier (Carlsen-Radjabov, Monte Carlo 2007), and Magnus felt he improved upon black's prospects with 14....Qf7!
Black seems to have reasonable compensation for the pawn due to the strong bishop on b6 and the potential kingside attack.
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 6th 2008.
Some of the players mentioned that they needed the rest day coming up and this does make a lot of sense in that the high prestige, the no-draw-without-permission rule and the recurring time trouble puts extra pressure on the players.
With free days both tomorrow and after round 8 we will hopefully see real high level chess throughout the tournament.
The players arrive in two different cars to ensure a relaxed mood without direct opponents sharing the same car. Above we see the "black" players Topalov, Aronian and Magnus on the way into the cube before round 5.
Magnus decided to extend his opening repertoire today and played the Jaenisch variation against Anand's 1.e4. (When Radjabov has started to play Magnus' Dragen, why shouldn't Magnus copy Teimur's Jaenisch? :-)
Anand chose a variation reaching a position that Magnus has had as white earlier (Carlsen-Radjabov, Monte Carlo 2007), and Magnus felt he improved upon black's prospects with 14....Qf7!
Black seems to have reasonable compensation for the pawn due to the strong bishop on b6 and the potential kingside attack.
When Magnus played 17....Rh6 threatening the Qf7-e7-h4 manoeuvre, Anand calmly played Qc3 attacking the pawn on c6 as the black attack may be stopped by Nf5 and h3. Magnus instead moved the rook back to f6 attacking the f2-pawn and Anand decided to protect it with 19.Re2. When Magnus responded Bg4 Anand blundered with Rd2 missing the shot Be3! The bishop cannot be taken due to mate on f1 and white has to give the exchange. Anand played 21.h3 and got some compensation in addition to his pawn for the exchange. The rest of the game Anand defended tenaciously and when Magnus played 25.Re8 instead of Qe7, most of his advantage was gone. Magnus had missed the subtle 29.Nc1!
While feeling very focused early in the game Magnus was at this point starting to lose his concentration and decided to exchange pieces and enter a drawn queen ending.
After the game Magnus was reasonably happy about having survived with black against Anand although he of course would have liked to make better use of the advantageous position he had after winning the exchange.
With all three games drawn, the tournament score situation is the same with Topalov leading half-way one point ahead of Magnus and three points ahead of Aronian.
The live-rating #1 and #2 together with commentator Leonxto Garcia after the game.
Leontxo also asked the players if they would confirm rumours originating from Kramnik that Magnus would serve as Anand's second during the World Championship Match. Magnus refrained from commenting upon this rumour.
Monday Magnus has white against Aronian in round 6 and may enjoy the weekend as live-rating #1 :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 6th 2008.
Bilbao 2008 Round 3 & 4
With 3 decisive games yesterday the Bilbao tournament is really picking up speed both with regard to coverage as well as action on the board.
As mentioned by Susan Polgar already the mood was excellent in the "white" car on the way to the playing venue and it turned out to be a foreboding of the white wins.
When it comes to commenting the actual games I'll be more than brief as the players comment upon the games in detail in the interviews with live commentators Leontxo and Susan right after the game.
In round three Carlsen - Topalov was the only decisive game. At this level a black win usually requires a poor day at work for white and a good game by black. This was certainly the case against Topalov.
After having spent about 30 minutes finding and checking the interesting continuation 15.b4, Magnus played somewhat indecisive afterwards. He later criticised 20.Rxc8. (He should have played Nd2 instead.) He played 21.Nd2 quickly, but it was a clear blunder and he felt awful when he discovered 24.Bd8. Topalov played a very good game and Magnus cannot see how he could have saved the game after the 21st move. 0-3.
Magnus has developed a habit of kicking back in the next round after a loss and remarkably, he managed to do so again.
Cudos to Radjabov for playing the (Chinese) Dragen against Magnus and black looked okey after the opening line. Magnus made a serious oversight with the questionable 19.g4? as he had missed the strength of the black defence hxg4 20.h5 g5!
Deciding to keep the tension in the position, he retreated his queen to e3 and despite the extra pawn the position is not easy to play for black. Teimur continued to build up pressure on the queen side but with the Ka1, Rb1, Nc3 constellation black has only tricks and no real mating attack.
In the beginning time trouble Magnus found the elegant 27.e5! and although there is a computer line defense for black it was too difficult in practical play.
Even after 32.Rg6 there is a possible defence for black, but with only about a minute left on the clock both players probably thought black was lost at this time. As it went, black resigned after move 37 in face of imminent mate. 3-0.
Topalov presented a novelty in a topical Queen Indian line and when Anand couldn't find the best defense he was simply crushed and resigned already after 25 moves.
Aronian - Ivanchuk looked fairly drawish but Aronian played an excellent endgame and punished Ivanchuk's inaccuracies efficiently and won.
Before round 5 the standing is Topalov 8 points, Magnus 7, Aronian 5 and the others at 3 points. (The order is the same with traditional scores.)
I normally follow the live rating but must admit that it was a real (and pleasant) surprise to see Magnus on top of the list yesterday night with 2791!
As a proud and probably not objective father I'll leave it to others to bring out the superlatives :-)
Okay, it is "only" a live rating, it is "only" in the middle of a tournament, he has "only" a few decimal points lead and there is 4 players within 5 points, but Magnus was off course delighted to enter the live-rating top spot, as #1 ahead of Anand, Morozevich, Topalov and Ivanchuk. Let's just enjoy it while it lasts.
Today Magnus has black against Anand. This is normally a very difficult task although Anand has not at all played up to his usual high standards so far this tournament.
Ivanchuk is white against Topalov and Radjabov white against Aronian. Quite a day!
Tomorrow is a free day, and the three sisters of Magnus are arriving in Bilbao to support him next week :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 6th 2008.
As mentioned by Susan Polgar already the mood was excellent in the "white" car on the way to the playing venue and it turned out to be a foreboding of the white wins.
When it comes to commenting the actual games I'll be more than brief as the players comment upon the games in detail in the interviews with live commentators Leontxo and Susan right after the game.
In round three Carlsen - Topalov was the only decisive game. At this level a black win usually requires a poor day at work for white and a good game by black. This was certainly the case against Topalov.
After having spent about 30 minutes finding and checking the interesting continuation 15.b4, Magnus played somewhat indecisive afterwards. He later criticised 20.Rxc8. (He should have played Nd2 instead.) He played 21.Nd2 quickly, but it was a clear blunder and he felt awful when he discovered 24.Bd8. Topalov played a very good game and Magnus cannot see how he could have saved the game after the 21st move. 0-3.
Magnus has developed a habit of kicking back in the next round after a loss and remarkably, he managed to do so again.
Cudos to Radjabov for playing the (Chinese) Dragen against Magnus and black looked okey after the opening line. Magnus made a serious oversight with the questionable 19.g4? as he had missed the strength of the black defence hxg4 20.h5 g5!
Deciding to keep the tension in the position, he retreated his queen to e3 and despite the extra pawn the position is not easy to play for black. Teimur continued to build up pressure on the queen side but with the Ka1, Rb1, Nc3 constellation black has only tricks and no real mating attack.
In the beginning time trouble Magnus found the elegant 27.e5! and although there is a computer line defense for black it was too difficult in practical play.
Even after 32.Rg6 there is a possible defence for black, but with only about a minute left on the clock both players probably thought black was lost at this time. As it went, black resigned after move 37 in face of imminent mate. 3-0.
Topalov presented a novelty in a topical Queen Indian line and when Anand couldn't find the best defense he was simply crushed and resigned already after 25 moves.
Aronian - Ivanchuk looked fairly drawish but Aronian played an excellent endgame and punished Ivanchuk's inaccuracies efficiently and won.
Before round 5 the standing is Topalov 8 points, Magnus 7, Aronian 5 and the others at 3 points. (The order is the same with traditional scores.)
I normally follow the live rating but must admit that it was a real (and pleasant) surprise to see Magnus on top of the list yesterday night with 2791!
As a proud and probably not objective father I'll leave it to others to bring out the superlatives :-)
Okay, it is "only" a live rating, it is "only" in the middle of a tournament, he has "only" a few decimal points lead and there is 4 players within 5 points, but Magnus was off course delighted to enter the live-rating top spot, as #1 ahead of Anand, Morozevich, Topalov and Ivanchuk. Let's just enjoy it while it lasts.
Today Magnus has black against Anand. This is normally a very difficult task although Anand has not at all played up to his usual high standards so far this tournament.
Ivanchuk is white against Topalov and Radjabov white against Aronian. Quite a day!
Tomorrow is a free day, and the three sisters of Magnus are arriving in Bilbao to support him next week :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 6th 2008.
Bilbao 2008 Round 2
Yesterday, the main newspaper in the region had substantial coverage of round 1 (both on front page and two full pages inside).
And lots of Bilbao citizens have taken to the Gram Slam Finals. Despite some light rain yesterday the Plaza Nueva was crowded with participants taking part in the daily blitz tournament and spectators following the games and enjoying the commentaries.
All the main chess sites obviously cover the event, and I must say that I'm impressed by how Susan Polgar manage to combine her commentary role with great frequent updates from the tournament.
Magnus played black against Ivanchuk and internet spectators and commentaries alike were amazed when Ivanchuk spent 40 minutes in response to Magnus' 12....a6 in the Sicilian Dragen. Magnus played this variation against Dominguez in Biel and against Anand in Mainz and later Radjabov won in style in the last round in Socchi against Karjakin.
In the interview after the game, Ivanchuk honestly admitted that he was "out of book" after 12.a6!
Magnus found a reasonable explanation in the fact that Ivanchuk has been playing continuously for more than a month (Socchi, Tal, Tal Blitz) and may not have had time to look through all recent top level games.
Anyhow, Ivanchuk in the end played 13.Rhe1 and Magnus quickly decided to play b5 and Rxc3 in line with the spirit of the opening.
After 18.Qh4 a4 Magnus agrees with the commentators that white has the choice between h3 and Bxf7.
Ivanchuk played the latter and followed up with the amazing 20.e5 creating threats against all blacks light pieces plus the rook!
Magnus went for the active Nd5 and when he checked on c3 Ivanchuk again had an important choice.
Kc1 lead to a fairly forced draw while Ka1 would have maintained a highly complex game. White is possibly a little bit better after Bxe6 Nxe6 Qc8 Rd4! but Magnus felt the position offered black reasonably good prospects.
In the game continuation Magnus played 23...Qa5 giving up the knight on g4 and afterwards Nxa2 Kb2 Qc3+ Kxa2 with a perpetual.
Despite the 3-1-0 scoring system Magnus was happy with the result.
A win and a draw in his two black games is of course an excellent start.
Anand seemingly played a harmless variation against Radjabovs Sveshnikov and after exchanges of rooks in the b-file the opposite coloured bishop ending was soon drawn by repetition.
Topalov-Aronian was a fairly interesting game. Aronian kept his king in the centre and activated his kingside rook with the manoeuvre Rh8-h5-d5-d7 and after the rook doubling in the d-file he was at least equal. The game ended in perpetual checks by white.
With all games draws, Magnus kept his lead and is facing 4 games with the white pieces in the next 5 rounds!Today he is white against Topalov, let's hope it'll be an interesting game!
Henrik Carlsen
Bilbao, September 4, 2008
And lots of Bilbao citizens have taken to the Gram Slam Finals. Despite some light rain yesterday the Plaza Nueva was crowded with participants taking part in the daily blitz tournament and spectators following the games and enjoying the commentaries.
All the main chess sites obviously cover the event, and I must say that I'm impressed by how Susan Polgar manage to combine her commentary role with great frequent updates from the tournament.
Magnus played black against Ivanchuk and internet spectators and commentaries alike were amazed when Ivanchuk spent 40 minutes in response to Magnus' 12....a6 in the Sicilian Dragen. Magnus played this variation against Dominguez in Biel and against Anand in Mainz and later Radjabov won in style in the last round in Socchi against Karjakin.
In the interview after the game, Ivanchuk honestly admitted that he was "out of book" after 12.a6!
Magnus found a reasonable explanation in the fact that Ivanchuk has been playing continuously for more than a month (Socchi, Tal, Tal Blitz) and may not have had time to look through all recent top level games.
Anyhow, Ivanchuk in the end played 13.Rhe1 and Magnus quickly decided to play b5 and Rxc3 in line with the spirit of the opening.
After 18.Qh4 a4 Magnus agrees with the commentators that white has the choice between h3 and Bxf7.
Ivanchuk played the latter and followed up with the amazing 20.e5 creating threats against all blacks light pieces plus the rook!
Magnus went for the active Nd5 and when he checked on c3 Ivanchuk again had an important choice.
Kc1 lead to a fairly forced draw while Ka1 would have maintained a highly complex game. White is possibly a little bit better after Bxe6 Nxe6 Qc8 Rd4! but Magnus felt the position offered black reasonably good prospects.
In the game continuation Magnus played 23...Qa5 giving up the knight on g4 and afterwards Nxa2 Kb2 Qc3+ Kxa2 with a perpetual.
Despite the 3-1-0 scoring system Magnus was happy with the result.
A win and a draw in his two black games is of course an excellent start.
Anand seemingly played a harmless variation against Radjabovs Sveshnikov and after exchanges of rooks in the b-file the opposite coloured bishop ending was soon drawn by repetition.
Topalov-Aronian was a fairly interesting game. Aronian kept his king in the centre and activated his kingside rook with the manoeuvre Rh8-h5-d5-d7 and after the rook doubling in the d-file he was at least equal. The game ended in perpetual checks by white.
With all games draws, Magnus kept his lead and is facing 4 games with the white pieces in the next 5 rounds!Today he is white against Topalov, let's hope it'll be an interesting game!
Henrik Carlsen
Bilbao, September 4, 2008
Bilbao 2008 Round 1
The arrival of the players for round 1 was slightly delayed by a fire in a house just outside the Plaza Nueva. But around 5PM the players entered the finished class cube and the Bilbao Mayor duly opened the game Anand - Ivanchuk.
The spectators crowded to see the players and games live and monitors provided good coverage on a distance and for people enjoying a coffee nearby or participating in the daily blitz event just outside the cube.
As Magnus was black against Aronian he somewhat surprisingly faced 1.c4 and after some traditional theory moves Aronian played the unusual 6.Nd2. Black is all right but Magnus later consider his 9....Rb8 somewhat dubious and Aronian was able to but a knight (and subsequently his queen) on d6 blocking the d7-pawn.
It looks a bit nasty for black but Magnus never felt his position was critical as he could develop his pieces on the queen side and even had a slight advantage in development.
Aronian continued to play aggressive and sacrificed the b2-pawn to strengthen the tight-lock of d6. He might have won an exchange for two pawns and reach an unbalanced position but maybe he was hoping for an advantage in the continuation. As it went black was more than okey and when Aronian missed the best continuation in the queen and rook ending Magnus was able to secure a decisive advantage.
He convincingly found the critical continuation 31....Rd1! and later exchanged rooks to reach a winning queen ending. Short on time he had to watch out for some traps before the time control. Later he consistently chose safe solutions leading to a win by first advancing the a-pawn and then giving it up for the f-pawn and a mating attack.
The software had been well prepared and after Aronian resigned we saw the Bilbao score 0-3 appear immediately!
In the mandatory after-the-game-interviews Aronian impressed by his calm and smiling appearance despite his loss. Commentators Leontxo Garcia and Susan Polgar (speaking fluently Spanish) covers the event onsite with interesting comments and great interviews.
For some time black looked more than okey in all three games today but in the end the other games where drawn. Radjabov-Topalov was played out till bare kings after the arbiter had turned down a draw agreement in the double rook + 4 pawns ending.
In Anand-Ivanchuk, the latter won back his sacked pawn in the Marshall attack and put pressure on Anand throughout most of the game. Ivanchuk was a pawn up in the queen + rook ending but did not manage to find a winning continuation and was fortunate to get a draw from Anand (and the arbiter) with only seconds left on the clock in the end. (Great sportsmanship by Anand!)
Magnus consequently has had an absolutely excellent start and is sole leader before round 2 where he will face Ivanchuk with the black pieces. Magnus has an impressive score against Ivanchuk in classical chess but the latter has showed a fantastic form lately. We may look forward to a hard fight and an interesting game.
Lastly some words of praise to the organisers who is staging this great tournament which. They show a lot of enthusiasm, the high-profile, high-quality tournament is good for chess specators and it is good for the top chess players.
Round 1 went smoothly and everything seemed to work well technically.
The audience obviously enjoyed the show and we all look forward to the continuation. Thank you!
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 3, 2008
The spectators crowded to see the players and games live and monitors provided good coverage on a distance and for people enjoying a coffee nearby or participating in the daily blitz event just outside the cube.
As Magnus was black against Aronian he somewhat surprisingly faced 1.c4 and after some traditional theory moves Aronian played the unusual 6.Nd2. Black is all right but Magnus later consider his 9....Rb8 somewhat dubious and Aronian was able to but a knight (and subsequently his queen) on d6 blocking the d7-pawn.
It looks a bit nasty for black but Magnus never felt his position was critical as he could develop his pieces on the queen side and even had a slight advantage in development.
Aronian continued to play aggressive and sacrificed the b2-pawn to strengthen the tight-lock of d6. He might have won an exchange for two pawns and reach an unbalanced position but maybe he was hoping for an advantage in the continuation. As it went black was more than okey and when Aronian missed the best continuation in the queen and rook ending Magnus was able to secure a decisive advantage.
He convincingly found the critical continuation 31....Rd1! and later exchanged rooks to reach a winning queen ending. Short on time he had to watch out for some traps before the time control. Later he consistently chose safe solutions leading to a win by first advancing the a-pawn and then giving it up for the f-pawn and a mating attack.
The software had been well prepared and after Aronian resigned we saw the Bilbao score 0-3 appear immediately!
In the mandatory after-the-game-interviews Aronian impressed by his calm and smiling appearance despite his loss. Commentators Leontxo Garcia and Susan Polgar (speaking fluently Spanish) covers the event onsite with interesting comments and great interviews.
For some time black looked more than okey in all three games today but in the end the other games where drawn. Radjabov-Topalov was played out till bare kings after the arbiter had turned down a draw agreement in the double rook + 4 pawns ending.
In Anand-Ivanchuk, the latter won back his sacked pawn in the Marshall attack and put pressure on Anand throughout most of the game. Ivanchuk was a pawn up in the queen + rook ending but did not manage to find a winning continuation and was fortunate to get a draw from Anand (and the arbiter) with only seconds left on the clock in the end. (Great sportsmanship by Anand!)
Magnus consequently has had an absolutely excellent start and is sole leader before round 2 where he will face Ivanchuk with the black pieces. Magnus has an impressive score against Ivanchuk in classical chess but the latter has showed a fantastic form lately. We may look forward to a hard fight and an interesting game.
Lastly some words of praise to the organisers who is staging this great tournament which. They show a lot of enthusiasm, the high-profile, high-quality tournament is good for chess specators and it is good for the top chess players.
Round 1 went smoothly and everything seemed to work well technically.
The audience obviously enjoyed the show and we all look forward to the continuation. Thank you!
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 3, 2008
Grand Slam Chess Final Masters Bilbao 2008
Arriving in Madrid from Moscow Sunday morning we rented a car and drove the 4 hours to Bilbao with Magnus resting in the back of the car.
Bilbao is situated straight north of Madrid a few kilometers inland from the Biskaya Bay, and so far we have enjoyed beautiful summer weather.
All players are staying at the excellent Sheraton hotel situated by the channel and surounded by exquisite parks. The finished areas has expanded significantly only since October last year while the area to the south is still partly under construction.
The playing venue, Plaza Nueva, is situated 2 kilometers along (and across) the channel past the Guggenheimer museum of fine arts.
Destiny has played along with the organisers in that Aronians and Radjabovs success (and rating gain) in Socchi has brought the "live rating" average of the 6 participants up to 2776 and an unprecedented category XXII.
The Grand Slam Final stands out also for the high prize fund (400 000 Euros), the playing venue in a sound proof glass-walled cubicle under a tent in the town center and the adoption of the football scoring 3 - 1 - 0 (instead of the classical 1 - 0,5 - 0).
The six participants; Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Carlsen, Radjabov and Aronian will play a 10-round double round robin from today until the 13th. The 7th and the 11th are rest days.
The rounds starts at 5 PM (expect the last round starting at 4 PM) and the time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves and 60 minutes for the rest of the game. (No increments.)
The tournament was initiated yesterday with the presentation of the players and the drawing of lots. Magnus drew no. 4 and will play black against Aronian today (and black against Ivanchuk tomorrow).
Great choice of the medium for drawing of lots, attaching the number to a Athletic Bilbao football!
The organisers and spectators expect a hard fought tournament both due to the football scoring system as well as the modified Sofia rules. (The chief arbiter has to accept any draws, although the players may in theory offer draw at any time, not only in obvious dead draw positions).
The scoring system, paying a premium for victories, is expected to favour the fighters. However, we cannot really expect significant changes to the final standing relative to a for instance a classical scoring where number of wins are the first tie-break.
The only realistic situation in which two players would firmly swop places is if player A has 2 more gains and 5 less draws than player B. (Player A is ahead in Bilbao while behind with a classical score.)
In the case that player A has 1 more gain and 3 less draws (or 2 more wins, 6 less draws), player A will have the same number of total points as B, but lower quality ( while simply less points with classical score).
Similarly, if player A has 1 more gain and 2 less draws (or 2 more wins and 4 less draws), player A is behind B in Bilbao while on equal points but worse tie-break with classical score.
Maybe one should not underestimate the psychological effect of giving an extra point for a victory. I do expect to see an unusual urge to win games from all players.
Magnus was feeling better yesterday night and is hopefully 100% ready to do his best today.
Let the games begin!
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 2, 2008
Bilbao is situated straight north of Madrid a few kilometers inland from the Biskaya Bay, and so far we have enjoyed beautiful summer weather.
All players are staying at the excellent Sheraton hotel situated by the channel and surounded by exquisite parks. The finished areas has expanded significantly only since October last year while the area to the south is still partly under construction.
The playing venue, Plaza Nueva, is situated 2 kilometers along (and across) the channel past the Guggenheimer museum of fine arts.
Destiny has played along with the organisers in that Aronians and Radjabovs success (and rating gain) in Socchi has brought the "live rating" average of the 6 participants up to 2776 and an unprecedented category XXII.
The Grand Slam Final stands out also for the high prize fund (400 000 Euros), the playing venue in a sound proof glass-walled cubicle under a tent in the town center and the adoption of the football scoring 3 - 1 - 0 (instead of the classical 1 - 0,5 - 0).
The six participants; Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Carlsen, Radjabov and Aronian will play a 10-round double round robin from today until the 13th. The 7th and the 11th are rest days.
The rounds starts at 5 PM (expect the last round starting at 4 PM) and the time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves and 60 minutes for the rest of the game. (No increments.)
The tournament was initiated yesterday with the presentation of the players and the drawing of lots. Magnus drew no. 4 and will play black against Aronian today (and black against Ivanchuk tomorrow).
Great choice of the medium for drawing of lots, attaching the number to a Athletic Bilbao football!
The organisers and spectators expect a hard fought tournament both due to the football scoring system as well as the modified Sofia rules. (The chief arbiter has to accept any draws, although the players may in theory offer draw at any time, not only in obvious dead draw positions).
The scoring system, paying a premium for victories, is expected to favour the fighters. However, we cannot really expect significant changes to the final standing relative to a for instance a classical scoring where number of wins are the first tie-break.
The only realistic situation in which two players would firmly swop places is if player A has 2 more gains and 5 less draws than player B. (Player A is ahead in Bilbao while behind with a classical score.)
In the case that player A has 1 more gain and 3 less draws (or 2 more wins, 6 less draws), player A will have the same number of total points as B, but lower quality ( while simply less points with classical score).
Similarly, if player A has 1 more gain and 2 less draws (or 2 more wins and 4 less draws), player A is behind B in Bilbao while on equal points but worse tie-break with classical score.
Maybe one should not underestimate the psychological effect of giving an extra point for a victory. I do expect to see an unusual urge to win games from all players.
Magnus was feeling better yesterday night and is hopefully 100% ready to do his best today.
Let the games begin!
Henrik Carlsen,
Bilbao, September 2, 2008
Tal Blitz 2008 Day 2
The annual Tal Blitz tournament (18 player all-play-all twice, 34 rounds) in the GUM ballroom sure is a treat for the spectators. During most rounds the spectators crowding the individual boards enjoys the spectacular games at close range while during the finish today the crowd around the leaders Ivanchuk and Kramnik was quite big.
After day one 1 Kramnik was sole leader with +5 followed by Magnus and Ivanchuk at +4 and Gelfand +3.
Magnus was more than pleased with this start taking into account serious stomach problems the night before. Hardly having slept, having a fever and unable to eat he did not feel up to the task and was on the brink of withdrawing. Fortunately he did not and the illness did not seem to affect his play which was controlled. He typically saved many difficult positions in the time trouble.
Today Magnus again started with a loss against Grischuk and moved around +4 to +5 most of the way. Having slightly easier opponents at the end he took his chances and improved the score to +8 in the end to take sole 3rd place!
Magnus played Ivanchuk in round 29 and could still theoretically catch the leaders. He made a mistake in the opening and had to give a pawn on d6 for some activity. With a rook on d2 and knight on c2 he later equalised but then blundered, allowing Rb2! creating a bind on the black pieces. Magnus had to sack an exchange and lost quickly.
Both Kramnik and Ivanchuk continued to score regularly all through day 2 and when the latter beat Kramnik in the second last round he only needed a draw against Tkachiev to secure another victory. A tremendous +9 second day performance by Ivanchuk. Congratulations!
Kramnik was known to be a top blitz played in his youth and might have needed the Tal Blitz last year as a warm up. This year he looked very impressive and ended sole 2nd today at +11.
It is interesting to see how the psychological aspects play a part during such a marathon blitz event. Generally players seems to be somewhat affected by trends and many players were on winning streaks or losing streaks for many rounds in a row.
I was particularly happy to see that Magnus never lost 2 games in a row this year! His 8 losses were fairly evenly distributed throughout the tournament. Generally he took well care of the chances he got although he was a bit unhappy about not finding the winning combinations in some hectic games as for example against Kamsky.
Having lost with black against his young rival Karjakin yesterday he was happy to take revenge today. In total Magnus scored 16 wins (and 10 draws and 8 losses), a great score!
Interestingly the final score table shows an impressive correlation with Fide rating. The first 10 has 2781, 2788, 2775, 2738, 2742, 2741, 2728, 2727, 2723, 2720 and 2718!
(Further down the list there were two expections. Early leader top ranked Morozevich (4.5/5) suffered a total melt down while young Grachev (2640) was lowest rated but ended 12th.)
Tomorrow morning we're off to Madrid and Bilbao, and hopefully Magnus will be fit for fight Tuesday 2nd at 5 PM for round 1!
Henrik Carlsen
Moscow, August 30th, 2008
Tal Blitz Moscow 2008
Magnus and this blog have enjoyed 3 weeks vacation from chess and chess reporting respectively.
Magnus has had a well deserved (and required) rest from tournament activity and lately started his 3rd year in high school (two and a half week ago), played some football for Lommedalen Boys-U19 and also recuperated from a persistent cold.
For me the break has been somewhat of a necessity as I've been busy with our mountain hut project and have spent most of the time after Tromsoe up in Engerdal (with a very slow mobile internet connection).
We all thoroughly enjoyed the Tromsoe Arctic Chess Challenge tournament. The organisational events as well as the scenery deserved the highest praise!
(Chessbase.com presented an illustrative report 10 days ago and more will follow.)
Magnus (and I) arrived in Moscow today as he is playing the Tal Blitz (34 rounds) 29th-30th of August. He got one of the two wild cards (and Karpov the other one) this year.
With the tight programme and Bilbao coming up, Magnus did not play the 3rd Tal Memorial that finished today. Ivanchuk's had a remarkable year so far and won this year's category XX (nearly XXI) event with +3 ahead of early leader Morozevich and Kramnik, Ponomariov and Gelfand at +1.
I must admit that Aeroflot's past reputation has not historically made it our preferred means of transportation, but the new plane, comfortable seats and good breakfast experienced today sure made the journey both relaxed and a pleasant experience!
Magnus has visited Russia 7 times during the past 5 years but this is the first visit to Moscow in the summer time. Compared to the winter time view with neon lights and commercial signs dominating the facades, the buildings look different in full daylight.
This year we're staying at the 5* Golden Ring hotel close to Arbat street, a 40 minutes stroll from the Gum shopping centre and Tal Blitz final playing venue.
A visit to our regular 24/7 supermarket across the street confirmed the pressence of a relatively high Russian inflation compared to the Euro-zone. The Euro-Rubel exchange rate is much the same as 2006 and 2007 and consequently the Russian price level is getting closer to western Europe in general and Moscow in particular is getting very expensive.
Following his 3 weeks break, Magnus is highly motivated to get started again and face consecutive tournaments here and in Bilbao 1-14 September.
Two days of high level blitz Friday and Saturday, travelling onwards on Sunday, followed by round 1 in Bilbao Tuesday sound like an exciting and reasonable start of this 3 week trip abroad.
The Tal Blitz qualifier again attracted a remarkable field (Karjakin, Grichuk etc) and tomorrow Magnus is planning to visit the second leg taking place at the regular venue (Central Chess Club).
The final starts Friday at 1 PM local time (11 AM Western European time) and I hope the internet coverage will secure general access to this great event for the chess audience at large.
I'm certainly looking forward to watch on-site!
Henrik Carlsen,
Moscow, August 27th, 2008
Magnus has had a well deserved (and required) rest from tournament activity and lately started his 3rd year in high school (two and a half week ago), played some football for Lommedalen Boys-U19 and also recuperated from a persistent cold.
For me the break has been somewhat of a necessity as I've been busy with our mountain hut project and have spent most of the time after Tromsoe up in Engerdal (with a very slow mobile internet connection).
We all thoroughly enjoyed the Tromsoe Arctic Chess Challenge tournament. The organisational events as well as the scenery deserved the highest praise!
(Chessbase.com presented an illustrative report 10 days ago and more will follow.)
Magnus (and I) arrived in Moscow today as he is playing the Tal Blitz (34 rounds) 29th-30th of August. He got one of the two wild cards (and Karpov the other one) this year.
With the tight programme and Bilbao coming up, Magnus did not play the 3rd Tal Memorial that finished today. Ivanchuk's had a remarkable year so far and won this year's category XX (nearly XXI) event with +3 ahead of early leader Morozevich and Kramnik, Ponomariov and Gelfand at +1.
I must admit that Aeroflot's past reputation has not historically made it our preferred means of transportation, but the new plane, comfortable seats and good breakfast experienced today sure made the journey both relaxed and a pleasant experience!
Magnus has visited Russia 7 times during the past 5 years but this is the first visit to Moscow in the summer time. Compared to the winter time view with neon lights and commercial signs dominating the facades, the buildings look different in full daylight.
This year we're staying at the 5* Golden Ring hotel close to Arbat street, a 40 minutes stroll from the Gum shopping centre and Tal Blitz final playing venue.
A visit to our regular 24/7 supermarket across the street confirmed the pressence of a relatively high Russian inflation compared to the Euro-zone. The Euro-Rubel exchange rate is much the same as 2006 and 2007 and consequently the Russian price level is getting closer to western Europe in general and Moscow in particular is getting very expensive.
Following his 3 weeks break, Magnus is highly motivated to get started again and face consecutive tournaments here and in Bilbao 1-14 September.
Two days of high level blitz Friday and Saturday, travelling onwards on Sunday, followed by round 1 in Bilbao Tuesday sound like an exciting and reasonable start of this 3 week trip abroad.
The Tal Blitz qualifier again attracted a remarkable field (Karjakin, Grichuk etc) and tomorrow Magnus is planning to visit the second leg taking place at the regular venue (Central Chess Club).
The final starts Friday at 1 PM local time (11 AM Western European time) and I hope the internet coverage will secure general access to this great event for the chess audience at large.
I'm certainly looking forward to watch on-site!
Henrik Carlsen,
Moscow, August 27th, 2008
Mainz and Tromsø
Last Friday, after a very short night in Biel, Magnus arrived in Mainz just half an hour before the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship.
Not the best preparation but on Friday he surprised both himself and others by sharing the lead with Anand with 2/3.
He effortlessly held Anand to a draw with black. He pressed, then got into some trouble against Morozevich, but in the end the game was drawn. Lastly he won a beautiful Dragen against Polgar.
Magnus felt surprisingly fit also on Saturday and in the topical Queen Indian he was better against Anand in an interesting game until getting short on time. He finally decided to allow repetition of moves although he is probably better after Ne2 Kh1! leaving the perpetual.
Morozevich was better in the next game but missed some promising continuations and the position was defendable for black.
Magnus could even have won after 27.Ne7+? but in the time scramble he missed 29... Nd4! threatening both c6 and e3. (If white captures on d4, Qe1+ and Rxd4 pins the white rook.)
In the last round of the group play Magnus needed to draw to advance to the final and played it safe against Polgar.
Anand beat Morozevich again to qualify for the final with 4/6 followed by Magnus at 3,5, Morozevich at 3 and Polgar at 1,5. Magnus was of course very happy to reach the final.
On Sunday Magnus had slept very well but he had a complete off-day chesswise. He had problems concentrating during the games and lost quite badly in the first Dragen.
In the second game Magnus was only equal after the opening, misplayed the middle game in an attempt of being creative, and Anand efficiently exploited his better position to win again.
Also in the third game Anand played very well and Magnus was clearly worse when Anand offered a draw a pawn up in the rook plus knight ending thereby securing the overall victory. (The 4th game was a short draw.)
Hence Anand won convincingly 3-1 in the Mainz final to take his 11th victory in this prestigious and well organised event. Congratulations!
Magnus ended 2nd and Morozevich 3rd. He beat Polgar in the 4th and decisive game having escaped miraculously from the queen ending two pawns down in the 3rd game.
Magnus is staying at home this week and will join his family and his chess school mates here in Tromsø on Friday night.
In the Arctic Chess Challenge everything is working out well.
We've seen many hard fought and interesting battles and the top seed GM Malakhatko (BEL 2612) is sole leader at 4/4 before round 5 today.
Local hero and chess school student Espen Forsaa (2282) was close to beating his teacher Simen Agdestein in round 3 but the latter escaped with a draw in the end.
Two of Magnus' sisters are participating in the ACC and Ellen started very well drawing FM Sowray (2327) in round 1.
Ingrid has fought well against several much higher rated young Norwegians and is obviously making good progress.
We've had absolutely marvellous weather this week and the still somewhat cold and very crisp air highlights the clarity of the pure arctic scenery.
On Monday we hiked Storkjølen on the Kvaløya offering a magnificent view of the nearby Hollenderne peaks, the arctic sea as well as the inland mountains.
Yesterday we continued the annual tradition of climbing the 1200+ meter Tromsdalstind ( "tind" is a peak in English) offering a 360 panoramic view of the Troms and Lyngen mountains.
To the west, the relatively minor 1100 meter mountain (dark, no snow) straight up from the end of the road is planned to stage the 2018 Winter Olympic down hill event!
Behind Tromsø town the Hollenderne peaks decorate the skyline.
The organisers headed by always pleasant Sigmund Berglund offer a varied program of excursions during the event, including a fishing trip, a mountain walk and a barbecue party next Saturday.
The organisers is quite happy that more than 90 participants have found their way to ACC 2008, although one might be surprised that not even more chess enthusiasts use this unique opportunity of combining chess with experiencing the unsurpassed arctic scenery!
Henrik Carlsen,
Tromsoe, August 6th, 2008
Not the best preparation but on Friday he surprised both himself and others by sharing the lead with Anand with 2/3.
He effortlessly held Anand to a draw with black. He pressed, then got into some trouble against Morozevich, but in the end the game was drawn. Lastly he won a beautiful Dragen against Polgar.
Magnus felt surprisingly fit also on Saturday and in the topical Queen Indian he was better against Anand in an interesting game until getting short on time. He finally decided to allow repetition of moves although he is probably better after Ne2 Kh1! leaving the perpetual.
Morozevich was better in the next game but missed some promising continuations and the position was defendable for black.
Magnus could even have won after 27.Ne7+? but in the time scramble he missed 29... Nd4! threatening both c6 and e3. (If white captures on d4, Qe1+ and Rxd4 pins the white rook.)
In the last round of the group play Magnus needed to draw to advance to the final and played it safe against Polgar.
Anand beat Morozevich again to qualify for the final with 4/6 followed by Magnus at 3,5, Morozevich at 3 and Polgar at 1,5. Magnus was of course very happy to reach the final.
On Sunday Magnus had slept very well but he had a complete off-day chesswise. He had problems concentrating during the games and lost quite badly in the first Dragen.
In the second game Magnus was only equal after the opening, misplayed the middle game in an attempt of being creative, and Anand efficiently exploited his better position to win again.
Also in the third game Anand played very well and Magnus was clearly worse when Anand offered a draw a pawn up in the rook plus knight ending thereby securing the overall victory. (The 4th game was a short draw.)
Hence Anand won convincingly 3-1 in the Mainz final to take his 11th victory in this prestigious and well organised event. Congratulations!
Magnus ended 2nd and Morozevich 3rd. He beat Polgar in the 4th and decisive game having escaped miraculously from the queen ending two pawns down in the 3rd game.
Magnus is staying at home this week and will join his family and his chess school mates here in Tromsø on Friday night.
In the Arctic Chess Challenge everything is working out well.
We've seen many hard fought and interesting battles and the top seed GM Malakhatko (BEL 2612) is sole leader at 4/4 before round 5 today.
Local hero and chess school student Espen Forsaa (2282) was close to beating his teacher Simen Agdestein in round 3 but the latter escaped with a draw in the end.
Two of Magnus' sisters are participating in the ACC and Ellen started very well drawing FM Sowray (2327) in round 1.
Ingrid has fought well against several much higher rated young Norwegians and is obviously making good progress.
We've had absolutely marvellous weather this week and the still somewhat cold and very crisp air highlights the clarity of the pure arctic scenery.
On Monday we hiked Storkjølen on the Kvaløya offering a magnificent view of the nearby Hollenderne peaks, the arctic sea as well as the inland mountains.
Yesterday we continued the annual tradition of climbing the 1200+ meter Tromsdalstind ( "tind" is a peak in English) offering a 360 panoramic view of the Troms and Lyngen mountains.
To the west, the relatively minor 1100 meter mountain (dark, no snow) straight up from the end of the road is planned to stage the 2018 Winter Olympic down hill event!
Behind Tromsø town the Hollenderne peaks decorate the skyline.
The organisers headed by always pleasant Sigmund Berglund offer a varied program of excursions during the event, including a fishing trip, a mountain walk and a barbecue party next Saturday.
The organisers is quite happy that more than 90 participants have found their way to ACC 2008, although one might be surprised that not even more chess enthusiasts use this unique opportunity of combining chess with experiencing the unsurpassed arctic scenery!
Henrik Carlsen,
Tromsoe, August 6th, 2008
Biel 2008 Results
Biel finished yesterday and after the closing lunch today Magnus is heading for Mainz and the "Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship" where he will play black against V.Anand in the first round this evening!
Due to some problems with his laptop Magnus has generally not been reachable on Skype during the Biel tournament and consequently I have not had much to report.
It did look very promising for Magnus until round 6 when he had a clear lead and reached a personal record live-rating of 2797, one point behind Anand!
But, after the second rest day he felt rather out of form and his games suffered accordingly. During the game against Dominguez he "hallucinated" badly and was lucky to escape with a draw in the end.
Finishing with the loss against Alekseev and 3 draws, he ended on +2 like in 2006 and 2007. Two years ago it brought him shared 2nd, last year shared first and 3rd place this year after Alekseev (winner on tie-break) and Dominguez both at +3. Congratulations to both for a great tournament result!
In my opinion 6/10 is a good result for Magnus although not as good as his previous performances this year.
It's in fact quite telling that both fans and chess commentators alike look for reasons to explain the 2740 performance of a 17 year old player, when any other junior in the world would have improved his/her rating with such a tournament result!
Magnus own evaluation has to wait, but from what I understand his main concern in Biel has been the lack of form and not the result.
He played a lot of football in addition to the chess and with many friends around he enjoyed himself as in previous years. I know the organiser made every possible effort to make sure he had an enjoyable stay. Thank you!
In general it is good to have a break when you're feeling out of form, but maybe the rapid tournament in Mainz will do Magnus some good. No rating is involved and he does really enjoy the rapid format. Playing Anand, Morozevich and Polgar is certainly also a great challenge!
The rest of Magnus' family are in Tromsoe right now for the Arctic Chess Challenge starting tomorrow.
Magnus participated last year while this year he will only visit the event during the last weekend.
Upon arrival today we were meet by clouded weather and some rain showers, but the weather forecast for the next few days promises sun and slightly warmer days!
For those of you who have never been to Tromsoe; It is hard to imagine a more beautiful and exotic spot for a chess tournament! Homepage: http://arcticchess.org/2008/index.html
Let's hope Tromsoe will host the chess Olympiad in 2014!
Henrik Carlsen,
Tromsoe, August 1st, 2008
Due to some problems with his laptop Magnus has generally not been reachable on Skype during the Biel tournament and consequently I have not had much to report.
It did look very promising for Magnus until round 6 when he had a clear lead and reached a personal record live-rating of 2797, one point behind Anand!
But, after the second rest day he felt rather out of form and his games suffered accordingly. During the game against Dominguez he "hallucinated" badly and was lucky to escape with a draw in the end.
Finishing with the loss against Alekseev and 3 draws, he ended on +2 like in 2006 and 2007. Two years ago it brought him shared 2nd, last year shared first and 3rd place this year after Alekseev (winner on tie-break) and Dominguez both at +3. Congratulations to both for a great tournament result!
In my opinion 6/10 is a good result for Magnus although not as good as his previous performances this year.
It's in fact quite telling that both fans and chess commentators alike look for reasons to explain the 2740 performance of a 17 year old player, when any other junior in the world would have improved his/her rating with such a tournament result!
Magnus own evaluation has to wait, but from what I understand his main concern in Biel has been the lack of form and not the result.
He played a lot of football in addition to the chess and with many friends around he enjoyed himself as in previous years. I know the organiser made every possible effort to make sure he had an enjoyable stay. Thank you!
In general it is good to have a break when you're feeling out of form, but maybe the rapid tournament in Mainz will do Magnus some good. No rating is involved and he does really enjoy the rapid format. Playing Anand, Morozevich and Polgar is certainly also a great challenge!
The rest of Magnus' family are in Tromsoe right now for the Arctic Chess Challenge starting tomorrow.
Magnus participated last year while this year he will only visit the event during the last weekend.
Upon arrival today we were meet by clouded weather and some rain showers, but the weather forecast for the next few days promises sun and slightly warmer days!
For those of you who have never been to Tromsoe; It is hard to imagine a more beautiful and exotic spot for a chess tournament! Homepage: http://arcticchess.org/2008/index.html
Let's hope Tromsoe will host the chess Olympiad in 2014!
Henrik Carlsen,
Tromsoe, August 1st, 2008
Biel 2008 Round 1
After nearly a month in Norway, Magnus left for the Biel Chess Festival on Friday. He is accompanied by several of his chess school class mates like last year. The tournament started today following the opening ceremony yesterday.
During his summer vacation he did spend some days with friends in Toensberg during the Norwegian Championship.
He participated in two of the minor events but as he wanted to keep a low profile in Toensberg I decided against blogging from the events.
(His team won the Lahlum-invented "Team-talking-chess" where a team of 2, 3 or 4 players execute 6 games simultaneously against a similar team and all team members may talk freely and cooperate on all boards.
In the the other team event (rating based time-handicap Blitz), the handicap proved sufficient and his team ended 3rd having had 30 seconds against their opponents 9min 30 seconds in most games.
His football team, featuring the Lie stars as well as many other prominent players, duely won the annual football competition as last year.
He enjoyed the time in Toensberg and really looked forward to the Biel tournament when leaving Norway on Friday.
In the category 18 double round robin tournament in Biel Magnus is by far the rating favourite this year. There are two more 2700+ players (Dominguez and Alekseev) in the field. The other players are Bacrot, Onischuk and home favourite Pelletier (2569) against whom Magnus had white in Round 1.
They played a fashionable Queen Indian line in which Magnus lately was black against Svidler in Foros round 2.(After following Cheparinov-Kamsky most of the game a draw was agreed fairly early in that game.)
Pelletier chose 10...Nc6 (instead of Qc8) and after exchanging queens white was considerably better according to the computers. Magnus found an interesting exchange sack with 18.Bg5 Nc2 19.Re7, but the chess engines suggest that Bxe7 would give black an advantage.
Pelletier chose Bxf3 which forced a fairly even but slightly better ending for white.
Again most commentators expected a draw, and Magnus was not too optimistic either.
When Pelletier played 42...Ng4 to force a seemingly drawn ending, Magnus had plenty of time left and spent a long while analysing the position. He concluded that his best winning chance was indeed to exchange knights and go for the opposite coloured bishop endgame a pawn up.
It did look drawish but Magnus kept on posing challenges for black who went astray before the 2nd time control. Magnus played precisely to force a winning endgame and Pelletier resigned facing the loss of the h-pawn and threats on both sides of the board.
1-0 and an excellent start, especially bearing in mind that Magnus drew his last 4 games in the Foros tournament.
Alekseev won against Bacrot while Dominguez-Onischuk ended in a perpetual after black had put pressure on white for a while.
Tomorrow Magnus plays black against co-leader Alekseev, Russia.
Next week I'll only have a slow mobile internet connection so please don't expect regular updates.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, July 20, 2008
During his summer vacation he did spend some days with friends in Toensberg during the Norwegian Championship.
He participated in two of the minor events but as he wanted to keep a low profile in Toensberg I decided against blogging from the events.
(His team won the Lahlum-invented "Team-talking-chess" where a team of 2, 3 or 4 players execute 6 games simultaneously against a similar team and all team members may talk freely and cooperate on all boards.
In the the other team event (rating based time-handicap Blitz), the handicap proved sufficient and his team ended 3rd having had 30 seconds against their opponents 9min 30 seconds in most games.
His football team, featuring the Lie stars as well as many other prominent players, duely won the annual football competition as last year.
He enjoyed the time in Toensberg and really looked forward to the Biel tournament when leaving Norway on Friday.
In the category 18 double round robin tournament in Biel Magnus is by far the rating favourite this year. There are two more 2700+ players (Dominguez and Alekseev) in the field. The other players are Bacrot, Onischuk and home favourite Pelletier (2569) against whom Magnus had white in Round 1.
They played a fashionable Queen Indian line in which Magnus lately was black against Svidler in Foros round 2.(After following Cheparinov-Kamsky most of the game a draw was agreed fairly early in that game.)
Pelletier chose 10...Nc6 (instead of Qc8) and after exchanging queens white was considerably better according to the computers. Magnus found an interesting exchange sack with 18.Bg5 Nc2 19.Re7, but the chess engines suggest that Bxe7 would give black an advantage.
Pelletier chose Bxf3 which forced a fairly even but slightly better ending for white.
Again most commentators expected a draw, and Magnus was not too optimistic either.
When Pelletier played 42...Ng4 to force a seemingly drawn ending, Magnus had plenty of time left and spent a long while analysing the position. He concluded that his best winning chance was indeed to exchange knights and go for the opposite coloured bishop endgame a pawn up.
It did look drawish but Magnus kept on posing challenges for black who went astray before the 2nd time control. Magnus played precisely to force a winning endgame and Pelletier resigned facing the loss of the h-pawn and threats on both sides of the board.
1-0 and an excellent start, especially bearing in mind that Magnus drew his last 4 games in the Foros tournament.
Alekseev won against Bacrot while Dominguez-Onischuk ended in a perpetual after black had put pressure on white for a while.
Tomorrow Magnus plays black against co-leader Alekseev, Russia.
Next week I'll only have a slow mobile internet connection so please don't expect regular updates.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, July 20, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Final Round
Friday night Magnus and I (and our luggage!) arrived back home after a pleasant and successful trip to Foros, Crimea.
For the record, please find a few words about the last round below.
Having already won the tournament, the last round was important to Magnus for other reasons.
Most of his rated games against his young rival S.Karjakin has ended as draws, and Magnus did not want to destroy his Foros statistics losing the last round.
At the same time he was eager to try to win. Quite a challenging combination with the black pieces:-)
Karjakin, mostly a 1.e4-player, chose 1.d4 against Magnus. Maybe it was an attempt to surprise Magnus or simply to avoid the Sicilian Dragen.
But, Sergey had played 1.d4 against Van Wely in round 9, so Magnus was not entirely surprised to see the queen pawn opening. The psychology battle continued when Magnus caught Sergey somewhat by surprise playing the Gruenfeld, an opening he has not played in classical games for several years.
According to the computers, white does not have much of an advantage in the line chosen, and when Karjakin played 13.Bh6 Magnus felt quite comfortable with his position.
The f2-f4-f5 advance creates some attacking chances for white but neither the players nor the computers could find anything decisive.
When Karjakin played 22.f6+ and offered a draw, Magnus felt confident enough to choose to play on.
However, after the exchange of queens, the position is fairly even and he probably overestimated his chances. The plan Ke8 and Kd8 may be acceptable, but after 29...Re8? black is worse.
Magnus was getting slightly short on time, and obviously the long tournament and the tension felt as the tournament leader most of the way was taking its toll. He wisely offered a draw at this point, and was happy to discover that Karjakin was still in a peaceful mood.
0,5-0,5, and a sole win with 8/11 for Magnus!
Ivanchuk followed his recipe from last year. He continued his winning streak by beating Eljanov with the white pieces in a nice game. With his 3,5 out of 4 finish and 7 points overall, the first round game Carlsen-Ivanchuk did indeed turn out to be decisive to the tournament result.
With 6/11, Karjakin took the 3rd place on tie-break ahead of Eljanov. Volokitin finished in style with a win against Alekseev and captured 5th place on tie-break so that Magnus was the only foreigner to break the Ukrainian domination of the event.
Shirov also finished in style with a nice black win against Onischuk reaching 8 decisive games out of 11 and winning his first two and last two games!
At the closing ceremony special prizes were awarded for the most black wins (Carlsen, Shirov, Ivanchuk and Eljanov two each, and with Magnus getting the trophy having beaten the others), the best endgame (Volokitin for his win against Alekseev) and best attack (Shirov winning against Onischuk). Congratulations!
I would like to thank the organisers for a nice and strong tournament held in friendly atmosphere in beautiful surroundings!
Lastly, a few words about rating.
According to Hans Arild Runde?s live rating at http://chess.liverating.org/ Magnus is unofficially #2 in the World !
(It's congested up there, he is 7 points behind Anand and just 4 points ahead of number 5 V.Kramnik).
Unfortunately the uncertainty regarding the inclusion of the Aerosvit 2008 tournament in the July list has left FIDE in a bit of a tangle.
With the long history of indecisiveness and policy changes, we do appreciate their attempt to create transparency and clear rules. However, when the Executive Board decision of having a clear deadline made in Antalya in November is accompanied by a very discreet external communication (I had to browse through the minutes twice before finding the reference at page 24 under "Qualification Commission" and I have not seen any other communication or reference at fide.com or any other chess website), by inadequate internal communication (not reaching the relevant persons within FIDE), lack of consistency by making an exception for FIDE events but not for more important top events, and finally the contradicting statements this week from FIDE officials, they have put FIDE in a less than envious position.
Well, July 1st we'll probably know the outcome :-)
With the school semester ending simultaneously with the Foros tournament, Magnus is currently enjoying summer vacation and has a full month of relaxation prior to the Biel tournament starting July 19th.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, June 22, 2008
For the record, please find a few words about the last round below.
Having already won the tournament, the last round was important to Magnus for other reasons.
Most of his rated games against his young rival S.Karjakin has ended as draws, and Magnus did not want to destroy his Foros statistics losing the last round.
At the same time he was eager to try to win. Quite a challenging combination with the black pieces:-)
Karjakin, mostly a 1.e4-player, chose 1.d4 against Magnus. Maybe it was an attempt to surprise Magnus or simply to avoid the Sicilian Dragen.
But, Sergey had played 1.d4 against Van Wely in round 9, so Magnus was not entirely surprised to see the queen pawn opening. The psychology battle continued when Magnus caught Sergey somewhat by surprise playing the Gruenfeld, an opening he has not played in classical games for several years.
According to the computers, white does not have much of an advantage in the line chosen, and when Karjakin played 13.Bh6 Magnus felt quite comfortable with his position.
The f2-f4-f5 advance creates some attacking chances for white but neither the players nor the computers could find anything decisive.
When Karjakin played 22.f6+ and offered a draw, Magnus felt confident enough to choose to play on.
However, after the exchange of queens, the position is fairly even and he probably overestimated his chances. The plan Ke8 and Kd8 may be acceptable, but after 29...Re8? black is worse.
Magnus was getting slightly short on time, and obviously the long tournament and the tension felt as the tournament leader most of the way was taking its toll. He wisely offered a draw at this point, and was happy to discover that Karjakin was still in a peaceful mood.
0,5-0,5, and a sole win with 8/11 for Magnus!
Ivanchuk followed his recipe from last year. He continued his winning streak by beating Eljanov with the white pieces in a nice game. With his 3,5 out of 4 finish and 7 points overall, the first round game Carlsen-Ivanchuk did indeed turn out to be decisive to the tournament result.
With 6/11, Karjakin took the 3rd place on tie-break ahead of Eljanov. Volokitin finished in style with a win against Alekseev and captured 5th place on tie-break so that Magnus was the only foreigner to break the Ukrainian domination of the event.
Shirov also finished in style with a nice black win against Onischuk reaching 8 decisive games out of 11 and winning his first two and last two games!
At the closing ceremony special prizes were awarded for the most black wins (Carlsen, Shirov, Ivanchuk and Eljanov two each, and with Magnus getting the trophy having beaten the others), the best endgame (Volokitin for his win against Alekseev) and best attack (Shirov winning against Onischuk). Congratulations!
I would like to thank the organisers for a nice and strong tournament held in friendly atmosphere in beautiful surroundings!
Lastly, a few words about rating.
According to Hans Arild Runde?s live rating at http://chess.liverating.org/ Magnus is unofficially #2 in the World !
(It's congested up there, he is 7 points behind Anand and just 4 points ahead of number 5 V.Kramnik).
Unfortunately the uncertainty regarding the inclusion of the Aerosvit 2008 tournament in the July list has left FIDE in a bit of a tangle.
With the long history of indecisiveness and policy changes, we do appreciate their attempt to create transparency and clear rules. However, when the Executive Board decision of having a clear deadline made in Antalya in November is accompanied by a very discreet external communication (I had to browse through the minutes twice before finding the reference at page 24 under "Qualification Commission" and I have not seen any other communication or reference at fide.com or any other chess website), by inadequate internal communication (not reaching the relevant persons within FIDE), lack of consistency by making an exception for FIDE events but not for more important top events, and finally the contradicting statements this week from FIDE officials, they have put FIDE in a less than envious position.
Well, July 1st we'll probably know the outcome :-)
With the school semester ending simultaneously with the Foros tournament, Magnus is currently enjoying summer vacation and has a full month of relaxation prior to the Biel tournament starting July 19th.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, June 22, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 10
Magnus played 1.d4 against Volokitin. He had of course noticed how the Ukrainian misplayed the middle game against Van Wely in round 8.
The appearant novelty 14.Qe4 lead to a better ending for white.
Magnus needed a draw to secure tournament victory with a round to go, and was quite happy to be in a position to put pressure on Volokitin without too much risk.
After black advanced his b-pawn, Magnus felt very comfortable with the position and played fast. Maybe too fast. Having played 23.b3? he immediately saw that Volokitin could respond b4! so that he should have played e4 instead.
Magnus might still have an edge but when he chose 30.Nd5 (instead of maybe Nh5) it might not be so difficult for black to hold.
Volokitin deserves praise, he defended very well in the rest of the game, for instance when finding only-moves like 33....Rd7 and 48....Bg2.
In the end Magnus overpressed slightly and had to suffer a rook ending a pawn down for some moves before a draw was agreed.
With 7.5/10 Magnus has already won the tournament!
He did not look that happy right after the game as he was very tired (and still a bit angry with himself for having played 23...b3), but after a while he really appreciated the outright victory and great performance in Aerosvit 2008!
We had dinner at the Foros Pizza together with two representatives of Norwegian main television (NRK) who has arrived to report from the tournament finish.
There were two decisive games yesterday.
It was interesting to see Shirov fight his way back. After his 2 out of 2 he has had many nice positions but scored miserably until his excellent win against Svidler yesterday.
Svidler had a protected pawn on f2, but couldn't avoid the nice mating net created by the white king and two rooks.
Van Wely seemed in reasonably good shape from the opening against Ivanchuk, but after one or two questionable moves he went down quickly losing a piece in Ivanchuk's king side attack around move 20.
And it was of course a great game by Ivanchuk who moved into shared second with Eljanov at 6 points.
(As predicted by many, Magnus' first round win against Ivanchuk may very well turn out to be decisive to the tournament result.)
Today Magnus has black against 4th placed S.Karjakin. He is of course interested in playing a good game against his rival youngster.
With some of the pressure gone by already having secured tournament victory, let's hope for an exciting game!
Henrik Carlsen,
Foros, Crimea, June 19th 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 8 & 9.
Yesterday Magnus was white against Onischuk. In response to the 10...Bd6 line in the Catalan that Magnus won with as black against Eljanov, he played 11.Be3 instead of Eljanov's Ng5.
Onischuk managed to play the e5-break securing a reasonably equal position.
After a long thought, Magnus found an interesting continuation based on 17.Nc6 in practice sacrificing the e-pawn. But when he looked at the screen in the rest room after Bxc6, he immidiately saw that his plans had been flawed. 21.Re4 does not work with the king on g1. Black has Qf3.
Hence he had to play 21.h3 etc and although there is some compensation for the pawn but black is maybe better. At the same time the position is fairly complicated and both has to play accurately.
After 24....g6 Magnus could not find anything better than 25.Rd5 Qc4 26.Rd4 Qd3 etc.
If he captures on the c4, then Na5 c3 bxc3 is a dead drawn ending, so he repeated moves instead.
Draw on a day when he don't get much from the opening and makes a considerable oversight is a reasonable result though :-)
Fortunately we saw three decisive games.
Van Wely outplayed Volokitin to score his second win, but due to his many losses, he is still at -2.
Alekseev won seemingly effortless in slightly better ending against Nisipeanu.
Ivanchuk managed to get an edge as black against Shirov after the Gruenfeld opening, and won in style with a nice combination involving an exchange sacrifice.
After 8 rounds Magnus was still two points ahead of Ukrainian pursuers Ivanchuk, Karjakin and Eljanov.
1st tie-break is mutual result, and Magnus has beaten two of them (Ivanchuk and Eljanov).
His only realistic challenger to win the tournament seems to be Karjakin whom Magnus plays with black in the last round.
Some of the players got slighty food poisoned lately. During lunch today Jakovenko and a couple of others complained about this unfortunate incident.
This may certainly explain Jakovenko's complete lack of ambition in his game against Magnus today.
As white, Jakovenko played the English opening and a very drawish line.
When offered a draw after white's 16th move, Magnus was a bit uncertain about what to do. But as you probably already know, he decided to accept the draw offer.
Again, a reasonable result for Magnus, although,of course, the game was not what the specatators had hoped for.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for some decisive results in the remaining five games today :-)
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Volokitin. He has a terrible score against this opponent, but they haven't played for two years so it is time for revenge!
Henrik C.
Foros, Crimea, June 17th, 2008
Onischuk managed to play the e5-break securing a reasonably equal position.
After a long thought, Magnus found an interesting continuation based on 17.Nc6 in practice sacrificing the e-pawn. But when he looked at the screen in the rest room after Bxc6, he immidiately saw that his plans had been flawed. 21.Re4 does not work with the king on g1. Black has Qf3.
Hence he had to play 21.h3 etc and although there is some compensation for the pawn but black is maybe better. At the same time the position is fairly complicated and both has to play accurately.
After 24....g6 Magnus could not find anything better than 25.Rd5 Qc4 26.Rd4 Qd3 etc.
If he captures on the c4, then Na5 c3 bxc3 is a dead drawn ending, so he repeated moves instead.
Draw on a day when he don't get much from the opening and makes a considerable oversight is a reasonable result though :-)
Fortunately we saw three decisive games.
Van Wely outplayed Volokitin to score his second win, but due to his many losses, he is still at -2.
Alekseev won seemingly effortless in slightly better ending against Nisipeanu.
Ivanchuk managed to get an edge as black against Shirov after the Gruenfeld opening, and won in style with a nice combination involving an exchange sacrifice.
After 8 rounds Magnus was still two points ahead of Ukrainian pursuers Ivanchuk, Karjakin and Eljanov.
1st tie-break is mutual result, and Magnus has beaten two of them (Ivanchuk and Eljanov).
His only realistic challenger to win the tournament seems to be Karjakin whom Magnus plays with black in the last round.
Some of the players got slighty food poisoned lately. During lunch today Jakovenko and a couple of others complained about this unfortunate incident.
This may certainly explain Jakovenko's complete lack of ambition in his game against Magnus today.
As white, Jakovenko played the English opening and a very drawish line.
When offered a draw after white's 16th move, Magnus was a bit uncertain about what to do. But as you probably already know, he decided to accept the draw offer.
Again, a reasonable result for Magnus, although,of course, the game was not what the specatators had hoped for.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for some decisive results in the remaining five games today :-)
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Volokitin. He has a terrible score against this opponent, but they haven't played for two years so it is time for revenge!
Henrik C.
Foros, Crimea, June 17th, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 7
In round 7 the spectators could again enjoy lots of fighting chess and three decisive games.
The draws all came in battles between young players (Karjakin, Volokitin and Alekseev) having the white pieces against the more experienced Ivanchuk, Svidler and Shirov respectively.
Eljanov, with the black pieces put pressure on Onischuk along the long white diagonal and white decided to sacrifice an exchange on d5. Later Eljanov gave back the exchange in a beautiful combination to win a pawn and gain a dominant position that was quickly won.
Jakovenko beat Van Wely with the white pieces in an interesting game.
Magnus was black against Nisipeanu and encouraged by his excellent results so far was determined to play for a win. In the end he chose the Sicilian Dragen against 1.e4 and when Nisipeanu avoided the most principled variations, played Be2, castled short etc, black has already equalised.
White spent about 20 minutes deciding on the novelty 12.a4 after which Magnus felt he had the better position. White?s plan sacrificing a pawn with 15.c3?! was judged unsound by most commentators while Magnus thought it was a reasonable idea. White may enjoy excellent compensation exploiting his extra space and coordination on the king side. However, Magnus decided against taking the c3 pawn right away (and in fact never did).
Instead he responded 16...Rc8 and 18....Nc4! reducing white counterplay while getting ready to take advantage of the many white pawn weaknesses.
Magnus felt he played a good game yesterday and that he was in control in the rest of the game.
After sacrificing an exchange on d4 he had two pawns, the bishop pair and a clearly favourable position.
The computers' evaluation was that black had to find some only-moves to maintain an advantage (for instance 26.Bh6, which he did play), while Magnus felt comfortable and played rather quickly in most of Nisipeanu's time trouble.
After the exchange of a rook, the black a-pawn started to march to a2 and although white can prevent queening with Qc3, he is totally tied up and will lose the f-pawn. Soon the black pawn avalanche will decide and he resigned instead. 0-1 !
Although his opponent was not in his best shape yesterday, Magnus was very satisfied with his own play and the victory. Having had a slight trace of a cold on the free day and the evening before the free day, he felt fit for fight yesterday and thoroughly appreciate the two points lead going into the last four rounds.
At 6/7 he is followed by the Ukrainian trio Karjakin, Volokitin and Eljanov at 4 points. Last year's winner Ivanchuk has 3.5 points together with Shirov, Svidler and Jakovenko.
Magnus finished relatively early yesterday as he had plenty of time left on the clock in Nisipeanu's time trouble. And with the Euro 2008 starting later than usual, Magnus went to the internet café, while I preferred a swim in the Black Sea.
The sea temperature has improved during our stay, but it is still quite refreshing and has not yet reached the 23oC normally enjoyed during the summer.
The Black Sea has had dozens of names and the current one supposedly has several possible explanations.
Many Greek sailors and traders were surprised by the turbulent weather of the Black Sea resulting in a significant number of ship wrecks and deaths. The wife's of dead sailors wearing black headdresses of sorrow gave the sea a repute for danger and death and hence the reference to the 'black' (headdress) sea.
The sea is more than 2000 meters deep. Maritime life is limited to the top 200 meter layer below which the bottom is mainly dark mud.
Seen from the Crimean mountains nearby, the dark bottom is quite distinctive and could well be the bases for the current name.
Today Magnus is white against current tail-ender A.Onichuk, USA.
We try to focus on tournaments as excellent training for Magnus, on him doing his best and having fun while playing chess, but I guess he is aware of the fact that a win today would bring him to the #1 spot on the unofficial live rating list.
It is not important to reach that target today, but being in the position of having this possibility in itself is quite a mind-boggling achievement!
Let's hope it will be many interesting games today.
H.Carlsen,
Foros, June 16th, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Round 5 & 6.
Before round 5 yesterday we tried the tennis facilities in the pleasant sunshine.
Magnus wore his FAST T-shirt and it turned out to be another lucky T-shirt!
(FAST Search & Transfer is his main sponsor and share his ambition of becoming the best in their field. They are a billion dollar search engine company and was purchased by Microsoft this spring.)
Magnus played 1.d4 again and Shirov chose the Slav defence instead of his successful Gruenfeld from round 1. Magnus again opted for the relatively innocent Bxf6-line and deviated from his 3rd round game against Van Wely with 8.Rc1. Shirov's position seemed a bit cramped and despite his bishop pair white was probably slightly better.
When Shirov played 16....Nf8 to really start his counterplay, Magnus, somewhat surprisingly for many spectators, decided to swap his powerful e5-knight against the seemingly weak black bishop on d7. The reason was that he could not find a way to maintain an advantage with other continuations and settled for another slightly better endgame.
After Shirov freed himself with the 29....e5 break Magnus felt he had winning chances due to all the black weaknesses. White consistently improved the position but at a critical moment allowed 36....Rc5, which solves most of black's problems.
In the continuation Magnus seriously considered to repeat moves on a couple of occasions as he did not seem to have any realistic winning chances.
However, also this time his opponent seemingly mismanaged his time left.
As Magnus continued to find new threats, Shirov entered time trouble around move 50.
After defending well for a while, Shirov started to go astray in the tricky position, and when Magnus set up a final mating trap, the position is objectively drawn but Shirov blundered and resigned in face of mate in 2!
Main commentator GM Golubev in the doorway of the majestetic playing venue next to the hotel.
Today Magnus was white against Alekseev and after getting only a slight edge from the Queen Indian opening, he found an interesting pawn sacrifice that probably surprised most spectators, 14.b4?!
However he had missed the response Nc5! after which black is at least slightly better.
Magnus again spent lots of time evaluating the alternative continuations.
Magnus thought the ending after 16.....Bd6 and sacrificing the rook on b7 would have been drawish despite only one pawn compensation for the exchange.
Alekseev probably wanted to avoid too much complexity and instead played the probably equally strong Rc8.
After exchange of rooks and 18.Qb1 Magnus is a pawn down but has some initiative.
Alekseev thought for more than 20 minutes, so that both players where down to 30 minutes, and finally opted for the fairly safe 18....a5 accompanied by a draw offer.
Magnus did not have a very good feeling after having missed 15...Nc5, and was also slightly worse so he accepted the early draw. After all a reasonably good result.
Shirov-Karjakin was the game of the day. Shirov sacked a piece a la Topalov-Kramnik in Corus and went on to sack his queen as well! With quite precise play from both, the game finally ended in a perpetual and drawn like all the other games today.
Entering the free day tomorrow, Magnus is in the lead with impressive 5/6 ahead of Karjakin and Volokitin at 3,5.
Time for Euro 2008!
Henrik C.
Foros, June 13th, 2008
Aerosvit Round 4
I've read that before the tournament, the Aerosvit chairman said that he did not want to see any short draws.
And I do think the organisers and sponsors are happy about all the fighting chess so far, witnessing more than 50% decisive games.
Yesterday was a bit of a curiosity in that we saw three decided games while the other three games were all short draws.
Karjakin won a nice attacking victory in a hot Petroff line.
Van Wely somehow managed to outplay Alekseev in a nice and interesting game.
Magnus was black against Eljanov and against the Catalan he played the 10....Bd6 line that he drew with against Kramnik in Tal Memorial in November 2007.
Eljanov played the supposed novelty 11.Ng5 and after exchanging white-squared bishops Magnus went for the sharp continuation 12....Nbd7 13.e4 e5.
Eljanov spent about half his time on the next move and then most of the remaining time on the subsequent 10 moves or so. He did seem to find very strong moves, he played the principled continuation with 15.f4 etc and probably had a small advantage when the dust settled.
Magnus was reasonably happy with his position and when Eljanov offered a draw a few moves later he decided to play on. After all the position was fairly complicated and Eljanov was already short on time.
Magnus thought 25.f5 was a bit premature from Eljanov as he does not really have a convincing attack yet.
After 27.Rc1 Magnus looked for an opportunity to complicate the position, and was very satisfied when he discovered that 27....Be3 was playable and involved some interesting continuations.
First he discarded the idea, but when he started to look at the actual continuation, recapturing with the c-pawn and playing 29.....d4, he simply had to try.
Magnus won the a pawn (the f-pawn) in addition to the rook for two knights, but with precise defence white would at least be equal, maybe slightly better. Eljanov defended well for a few moves despite the time trouble, but somewhere in the sequence 33.Qc6 Rc8 34.Qxa6 Rc2 35.Nd2 g5 36.Qxh6 (?) g4! he went wrong.
Magnus spent a lot of time until the time control to make sure that he avoided perpetuals and found the best continuations. Commentators has pointed out that he probably missed a couple of slightly better moves, but anyhow he was playing for two results only, from move 37 onwards.
The rook plus 4 pawns against two knights plus 2 pawns is extremely difficult due to the pawn islands across the board and the time trouble. Magnus thought Eljanov was within the draw limit until he made a final mistake around move 70, while the commentators claim Magnus had a winning position early on but both players made subsequent inaccuracies.
At one point Magnus missed 70....Kc5! but Ra3 is probably also winning.
The rook and pawn versus knight and pawn ending is a tablebase win and Magnus quite quickly found the winning plan. 0-1.
Despite his fantastic start, Magnus is only half a point ahead of his young rival S.Karjakin (and one point ahead of todays opponent Shirov).
Karjakin, who went +3 here last year, has won both his white games in style.
He has white against Magnus in the last round, and as many have pointed out already this may turn out to be an exciting decisive final.
Fortunately for Magnus he has 4 white and 2 black games prior to the last round while Karjakin has the opposite.
Although I know Magnus quite well, I'm more or less continuously surprised by his fantastic results.
The continued progress this year was not at all something we could expect. After all he is just 17 and has some obvious weaknesses relative to the rest of the elite players (inexperience, opening repertoire etc). Somehow he seems to have been able to compensate fully with his apparant strenghts (rational objectivity over the board, good intuition, fighting spirit and inner motivation).
My only concern is that expectations may take on unreasonable proportions.
Lets enjoy his games and his progress, but please expect and accept some down's as well as all the up's in the time to come.
Henrik Carlsen,
Beachside internet cafe, Foros, June 12th 2008
And I do think the organisers and sponsors are happy about all the fighting chess so far, witnessing more than 50% decisive games.
Yesterday was a bit of a curiosity in that we saw three decided games while the other three games were all short draws.
Karjakin won a nice attacking victory in a hot Petroff line.
Van Wely somehow managed to outplay Alekseev in a nice and interesting game.
Magnus was black against Eljanov and against the Catalan he played the 10....Bd6 line that he drew with against Kramnik in Tal Memorial in November 2007.
Eljanov played the supposed novelty 11.Ng5 and after exchanging white-squared bishops Magnus went for the sharp continuation 12....Nbd7 13.e4 e5.
Eljanov spent about half his time on the next move and then most of the remaining time on the subsequent 10 moves or so. He did seem to find very strong moves, he played the principled continuation with 15.f4 etc and probably had a small advantage when the dust settled.
Magnus was reasonably happy with his position and when Eljanov offered a draw a few moves later he decided to play on. After all the position was fairly complicated and Eljanov was already short on time.
Magnus thought 25.f5 was a bit premature from Eljanov as he does not really have a convincing attack yet.
After 27.Rc1 Magnus looked for an opportunity to complicate the position, and was very satisfied when he discovered that 27....Be3 was playable and involved some interesting continuations.
First he discarded the idea, but when he started to look at the actual continuation, recapturing with the c-pawn and playing 29.....d4, he simply had to try.
Magnus won the a pawn (the f-pawn) in addition to the rook for two knights, but with precise defence white would at least be equal, maybe slightly better. Eljanov defended well for a few moves despite the time trouble, but somewhere in the sequence 33.Qc6 Rc8 34.Qxa6 Rc2 35.Nd2 g5 36.Qxh6 (?) g4! he went wrong.
Magnus spent a lot of time until the time control to make sure that he avoided perpetuals and found the best continuations. Commentators has pointed out that he probably missed a couple of slightly better moves, but anyhow he was playing for two results only, from move 37 onwards.
The rook plus 4 pawns against two knights plus 2 pawns is extremely difficult due to the pawn islands across the board and the time trouble. Magnus thought Eljanov was within the draw limit until he made a final mistake around move 70, while the commentators claim Magnus had a winning position early on but both players made subsequent inaccuracies.
At one point Magnus missed 70....Kc5! but Ra3 is probably also winning.
The rook and pawn versus knight and pawn ending is a tablebase win and Magnus quite quickly found the winning plan. 0-1.
Despite his fantastic start, Magnus is only half a point ahead of his young rival S.Karjakin (and one point ahead of todays opponent Shirov).
Karjakin, who went +3 here last year, has won both his white games in style.
He has white against Magnus in the last round, and as many have pointed out already this may turn out to be an exciting decisive final.
Fortunately for Magnus he has 4 white and 2 black games prior to the last round while Karjakin has the opposite.
Although I know Magnus quite well, I'm more or less continuously surprised by his fantastic results.
The continued progress this year was not at all something we could expect. After all he is just 17 and has some obvious weaknesses relative to the rest of the elite players (inexperience, opening repertoire etc). Somehow he seems to have been able to compensate fully with his apparant strenghts (rational objectivity over the board, good intuition, fighting spirit and inner motivation).
My only concern is that expectations may take on unreasonable proportions.
Lets enjoy his games and his progress, but please expect and accept some down's as well as all the up's in the time to come.
Henrik Carlsen,
Beachside internet cafe, Foros, June 12th 2008
Round 3 Results
Another four white victories today and an impressive 56% decided games so far!
Jakovenko won the slightly better rook endgame against Volokitin.
Alekseev won a pawn after the opening against Svidler in a nice long tactical sequence, and subsequently the game. Eljanov somewhat surprisingly won from a fairly equal position against Shirov, while Magnus did the same against Loek Van Wely.
Magnus did not get much from the opening against Van Wely, although black faced some potential problems related to his bad white-squared bishop which Magnus consistently tried to keep out of play thoughout the game.
Magnus admits he had slightly overestimated his possibilities when playing 17.Nc5. Loek took the pawn and after 23....Rc7 Magnus thought for a long time. He obviously looked at Nxh6 but found the continuation too risky relative to the potential upside. He chose Ne5 after which he did not have much of an advantage, if any, but also very little risk.
When Loek exchanged bishop for knight with 33....Bxc5, the position is evaluated as completely equal by the computers.
However, it is more tricky to play black than white, and when Loek offered draw with 35....g5, Magnus felt he could and should play on, as there was no risk at all for him.
At this point I was a bit worried as I knew Magnus did not eat enough before the game to enter a long tiring endgame in top shape. Fortunately most of the difficult choices lay on black, and Loek, relatively short on time, soon went astray with 38....g4?
Later, having a winning position Magnus also made a significant mistake with 43.Kc3.
(In the post mortem analysis he was a bit disgusted to discover that he had missed the "obvious" Ke4.)
When Loek continued to make some inaccuracies, Magnus did not miss the chance to finish him off and take the sole lead in the tournament with 2,5/3!
He is half a point ahead of Shirov, Karjakin and Eljanov.
During the game commentators said that the endgame would be easy to draw for black, probably due to the computer evaluations. And maybe it was relatively easy, I don't know.
The interesting point is that the computer analysis available obviously distorts the realism of spectators and commentators with regard to what is easy or not so easy to find over the board under time pressure in the 4th or 5th hour of the game.
As we have seen many many times, in practical play even top players go astray in seemingly "easy" endgames and this is one of the aspects making competitive chess interesting.
The margins are often very small.
Maybe Caissa has smiled at Magnus so far in this tournament, as opposed to what I think was the case during most of the Baku Grand-Prix.
Today Magnus plays black against pursuer Eljanov (and I'll make sure he eats properly before the game:-). )
Thursday and Friday Magnus will have the white pieces twice in a row before going into the free day.
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 11th 2008.
Jakovenko won the slightly better rook endgame against Volokitin.
Alekseev won a pawn after the opening against Svidler in a nice long tactical sequence, and subsequently the game. Eljanov somewhat surprisingly won from a fairly equal position against Shirov, while Magnus did the same against Loek Van Wely.
Magnus did not get much from the opening against Van Wely, although black faced some potential problems related to his bad white-squared bishop which Magnus consistently tried to keep out of play thoughout the game.
Magnus admits he had slightly overestimated his possibilities when playing 17.Nc5. Loek took the pawn and after 23....Rc7 Magnus thought for a long time. He obviously looked at Nxh6 but found the continuation too risky relative to the potential upside. He chose Ne5 after which he did not have much of an advantage, if any, but also very little risk.
When Loek exchanged bishop for knight with 33....Bxc5, the position is evaluated as completely equal by the computers.
However, it is more tricky to play black than white, and when Loek offered draw with 35....g5, Magnus felt he could and should play on, as there was no risk at all for him.
At this point I was a bit worried as I knew Magnus did not eat enough before the game to enter a long tiring endgame in top shape. Fortunately most of the difficult choices lay on black, and Loek, relatively short on time, soon went astray with 38....g4?
Later, having a winning position Magnus also made a significant mistake with 43.Kc3.
(In the post mortem analysis he was a bit disgusted to discover that he had missed the "obvious" Ke4.)
When Loek continued to make some inaccuracies, Magnus did not miss the chance to finish him off and take the sole lead in the tournament with 2,5/3!
He is half a point ahead of Shirov, Karjakin and Eljanov.
During the game commentators said that the endgame would be easy to draw for black, probably due to the computer evaluations. And maybe it was relatively easy, I don't know.
The interesting point is that the computer analysis available obviously distorts the realism of spectators and commentators with regard to what is easy or not so easy to find over the board under time pressure in the 4th or 5th hour of the game.
As we have seen many many times, in practical play even top players go astray in seemingly "easy" endgames and this is one of the aspects making competitive chess interesting.
The margins are often very small.
Maybe Caissa has smiled at Magnus so far in this tournament, as opposed to what I think was the case during most of the Baku Grand-Prix.
Today Magnus plays black against pursuer Eljanov (and I'll make sure he eats properly before the game:-). )
Thursday and Friday Magnus will have the white pieces twice in a row before going into the free day.
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 11th 2008.
Aerosvit 2008 Round 3
Balcony view from our rooms at the 14th floor of the Foros Sanatorium Complex.
Such surroundings are a comfort when away from home for so long :-)
Peter Svidler and Loek Van Wely in pleasant conversation while Magnus is filling in his notation sheet.
Loek is both known for his sharp play as well as some excellent opening preparations. Magnus is trying to surprise Loek. 1.c4, your turn!
Tournament officials and the emblem of the Aerosvit tournament in Foros.
Loek responded 1....c6 and they entered the Slav Moscow variation. Magnus deviated from the main line pretty early capturing on f6.
They have reached move 24 by now, and there is that many pieces left. The position is fairly equal according to commentators but I expect Magnus to put some pressure on Loek in the endgame :-)
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 10th, 2008
Aerosvit 2008 Foros Round 2
Great day for the Ukrainian home favourites yesterday with Ivanchuk, Karjakin and Volokitin winning and Eljanov drawing. And some very exciting games as well.
Shirov also won in round 2 to take the sole lead with 2/2 !
The two non-decisive games yesterday were not so exciting. Eljanov played the same Grunfeld line against Van Wely that Shirov (won with) the day before, and it ended in a fairly early draw.
This winter the elite has mainly played 1.e4 against Magnus. Despite his broad repertoire they have probably felt that he is vulnerable. But lately Leko resorted to 1.d4 in the final Miskolc game and yesterday Peter Svidler chose 1.d4 as well. It could of course be a coincident, or a general trend in elite chess, but it could also be that his opponents are considering him less vulnerable against 1.e4 after winning several games with black in various openings.
Anyhow, Magnus chose the Queen Indian line with 4....Ba6 and Peter started spending time. The rest of the game followed Cheparinov-Kamsky, Baku 2008. None of the players were especially happy to draw in this manner but despite spending about an hour each none of them could find any improvement during the game.
Rybka prefers white in the end position after 22.b3 but Peter obviously did not think he had any significant edge and offered a draw that was accepted by Magnus.
Not an interesting game of course, but a good result for Magnus.
1,5 points after having played his two highest rated opponents is just a great start.
With 50% decided games, the organiser should be happy about the fighting spirit. No vacation mood in the playing hall.
Our luggage arrived yesterday during the game, and I would like to thank the organiser for all the help received to this end.
Yesterday we had heavy rain and thunder, and consequently the air is lighter today. Finally time to go for a swim in the sea.
Today, in round 3 Magnus plays white against Dutch Look Van Wely who should be in a great mood after Holland crushed Italy 3-0 in the European Championship in Football yesterday.
Magnus has a good score against Van Wely this year, but the Dutchman is notoriously dangerous over the board and we should be looking forward to an interesting game!
H.Carlsen,
Foros, Ukraine, June 10th 2008
Shirov also won in round 2 to take the sole lead with 2/2 !
The two non-decisive games yesterday were not so exciting. Eljanov played the same Grunfeld line against Van Wely that Shirov (won with) the day before, and it ended in a fairly early draw.
This winter the elite has mainly played 1.e4 against Magnus. Despite his broad repertoire they have probably felt that he is vulnerable. But lately Leko resorted to 1.d4 in the final Miskolc game and yesterday Peter Svidler chose 1.d4 as well. It could of course be a coincident, or a general trend in elite chess, but it could also be that his opponents are considering him less vulnerable against 1.e4 after winning several games with black in various openings.
Anyhow, Magnus chose the Queen Indian line with 4....Ba6 and Peter started spending time. The rest of the game followed Cheparinov-Kamsky, Baku 2008. None of the players were especially happy to draw in this manner but despite spending about an hour each none of them could find any improvement during the game.
Rybka prefers white in the end position after 22.b3 but Peter obviously did not think he had any significant edge and offered a draw that was accepted by Magnus.
Not an interesting game of course, but a good result for Magnus.
1,5 points after having played his two highest rated opponents is just a great start.
With 50% decided games, the organiser should be happy about the fighting spirit. No vacation mood in the playing hall.
Our luggage arrived yesterday during the game, and I would like to thank the organiser for all the help received to this end.
Yesterday we had heavy rain and thunder, and consequently the air is lighter today. Finally time to go for a swim in the sea.
Today, in round 3 Magnus plays white against Dutch Look Van Wely who should be in a great mood after Holland crushed Italy 3-0 in the European Championship in Football yesterday.
Magnus has a good score against Van Wely this year, but the Dutchman is notoriously dangerous over the board and we should be looking forward to an interesting game!
H.Carlsen,
Foros, Ukraine, June 10th 2008
Aerosvit Foros 2008 Round 1
Magnus and Shirov emerged as early leaders after beating Ivanchuk and Van Wely respectively. In addition we say several hard fought draws in round 1.
The home page did not have a direct link to the live-games but www.ruschess.com had.
Early in the game yesteday, Ivanchuk showed the same dynamic play as in the previous successful weeks. In addition to the captured pawn, he obviously had some positional compensation for the exchange sacrificed on f8. After thinking for a while, Magnus typically sacrificed another pawn in order to activate his bishop. He considered ceeding the c5 square to a black knight to be less of a problem in this specific position.
Magnus continued to put his pieces on the right squares to defend against the black kingside attack.
When he avoided the repetition of queen moves, he did not really see how either of them could make progress. White has to defend against the intrusion of the black bishop to e3 or d2, and it is difficult to support the a5 advance and recapture simultaneously. Blacks tactic simply does not work.
When Ivanchuk moved his knight from c5 via d7 and f6 to h5 Magnus was not sure if it was an attempt to win or an active defense. White was better although the advantage was not decisive until Ivanchuk impatiently played d5? Maybe he had missed Rce2! after which white is much better. None of the players had time trouble, and Magnus was a bit surprised by Ivanchuks impatient play. After the exchange of queens on f3 and rooks on f5, black is lost despite the two extra pawns. 1-0.
The luggage that arrived yesterday had supposedly been marked with our names by helpful airport officials but unfortunately it was not ours.
Latest news are that they have found two pieces of luggage in Simferopol with luggage tag numbers matching ours. So maybe the pictures from round 2 will feature Magnus in a different outfit than his NTG T-shirt worn yesterday (and the day before, and the day before, and...)
Today Magnus has black against Svidler, not an easy task.
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 9th 2008
The home page did not have a direct link to the live-games but www.ruschess.com had.
Early in the game yesteday, Ivanchuk showed the same dynamic play as in the previous successful weeks. In addition to the captured pawn, he obviously had some positional compensation for the exchange sacrificed on f8. After thinking for a while, Magnus typically sacrificed another pawn in order to activate his bishop. He considered ceeding the c5 square to a black knight to be less of a problem in this specific position.
Magnus continued to put his pieces on the right squares to defend against the black kingside attack.
When he avoided the repetition of queen moves, he did not really see how either of them could make progress. White has to defend against the intrusion of the black bishop to e3 or d2, and it is difficult to support the a5 advance and recapture simultaneously. Blacks tactic simply does not work.
When Ivanchuk moved his knight from c5 via d7 and f6 to h5 Magnus was not sure if it was an attempt to win or an active defense. White was better although the advantage was not decisive until Ivanchuk impatiently played d5? Maybe he had missed Rce2! after which white is much better. None of the players had time trouble, and Magnus was a bit surprised by Ivanchuks impatient play. After the exchange of queens on f3 and rooks on f5, black is lost despite the two extra pawns. 1-0.
The luggage that arrived yesterday had supposedly been marked with our names by helpful airport officials but unfortunately it was not ours.
Latest news are that they have found two pieces of luggage in Simferopol with luggage tag numbers matching ours. So maybe the pictures from round 2 will feature Magnus in a different outfit than his NTG T-shirt worn yesterday (and the day before, and the day before, and...)
Today Magnus has black against Svidler, not an easy task.
Henrik C.,
Foros, June 9th 2008
Aerosvit tournment Foros June 7-20 2008
Having spent only 4 nights at home, Magnus (and I) left for Aerosvit tournament in Foros at the Crimea peninsula in southern Ukraine Friday 6th.
Having to choose between a Baltic Air route via Riga arriving in Simferopol less than five hours after leaving Oslo Gardemoen and other alternatives taking 12 hours or more, the decision was an easy one.
And it sure looked good until we arrived in Simferopol, without our luggage.
As it turned out, no big problem really. With sunny weather, a good hotel and around 25 oC, we have managed fine without the luggage. The organisers have been helpful and several happy faces have told us the luggage had arrived in Simferopol today and will be brought to the hotel soon. Thanks!
Aerosvit is even stronger this year, featuring 7 2700+ players and a 2712 rating average.
With regard to strenght and composition, itt is a clear resemblance with the recent Grand-Prix tournament in Baku. There are 12 players here though versus 14 in Baku.
Magnus is top seeded although Ivanchuk unofficially has passed him after his fantastic Mtel performance.
And interestingly, the two of them are playing right now, and Magnus has just avoided a repetition of moves!
Magnus was lucky to draw no.3 and an aditional white. After Ivanchuk he will be black against Svidler, white against Van Wely, black against Eljanov, white against Shirov and Alekseev before the free day June 14th.
The hotel is the Foros Sanatorium Complex, beautifully situated at the black sea. The complex is quite old, but the rooms (at least ours) have been elegantly refurbished lately.
I sure look forward to try the inviting sea water (when the luggage arrives)!
H.Carlsen, 08 June 2008
Beachside internet cafe, Forus, Ukraine
Having to choose between a Baltic Air route via Riga arriving in Simferopol less than five hours after leaving Oslo Gardemoen and other alternatives taking 12 hours or more, the decision was an easy one.
And it sure looked good until we arrived in Simferopol, without our luggage.
As it turned out, no big problem really. With sunny weather, a good hotel and around 25 oC, we have managed fine without the luggage. The organisers have been helpful and several happy faces have told us the luggage had arrived in Simferopol today and will be brought to the hotel soon. Thanks!
Aerosvit is even stronger this year, featuring 7 2700+ players and a 2712 rating average.
With regard to strenght and composition, itt is a clear resemblance with the recent Grand-Prix tournament in Baku. There are 12 players here though versus 14 in Baku.
Magnus is top seeded although Ivanchuk unofficially has passed him after his fantastic Mtel performance.
And interestingly, the two of them are playing right now, and Magnus has just avoided a repetition of moves!
Magnus was lucky to draw no.3 and an aditional white. After Ivanchuk he will be black against Svidler, white against Van Wely, black against Eljanov, white against Shirov and Alekseev before the free day June 14th.
The hotel is the Foros Sanatorium Complex, beautifully situated at the black sea. The complex is quite old, but the rooms (at least ours) have been elegantly refurbished lately.
I sure look forward to try the inviting sea water (when the luggage arrives)!
H.Carlsen, 08 June 2008
Beachside internet cafe, Forus, Ukraine
Leko & Carlsen Miskolc Final Day
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
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
Leko & Carlsen - Miskolc Day 3
The weather in Miskolc has been very sunny with temperatures up to 30oC. Yesterday was very humid as well and the dark afternoon clouds promised rain that never came. Today is another beautiful day and we will surely see 30 oC again.
In game 5 yesterday Peter played the slightly unusual 10.Qe1 variation in the Sicilian Dragen, and Magnus chose the variation with 12..... cxd5 instead of the more normal Sxd5.
Magnus thought he was alright after the opening but he was not prepared for 20.Qa5! after which he spent more than 10 minutes evaluating the possibilities. Later he thought he should have exchanged queens and played the slightly worse rook ending. It may be better for white but black should hold with precise play.
Too late he realized that his plan Qc7-e7-h4 was giving white a serious advantage. He still thought he could create difficulties for white with 24....c3 but had missed 26.f4! after which he is was short on time as well as a pawn down with no compensation.
After 34.Qe5 black looked lost. Qh4 loses to Qg5! and Qb6 probably to f5!
Magnus found Kg7! to activate his king.
Exchanging queens brought white a very good rook endgame with 3 versus 1 pawn on the queenside and 2 versus 3 on the kingside. Fortunately for Magnus his king was slightly better placed to support the advance of pawns and the commentators say the position was theoretically drawn after about 40 moves.
Magnus generally played well in the endgame but supposedly made a mistake with 44....g4? instead of Kg3. Afterwards Peter supposedly also went wrong and when Magnus found 48.....Rg6! he has excellent drawing chances.
If white plays c5 Magnus checks on g4 and the rook goes to h4 in which case there will be a queen ending with white having an additional pawn. Theoretical drawn but black could easily make a mistake.
Peter may have thought that he could win with the two advanced pawns and played 51.Rxh3 Kxh3 52.c5.
Magnus had about 50 seconds (plus increments) at this time and after eliminating the other possible defences he found the drawing plan Rg4+ 53.Ka5 Rc4 spending two valuable tempi getting the rook into the right position. Afterwards it was a fairly straight forward draw as the black king arrives just in time to capture one pawn while sacrificing the rook on the other.
An exciting game and a narrow escape for Magnus. Peter again was well prepared and played excellent in the middle game while Magnus excelled in the endgame.
As white Magnus played 1.d4 this time and Peter entered the variation d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Qc7 and two moves later captured the pawn on c4. Magnus supposedly have good compensation for the pawn, and Kasparov has beaten Kramnik in the same line. Peter deviated from normal theory with 12.....Nxe4 instead of dxe4. Magnus felt he had some counterplay but never enough to play for a win. In the end he settled for rook and opposite colour bishop endgame which is drawn as long as he can keep the black rook out of play. Peter sacrificed his c-pawn, but as Magnus still can prevent black activating his rook blocking with his rook or bishop a draw was agreed after move 32.
In summary Magnus is very satisfied with the results so far and the lead 3,5-2,5 in the match while not entirely happy about his play. He has had serious difficulties in two games and only an advantage in the one game he won.
We expect Peter to really go for a win in game 7 today and it will surely be an exciting day!
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, Jun 1st 2008
Miskolc Game 3 & 4
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
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
Miskolc Day 1
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
Leko - Carlsen match Opening ceremony.
This winter Magnus was invited as the 4th opponent in the Leko+ series (rapid matches) in Hungarian Miskolc.
In 2005 Peter Leko played Adams in a fascinating fight. The result was 4-4 after three initial wins by Adams and a fantastic comeback by Leko.Two years ago Leko beat Karpov 4,5-3,5, but last year he lost with the same digits against Kramnik.
Yesterday the welcome dinner was held in a very elegant castle up in the hills outside Miskolc.
New BMW's featuring posters with "Leko & Carlsen match" bring the participants to and from throughout the event, and the transportation is very much in style with the organisation so far; well planned, comfortable and in great style!
Many thanks to organisers Katalin Tömösi, Attila Barva and the rest of the organisation!
A double digit number of journalists showed up at today's press conference headed by Miscolc mayor Sándor Káli. The variety and ingenuity of the questions were impressive.
Magnus expects the match to be hard fought and even. He has a poor score against Peter but having made steady progress lately, the chances of scoring a win and also of winning the match has improved.
Regarding the upcoming European Championship in Football, Magnus admitted that he will root for our fellow Scandinavians (the Swedish), while if any, he would probably pick Portugal as favourite this year.
The opening ceremony was held in the National Theatre of Miskolc.
The initial 20 minute play that was presented has been created solely for the match, and we thoroughly enjoyed the music, the Viking's and the farmer maidens song!
Chief Arbiter and WGM Zsuzsa Veroci introduced the players, and next was the drawing of lots.
Magnus was allowed to choose between two green leather cases, and inside he found a black art figure which translated to black in the first game on every match day (in game 1, 3, 5 and 7) and white in the second.
After the reception / cocktail party held in the 2nd floor of the theatre, Magnus has retreated to his room for preparation and rest.
Round 1 starts tomorrow at 16:30 and round 2 at 18:00. Live games at the excellent match homepage: http://www.lekocarlsen.hu/eng
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 27th 2008
In 2005 Peter Leko played Adams in a fascinating fight. The result was 4-4 after three initial wins by Adams and a fantastic comeback by Leko.Two years ago Leko beat Karpov 4,5-3,5, but last year he lost with the same digits against Kramnik.
Yesterday the welcome dinner was held in a very elegant castle up in the hills outside Miskolc.
New BMW's featuring posters with "Leko & Carlsen match" bring the participants to and from throughout the event, and the transportation is very much in style with the organisation so far; well planned, comfortable and in great style!
Many thanks to organisers Katalin Tömösi, Attila Barva and the rest of the organisation!
A double digit number of journalists showed up at today's press conference headed by Miscolc mayor Sándor Káli. The variety and ingenuity of the questions were impressive.
Magnus expects the match to be hard fought and even. He has a poor score against Peter but having made steady progress lately, the chances of scoring a win and also of winning the match has improved.
Regarding the upcoming European Championship in Football, Magnus admitted that he will root for our fellow Scandinavians (the Swedish), while if any, he would probably pick Portugal as favourite this year.
The opening ceremony was held in the National Theatre of Miskolc.
The initial 20 minute play that was presented has been created solely for the match, and we thoroughly enjoyed the music, the Viking's and the farmer maidens song!
Chief Arbiter and WGM Zsuzsa Veroci introduced the players, and next was the drawing of lots.
Magnus was allowed to choose between two green leather cases, and inside he found a black art figure which translated to black in the first game on every match day (in game 1, 3, 5 and 7) and white in the second.
After the reception / cocktail party held in the 2nd floor of the theatre, Magnus has retreated to his room for preparation and rest.
Round 1 starts tomorrow at 16:30 and round 2 at 18:00. Live games at the excellent match homepage: http://www.lekocarlsen.hu/eng
Henrik Carlsen,
Miskolc, May 27th 2008
Dutch league Final Round
On his way back from Baku, Magnus stopped for a few days in Denmark and also for a simul in Stavanger on the Norwegian southwest coast.
Having spent 5 days at home he travelled to Holland yesterday choosing to celebrate the Norwegian National Day (or Constitution Day) May 17th playing round 9 in the Dutch league.
He was supposed to be a surprise weapon in the potentially decisive final round, but his team Hilversum had already secured the top spot with one round to go.
All 10 teams played the final round at the same venue taking place in the town-hall of Hilversum.
Magnus played black on board one for the home team against GM Jan Werle (2581) from Hotels.nl.
The opening choice came as a bit of a surprise for Magnus, but he soon was better as white's 13.d5 is a mistake loosing a pawn.
(Magnus made the same mistake as white against Aronian in the Elista Candidates blitz)
Magnus thought he made some inaccurate moves later in the game but far ahead on the clock he felt quite comfortable.
Werle actively tried to take advantage of his advanced d-pawn but the attempt failed and he resigned after 39 moves a piece and a pawn down.
Here in Lommedalen, having had nearly to weeks of beautiful summer lately, we were reminded that the May weather at 60 degrees north is volatile.
This morning offered sleet, 2 oC and a white blanket covered the surrounding forest above 250 meters.
The weather improved slightly during the day and May 17th could be celebrated the traditional way with marching band and children parade, songs and games for the children at Lommedalen school.
With reference to the excellent top live-list maintained by Hans A. Runde at http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~ha/toplist.php, Magnus at 2775 recaptured the 5th spot (from Morozevich) that he lost to Ivanchuk last week.
Due to their excellent Mtel performances, Topalov and Ivanchuk are 2 and 1 points respectively, ahead of Magnus. For the first time I can remember (and probably ever) the top 6 players are now within a mere 25 rating points (between 2798 and 2775)!
There is more than 30 points from Magnus and Morozevich down to Radjabov in 7th place.
Next week Magnus will play a exhibition simul in Spain and travel onwards to Miscolc in Hungary for the 8-game rapid match Leko-Carlsen starting Wednesday May 28th.
Having spent 5 days at home he travelled to Holland yesterday choosing to celebrate the Norwegian National Day (or Constitution Day) May 17th playing round 9 in the Dutch league.
He was supposed to be a surprise weapon in the potentially decisive final round, but his team Hilversum had already secured the top spot with one round to go.
All 10 teams played the final round at the same venue taking place in the town-hall of Hilversum.
Magnus played black on board one for the home team against GM Jan Werle (2581) from Hotels.nl.
The opening choice came as a bit of a surprise for Magnus, but he soon was better as white's 13.d5 is a mistake loosing a pawn.
(Magnus made the same mistake as white against Aronian in the Elista Candidates blitz)
Magnus thought he made some inaccurate moves later in the game but far ahead on the clock he felt quite comfortable.
Werle actively tried to take advantage of his advanced d-pawn but the attempt failed and he resigned after 39 moves a piece and a pawn down.
Here in Lommedalen, having had nearly to weeks of beautiful summer lately, we were reminded that the May weather at 60 degrees north is volatile.
This morning offered sleet, 2 oC and a white blanket covered the surrounding forest above 250 meters.
The weather improved slightly during the day and May 17th could be celebrated the traditional way with marching band and children parade, songs and games for the children at Lommedalen school.
With reference to the excellent top live-list maintained by Hans A. Runde at http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~ha/toplist.php, Magnus at 2775 recaptured the 5th spot (from Morozevich) that he lost to Ivanchuk last week.
Due to their excellent Mtel performances, Topalov and Ivanchuk are 2 and 1 points respectively, ahead of Magnus. For the first time I can remember (and probably ever) the top 6 players are now within a mere 25 rating points (between 2798 and 2775)!
There is more than 30 points from Magnus and Morozevich down to Radjabov in 7th place.
Next week Magnus will play a exhibition simul in Spain and travel onwards to Miscolc in Hungary for the 8-game rapid match Leko-Carlsen starting Wednesday May 28th.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, May 17th 2008
Baku Final standing and closing ceremony.
The last round is old news, we have already received lots of congrat's on the previous posting. Thank you!
As might be expected Magnus was very very pleased with his last round victory against Bacrot.
What do you do when you are faced with the challenge of choosing strategy in the final round as black against a player who have lost his last two games when you don't want to lose because a draw will give you a very decent result while going for a win and a superb result is tempting?
Personally I would chicken out and play safe, but fortunately Magnus did not!
His opening choice and early manoeuvres was directed at creating an unbalanced position providing winning chances, of course preferable without taking too much risks.
After 13....Nd7 14.Nb3 f5, he knew he was slightly worse, but never felt in any real danger of losing.
24.Qa4 was probably a mistake, and Bacrot admitted after the game that he had missed the Re3-d3 plan.
26....Nf6 deserves an exclamation mark, making it very easy for white to go wrong.
Instead of 27.R7h6, the alternative Rg6 would have been strong in Magnus' opinion.
After 28.....Rxd3 black is probably already slightly better, and Magnus chose the continuation 29....Nxd5 instead of Qa4 to not allow the complications after 30.Qxf5.
After the mistake 37.Rg6, Magnus played a5 following his long term plan but missing the tactical shot Re8! winning a piece.
However, he was quite convinced that he had a winning position and it is difficult to find a clear save for white.
In the continuation Magnus played consistent while Bacrot probably made a few more accuracies, and after the white king and bishop was trapped on the 2nd row, it was just a matter of technique. 0-1.
Both Svidler and Navara enjoyed a winning streak in the last two rounds to improve their position considerably while the other top boards ended in draw.
During the tournament the tournament home page gave me the impression that the tie-break would favour his opponents Gashimov and Yue, but this was an illusion.
The regulations are very clear, there are no tie-break in each individual tournament. (The SB and Rp in the final standing of the Baku GP has no bearing what so ever.)
Consequently Carlsen, Gashimov and Yue, in alphabetical order :-), shared 1st place in Baku.
With regard to the Grand-Prix combined standing, the winners bring along 153 and a third GP point each, and for potential tie-break the 8 points may be significant (tie-break 2) and also in theory number of wins (tie-break 5) of which Magnus had 4 and the others 3 each.
We would like to thank the organiser and Global Chess for a well organised event, and the playing venue and hotel was excellent! Thank you!
Prior to the Leko 8-game rapid match in Miscolc May 28th-June1st, Magnus will attend some promotional events, starting with two simuls in Stavanger May 10th.
H.Carlsen
Lommedalen, May 7th 2008
Baku Round 12
Lots of fighting chess and decisive games today.
Magnus played 1.d4 and Adams went for the Nimzo-Indian line with 10.e3 Qa5+.
Magnus thought for a long time and decided to give the exchange with b4 for a long term positional advantage rather than Bd2 with a slightly better endgame.
The problem for black is that he would like to create counterplay to utilize his material advantage but it is very difficult to find an active plan.
Magnus played quickly and energetically while Adams tried to find the right moment to return the exchange.
The opening of the h-file did not really help black, and after allowing the tactical blow 29.b5!, white is better.
Adams was hesitant to return the exchange at this point as the endgame is slightly better for white. However, the alternative was an uncomfortable position difficult to defend.
In time trouble he was getting under pressure and by the blunder 40...Bxe4 the position goes from worse to lost for black.
Fortunately Magnus felt more clearheaded today and quickly found the winning line with 41. Rh8+ and 42. Rb8! (a line he thought he easily could have missed on a worse day.)
The endgame require some technique and when Adams tried to activate his king instead of moving it to the 8th rank, the nice shot 56.Ra6! decided the game as black cannot avoid losing his last pawn after the discovered check.
1-0, and shared 3rd place prior to the last round for Magnus, half a point behind leaders Yue and Gashimov.
Gashimove again looked very impressive with the white pieces and got Grishuk into trouble in the opening. After spending most of his time in a worse position, it soon turned ugly for black and Gashimov finished the game with a nice queen sack. His g-pawn cannot be stopped despite the black extra piece.
Inarkiev got a winning advantage from the opening against Wang Yue, but while the latter defended energetically, Inarkiev played some inaccurate moves and had to conceed a draw in the end.
Kamsky continued his downward trend. After a really impressive start of the tournament, he lost his 3rd game, this time against a well-playing Svidler.
Karjakin was a pawn up in the rook ending against Cheparinov and they played it all out for 92 moves to reach king versus king.
Mamedyarov played very agressively but did not get much from the opening as white against Bacrot. True to his style Mamedyarov sacrificed an exchange for a pawn and some initiative but the position looked fairly equal. After some inaccuracies by Bacrot before the first time control, white was slightly better but as late as around move 66 the ensuing endgame was possible to hold for black. Somewhere he went wrong in the end and Mamedyarov won to reach +2 together with Magnus and Grishuk.
Radjabov seemed to have an overwhelming attack against Navara but the latter defended well and after the time control black has the move active rooks. He rounded up two of Radjabov's pawns and the black resigned. -1 at his home turf clearly is a big disappointment for Radjabov while the Azeri's can be happy with their team performance with Gashimov in the lead and Mamedyarov on shared 3rd.
Yesterday I finally convinced Magnus to join me for a step machine workout in the hotel gym, and it did seem to work wonders!
In the last round Magnus has black against Bacrot while leaders Yue and Gashimov are white against Mameyarov and black against Adams respectively.
H.Carlsen
Baku, May 4th 2008
Magnus played 1.d4 and Adams went for the Nimzo-Indian line with 10.e3 Qa5+.
Magnus thought for a long time and decided to give the exchange with b4 for a long term positional advantage rather than Bd2 with a slightly better endgame.
The problem for black is that he would like to create counterplay to utilize his material advantage but it is very difficult to find an active plan.
Magnus played quickly and energetically while Adams tried to find the right moment to return the exchange.
The opening of the h-file did not really help black, and after allowing the tactical blow 29.b5!, white is better.
Adams was hesitant to return the exchange at this point as the endgame is slightly better for white. However, the alternative was an uncomfortable position difficult to defend.
In time trouble he was getting under pressure and by the blunder 40...Bxe4 the position goes from worse to lost for black.
Fortunately Magnus felt more clearheaded today and quickly found the winning line with 41. Rh8+ and 42. Rb8! (a line he thought he easily could have missed on a worse day.)
The endgame require some technique and when Adams tried to activate his king instead of moving it to the 8th rank, the nice shot 56.Ra6! decided the game as black cannot avoid losing his last pawn after the discovered check.
1-0, and shared 3rd place prior to the last round for Magnus, half a point behind leaders Yue and Gashimov.
Gashimove again looked very impressive with the white pieces and got Grishuk into trouble in the opening. After spending most of his time in a worse position, it soon turned ugly for black and Gashimov finished the game with a nice queen sack. His g-pawn cannot be stopped despite the black extra piece.
Inarkiev got a winning advantage from the opening against Wang Yue, but while the latter defended energetically, Inarkiev played some inaccurate moves and had to conceed a draw in the end.
Kamsky continued his downward trend. After a really impressive start of the tournament, he lost his 3rd game, this time against a well-playing Svidler.
Karjakin was a pawn up in the rook ending against Cheparinov and they played it all out for 92 moves to reach king versus king.
Mamedyarov played very agressively but did not get much from the opening as white against Bacrot. True to his style Mamedyarov sacrificed an exchange for a pawn and some initiative but the position looked fairly equal. After some inaccuracies by Bacrot before the first time control, white was slightly better but as late as around move 66 the ensuing endgame was possible to hold for black. Somewhere he went wrong in the end and Mamedyarov won to reach +2 together with Magnus and Grishuk.
Radjabov seemed to have an overwhelming attack against Navara but the latter defended well and after the time control black has the move active rooks. He rounded up two of Radjabov's pawns and the black resigned. -1 at his home turf clearly is a big disappointment for Radjabov while the Azeri's can be happy with their team performance with Gashimov in the lead and Mamedyarov on shared 3rd.
Yesterday I finally convinced Magnus to join me for a step machine workout in the hotel gym, and it did seem to work wonders!
In the last round Magnus has black against Bacrot while leaders Yue and Gashimov are white against Mameyarov and black against Adams respectively.
H.Carlsen
Baku, May 4th 2008
Baku Round 10 & 11
Mainly travelling to countries speaking Indo-European languages, we are normally not surprised to find many known words, both due to the common root of historic nouns and verbs and common loan words describing modern concepts.
But despite the fact that the Indo-European languages now spoken by half the globe had a common ancestor that probably spread out some 5000 years ago from the Russian steppes not far northwest of Azerbaijan, the Azeri language is similar to Turkish, originating on the steppes much further east.
The more surprising it has been to recognize many words also over here.
Most words are of course completely different, but many undertandable words obviously has migrated via Turkish, Russian or directly via media in modern time (for instance concert, stadium, bulvarda, olimpic, futbol,ekskursiya, restoraninda, avtobus etc.)
Round 11 saw only one decisive game.
Home hero Radjabov did not seem to have taken much benefit from the free day and lost quite badly to come-back-kid Cheparinov scoring his third win.
Magnus had the white pieces against tail-ender Navara and was eager to revenge his Corus 2007 loss as well as improving his position.
Navara surprised him by repeating the same Zaitsev variation in Ruy Lopez that he had lost with a few months back. Coming up with a novelty 21...Bb7 the computers says it is equal while both players afterwards agreed that white has a much more pleasant position. After trading down to a rook and queen endgame, Magnus was planning to put pressure on the black weaknesses when he thought he spotted a winning combination starting with 35.a4. Fortunately for Navara who had not foreseen this possibility, and unfortunately for Magnus, it does not work. Magnus had missed that e4 would be hanging after 39.g3. Magnus had to play 39.Qa2 instead forcing an immediate draw.
Bacrot and Karjakin (as black against Svidler and Gashimov respectively) had very promising positions but failed to convert the advantage this time.
Yesterday Magnus was black against leader Grishuk and played the Slav defence for the first time in 15 months. A surprised Grishuk spent much time but came up with some nice "silent" moves like 12.Be2 and 13.Bh4. Afterwards Magnus thought his break 14....c5 was premature although the computers give their support. After 18.Nxd4 he thought he was in trouble, and although Qd6 may hold tactically, he chose to enter a worse ending with Bxd4. Grishuk envisaged a crushing ending after 22....Rxb2 23.Bxf6 gxf6 24.d5 but Magnus had seen the subtle 22.....Rfd8 after which there probably are several ways for black to reach a drawn ending.
Grichuk chose to keep his black squared bishop as well as the rook but with 4 pawns each he went for repetition of moves despite his free pawn in the b-file. Draw.
Of course Magnus had needed more than a draw to be in contention for 1st, but under the circumstances he was quite pleased to have avoided a worse result yesterday.
Wang Yue beat Svidler in style. The latter had probably missed 21.Bg4! after which he chose to give an exchange for a pawn.
Bacrot-Inarkiev was a short wild game and both players were low on time when Bacrot inexplicably blundered his queen with 23.Qe7+?? (There's a knight on g8....)
Before the last two rounds Grishuk and Yue is in the lead with 7/11, closely followed by Gashimov at 6,5 and Magnus, Adams and Mamedyarov at 6.
Today Magnus has white against Adams. Let's hope for an interesting fight!
Henrik Carlsen,
Baku, May 4th 2008
But despite the fact that the Indo-European languages now spoken by half the globe had a common ancestor that probably spread out some 5000 years ago from the Russian steppes not far northwest of Azerbaijan, the Azeri language is similar to Turkish, originating on the steppes much further east.
The more surprising it has been to recognize many words also over here.
Most words are of course completely different, but many undertandable words obviously has migrated via Turkish, Russian or directly via media in modern time (for instance concert, stadium, bulvarda, olimpic, futbol,ekskursiya, restoraninda, avtobus etc.)
Round 11 saw only one decisive game.
Home hero Radjabov did not seem to have taken much benefit from the free day and lost quite badly to come-back-kid Cheparinov scoring his third win.
Magnus had the white pieces against tail-ender Navara and was eager to revenge his Corus 2007 loss as well as improving his position.
Navara surprised him by repeating the same Zaitsev variation in Ruy Lopez that he had lost with a few months back. Coming up with a novelty 21...Bb7 the computers says it is equal while both players afterwards agreed that white has a much more pleasant position. After trading down to a rook and queen endgame, Magnus was planning to put pressure on the black weaknesses when he thought he spotted a winning combination starting with 35.a4. Fortunately for Navara who had not foreseen this possibility, and unfortunately for Magnus, it does not work. Magnus had missed that e4 would be hanging after 39.g3. Magnus had to play 39.Qa2 instead forcing an immediate draw.
Bacrot and Karjakin (as black against Svidler and Gashimov respectively) had very promising positions but failed to convert the advantage this time.
Yesterday Magnus was black against leader Grishuk and played the Slav defence for the first time in 15 months. A surprised Grishuk spent much time but came up with some nice "silent" moves like 12.Be2 and 13.Bh4. Afterwards Magnus thought his break 14....c5 was premature although the computers give their support. After 18.Nxd4 he thought he was in trouble, and although Qd6 may hold tactically, he chose to enter a worse ending with Bxd4. Grishuk envisaged a crushing ending after 22....Rxb2 23.Bxf6 gxf6 24.d5 but Magnus had seen the subtle 22.....Rfd8 after which there probably are several ways for black to reach a drawn ending.
Grichuk chose to keep his black squared bishop as well as the rook but with 4 pawns each he went for repetition of moves despite his free pawn in the b-file. Draw.
Of course Magnus had needed more than a draw to be in contention for 1st, but under the circumstances he was quite pleased to have avoided a worse result yesterday.
Wang Yue beat Svidler in style. The latter had probably missed 21.Bg4! after which he chose to give an exchange for a pawn.
Bacrot-Inarkiev was a short wild game and both players were low on time when Bacrot inexplicably blundered his queen with 23.Qe7+?? (There's a knight on g8....)
Before the last two rounds Grishuk and Yue is in the lead with 7/11, closely followed by Gashimov at 6,5 and Magnus, Adams and Mamedyarov at 6.
Today Magnus has white against Adams. Let's hope for an interesting fight!
Henrik Carlsen,
Baku, May 4th 2008
Baku Round 9
At the round 9 press conference we saw two really tired youngsters. Are they playing too much?
Karjakin claimed his three recent tournaments in a row (Amber, Russian Team and Baku) is taking its toll. Especially after the long game he lost against Mamedyarov the day before, he did not feel in form yesterday.
Magnus has felt slightly out of form throughout this tournament although it is difficult to point out a specific reason. Anyhow he was very tired yesterday after spending most of the night preparing for the round, and he really appreciated a day off today.
In their game, Magnus again chose the Sicilian Dragen and this seemed to take Karjakin somewhat by surprise, but of course not to the extent felt by Radjabov in round 7.
Karjakin spent a lot of time around move 14-16 but admitted in the press conference that as he did not manage to calculate well at all, he decided to exchange pieces and enter a fairly equal ending.
After exchanging queens white is probably not even better any longer despite the week black d-pawn.
Having blitzed out most of the first 20 moves, Magnus had to start concentrating and spent nearly an hour to the time control to make sure he did not make any mistakes in the double rook ending.
He thought that white's plan moving his king to b4 was slightly erroneous, but he discovered his advantage one move too late to have any practical winning chances.
When Karjakin played Ra2 Magnus could have played Rd1 directly with an unpleasant ending for white according to Karjakin.
After Kb6 Re2 Rd1 black is also better but has no real winning chances.
Black could force the exchange of pawns leading to a drawn ending with one extra pawn for white, and Magnus in the end chose a quick route to king versus king.
Draw, a result Magnus was reasonably happy with although I don't think he would have minded a fighting game either.
Grishuk patiently exploited his positional advantage against Inarkiev to take a clear lead with 6/9 with 4 rounds to go.
Yue and Gashimov drew their games as black to maintain +2 and shared 2nd place, while Adams (beating Svidler), Mamedyarov (countering and winning against Navara) and Radjabov (beating Kamsky) joined Magnus at +1 and share 4th place.
Despite his good rating performance of 2750+, Magnus is not really satisfied with his results so far and is eager to do well in the last four rounds.
Today's excursion featured a long program that was cut slightly short due to the unusually unaccommodating weather with wind and some rain.
After a visit to the "Alley of Honour" we drove to Qosha Qala, one of the 12 entrance point to the old city.
After an interesting visit to Shirvanshah's Palace from the 15th century, a walk through the old city revealed the expediency of local administration and the importance of chess in Baku.
Following his two wins in row, a street has already been named after Mamedyarov!
Lunch was enjoyed in the Sahil seaside restaurant.
Many thanks to the organiser for the varied and nice excursions!
Tonight there was another football match, this time between seven Grand-Prix players and a mixed team of seconds, organisers, journalists, and unfortunately for the rest of the team, yours truly (without glasses).
At half time the score was 1-1, but in the end the chess players enjoyed a well deserved and clear victory against a decimated mixed team.
Tomorrow Magnus has the white pieces (and pawns) against Navara in round 10.
Henrik Carlsen,
Baku, May 1st, 2008
Karjakin claimed his three recent tournaments in a row (Amber, Russian Team and Baku) is taking its toll. Especially after the long game he lost against Mamedyarov the day before, he did not feel in form yesterday.
Magnus has felt slightly out of form throughout this tournament although it is difficult to point out a specific reason. Anyhow he was very tired yesterday after spending most of the night preparing for the round, and he really appreciated a day off today.
In their game, Magnus again chose the Sicilian Dragen and this seemed to take Karjakin somewhat by surprise, but of course not to the extent felt by Radjabov in round 7.
Karjakin spent a lot of time around move 14-16 but admitted in the press conference that as he did not manage to calculate well at all, he decided to exchange pieces and enter a fairly equal ending.
After exchanging queens white is probably not even better any longer despite the week black d-pawn.
Having blitzed out most of the first 20 moves, Magnus had to start concentrating and spent nearly an hour to the time control to make sure he did not make any mistakes in the double rook ending.
He thought that white's plan moving his king to b4 was slightly erroneous, but he discovered his advantage one move too late to have any practical winning chances.
When Karjakin played Ra2 Magnus could have played Rd1 directly with an unpleasant ending for white according to Karjakin.
After Kb6 Re2 Rd1 black is also better but has no real winning chances.
Black could force the exchange of pawns leading to a drawn ending with one extra pawn for white, and Magnus in the end chose a quick route to king versus king.
Draw, a result Magnus was reasonably happy with although I don't think he would have minded a fighting game either.
Grishuk patiently exploited his positional advantage against Inarkiev to take a clear lead with 6/9 with 4 rounds to go.
Yue and Gashimov drew their games as black to maintain +2 and shared 2nd place, while Adams (beating Svidler), Mamedyarov (countering and winning against Navara) and Radjabov (beating Kamsky) joined Magnus at +1 and share 4th place.
Despite his good rating performance of 2750+, Magnus is not really satisfied with his results so far and is eager to do well in the last four rounds.
Today's excursion featured a long program that was cut slightly short due to the unusually unaccommodating weather with wind and some rain.
After a visit to the "Alley of Honour" we drove to Qosha Qala, one of the 12 entrance point to the old city.
After an interesting visit to Shirvanshah's Palace from the 15th century, a walk through the old city revealed the expediency of local administration and the importance of chess in Baku.
Following his two wins in row, a street has already been named after Mamedyarov!
Lunch was enjoyed in the Sahil seaside restaurant.
Many thanks to the organiser for the varied and nice excursions!
Tonight there was another football match, this time between seven Grand-Prix players and a mixed team of seconds, organisers, journalists, and unfortunately for the rest of the team, yours truly (without glasses).
At half time the score was 1-1, but in the end the chess players enjoyed a well deserved and clear victory against a decimated mixed team.
Tomorrow Magnus has the white pieces (and pawns) against Navara in round 10.
Henrik Carlsen,
Baku, May 1st, 2008
Baku Round 7 and 8.
Awfully late reporting from round 7 and 8.
I'll just comment briefly giving some of Magnus own thoughts about his games.
Having scored 50% after 6 rounds, Magnus was eager to play for three rather than two results against Radjabov as black in round 7.
His surprise weapon this time was the Sicilian Dragen and Radjabov obviously was caught off guard and spent quite some time early on.
When Radjabov played 15.g4 Magnus had to start spending time as well, as this is an unusual move order that supposedly does not give white an advantage. At the press conference Radjabov admitted that he had mixed up the move order in the opening, but still thought his attack would work.
The complexity of these lines can be illustrated by the fact that it takes the computers a long time to understand that white has compensation for the pawn and the exchange by playing 18.Qh2.
Having had a clear advantage on the clock Magnus spent more than 30 minutes checking 19....Qa5 but Radjabov went on to spend most of his remaining time calculating the slightly faulty 22.Nf5?! which he thought worked.
(Unknowingly they had followed a database game until move 19!)
When Radjabov chose the ambitious 24.Qh4 instead of entering a worse but maybe drawn ending with Bxe6, Magnus thought he was winning. But still the position was amazingly complex and instead of the dubious 25.Rf1, the alternative Nd5 would have been more challenging for black.
With about a minute left for 12-13 moves, Radjabov had to blitz until the time control and when Magnus played the natural looking 32....e2?, Radjabov could have drawn with Qd7! which none of the players spotted.
After 33.Qf3+ the black king escapes and the e-pawn decided the game at the time control. 0-1.
In conclusion both players put up a great fight but Magnus made the least mistakes this time.
Gashimov impressively beat Kamsky with a nice pawn storm to join the leaders Grishuk and Yue at +2, while Karjakin outplayed Inarkiev from an even position to get back to 50% and Cheparinov continued his uncompromising style to score his second win in a row against Mamedyarov.
Magnus of course was eager to continue his success when white against Cheparinov in round 8. Against 1.c4 Cheparinov somewhat surprisingly e5 and they played a reversed Sicilian. Black blitzed out moves until 13.e3 Nb5, and the opening did not give Magnus much of an advantage. However, his manoeuvring over the next few moves improved his position and he had a slight but comfortable advantage when Cheparinov blundered with 22.....Ne6 quickly realizing that Magnus could take on b7 due to the follow-up Qc4!
Magnus was afterwards still very annoyed about having missed Nb7 until seconds after having responded 23.h4. Too late...
He played 27.Qe4 as he thought the ending with queens off would be somewhat unpleasant for black due to the pawn structure, but Cheparinov defended accurately and Magnus never got any real winning chances.
Mamedyarov continued his up's and down's winning against Karjakin, while Inarkiev beat Navara after the latter blundered in time trouble. The rest of the games ended draw leaving the standing at the top unchanged with Grishuk, Yue and Gashimov at 5/8, Magnus and Kamsky half a point behind in shared 4th.
Yesterday night Magnus relaxed with Champion League football enjoying the great battle between Man U and Barcelona.
Today Magnus has black against Karjakin, a tough challenge although Karjakin has not shown his best form in this tournament. Lets hope for a great fight!
Henrik Carlsen,
Baku, April 30th, 2008
Baku Round 6
On the free day Saturday I joined the excursion offered by the organiser while Magnus chose to sleep long and rest.
The first stop was a traditional factory for handmade carpets. 
Despite having to start their career at a very early age, the relatively strenuous work and long hours, being a knitter is considered a prestigious job and the knowledge is often passed down from mother to daughter etc.
Doing some mathematics (30-60 threads per square centimetre multiplies to 10-20 million threads for a 5mx7m carpet), it suddenly made sense that it takes some 8 months to finish one large carpet despite the nimble trained hands at work.
The finished carpets are washed and stretched and sure are beautiful but also comes at a cost of 2-200 kusd a piece dependant on fabric and size. (The above is a 2500 usd silk carpet.)
The next stop for the sightseeing caravan was the war cemetery near the seaside with a breathtaking view of Baku and the harbour.
Afterwards we enjoyed a nice lunch with folklore music in the 14th century Caravansara restaurant (and hotel) within the old city close to the maiden tower.
Magnus preferred a game of table tennis, while most of the players continued from the sightseeing to join the football match between the Azeri and a mixed "All star team". After 7-7, the stars won the penalty shootout.
Round 6 brought 3 more decisive games. Cheparinov countered against Inarkiev to score his first win, Kamsky won a long, tense and probably very good game against Adams, while Svidler outplayed Karjakin.
Magnus played 1.Nf3 against Gashimov and after a quite set up he found a very promising continuation against blacks somewhat passive play. After 18.Nb5 Bxb5 19.cxb5 he was clearly better, but afterwards he claimed that his 23.Bd2 allowing the black bishop to go to d4 was a clear mistake.
Magnus continued to put some pressure on Gashimov but while Magnus made some more inaccuracies while Gashimov defended well, the position got closer to equal and after the exchange of queens, black played 35...d5 and Magnus found nothing better than forcing a draw.
Magnus was clearly not happy with the outcome of the game, but if he continues to create an advantage in the middle game the chance of scoring more wins are of course very much present.
Today Magnus is black against home favourite Radjabov. Let's hope for a great fight!
Henrik Carlsen,
Baku, April 28th 2008
Baku Round 4 & 5
On a positive note Magnus has felt in better form the last two days. Unfortunately it has not resulted in more than 0,5/2.
Yesterday as black against Mamedyarov Magnus chose a quiet set-up in the Queen Indian, but after 13.Nd3 Magnus correctly concluded that he had to play d5 and accept a slightly worse position with a potential white king-side attack. After some accurate moves Magnus was starting to feel more confident, and had probably equalised with 23.... Rc8.
They repeated moves a couple of times but in the spirit of no-draw Mamedyarov deviated with 28.Qf3.
At this point Magnus based his calculations on invading the 2nd rank with his rook and optimistically played Qb6. Too late he discovered that the rook would get trapped on c2 and consequently had to start fighting for survival. When his 30....a5 surprisingly was meet by the nice sacrifice Bxa5!, the position was probably lost.
Mamedyarov finished in style and Magnus resigned after 6 more moves.
Adams was allowed to demonstrate the strength of a white pawn on h6 in his game against Navara and won after a nice combination. Wang Yue played convincingly to beat hapless Cheparinov while the other games ended draw.
Anti-cheating is taken seriously during the Grand-Prix and all players has to enter the playing hall from the hotel patio and is checked thoroughly. Magnus' juice and water mix was accepted though :-)
Today Magnus faced World-Cup winner Gata Kamsky and the latter played the Caro-Kann and seemed very well prepared. He started the press conference by saying that the game was a long theoretical duel.
Magnus felt he played a good game and after long calculations he chose the thematically interesting sacrifice of his g-pawn to gain the initiative.
However, Kamsky defended very well and steered the game into a slightly worse ending that he held rather easily in the end. Draw.
As black Wang Yue continued to impress by outplaying an overpressing Karjakin in a rook and bishop ending to join Grishuk in the lead with 3,5/5.
The rest of the games ended draw and Adams, Gashimov, Kamsky and Radjabov has 3/5 sharing 3rd to 6th place while Magnus is shared 7th to 10th with 2,5.
Tomorrow is a free day with sightseeing and football.
On Sunday Magnus has white against Gashimov in round 6 out of 13.
Yesterday as black against Mamedyarov Magnus chose a quiet set-up in the Queen Indian, but after 13.Nd3 Magnus correctly concluded that he had to play d5 and accept a slightly worse position with a potential white king-side attack. After some accurate moves Magnus was starting to feel more confident, and had probably equalised with 23.... Rc8.
They repeated moves a couple of times but in the spirit of no-draw Mamedyarov deviated with 28.Qf3.
At this point Magnus based his calculations on invading the 2nd rank with his rook and optimistically played Qb6. Too late he discovered that the rook would get trapped on c2 and consequently had to start fighting for survival. When his 30....a5 surprisingly was meet by the nice sacrifice Bxa5!, the position was probably lost.
Mamedyarov finished in style and Magnus resigned after 6 more moves.
Adams was allowed to demonstrate the strength of a white pawn on h6 in his game against Navara and won after a nice combination. Wang Yue played convincingly to beat hapless Cheparinov while the other games ended draw.
Anti-cheating is taken seriously during the Grand-Prix and all players has to enter the playing hall from the hotel patio and is checked thoroughly. Magnus' juice and water mix was accepted though :-)
Today Magnus faced World-Cup winner Gata Kamsky and the latter played the Caro-Kann and seemed very well prepared. He started the press conference by saying that the game was a long theoretical duel.
Magnus felt he played a good game and after long calculations he chose the thematically interesting sacrifice of his g-pawn to gain the initiative.
However, Kamsky defended very well and steered the game into a slightly worse ending that he held rather easily in the end. Draw.
As black Wang Yue continued to impress by outplaying an overpressing Karjakin in a rook and bishop ending to join Grishuk in the lead with 3,5/5.
The rest of the games ended draw and Adams, Gashimov, Kamsky and Radjabov has 3/5 sharing 3rd to 6th place while Magnus is shared 7th to 10th with 2,5.
Tomorrow is a free day with sightseeing and football.
On Sunday Magnus has white against Gashimov in round 6 out of 13.
Henrik Carlsen
Baku, April 25th 2008
Baku Round 2 & 3
Round 2 yesterday featured two more decided games.
Adams won a pawn in the middle game against Cheparinov and with pawns on both king and queen side he managed to win the rook endgame. Mamedyarov sacrificed or blundered an exchange for a pawn against Inarkiev who wrapped up the game efficiently to move back to 50%.
Magnus defended the black pieces against Svidler in the Ruy Lopez and was hoping for an unbalanced situation. However, after 15.a4 he understood that he was worse and after a long thought he had to defend against the invasion of the white queen with Qe7 and effectively giving up his ambitions in the game.
White had some pressure on the queenside and Magnus chose to free himself with 19....c5.
My computer dislikes the sack but the players agreed in the press conference that it leads to a drawn ending. However, due to the pawn structure Magnus had to defend quite accurately in the 3 versus 2 pawn rook ending and was honestly relieved when Peter repeated the position for the third time.
He could well have tortured Magnus another hour or two.
Before round 3 Adams, Grichuk, Kamsky and Radjabov had +1 with Magnus in shared 5th at 50%.
As white against Inarkiev Magnus needed a win and he chose an opening he has played a couple of times before.
Magnus thought he was slightly better after 10.0-0 Nh5 and after 12.Rfe1 Na5 but after the mistake 13.Bb5 he suddenly discovered that he was clearly worse due to 15...e5!
Magnus kept on making some inaccurate moves and the situation looked pretty difficult when he finally spent lots of time trying to find a way out and found 19.Bd1.
He thought it would be difficult to defend against the black kingside attack but Inarkiev continued to spend too much time on the clock and played 24...Nd2 as a practical solution in the ensuing time trouble.
The position was pretty equal but Magnus tried to complicate with 26.e5! and after 27...f6 ?! black is still OK but has to defend accurately against the threats on the white squares.
Just before the time control Inarkiev played 34...c4 ? giving up the c-pawn after which the ending is very difficult for him.
After the time control Magnus finished in style with the combined threats of the a-pawn and white square domination around the black king.
Puuuh, why does he have to make us so nervous:-)
Four more games was decided today with Karjakin beating Adams in a seemingly even endgame, Grischuk securing another black win against Navara this time, Gashimov impressingly beat Svidler and Bacrot won a rook a endgame against Cheparinov in which the latter overpressed.
With 9 out of 21 games with decisive ending, spectators and organisers should be fairly satisfied despite a few games ending in repetition of moves.
Grishuk has taken a clear lead with 2,5 points ahead of Magnus, Gashimov, Kamsky, Karjakin and Radjabov at 2 while at the bottom Cheparinov is in real trouble at 0/3.
Peter from Chessvibes is working for the organiser and there are lots of videos from the press conferences at the tournament home page (http://baku2008.fide.com/).
Baku offers exiting sightseeing opportunities. We haven't been much around yet, but a visit to the "old town" by the harbour is classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and a visit is a must during our Baku stay.
After the game and dinner we played some table tennis today.
Magnus is hoping to get more energetic in the rounds to come as he hasn't felt really fit for fight during the first three rounds.
Henrik Carlsen,
Baku, April 23th 2008
Baku Grand-Prix Round 1
At 14:00 I went by the playing hall and observed lots of people making the preparations for round 1, but by 15:00 everything was ready.
Wang Yue had arrived late last night and all 14 participants were in their seats for the start of the game.
Magnus played 1.e4 and Yue immediately deviated from what he has played before entering the Berlin wall in the Ruy Lopez.
Magnus avoided mainlines but did not get much from the opening and after 20.Qh3 the position was equal.
Over the next moves Magnus thought Yue played some inaccuracies and after the exchange of knights (and one rook) the ending is better for white.
Afterwards Magnus says he missed some slightly more promising continuations but does not feel that he ever was close to a decisive advantage.
In the end Yue defended well and a repetition of moves ended the game around move 60 with one rook and one pawn left each.
Mamedyarov-Svidler ended in a perpetual check against the white king moving back and forth between a6 and b5 but according to Magnus they followed theory most of the way except for a change in move order at one point.
Karjakin was white against Navara and black was much better when he started to collapse.
Finally he tricked Karjakin and could save the draw by perpetual check.
Radjabov-Adams never looked really dangerous for any of the players and with queen + 7 pawns each it ended in a perpetual check by black.
Gashimov - Bacrot was an interesting fight and after black had equalised he got into trouble when low on time. Magnus says Gashimov could have obtained a decisive advantage quite early with Qxf7! (treathening Kxf7 Ne5+ Kg8 Nxc6 with a rook fork) something both players probably missed.
The knight versus bishop endgame looked much better for white but Bacrot managed to hold the draw somehow.
Inakiev had a clear advantage as white against Kamsky in the middle game and sacrificed a piece for 4 pawns. However, with little time left he allowed Kamsky to take control on the kingside and lost close to the second time control.
Cheparinov-Grishuk was a tense fight until white sacked an exchange for dubious compensation.
The white h-pawn looked dangerous but Grishuk had calculated it out till the end and got his rook to h8 in time.
Cheparinov duly resigned.
Quite a start in round 1 with 2 black wins and zero white wins.
After the game we found a nice Italian restaurant nearby!
Tomorrow Magnus is black against P.Svidler.
(Remarkably Magnus has have white against all 5 players below 2700 and consequently black against most of his strongest opponents in this tournament.
The weather over here is slightly clouded, some sun and close to 20 oC at noon.
Henrik Carlsen
Baku, April 21th 2008
Wang Yue had arrived late last night and all 14 participants were in their seats for the start of the game.
Magnus played 1.e4 and Yue immediately deviated from what he has played before entering the Berlin wall in the Ruy Lopez.
Magnus avoided mainlines but did not get much from the opening and after 20.Qh3 the position was equal.
Over the next moves Magnus thought Yue played some inaccuracies and after the exchange of knights (and one rook) the ending is better for white.
Afterwards Magnus says he missed some slightly more promising continuations but does not feel that he ever was close to a decisive advantage.
In the end Yue defended well and a repetition of moves ended the game around move 60 with one rook and one pawn left each.
Mamedyarov-Svidler ended in a perpetual check against the white king moving back and forth between a6 and b5 but according to Magnus they followed theory most of the way except for a change in move order at one point.
Karjakin was white against Navara and black was much better when he started to collapse.
Finally he tricked Karjakin and could save the draw by perpetual check.
Radjabov-Adams never looked really dangerous for any of the players and with queen + 7 pawns each it ended in a perpetual check by black.
Gashimov - Bacrot was an interesting fight and after black had equalised he got into trouble when low on time. Magnus says Gashimov could have obtained a decisive advantage quite early with Qxf7! (treathening Kxf7 Ne5+ Kg8 Nxc6 with a rook fork) something both players probably missed.
The knight versus bishop endgame looked much better for white but Bacrot managed to hold the draw somehow.
Inakiev had a clear advantage as white against Kamsky in the middle game and sacrificed a piece for 4 pawns. However, with little time left he allowed Kamsky to take control on the kingside and lost close to the second time control.
Cheparinov-Grishuk was a tense fight until white sacked an exchange for dubious compensation.
The white h-pawn looked dangerous but Grishuk had calculated it out till the end and got his rook to h8 in time.
Cheparinov duly resigned.
Quite a start in round 1 with 2 black wins and zero white wins.
After the game we found a nice Italian restaurant nearby!
Tomorrow Magnus is black against P.Svidler.
(Remarkably Magnus has have white against all 5 players below 2700 and consequently black against most of his strongest opponents in this tournament.
The weather over here is slightly clouded, some sun and close to 20 oC at noon.
Henrik Carlsen
Baku, April 21th 2008
Baku Grand-Prix opening cermony.
Magnus (and I) arrived in Baku early this morning. The Austrian Airlines flight due at 03:25 was ahead of schedule and following efficient Visa and luggage handling and a pick up by the organisor we arrived at the accommodation and playing venue hotel Hyatt Regency before 4 AM!
The hotel is situated about 2 kilometres from the sea and is very good.
The rooms are good, the internet connection fast and the complimentary Oasis sports club is just excellent.
The technical meeting at 15:00 was conducted in a very light and positive atmosphere with 10 players present.
Each round will be played at 15:00 except for the last round starting one hour earlier.
The time control is 2h/40 + 1h/20 + 15min & 30s increment after move 60.
There was some discussions around the introduction of "Sofia" rules concluding that the players are not allowed to speak to their opponent nor to any other player during the games, period.
A draw request following a repetition of moves, lack of material to mate or a dead drawn position has to be directed to the arbiter Faik Gasanov and he may also draw upon the advice of technical advisor Zurab Azmaiparashvili.
The opening ceremony was held in the philharmoni hall in the city centre close to the sea, and 12 players attended. Navara and Yue has not arrived yet.
The speeches focused on the importance for Azerbaijan to host this first tournament in the 2008-9 Grand Prix series. It is dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the birth of the former head of state H.Aliyev (which I'm not going to forget for some time as it was mentioned more than 10 times in each language during the opening ceremony....)
The drawing of lots was based on numbers concealed within a beautiful wooden box presented to each player. Surprisingly the players drew in alphabetical order (it is the first time we experience this in a high level round robin tournament), but this turned out well for Magnus who picked no. 3 and an extra white for the first time in a long while.
In round 1 he is up against Chinese Yue Wang who is scheduled to arrive late this evening.
In round 2 Magnus is black against Svidler and so on.
The artistic part following the drawing of lots included songs, a beautiful piano performance as well as a small high quality band playing traditional instruments.
Ready to go!
Henrik Carlsen
Baku, April 20th 2008.
The hotel is situated about 2 kilometres from the sea and is very good.
The rooms are good, the internet connection fast and the complimentary Oasis sports club is just excellent.
The technical meeting at 15:00 was conducted in a very light and positive atmosphere with 10 players present.
Each round will be played at 15:00 except for the last round starting one hour earlier.
The time control is 2h/40 + 1h/20 + 15min & 30s increment after move 60.
There was some discussions around the introduction of "Sofia" rules concluding that the players are not allowed to speak to their opponent nor to any other player during the games, period.
A draw request following a repetition of moves, lack of material to mate or a dead drawn position has to be directed to the arbiter Faik Gasanov and he may also draw upon the advice of technical advisor Zurab Azmaiparashvili.
The opening ceremony was held in the philharmoni hall in the city centre close to the sea, and 12 players attended. Navara and Yue has not arrived yet.
The speeches focused on the importance for Azerbaijan to host this first tournament in the 2008-9 Grand Prix series. It is dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the birth of the former head of state H.Aliyev (which I'm not going to forget for some time as it was mentioned more than 10 times in each language during the opening ceremony....)
The drawing of lots was based on numbers concealed within a beautiful wooden box presented to each player. Surprisingly the players drew in alphabetical order (it is the first time we experience this in a high level round robin tournament), but this turned out well for Magnus who picked no. 3 and an extra white for the first time in a long while.
In round 1 he is up against Chinese Yue Wang who is scheduled to arrive late this evening.
In round 2 Magnus is black against Svidler and so on.
The artistic part following the drawing of lots included songs, a beautiful piano performance as well as a small high quality band playing traditional instruments.
Ready to go!
Henrik Carlsen
Baku, April 20th 2008.
Grand-Prix series 2008-9 starting in Baku April 21st
Following his return from Nice, Magnus has stayed at home for 3 weeks going to school etc.
As opposed to last year he did not participate in the recently finished Gausdal Classics (A-group won in style by Kaidanov), while the rest of the family spent at least some days up at Gausdal and his sisters Ellen and Ingrid (as well as your truly) participated in the Elo-group.
While the top 4 players in the world have decided against playing the Grand-Prix series 2008-2009 for various reasons, most of the remaining top 20 are in. The Baku 14-man field constitute a strong category 19 tournament, and with 2 rest days only and "Sofia" rules, it's going to be a tough and demanding tournament.
Participants for this first Grand Prix tournament are Magnus Carlsen (2765), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752), Teimour Radjabov (2751), Peter Svidler (2746), Sergey Karjakin (2732), Michael Adams (2729), Gata Kamsky (2726), Alexander Grischuk (2716), Etienne Bacrot (2705), Ivan Cheparinov (2695), Wang Yue (2689), Ernesto Inarkiev (2684), Vugar Gashimov (2679) and David Navara (2672).
As World ranked 5 on April 1st 2008, Magnus is top ranked in Baku, and without Aronian present, there is a small step down to 2nd and 3rd rated Mamedyarov and Radjabov.
The whole field is tight and bearing in mind the effect of typical performance variability, all participants are possible winners not only in theory.
It would be surprising though if one of the below 2700 emerge victorious.
Magnus is quite pleased to be top ranked as it represents a factual recognition of his Corus and Linares successes this year, although the ranking among the top 7-8 players cannot be taken as a significant indication of a difference in odds of winning in Baku.
With his tight program of playing and travelling, Magnus chooses to travel to Baku on the 19th (arriving 20th in the early morning local time), although this might be a bit risky taking into account the 15 hours travel and 3 hours time difference and I've noticed that for instance Kamsky arrived in Baku several days ago.
It'll be the first time for Magnus (and myself) in Azerbaijan but based on our pleasant experience with Azeri players, coaches and arbiters it'll surely be a great experience!
Henrik Carlsen
Vienna, April 19th 2008.
As opposed to last year he did not participate in the recently finished Gausdal Classics (A-group won in style by Kaidanov), while the rest of the family spent at least some days up at Gausdal and his sisters Ellen and Ingrid (as well as your truly) participated in the Elo-group.
While the top 4 players in the world have decided against playing the Grand-Prix series 2008-2009 for various reasons, most of the remaining top 20 are in. The Baku 14-man field constitute a strong category 19 tournament, and with 2 rest days only and "Sofia" rules, it's going to be a tough and demanding tournament.
Participants for this first Grand Prix tournament are Magnus Carlsen (2765), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752), Teimour Radjabov (2751), Peter Svidler (2746), Sergey Karjakin (2732), Michael Adams (2729), Gata Kamsky (2726), Alexander Grischuk (2716), Etienne Bacrot (2705), Ivan Cheparinov (2695), Wang Yue (2689), Ernesto Inarkiev (2684), Vugar Gashimov (2679) and David Navara (2672).
As World ranked 5 on April 1st 2008, Magnus is top ranked in Baku, and without Aronian present, there is a small step down to 2nd and 3rd rated Mamedyarov and Radjabov.
The whole field is tight and bearing in mind the effect of typical performance variability, all participants are possible winners not only in theory.
It would be surprising though if one of the below 2700 emerge victorious.
Magnus is quite pleased to be top ranked as it represents a factual recognition of his Corus and Linares successes this year, although the ranking among the top 7-8 players cannot be taken as a significant indication of a difference in odds of winning in Baku.
With his tight program of playing and travelling, Magnus chooses to travel to Baku on the 19th (arriving 20th in the early morning local time), although this might be a bit risky taking into account the 15 hours travel and 3 hours time difference and I've noticed that for instance Kamsky arrived in Baku several days ago.
It'll be the first time for Magnus (and myself) in Azerbaijan but based on our pleasant experience with Azeri players, coaches and arbiters it'll surely be a great experience!
Henrik Carlsen
Vienna, April 19th 2008.
Amber 2008 Final Rounds
Magnus returned to Norway yesterday after Amber 2008 was finalised on Friday with round 11 and prize giving.
In round 10 Magnus played two draws with Peter Leko and in round 11 two more draws against Morozevich.
Against Leko Magnus was white in the blindfold game and got a nice positional advantage in the Ruy Lopez.
When Peter played 23...Qe6 Magnus exchanged queens as he had forgot about the rook on e8. After for instance 24.Qc2 he felt white would have been slighty but comfortably better, but after 24.Qxe6 Rxe6 black got counterplay against Magnus' weak b2-pawn and after some dubious moves Magnus had to accept a rook plus knight ending a pawn down.
Again Magnus defended well and a draw was agreed.
In the rapid game Magnus played the Sicilian Kan again and Leko seemingly got a fierce kingside attack. Magnus chose to give up a pawn with 13.....Nf4 after which he was probably somewhat worse, but had reasonable compensation for the pawn.
Magnus got some pressure against the white weaknesses and when Leko avoided the most principled continuation 27.f6 (and instead went for the safe but drawish Nc4-Nxb2) Magnus was not worse any longer and even avoided a repetition of moves to try to win.
Leko later played a little inaccurate, and at one point Magnus could have gone for 39....Tb8 after Qe5 Kh1.
He thought that this wouldn't give anything either because of Qe7, but after Qd5! white, even if still not lost, would have been in real danger of losing.
Morozevich played the Scotch in the blindfold game and although the computer says black had equalised Magnus thought that white would get an unpleasant bind, and that the position would be difficult. He chose the typical active continuation sacking a pawn with 13...d5 and later 17...b5 and 19....Qb6.
Morozevich played 20.Qb3 and after Qa7 Qa3 Magnus took on a3. He was pawn down in the endgame but when Morozevich chose 37.Ke1 instead of Kf3 Magnus played Rxh2 and has an equal endgame.
Magnus made some dubious moves and after he removed his knight from a6 and Morozevich walked with his king Magnus thought he was technically lost.
Again Morozevich went wrong somewhere and after sacrificing an exchange Magnus could give his rook for the a-pawn and force a drawn ending on the kingside.
In the rapid game Magnus had a comfortable position but allowed Morozevich to develop some counterplay. After his break through on the queenside black was better but had to enter a drawish queen endgame.
A draw was agreed in a position that black well could have continued but Kd2 b4! should lead to a draw anyway.
In the last few rounds Magnus lacked energy and his calculation of lines was slow and inaccurate. This may partly explain why he got some worse endgames and had to mobilize a lot of fighting spirit to avoid any losses.
I'd like to make a few general remarks about explanations like the above. It is not at all meant as an excuse in the sense that Magnus could have performed better if this or that. Magnus did, and always does his best at the board. Like all other players he has his ups and downs and due to his youthful energy, good health, fairly good physical condition and good nerves, I think his prerequisites for performing consistently at or close to his capacity is generally as good or better than for most of his older competitors.
The purpose of mentioning some possible reasons for the ups and downs is that it's one out of several angles from which we may throw some light on the complex turmoil of opening choice, positional preferences, calculations, fighting spirit and psychological efforts affecting the outcome of individual chess games at top level.
Aronian was the clear Amber 2008 winner with 14.5/22 after a tremendous performance. Congratulations!
Magnus ended at 12 points out of 22 and shared 2nd overall (but 5th on tie-break after Kramnik, Leko, Topalov). He is very satisfied with the result and especially having reached another plus score in an absolute top event.
He felt he reached +2 without an obvious abundance of luck in that his miracle escape against Topalov and many saved worse endgames was outweighed by blunders against Aronian, Karjakin and the loss on time against Kramnik.
On April 8th another Gausdal tournament is staged by organiser, arbiter and author Hans O. Lahlum and Magnus will join the rest of the family and spend some days at Gausdal but not as a player this time.
In the Grand-Prix series, starting with Baku April 20th - May 7th, Magnus will be top rated as neither Anand, Kramnik, Morozevich nor Topalov are taking part.
The missing top 4 is of course diminishing the quality of the GP events significantly (although one of them, or Kamsky, will be the reigning World Champion in 2010, and all the four mentioned players may participate in the 2009 World Cup).
On the other hand, FIDE and Global Chess have invested so much prestige in the GP that we expect it to be a long term success.
In May Magnus will also play 8 rapid games match (in 5 days) against Peter Leko in Miscolc in Hungary.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, March 29th 2008.
In round 10 Magnus played two draws with Peter Leko and in round 11 two more draws against Morozevich.
Against Leko Magnus was white in the blindfold game and got a nice positional advantage in the Ruy Lopez.
When Peter played 23...Qe6 Magnus exchanged queens as he had forgot about the rook on e8. After for instance 24.Qc2 he felt white would have been slighty but comfortably better, but after 24.Qxe6 Rxe6 black got counterplay against Magnus' weak b2-pawn and after some dubious moves Magnus had to accept a rook plus knight ending a pawn down.
Again Magnus defended well and a draw was agreed.
In the rapid game Magnus played the Sicilian Kan again and Leko seemingly got a fierce kingside attack. Magnus chose to give up a pawn with 13.....Nf4 after which he was probably somewhat worse, but had reasonable compensation for the pawn.
Magnus got some pressure against the white weaknesses and when Leko avoided the most principled continuation 27.f6 (and instead went for the safe but drawish Nc4-Nxb2) Magnus was not worse any longer and even avoided a repetition of moves to try to win.
Leko later played a little inaccurate, and at one point Magnus could have gone for 39....Tb8 after Qe5 Kh1.
He thought that this wouldn't give anything either because of Qe7, but after Qd5! white, even if still not lost, would have been in real danger of losing.
Morozevich played the Scotch in the blindfold game and although the computer says black had equalised Magnus thought that white would get an unpleasant bind, and that the position would be difficult. He chose the typical active continuation sacking a pawn with 13...d5 and later 17...b5 and 19....Qb6.
Morozevich played 20.Qb3 and after Qa7 Qa3 Magnus took on a3. He was pawn down in the endgame but when Morozevich chose 37.Ke1 instead of Kf3 Magnus played Rxh2 and has an equal endgame.
Magnus made some dubious moves and after he removed his knight from a6 and Morozevich walked with his king Magnus thought he was technically lost.
Again Morozevich went wrong somewhere and after sacrificing an exchange Magnus could give his rook for the a-pawn and force a drawn ending on the kingside.
In the rapid game Magnus had a comfortable position but allowed Morozevich to develop some counterplay. After his break through on the queenside black was better but had to enter a drawish queen endgame.
A draw was agreed in a position that black well could have continued but Kd2 b4! should lead to a draw anyway.
In the last few rounds Magnus lacked energy and his calculation of lines was slow and inaccurate. This may partly explain why he got some worse endgames and had to mobilize a lot of fighting spirit to avoid any losses.
I'd like to make a few general remarks about explanations like the above. It is not at all meant as an excuse in the sense that Magnus could have performed better if this or that. Magnus did, and always does his best at the board. Like all other players he has his ups and downs and due to his youthful energy, good health, fairly good physical condition and good nerves, I think his prerequisites for performing consistently at or close to his capacity is generally as good or better than for most of his older competitors.
The purpose of mentioning some possible reasons for the ups and downs is that it's one out of several angles from which we may throw some light on the complex turmoil of opening choice, positional preferences, calculations, fighting spirit and psychological efforts affecting the outcome of individual chess games at top level.
Aronian was the clear Amber 2008 winner with 14.5/22 after a tremendous performance. Congratulations!
Magnus ended at 12 points out of 22 and shared 2nd overall (but 5th on tie-break after Kramnik, Leko, Topalov). He is very satisfied with the result and especially having reached another plus score in an absolute top event.
He felt he reached +2 without an obvious abundance of luck in that his miracle escape against Topalov and many saved worse endgames was outweighed by blunders against Aronian, Karjakin and the loss on time against Kramnik.
On April 8th another Gausdal tournament is staged by organiser, arbiter and author Hans O. Lahlum and Magnus will join the rest of the family and spend some days at Gausdal but not as a player this time.
In the Grand-Prix series, starting with Baku April 20th - May 7th, Magnus will be top rated as neither Anand, Kramnik, Morozevich nor Topalov are taking part.
The missing top 4 is of course diminishing the quality of the GP events significantly (although one of them, or Kamsky, will be the reigning World Champion in 2010, and all the four mentioned players may participate in the 2009 World Cup).
On the other hand, FIDE and Global Chess have invested so much prestige in the GP that we expect it to be a long term success.
In May Magnus will also play 8 rapid games match (in 5 days) against Peter Leko in Miscolc in Hungary.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, March 29th 2008.
Amber 2008 Round 9
More powder snow in the air both Monday and yesterday and the skiing conditions here in Lommedalen are simply excellent this week.
It's a pity Magnus can't take advantage of this, but the video reports from Nice does indicate that he finds the free day activities of laser games and visiting a casino, a reasonable alternative.
Yesterday Magnus played V.Kramnik (2799).
In the blindfold game Magnus felt he had an acceptable position after the opening and when Kramnik chose to sack a piece for the b- and c-pawns Magnus felt optimistic.
He managed to castle and to stop the advancing queenside pawns for a while.
Allowing the a-pawn to go to a7 while activating his remaining pieces he was clearly better at one point but with little left the outcome was still very much uncertain.
43...Ng5 would more or less have decided the game but Magnus had another plan and played d6?.
He was still better and after 44.Rb1 he looked at Ne5 Rb7+Nd7 a8D Ra1+ and discovered that it's not working. With time running low he tried Kf6 instead but unfortunately was to late and lost on time.
In the rapid game Magnus was very eager to take revenge, but by accepting the double pawn in the c-file and later sacking one of them he was worse in the middle game due to the strength of the black bishops.
Kramnik made progress but when he allowed 29.Nd5, Magnus felt that he had fended off his problems.
After Re2 he saw that 31.Ne3 would lead to a drawish ending and optimistically chose c3 instead as he had no intention of losing the mini-match :-) But soon he covered that his position was difficult despite the mobile knight.
After imaginative play Magnus found sufficient resources to exchange the free pawns and in the end also capture the g-pawn.
Kramnik thought he had missed a winning continuation somewhere but the end position was clearly a draw.
It is hard not to be impressed by the optimism and fighting spirit shown by Magnus yesterday.
Last year he lost the blindfold game partly due to a great novelty played by Kramnik, but this year he eagerly tried to win both with black and with white without being intimidated by the presence of former World Champion and current World ranked #1 V.Kramnik across the table.
Aronian beat Morozevich 2-0 to take a clear 2,5 points lead with 4 games to go.
Magnus is now in shared 2nd with Leko and Kramnik, and Ivanchuk trailing by half a point.
Today Magnus faces Peter Leko and has the white pieces in the blindfold.
Lets hope for two more exciting games!
It's a pity Magnus can't take advantage of this, but the video reports from Nice does indicate that he finds the free day activities of laser games and visiting a casino, a reasonable alternative.
Yesterday Magnus played V.Kramnik (2799).
In the blindfold game Magnus felt he had an acceptable position after the opening and when Kramnik chose to sack a piece for the b- and c-pawns Magnus felt optimistic.
He managed to castle and to stop the advancing queenside pawns for a while.
Allowing the a-pawn to go to a7 while activating his remaining pieces he was clearly better at one point but with little left the outcome was still very much uncertain.
43...Ng5 would more or less have decided the game but Magnus had another plan and played d6?.
He was still better and after 44.Rb1 he looked at Ne5 Rb7+Nd7 a8D Ra1+ and discovered that it's not working. With time running low he tried Kf6 instead but unfortunately was to late and lost on time.
In the rapid game Magnus was very eager to take revenge, but by accepting the double pawn in the c-file and later sacking one of them he was worse in the middle game due to the strength of the black bishops.
Kramnik made progress but when he allowed 29.Nd5, Magnus felt that he had fended off his problems.
After Re2 he saw that 31.Ne3 would lead to a drawish ending and optimistically chose c3 instead as he had no intention of losing the mini-match :-) But soon he covered that his position was difficult despite the mobile knight.
After imaginative play Magnus found sufficient resources to exchange the free pawns and in the end also capture the g-pawn.
Kramnik thought he had missed a winning continuation somewhere but the end position was clearly a draw.
It is hard not to be impressed by the optimism and fighting spirit shown by Magnus yesterday.
Last year he lost the blindfold game partly due to a great novelty played by Kramnik, but this year he eagerly tried to win both with black and with white without being intimidated by the presence of former World Champion and current World ranked #1 V.Kramnik across the table.
Aronian beat Morozevich 2-0 to take a clear 2,5 points lead with 4 games to go.
Magnus is now in shared 2nd with Leko and Kramnik, and Ivanchuk trailing by half a point.
Today Magnus faces Peter Leko and has the white pieces in the blindfold.
Lets hope for two more exciting games!
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, March 26rd 2008.
Amber 2008 Round 7 & 8
Returning from family vacation 140 km northeast of Oslo we were meet by 10 cm fresh snow on the ground in Lommedalen. Right now the temperature is below minus 10 degrees Celsius (but no polar bears outside though...)
Yesterday Magnus was up against World Champion V.Anand. Despite Anand's very pleasant conduct whenever he is away from the chess board it seemed as if he had planned to spend another afternoon intimidating Magnus over the board.
Magnus played the Alekhine and Anand got both space and threats in the centre. Fritz told me that Magnus was gradually improving his position with 17...e5 and his next 5 moves but when Magnus deviated from the machine preference Ncd7 with 23....Nb7 he is simply losing due to the nice queen side pawn advance (c5 bxc5 b5 cxb5 Nxb5) found by Anand.
Anand finished in style picking up the loose black pawns after Magnus had to sack his knight for two pawns (including the c7 pawn).
Fortunately the rapid game turned out differently.
After 1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6 3.d4 e4 4.d5 black equalised fairly early but they reached a position with a lot of dynamics. Anand chose to allow Magnus to capture the e-pawn but probably has sufficient counterplay.
Anand plays very quickly and normally this is good for him and problematic for the opponent.
However, his 17....a5 giving up another pawn probably deserves a question mark.
Magnus thought for about 10 minutes and took on h7 after which 20.Qb1+ wins back the piece. He had calculated well and knew he could avoid mate.
After some more inaccuracies from black Magnus was clearly better when Anand dropped a whole rook with 27.Rxe3 because 28.Rxf7 wins either the queen after Kxf7 fxe3 or both rooks after Qxf7 fxe3.
Magnus would normally not miss such tactics but partly due to his time trouble and partly because he did not expect such a mistake from Anand he looked for a simple winning line and was happy to play 28.Qxc8 etc keeping his king protected and having two extra pawns.
After exchanging queens Magnus did not have any problems securing an easily won rook endgame and Anand resigned.
Magnus won 2 blitz games against Anand at Iceland in 2006 but this is the first rapid victory (and his first classical game victory is still to come :-) ).
Aronian beat Topalov 1,5-0,5 to take a one point lead ahead of Anand with Magnus in shared 3rd.
Morozevich won another blindfold game to take a clear sole lead with 5/7.
On day 8 today, Magnus felt comfortable playing Mamedyarov as he has a fairly good score against him recently.
The blindfold game was a thriller that would have been reasonably exciting even for a normal rapid game.
They played the same Sicilian Paulsen line with 6.Nxc6 as Magnus defended against Anand in Monaco last year.
Mamedyarov decided to take the pawn on b2 after which he has to defend quite accurately. Magnus was happy to find 15.Be5 and 18.g4 after which the black rooks in the h-file are more of a problem than an asset due to the inactivity of the black queen and bishop. He felt he was clearly better after 18....Rxh2 19.Be5. After exchanging one rook black tried to activate his queenside with c5 but white maintained a clear edge with 22.Qd3.
22....f5 23.Rb1! simply wins a piece.
Mamedyarov spent most of his remaining time without finding a good continuation and ended up with a queen + 5 pawns against the white queen + rook + 2 pawns.
After a few checks he resigned. 1-0.
In the rapid game Magnus went for the Queen Indian and white was slightly better after the opening. Magnus decided to play c5 accepting a weak pawn on c5 after the knight exchanges and spent many minute before playing 17....g5 18.Bg3 g4! 19.Nd2 Qg5.
Magnus was quite happy with his position due to the kingside activity and the weak white bishops.
Obviously his opponent also took the kingside threats very seriously and after a long thought Mamedyarov went for 24.Ne5 Bxe5 25.Bxa6 after which Magnus thought he was better.
Mamedyarov played a few more inaccuracies probably in the belief that black had to exchange queens after 29.Qe3, but Magnus found Qh2! and black is simply a pawn up in the ending. And with queens on the board the knight is better than the bishop.
Mamedyarov played as if he had mentally resigned and after black had started to advance his kingside pawns he resigned in face of material losses. 0-1 and another 2-0 victory for Magnus today!
Having won 3 games in a row Magnus is of course extremely pleased with the current standing although he is still a full point behind Aronian. Magnus is also 2nd in the blindfold (behind Moro) and shared 2nd in the rapid).
He faces a very tough programme (Kramnik, Leko and Morozevich) after the free day Monday but in fact Aronian faces exactly the same opponents!
Magnus has had few peaceful games so far resulting in a +7-4=5 score.
The 7 wins bring him up to a total of 17 wins against 2680+ opponents in 43 games this year!
(Maybe he has had some luck but there obviously must be some good games among the 17 as well :-)
Yesterday Magnus was up against World Champion V.Anand. Despite Anand's very pleasant conduct whenever he is away from the chess board it seemed as if he had planned to spend another afternoon intimidating Magnus over the board.
Magnus played the Alekhine and Anand got both space and threats in the centre. Fritz told me that Magnus was gradually improving his position with 17...e5 and his next 5 moves but when Magnus deviated from the machine preference Ncd7 with 23....Nb7 he is simply losing due to the nice queen side pawn advance (c5 bxc5 b5 cxb5 Nxb5) found by Anand.
Anand finished in style picking up the loose black pawns after Magnus had to sack his knight for two pawns (including the c7 pawn).
Fortunately the rapid game turned out differently.
After 1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6 3.d4 e4 4.d5 black equalised fairly early but they reached a position with a lot of dynamics. Anand chose to allow Magnus to capture the e-pawn but probably has sufficient counterplay.
Anand plays very quickly and normally this is good for him and problematic for the opponent.
However, his 17....a5 giving up another pawn probably deserves a question mark.
Magnus thought for about 10 minutes and took on h7 after which 20.Qb1+ wins back the piece. He had calculated well and knew he could avoid mate.
After some more inaccuracies from black Magnus was clearly better when Anand dropped a whole rook with 27.Rxe3 because 28.Rxf7 wins either the queen after Kxf7 fxe3 or both rooks after Qxf7 fxe3.
Magnus would normally not miss such tactics but partly due to his time trouble and partly because he did not expect such a mistake from Anand he looked for a simple winning line and was happy to play 28.Qxc8 etc keeping his king protected and having two extra pawns.
After exchanging queens Magnus did not have any problems securing an easily won rook endgame and Anand resigned.
Magnus won 2 blitz games against Anand at Iceland in 2006 but this is the first rapid victory (and his first classical game victory is still to come :-) ).
Aronian beat Topalov 1,5-0,5 to take a one point lead ahead of Anand with Magnus in shared 3rd.
Morozevich won another blindfold game to take a clear sole lead with 5/7.
On day 8 today, Magnus felt comfortable playing Mamedyarov as he has a fairly good score against him recently.
The blindfold game was a thriller that would have been reasonably exciting even for a normal rapid game.
They played the same Sicilian Paulsen line with 6.Nxc6 as Magnus defended against Anand in Monaco last year.
Mamedyarov decided to take the pawn on b2 after which he has to defend quite accurately. Magnus was happy to find 15.Be5 and 18.g4 after which the black rooks in the h-file are more of a problem than an asset due to the inactivity of the black queen and bishop. He felt he was clearly better after 18....Rxh2 19.Be5. After exchanging one rook black tried to activate his queenside with c5 but white maintained a clear edge with 22.Qd3.
22....f5 23.Rb1! simply wins a piece.
Mamedyarov spent most of his remaining time without finding a good continuation and ended up with a queen + 5 pawns against the white queen + rook + 2 pawns.
After a few checks he resigned. 1-0.
In the rapid game Magnus went for the Queen Indian and white was slightly better after the opening. Magnus decided to play c5 accepting a weak pawn on c5 after the knight exchanges and spent many minute before playing 17....g5 18.Bg3 g4! 19.Nd2 Qg5.
Magnus was quite happy with his position due to the kingside activity and the weak white bishops.
Obviously his opponent also took the kingside threats very seriously and after a long thought Mamedyarov went for 24.Ne5 Bxe5 25.Bxa6 after which Magnus thought he was better.
Mamedyarov played a few more inaccuracies probably in the belief that black had to exchange queens after 29.Qe3, but Magnus found Qh2! and black is simply a pawn up in the ending. And with queens on the board the knight is better than the bishop.
Mamedyarov played as if he had mentally resigned and after black had started to advance his kingside pawns he resigned in face of material losses. 0-1 and another 2-0 victory for Magnus today!
Having won 3 games in a row Magnus is of course extremely pleased with the current standing although he is still a full point behind Aronian. Magnus is also 2nd in the blindfold (behind Moro) and shared 2nd in the rapid).
He faces a very tough programme (Kramnik, Leko and Morozevich) after the free day Monday but in fact Aronian faces exactly the same opponents!
Magnus has had few peaceful games so far resulting in a +7-4=5 score.
The 7 wins bring him up to a total of 17 wins against 2680+ opponents in 43 games this year!
(Maybe he has had some luck but there obviously must be some good games among the 17 as well :-)
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, March 23rd 2008.
Amber 2008 Round 6
As white against Gelfand in the blindfold on day 5, Magnus played a good game in the 6.h3 Najdorf variation.
He attacked the black position from both sides and finished in style.
In the rapid game Magnus sacrificed a pawn for active play and after too ambitious play by Gelfand Magnus had a small advantage.
Later in the game Gelfand defended very accurately and in the rook ending Magnus could not escape the perpetual checks. Draw.
In round 6 Magnus faced Topalov and had the white pieces in the blindfold game.
In retrospect it is not difficult to explain why the game took such a disastrous turn.
He could not sleep until very late the day before and in addition he chose a variation inspired by one of my blitz games on ICC he happened to steal a glance at a year back (and this is definitely not due to family affection as he is rightfully very critical to my chess in general :-).
He was quite happy about the opening though and after 15.Qa4 Qb6 he thought he would be better after Qc2.
As happens sometimes when you are not in top shape he probably got too impatient when playing the dubious 16.Bd2 and 18.Re3.
Afterwards Magnus says that it was simply ridiculous to allow 16.Bf5!
Topalov made many good moves and after 21.Qh7 he was simply winning.
Fortunately Magnus did not give up and as Topalov missed several very promising continuations the position was a bit unclear after 30 moves.
But, after exchanging queens on a6 black is much better due to the pawn on g4 despite the fairly equal material.
A piece up in the ending Topalov again played quite well for a while and could have decided the game with 49...d3 but somehow failed to find the win.
After a long fight Magnus managed to reach a drawn ending with 3 pawns against the black knight.
Puh, several narrow escapes by Magnus, but this can easily happen in a blindfold game.
With the draw Magnus keeps his sole lead in the blindfold section and has already captured as many points in 6 games as in all 11 last year!
In the second game Magnus got a lot of activity after his pawn sack 14.e4 and he thought he could at least reach an equal ending.
Topalov gave up an exchange for another pawn and was slightly better.
Magnus underestimated his problems in the ending. He felt he should have chosen a more active continuation tan in the game where he allowed 26.Bxf7 (which he had missed), after which he has to keep finding a lot of only moves to avoid disaster in the endgame.
Topalov tried for a long time but after nearly 70 moves he repeated a position for the third time and a draw was agreed.
Lots of draws in round 6 (for a change) although Anand went into sole 2nd place after beating Karjakin in the blindfold.
Aronian is still sole leader (7,5/12) and Magnus is in shared 3rd (6,5/12) with 4 more players.
Personally I?m impressed with Magnus performance so far. Despite some serious blunders he has a plus score and has already won 4 games.
Today Magnus plays world champion Anand and is hoping to improve his poor score against him.
He attacked the black position from both sides and finished in style.
In the rapid game Magnus sacrificed a pawn for active play and after too ambitious play by Gelfand Magnus had a small advantage.
Later in the game Gelfand defended very accurately and in the rook ending Magnus could not escape the perpetual checks. Draw.
In round 6 Magnus faced Topalov and had the white pieces in the blindfold game.
In retrospect it is not difficult to explain why the game took such a disastrous turn.
He could not sleep until very late the day before and in addition he chose a variation inspired by one of my blitz games on ICC he happened to steal a glance at a year back (and this is definitely not due to family affection as he is rightfully very critical to my chess in general :-).
He was quite happy about the opening though and after 15.Qa4 Qb6 he thought he would be better after Qc2.
As happens sometimes when you are not in top shape he probably got too impatient when playing the dubious 16.Bd2 and 18.Re3.
Afterwards Magnus says that it was simply ridiculous to allow 16.Bf5!
Topalov made many good moves and after 21.Qh7 he was simply winning.
Fortunately Magnus did not give up and as Topalov missed several very promising continuations the position was a bit unclear after 30 moves.
But, after exchanging queens on a6 black is much better due to the pawn on g4 despite the fairly equal material.
A piece up in the ending Topalov again played quite well for a while and could have decided the game with 49...d3 but somehow failed to find the win.
After a long fight Magnus managed to reach a drawn ending with 3 pawns against the black knight.
Puh, several narrow escapes by Magnus, but this can easily happen in a blindfold game.
With the draw Magnus keeps his sole lead in the blindfold section and has already captured as many points in 6 games as in all 11 last year!
In the second game Magnus got a lot of activity after his pawn sack 14.e4 and he thought he could at least reach an equal ending.
Topalov gave up an exchange for another pawn and was slightly better.
Magnus underestimated his problems in the ending. He felt he should have chosen a more active continuation tan in the game where he allowed 26.Bxf7 (which he had missed), after which he has to keep finding a lot of only moves to avoid disaster in the endgame.
Topalov tried for a long time but after nearly 70 moves he repeated a position for the third time and a draw was agreed.
Lots of draws in round 6 (for a change) although Anand went into sole 2nd place after beating Karjakin in the blindfold.
Aronian is still sole leader (7,5/12) and Magnus is in shared 3rd (6,5/12) with 4 more players.
Personally I?m impressed with Magnus performance so far. Despite some serious blunders he has a plus score and has already won 4 games.
Today Magnus plays world champion Anand and is hoping to improve his poor score against him.
Henrik Carlsen
Solør family estate, March 22nd 2008.
Amber 2008 Round 4
Magnus played Aronian in round 4. (I'm referring to the two games per day as one round so round 4 featured game 7 and 8 for Magnus in the tournament.)
Unfortunately both games were somewhat special but for different reasons.
Magnus felt he had a comfortable position as black in the blindfold game despite the double b-pawn and when Aronian became too optimistic he snatched the pawn on a3 (24....Bxa3!) after which the position is complex but slightly better for black.
Both players seem to have missed that 26.Nd2 probably was much better for white than Be3.
In the opposite bishop and rook endgame Magnus was up a pawn (3 versus 2).
It is probably a theoretical draw but difficult to defend for white.
Advancing his f and e-pawns Magnus made considerable progress but in the end Aronian managed too defend and draw after 105 (!) moves.
Magnus thought he must have had a won position at some point but he is not sure where he went wrong.
(I think Fritz gave 73.... Rf4!, instead of Bd5 a decisive advantage although I haven't analysed it any further.)
The game lasted about 2 hours and delayed the games for the rest of the day considerably.
In the second game Magnus got a small but comfortable advantage as white and was trying to make progress in the rook and bishop endgame when the unfortunate incident took place.
Magnus moved his rook to a3 and discovered immediately the blunder (due to Rg3+). His mind was so occupied with registering the blunder and instinctively correcting it that he did not really notice whether he had released his rook at a3 or not.
Aronian immediately took exception to the corrected move and the arbiter was involved.
Magnus was somewhat surprised when the arbiter said that the video footage clearly showed that Magnus had released the rook on a3 before moving it to c1. He has not seen the video but of course he accepted the ruling of the arbiter, and duly resigned. 0-1.
After the game Magnus has emphasised that he did not intentionally try to cheat and he has apologised to Aronian for any disagreement he may have felt during the episode.
Sole leader before round 4, Anand, lost against Leko while Aronian, Ivanchuk and Topalov won their mini-matches 1,5-0,5 to take a shared lead with 5/8. (Ivanchuk played a brilliant queen sacrifice againt Karjakin. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look !)
At 50% Magnus is sharing 5.-7. place with Kramnik and Leko going into the first free day.
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Gelfand in the blindfold game.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, March 19th 2008.
Unfortunately both games were somewhat special but for different reasons.
Magnus felt he had a comfortable position as black in the blindfold game despite the double b-pawn and when Aronian became too optimistic he snatched the pawn on a3 (24....Bxa3!) after which the position is complex but slightly better for black.
Both players seem to have missed that 26.Nd2 probably was much better for white than Be3.
In the opposite bishop and rook endgame Magnus was up a pawn (3 versus 2).
It is probably a theoretical draw but difficult to defend for white.
Advancing his f and e-pawns Magnus made considerable progress but in the end Aronian managed too defend and draw after 105 (!) moves.
Magnus thought he must have had a won position at some point but he is not sure where he went wrong.
(I think Fritz gave 73.... Rf4!, instead of Bd5 a decisive advantage although I haven't analysed it any further.)
The game lasted about 2 hours and delayed the games for the rest of the day considerably.
In the second game Magnus got a small but comfortable advantage as white and was trying to make progress in the rook and bishop endgame when the unfortunate incident took place.
Magnus moved his rook to a3 and discovered immediately the blunder (due to Rg3+). His mind was so occupied with registering the blunder and instinctively correcting it that he did not really notice whether he had released his rook at a3 or not.
Aronian immediately took exception to the corrected move and the arbiter was involved.
Magnus was somewhat surprised when the arbiter said that the video footage clearly showed that Magnus had released the rook on a3 before moving it to c1. He has not seen the video but of course he accepted the ruling of the arbiter, and duly resigned. 0-1.
After the game Magnus has emphasised that he did not intentionally try to cheat and he has apologised to Aronian for any disagreement he may have felt during the episode.
Sole leader before round 4, Anand, lost against Leko while Aronian, Ivanchuk and Topalov won their mini-matches 1,5-0,5 to take a shared lead with 5/8. (Ivanchuk played a brilliant queen sacrifice againt Karjakin. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look !)
At 50% Magnus is sharing 5.-7. place with Kramnik and Leko going into the first free day.
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Gelfand in the blindfold game.
Henrik Carlsen
Lommedalen, March 19th 2008.
Amber Round 2 & 3.
The Amber Blindfold is played by making moves on a blank computer screen board with the mouse. The last move of the opponent appears on the screen in notation form and is visible put until the player makes his next move.
Sunday Magnus played against van Wely, the lowest seeded opponent and needed a plus score after his meagre 0,5 points against Ivanchuk.
In the blindfold game Magnus chose to follow the same line as he had played with white against Naiditsch in the World Cup and after van Wely played the ambitious 16.Rb1 Magnus could start to put pressure on c4 and e4. Van Wely quickly went wrong with 19.Ke2 and after 21..... Bb7 he is losing the e-pawn. In the ensuing tactics black has the advantage and after 25.Bxe4? Bxe4 white is losing.
This was Magnus first blindfold win in Amber as he didn't score any last year.
In the rapid game Magnus chose a popular Slav set-up sacrificing a pawn for space and black weaknesses.
His 12.b3 is quite new and van Wely had to find the right continuation to avoid trouble. When van Wely missed 22.Nf7! he is clearly worse and quickly went down in the white kingside attack. 1-0.
Anand, Aronian and Ivanchuk again won their matches and was leading with 3/4 ahead of Magnus and others at 2.5.
On day 3 Magnus was up against his youth rival S.Karjakin. As white in the blindfold game Magnus went for the same line Najdorf as Radjabov played against Shirov in Linares. In Linares Shirov blundered badly in a position considered only slightly better for white. However Magnus felt he had a comfortable edge and he started manouvring to exploit black's weaknesses. After 28.g5 Karjakin quickly played f5 and h5 closing the kingside but had maybe underestimated the weekness on the queenside. Magnus played 32.b5 and after Karjakin activated his rook in the e-file and captured the h-pawn, Magnus could take the e-file with devastating effect. After some tactics Karjakin resigned as he cannot stop the a-pawn.
Magnus considers Karjakin a real elite player and was a bit surprised by the apparent ease with which he won this game.
As black in the rapid Magnus chose the Alekhine defence and white got an advantage due to the bishop pair and more space. Magnus felt that he never had serious problems in the middle game and was starting to be very optimistic in the unbalanced game after 29.....h4 30.gxh4. Karjakin had little time left and Magnus considered the position easier to play for black than for white.
However, soon after Magnus blundered a full piece as he has simply missed Rg2! in the end. 1-0 and 1-1 in the mini-match just as in Bilbao blindfold in October.
Well, the equilibrium maintains the tension ahead of their next encounter!
Anand drew his match while Ivanchuk and Aronian both lost their mini-matches to leave Anand in the sole lead with 4/6. Magnus is shared 2nd with 3.5.
Today Magnus has black in the blindfold game against Aronian at 14:30.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, March 18th 2008
Sunday Magnus played against van Wely, the lowest seeded opponent and needed a plus score after his meagre 0,5 points against Ivanchuk.
In the blindfold game Magnus chose to follow the same line as he had played with white against Naiditsch in the World Cup and after van Wely played the ambitious 16.Rb1 Magnus could start to put pressure on c4 and e4. Van Wely quickly went wrong with 19.Ke2 and after 21..... Bb7 he is losing the e-pawn. In the ensuing tactics black has the advantage and after 25.Bxe4? Bxe4 white is losing.
This was Magnus first blindfold win in Amber as he didn't score any last year.
In the rapid game Magnus chose a popular Slav set-up sacrificing a pawn for space and black weaknesses.
His 12.b3 is quite new and van Wely had to find the right continuation to avoid trouble. When van Wely missed 22.Nf7! he is clearly worse and quickly went down in the white kingside attack. 1-0.
Anand, Aronian and Ivanchuk again won their matches and was leading with 3/4 ahead of Magnus and others at 2.5.
On day 3 Magnus was up against his youth rival S.Karjakin. As white in the blindfold game Magnus went for the same line Najdorf as Radjabov played against Shirov in Linares. In Linares Shirov blundered badly in a position considered only slightly better for white. However Magnus felt he had a comfortable edge and he started manouvring to exploit black's weaknesses. After 28.g5 Karjakin quickly played f5 and h5 closing the kingside but had maybe underestimated the weekness on the queenside. Magnus played 32.b5 and after Karjakin activated his rook in the e-file and captured the h-pawn, Magnus could take the e-file with devastating effect. After some tactics Karjakin resigned as he cannot stop the a-pawn.
Magnus considers Karjakin a real elite player and was a bit surprised by the apparent ease with which he won this game.
As black in the rapid Magnus chose the Alekhine defence and white got an advantage due to the bishop pair and more space. Magnus felt that he never had serious problems in the middle game and was starting to be very optimistic in the unbalanced game after 29.....h4 30.gxh4. Karjakin had little time left and Magnus considered the position easier to play for black than for white.
However, soon after Magnus blundered a full piece as he has simply missed Rg2! in the end. 1-0 and 1-1 in the mini-match just as in Bilbao blindfold in October.
Well, the equilibrium maintains the tension ahead of their next encounter!
Anand drew his match while Ivanchuk and Aronian both lost their mini-matches to leave Anand in the sole lead with 4/6. Magnus is shared 2nd with 3.5.
Today Magnus has black in the blindfold game against Aronian at 14:30.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, March 18th 2008
Amber Blindfold & Rapid Round 1 2008
The first quarter elite schedule has been extremely tight for the last three years, partly due to prolongation of the Linares tournament resulting from the split with Morelia. Last year Magnus was travelling for 70 out of 90 days during 1st quarter and it won't be much less this year.
Together with Anand, Topalov, Aronian, Ivanchuk and Leko, he plays Corus, Morelia-Linares and Amber Blindfold & Rapid.
Fortunately the Amber tournament is at the back end, and although highly prestigious, the rapid/blindfold format makes the atmosphere more relaxed, the players follow the other games together and of course there isn't the usual fear of losing rating points.
This year the Amber tournament is held not in Monaco but in nearby Nice, in the fashionable Palais de la Mediterranee.
All play all twice, the tournament started yesterday and lasts until the 27th.
Magnus is accompanied by a chess school mate, Johannes Kvisla, so I'm reporting from Lommedalen after enjoying a sunny cross country skiing trip this morning :-)
Last year Magnus scored 6,5/11 in the rapid, while only 4/11 in the blindfold and he is hoping to improve the score this time. It didn't start that well though.
As white against Ivanchuk in the blindfold he felt he got a promising position but was uncertain about how to proceed. He spent too much time contemplating f4 and as time was running low he started to make mistakes.
Missing Ba3 he was worse and although he managed to create some counterplay Ivanchuk continued accurately and the b-pawn decided in the end after a very good game by Ivanchuk. 0-1.
In the rapid game Magnus committed a serious oversight in the early tactics having missed that Ivanchuk could capture on b7 in stead of on b4. Black is simply a pawn down.
The rook + knight ending is difficult to defend but neither that simple to win for white.
After having to exchange rooks Magnus was in trouble in the knight ending, and it is probably objectively lost.
He of course tried to force the exchange of the two queen side pawns with a3, but anyhow it would be very difficult to avoid a loss after bxa3.
However, Ivanchuk (is Ivanchuk and he) surprised everybody by playing Nxa3?! bxa3 bxa3 in stead relying on the combination of his kingside pawn majority and the a2/a3 free pawns.
According to kibitzers this is better for black but Magnus did not see how he could have won. (Maybe e4 in stead of exf4 could have been an interesting try.)
Ivanchuk kept trying to win, but in the end Magnus chose to go for a long forced line ending with white taking the black knight on a8 followed by stalemate. Draw.
The first round included a show down between top ranked favourites Anand and Kramnik. After the latter had equalised with black in the blindfold and obtained an early draw, he had a positional favourable position as white when Anand came up with a clever plot doubling his rooks in the h-file.
Kramnik failed to anticipate the concluding beautiful queen sack Qf3! and there was no way to avoid a mate! 0-1.
Anand is in shared lead with 1,5/2 together with Ivanchuk, Topalov (winning as white against Leko), Aronian and Karjakin (winning as black against van Wely and Gelfand respectively).
Morozevich and Mamedyarov has 1 point each after two draws.
Today Magnus plays black against van Wely in the blindfold game starting at 14:30.
Together with Anand, Topalov, Aronian, Ivanchuk and Leko, he plays Corus, Morelia-Linares and Amber Blindfold & Rapid.
Fortunately the Amber tournament is at the back end, and although highly prestigious, the rapid/blindfold format makes the atmosphere more relaxed, the players follow the other games together and of course there isn't the usual fear of losing rating points.
This year the Amber tournament is held not in Monaco but in nearby Nice, in the fashionable Palais de la Mediterranee.
All play all twice, the tournament started yesterday and lasts until the 27th.
Magnus is accompanied by a chess school mate, Johannes Kvisla, so I'm reporting from Lommedalen after enjoying a sunny cross country skiing trip this morning :-)
Last year Magnus scored 6,5/11 in the rapid, while only 4/11 in the blindfold and he is hoping to improve the score this time. It didn't start that well though.
As white against Ivanchuk in the blindfold he felt he got a promising position but was uncertain about how to proceed. He spent too much time contemplating f4 and as time was running low he started to make mistakes.
Missing Ba3 he was worse and although he managed to create some counterplay Ivanchuk continued accurately and the b-pawn decided in the end after a very good game by Ivanchuk. 0-1.
In the rapid game Magnus committed a serious oversight in the early tactics having missed that Ivanchuk could capture on b7 in stead of on b4. Black is simply a pawn down.
The rook + knight ending is difficult to defend but neither that simple to win for white.
After having to exchange rooks Magnus was in trouble in the knight ending, and it is probably objectively lost.
He of course tried to force the exchange of the two queen side pawns with a3, but anyhow it would be very difficult to avoid a loss after bxa3.
However, Ivanchuk (is Ivanchuk and he) surprised everybody by playing Nxa3?! bxa3 bxa3 in stead relying on the combination of his kingside pawn majority and the a2/a3 free pawns.
According to kibitzers this is better for black but Magnus did not see how he could have won. (Maybe e4 in stead of exf4 could have been an interesting try.)
Ivanchuk kept trying to win, but in the end Magnus chose to go for a long forced line ending with white taking the black knight on a8 followed by stalemate. Draw.
The first round included a show down between top ranked favourites Anand and Kramnik. After the latter had equalised with black in the blindfold and obtained an early draw, he had a positional favourable position as white when Anand came up with a clever plot doubling his rooks in the h-file.
Kramnik failed to anticipate the concluding beautiful queen sack Qf3! and there was no way to avoid a mate! 0-1.
Anand is in shared lead with 1,5/2 together with Ivanchuk, Topalov (winning as white against Leko), Aronian and Karjakin (winning as black against van Wely and Gelfand respectively).
Morozevich and Mamedyarov has 1 point each after two draws.
Today Magnus plays black against van Wely in the blindfold game starting at 14:30.
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, March 16th 2008
Linares Round 14 & Closing ceremony
Thursday Magnus played black against Aronian. In the Queen Indian line he played 9....Bxd5 and later Nd4 sacking the exchange to put his knight on c2. The important question is if white can coordinate his defences and attack / remove the knight or not.
The computers give white an advantage but Aronians plan moving his queen to f3 does not give any real counterplay and Magnus managed to keep the up the pressure.
Aronian obviously did not find any way to utilize his material advantage and offered a draw after move 28 with Bc1 forcing Rc3 and the exchange of queens. Magnus did not consider his position advantageous and was reasonably happy to draw with black.
Leko seemed to equalise as black against Topalov after the opening, but Topalov managed to regain the initiative after active play and before the time control Leko went astray. Topalov kept improving his position reaching a winning rook endgame.
Before the last round, three players could in theory catch up with Anand. As white against Topalov, Anand was clearly the tournament favourite. With his mini-match victory against Magnus he only needed a draw to secure the Linares trophy for the second year in a row.
(If he had lost, Magnus would win the trophy with a draw or a victory against Radjabov while Topalov would win if he managed to beat Anand and Magnus lost as well. Aronian could in theory have reached shared first but was not in contention for the trophy due to poor tiebreak.)
Radjabov surprised Magnus in the opening by following the same line as he had played against Topalov, a game in which he was worse or slightly worse throughout the game but managed a draw in the end.
On the other hand Magnus was reasonably satisfied to be in a position to put pressure on his opponent without any real danger of losing.
After Magnus played h4 Radjabov probably realised that his position was becoming difficult and thought for a long time. Fortunately for him, he found g5! sacking a pawn to activate his queen. After that Magnus was still somewhat better, but facing good defence from Radjabov, he couldn't really come close to winning.
Meanwhile, Anand and Topalov had drawn so that Anand was already the winner of Linares 2008. Congratulations!
With all games drawn yesterday, the standings are unchanged from round 13. Despite not being happy with a draw as white in the last round, Magnus is very satisfied with his overall performance and the clear 2nd half a point ahead of Topalov and Aronian, with Radjabov in 5th place.
Magnus' rating performance was again above 2800 and we expect him to get 2765 and rank 5 on the April 2008 Fide rating list. Furthermore he will be the highest ranked GP participants in Baku.
(Whatever ambitions Magnus may have had for 2008 they must be fulfilled already :-) )
The closing ceremony was held at 12:30 in the Cervantes Theatre.
The Linares choir performed some very nice songs, and I'm told that the Linares mayor Juan Fernandez emphasised the importance of the tournament for Linares city and confirmed that the tournament will go on for years to come.
The deserved winner V. Anand receives the Linares thropy.
A satisified Magnus receives his plaket.
Seven Linares tournament participants and Iberoamerican championship winner Julio Granda Zuniga.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank the Linares and Morelia organisers for this great tournament, and for all the practical efforts, including arranging tennis, swimming, fotball etc undertaken to make the stay pleasant and memorable for all participants!
After the closing ceremony we headed directly for Madrid and has just returned from Santiago Bernabeau stadium watching Real Madrid beat Espanyol 2-1 !
Magnus' next tournament is starting a week from now, the Amber Rapid & Blindfold in Nice.
Henrik Carlsen,
Madrid, March 8th 2008
The computers give white an advantage but Aronians plan moving his queen to f3 does not give any real counterplay and Magnus managed to keep the up the pressure.
Aronian obviously did not find any way to utilize his material advantage and offered a draw after move 28 with Bc1 forcing Rc3 and the exchange of queens. Magnus did not consider his position advantageous and was reasonably happy to draw with black.
Leko seemed to equalise as black against Topalov after the opening, but Topalov managed to regain the initiative after active play and before the time control Leko went astray. Topalov kept improving his position reaching a winning rook endgame.
Before the last round, three players could in theory catch up with Anand. As white against Topalov, Anand was clearly the tournament favourite. With his mini-match victory against Magnus he only needed a draw to secure the Linares trophy for the second year in a row.
(If he had lost, Magnus would win the trophy with a draw or a victory against Radjabov while Topalov would win if he managed to beat Anand and Magnus lost as well. Aronian could in theory have reached shared first but was not in contention for the trophy due to poor tiebreak.)
Radjabov surprised Magnus in the opening by following the same line as he had played against Topalov, a game in which he was worse or slightly worse throughout the game but managed a draw in the end.
On the other hand Magnus was reasonably satisfied to be in a position to put pressure on his opponent without any real danger of losing.
After Magnus played h4 Radjabov probably realised that his position was becoming difficult and thought for a long time. Fortunately for him, he found g5! sacking a pawn to activate his queen. After that Magnus was still somewhat better, but facing good defence from Radjabov, he couldn't really come close to winning.
Meanwhile, Anand and Topalov had drawn so that Anand was already the winner of Linares 2008. Congratulations!
With all games drawn yesterday, the standings are unchanged from round 13. Despite not being happy with a draw as white in the last round, Magnus is very satisfied with his overall performance and the clear 2nd half a point ahead of Topalov and Aronian, with Radjabov in 5th place.
Magnus' rating performance was again above 2800 and we expect him to get 2765 and rank 5 on the April 2008 Fide rating list. Furthermore he will be the highest ranked GP participants in Baku.
(Whatever ambitions Magnus may have had for 2008 they must be fulfilled already :-) )
The closing ceremony was held at 12:30 in the Cervantes Theatre.
The Linares choir performed some very nice songs, and I'm told that the Linares mayor Juan Fernandez emphasised the importance of the tournament for Linares city and confirmed that the tournament will go on for years to come.
The deserved winner V. Anand receives the Linares thropy.
A satisified Magnus receives his plaket.
Seven Linares tournament participants and Iberoamerican championship winner Julio Granda Zuniga.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank the Linares and Morelia organisers for this great tournament, and for all the practical efforts, including arranging tennis, swimming, fotball etc undertaken to make the stay pleasant and memorable for all participants!
After the closing ceremony we headed directly for Madrid and has just returned from Santiago Bernabeau stadium watching Real Madrid beat Espanyol 2-1 !
Magnus' next tournament is starting a week from now, the Amber Rapid & Blindfold in Nice.
Henrik Carlsen,
Madrid, March 8th 2008
Linares Round 12
Sorry about the silence last few days.
(I've been travelling, Magnus sisters have arrived, and the internet in the hotel has been failing....)
In round 10 Magnus surprised Anand with the 12.... Ne7 variation in the Sveshnikov, and after a long thought Anand decided not to enter the most principled variation with h4 etc.
Allowing the black bishop to remain on g5, black had sufficient activity to more or less equalise, and Vishy offered a draw on move 20.
I was proud to read that some people think Magnus should have declined the offer and played on, what a great confidence you have in him!
However, accepting a draw offer from the world champion and world ranked number one as black when you think that white has more reason to play on than black has, sounds like a very reasonable decision to me.
In round 11 Magnus tried the same variation against Peter Leko. Peter went for 13.h4 and after 10 more theory moves Magnus played the novelty Kh8. Interestingly he totally missed the somewhat interesting line Bd2 Kxd2 Qxf2+ although there may not be a perpetual and black may end up being worse dispate the 3 pawns for the bishop and exposed white king.
Magnus understood he was in real trouble after Rb3 and despite his fairly tenacious defence he could not find a way to avoid the final resulting loss after a very good techical game by Leko.
Maybe there was a draw somewhere in the ending (maybe Be3) but he did not find it.
This moved Magnus back to shared 2nd (with Aronian and Topalov) after Topalov's nice victory against Shirov.
In round 12, Magnus played white against Topalov. He chose a relatively quiet set-up with 1.c4 transposing the English Four knight variation into the Sicilian Boleslavsky with reversed colors.
Magnus was fairly happy about his position after Qe5 and Qh6, but after 19.... Qc7 he realized that Bg5 had been a blunder and he moved the bishop back to e3.
Black can grab the pawn on a5 although white has some compensation and attacking chances after f4.
When Magnus played Rd4 offering an exchange he did not expect Topalov to accept it.
Black may have a theoretical line keeping an advantage but it is immensely uncomfortable for a human to have to find maybe 10 only-move defences in a row and especially so for an aggressive player like Topalov.
Black instead responded Rd8 which is a good move, and after the forced continuation white still has some compensation for the pawn but maybe not enough.
In stead of entering a worse ending with drawing chances Magnus obviously preferred to continue his attack and after f5 it is unpleasant for black.
Black took the pawn on e5 and after Bg5 by white, black played Qb6 threatening c4+ and taking the knight on b5.
Magnus continued with the sharp 30.f6 and he thought Topalov should have played Bh8 instead of c4+.
After fxg7 Rxf1 Bxf1 white is two pawns down but has sufficient compensation, and black may easily make a mistake in this dangerous position.
Not surprisingly Topalov chose to take the 3rd pawn with Kxg7 and after this white has a couple of drawing lines.
At this point Magnus had some 36 minutes and Topalov 17 for the 7 moves remaining before the time control.
Magnus spent nearly 30 minutes investigating the alternatives Bh6, Bd8 and Qf2 and decided to play Bd8 with the combined threats of mate and attack against the knight on a5, thinking this would provide significant chances for a mistake by black.
Interestingly Magnus got the impression that Topalov already considered his position lost at this moment and he fairly quickly responded Nc6?? This loses immediately to Qf6+ Kg8 Qe5 Kf8 Bg5! due to Kg7 Qf6+ Kg8 Bh6. 1-0.
The incident at the end of the game was intriguingly similar to their game in Morelia last year!
Last year Topalov resigned in a drawn position, this time he seemingly mentally resigned in a drawn position and blundered. Of course psychology may play a part but from a statistical point of view two such incidents between the same players in the same tournament two years in a row is an amazing coincidence.
All of the players have complained about fatigue in the Linares part of the tournament. In combination with the great fighting spirit of most of the players throughout the tournament, this may explain the relatively high number of blunders and many decisive games.
Magnus has 8 decided games so far, and 5 (five!) wins reaching a total of 10 wins this year in Corus and Morelia-Linares. Caissa may have smiled at him but still one cannot fail to be astonished by this feat!
The other round 12 games ended in draw although Shirov's winning advantage against Aronian looked very promising for some time.
Anand at 7.5 points, Magnus 7, Aronian 6,5 and Topalov 6 have 50% score or more so far.
After the free day Magnus will face Aronian with the black pieces in a game decisive to the top 3 final outcome of course. We better make good use the free day:-)
Thanks again for all the supportive comments!
Henrik Carlsen,
Linares, March 5th 2008
(I've been travelling, Magnus sisters have arrived, and the internet in the hotel has been failing....)
In round 10 Magnus surprised Anand with the 12.... Ne7 variation in the Sveshnikov, and after a long thought Anand decided not to enter the most principled variation with h4 etc.
Allowing the black bishop to remain on g5, black had sufficient activity to more or less equalise, and Vishy offered a draw on move 20.
I was proud to read that some people think Magnus should have declined the offer and played on, what a great confidence you have in him!
However, accepting a draw offer from the world champion and world ranked number one as black when you think that white has more reason to play on than black has, sounds like a very reasonable decision to me.
In round 11 Magnus tried the same variation against Peter Leko. Peter went for 13.h4 and after 10 more theory moves Magnus played the novelty Kh8. Interestingly he totally missed the somewhat interesting line Bd2 Kxd2 Qxf2+ although there may not be a perpetual and black may end up being worse dispate the 3 pawns for the bishop and exposed white king.
Magnus understood he was in real trouble after Rb3 and despite his fairly tenacious defence he could not find a way to avoid the final resulting loss after a very good techical game by Leko.
Maybe there was a draw somewhere in the ending (maybe Be3) but he did not find it.
This moved Magnus back to shared 2nd (with Aronian and Topalov) after Topalov's nice victory against Shirov.
In round 12, Magnus played white against Topalov. He chose a relatively quiet set-up with 1.c4 transposing the English Four knight variation into the Sicilian Boleslavsky with reversed colors.
Magnus was fairly happy about his position after Qe5 and Qh6, but after 19.... Qc7 he realized that Bg5 had been a blunder and he moved the bishop back to e3.
Black can grab the pawn on a5 although white has some compensation and attacking chances after f4.
When Magnus played Rd4 offering an exchange he did not expect Topalov to accept it.
Black may have a theoretical line keeping an advantage but it is immensely uncomfortable for a human to have to find maybe 10 only-move defences in a row and especially so for an aggressive player like Topalov.
Black instead responded Rd8 which is a good move, and after the forced continuation white still has some compensation for the pawn but maybe not enough.
In stead of entering a worse ending with drawing chances Magnus obviously preferred to continue his attack and after f5 it is unpleasant for black.
Black took the pawn on e5 and after Bg5 by white, black played Qb6 threatening c4+ and taking the knight on b5.
Magnus continued with the sharp 30.f6 and he thought Topalov should have played Bh8 instead of c4+.
After fxg7 Rxf1 Bxf1 white is two pawns down but has sufficient compensation, and black may easily make a mistake in this dangerous position.
Not surprisingly Topalov chose to take the 3rd pawn with Kxg7 and after this white has a couple of drawing lines.
At this point Magnus had some 36 minutes and Topalov 17 for the 7 moves remaining before the time control.
Magnus spent nearly 30 minutes investigating the alternatives Bh6, Bd8 and Qf2 and decided to play Bd8 with the combined threats of mate and attack against the knight on a5, thinking this would provide significant chances for a mistake by black.
Interestingly Magnus got the impression that Topalov already considered his position lost at this moment and he fairly quickly responded Nc6?? This loses immediately to Qf6+ Kg8 Qe5 Kf8 Bg5! due to Kg7 Qf6+ Kg8 Bh6. 1-0.
The incident at the end of the game was intriguingly similar to their game in Morelia last year!
Last year Topalov resigned in a drawn position, this time he seemingly mentally resigned in a drawn position and blundered. Of course psychology may play a part but from a statistical point of view two such incidents between the same players in the same tournament two years in a row is an amazing coincidence.
All of the players have complained about fatigue in the Linares part of the tournament. In combination with the great fighting spirit of most of the players throughout the tournament, this may explain the relatively high number of blunders and many decisive games.
Magnus has 8 decided games so far, and 5 (five!) wins reaching a total of 10 wins this year in Corus and Morelia-Linares. Caissa may have smiled at him but still one cannot fail to be astonished by this feat!
The other round 12 games ended in draw although Shirov's winning advantage against Aronian looked very promising for some time.
Anand at 7.5 points, Magnus 7, Aronian 6,5 and Topalov 6 have 50% score or more so far.
After the free day Magnus will face Aronian with the black pieces in a game decisive to the top 3 final outcome of course. We better make good use the free day:-)
Thanks again for all the supportive comments!
Henrik Carlsen,
Linares, March 5th 2008
Linares Round 9.
After two wins in a row, I've got the feeling that the spectators expected another win for Magnus today.
Well, it's not that easy.
Shirov has been a top 10 player for some 15 years and among other things he has absolutely excellent tactical skills and is generally very good in endgames.
Magnus was again a bit uncertain about the opening choice.
He went for 1.e4 and Shirov responded e5 as expected.
However, Magnus did not expect Shirov to go for the same variation as the one in which he lost against Leko in Tal Memorial.
Magnus had not really prepared this line as he considered that after 15....Nxf4 white should in principle be somewhat better. Magnus liked the idea 18. Ra6 to take advantage of the inactivity of the black bishop and he thought Shirov would be prepared for the earlier seen b4.
The computers gives white an advantage and suggests Ra8 by black, but both players seemed to think that black's main concern is to activate his bishop on b6.
Thinking for some 70 minutes after 19.Na3, Shirov responded c6 and after 22.e5 felt he was comfortably better.
Most of blacks subsequent moves are forced and whites position looks overwhelming.
However, the tactics seemed to work for black as he can take back on d5 with his rook.
Magnus (and the computer programs from what I'm told) says that black has a draw after 30.Rxc7, and after Qg4 black may take on e5 with his bishop, although the ending is better for white.
In the time trouble Shirov made some inaccurate moves and after exchanging queens the ending should now be winning for white due to the past pawns in the b- and c-file. Magnus was uncertain about how to continue and chose giving up the c-pawn to attack f7 and h7. But after excellent defence by Shirov the ending with rook+knight+pawn against rook+bishop is probably a theoretical draw despite the sidelined black king.
Magnus continued to create difficulties for Shirov and in a position where in fact most king moves lose (but Ke7 supposedly keeps the balance) Shirov blundered badly with Ke5 allowing b8Q! 1-0.
Magnus was of course immensely satisfied to win in the end after a seven hours fight especially since he probably had a winning position already after some 25 moves.
On the other hand it is difficult not to feel a bit sorry for Shirov after his excellent defence and fighting spirit.
Aronian - Anand featured another chapter in a popular Queens Indian Variation, and after accurate defence Anand equalised and a draw was agreed after about 2 hours play.
Radjabov blitzed out some 25 moves as black against Topalov to reach a slightly worse queen and rook ending but after (the usual) energetic play by Topalov, the rook endgame looked very promising for white.
It is difficult to say if and when he went wrong but after a very accurate defence black forced a draw after nearly 6 hours play.
Ivanchuk seemed to have equalised as black against Leko after the opening. When Leko captured on e4 with the rook and took the pawn on a4 with his queen, black was allowed to invade the first rank after which his many threats soon decided.
Certainly a very good game by Ivanchuk but frankly this is not the cliff of a defender we are used to see in Peter.
Before playing Anand as black tomorrow in round 10, Magnus is now in a clear 2nd place (5,5 / 9) half a point behind Anand, and with Aronian trailing half a point behind him.
Topalov at 50% is still in contention, especially taking into account his often formidable finish in top events.
Tomorrow night I'm leaving for Madrid to meet Magnus' three sisters (so no blogging after the Anand-Carlsen game.)
We'll return to Linares on Monday morning, and I hope that the family support will do Magnus some good :-)
Supposedly Magnus is unofficially ranked among the World top 5 (and even top 4 if Bundesliga is counted) after the win today!
It may not last, but anyhow it is of course a great achievement and inspiration for a 17 year old Norwegian!
Henrik Carlsen, Linares,
February 29th 2008
Well, it's not that easy.
Shirov has been a top 10 player for some 15 years and among other things he has absolutely excellent tactical skills and is generally very good in endgames.
Magnus was again a bit uncertain about the opening choice.
He went for 1.e4 and Shirov responded e5 as expected.
However, Magnus did not expect Shirov to go for the same variation as the one in which he lost against Leko in Tal Memorial.
Magnus had not really prepared this line as he considered that after 15....Nxf4 white should in principle be somewhat better. Magnus liked the idea 18. Ra6 to take advantage of the inactivity of the black bishop and he thought Shirov would be prepared for the earlier seen b4.
The computers gives white an advantage and suggests Ra8 by black, but both players seemed to think that black's main concern is to activate his bishop on b6.
Thinking for some 70 minutes after 19.Na3, Shirov responded c6 and after 22.e5 felt he was comfortably better.
Most of blacks subsequent moves are forced and whites position looks overwhelming.
However, the tactics seemed to work for black as he can take back on d5 with his rook.
Magnus (and the computer programs from what I'm told) says that black has a draw after 30.Rxc7, and after Qg4 black may take on e5 with his bishop, although the ending is better for white.
In the time trouble Shirov made some inaccurate moves and after exchanging queens the ending should now be winning for white due to the past pawns in the b- and c-file. Magnus was uncertain about how to continue and chose giving up the c-pawn to attack f7 and h7. But after excellent defence by Shirov the ending with rook+knight+pawn against rook+bishop is probably a theoretical draw despite the sidelined black king.
Magnus continued to create difficulties for Shirov and in a position where in fact most king moves lose (but Ke7 supposedly keeps the balance) Shirov blundered badly with Ke5 allowing b8Q! 1-0.
Magnus was of course immensely satisfied to win in the end after a seven hours fight especially since he probably had a winning position already after some 25 moves.
On the other hand it is difficult not to feel a bit sorry for Shirov after his excellent defence and fighting spirit.
Aronian - Anand featured another chapter in a popular Queens Indian Variation, and after accurate defence Anand equalised and a draw was agreed after about 2 hours play.
Radjabov blitzed out some 25 moves as black against Topalov to reach a slightly worse queen and rook ending but after (the usual) energetic play by Topalov, the rook endgame looked very promising for white.
It is difficult to say if and when he went wrong but after a very accurate defence black forced a draw after nearly 6 hours play.
Ivanchuk seemed to have equalised as black against Leko after the opening. When Leko captured on e4 with the rook and took the pawn on a4 with his queen, black was allowed to invade the first rank after which his many threats soon decided.
Certainly a very good game by Ivanchuk but frankly this is not the cliff of a defender we are used to see in Peter.
Before playing Anand as black tomorrow in round 10, Magnus is now in a clear 2nd place (5,5 / 9) half a point behind Anand, and with Aronian trailing half a point behind him.
Topalov at 50% is still in contention, especially taking into account his often formidable finish in top events.
Tomorrow night I'm leaving for Madrid to meet Magnus' three sisters (so no blogging after the Anand-Carlsen game.)
We'll return to Linares on Monday morning, and I hope that the family support will do Magnus some good :-)
Supposedly Magnus is unofficially ranked among the World top 5 (and even top 4 if Bundesliga is counted) after the win today!
It may not last, but anyhow it is of course a great achievement and inspiration for a 17 year old Norwegian!
Henrik Carlsen, Linares,
February 29th 2008
Linares 2008 Round 8
Four days rest including the 24 hour travel sounds OK, but it's really hard adjusting 7 hours backwards, especially if you got up late Mexican time over there. Magnus has been out walking a little every day but we haven't had any real exercise like on the free days in Morelia yet. (Plans are made for Sunday though.)
The players seemed to have migrated from the jetlagged zombie-like appearance yesterday and the day before and showed good fighting spirit today.
The playing venue Theatro Cervantes is situated in the centre of Linares in the Cervantes street. (Amusingly I'm reading Don Quixote during the round!)
Anand had an edge on the white side of a Sveshnikov against Shirov, but Shirov kept finding counterplay and reached a somewhat worse but probably drawn ending. Somewhere Shirov probably went wrong and Anand used his trademark efficiency to reign in the whole point and a one point overall lead in the tournament.
Radjabov played an interesting (but necessary) piece sack against Leko. After a tense attack from Radjabov and active defence by Leko a draw was agreed just before the time control in an unbalanced but fairly equal position.
Topalov looked very comfortable as black against Aronian. Topalov played for win and allowed an exchange acrifice by Aronian. Topalov made a seemingly incomprehensible error with Qxg2, and the ending is difficult for black. Aronian advanced the d-pawn to the 6th rank and marched his king to secure the full point.
Magnus went for e5 and the Ruy Lopez against Ivanchuk and according to conventional theory black is OK after 6.Bxc6 dxc6.
However, Magnus could not remember the theory and somewhere he obviously went wrong.
After 10.Qc2 Ivanchuk had spent more than an hour on the clock but was clearly better.
To avoid simplifications and a worse ending Magnus chose complications with Qd7 and 12...0-0-0 a piece down but with the Bf5 pinning the rook on e4.
At this point the computer gives Ivanchuk a clear advantage but for humans it is not easy to find the best continuation for white.
15.b3 was probably a little inaccurate and after 17.Nd4 black may again enter a worse but maybe drawn ending with Bxe4. Magnus chose complications and after 18.c5 white has to find Qd1 to maintain a significant advantage.
Short on time Ivanchuk played Qc4 and after the exchanges the endgame is fairly equal but unbalanced and difficult to play for white with little time left.
Ivanchuk had 54 seconds left for 12 moves and managed to play reasonably well but due to small inaccuracies his position went continuously downhill until the time control.
After 40.Nd3 the arbiter stopped the game as Ivanchuk had lost on time but fortunately the position was winning for black anyway.
After making some serious mistakes in the opening, Magnus efficiently complicated the position and played accurately.
Ivanchuk did miss some promising continuations but the loss cannot be ascribed to a single blunder in any way.
Still Magnus was obviously more relieved than satisfied with the full point today, and is now in shared 2nd place with Aronian at +1.
Magnus has had 3 blacks and 1 white in rounds 5-8 and has scored an impressive +2 in these games.
During lunch today I enjoyed looking over the decoration wall pictures from the 1999-2005 tournaments. Surprisingly to me the format changed two times also in this period.
In 1999 there were 8 players, the next two years 6 and from 2002 onwards 7 players. After Kasparov's retirement in 2005 the format was changed again with 8 players double round robin partly in Morelia and partly in Linares.
Kasparov was the only player to participate in all the 7 tournaments 1999-2005, explaining why the organisers looked for a change of format again following his retirement.
Leko, Anand, Shirov and Vallejo Pons were other frequent participants in this period. One female only (J.Polgar) participated in one of these tournaments.
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Shirov and we can expect a tough fight.
Henrik Carlsen,
Linares, February 28th 2008.
The players seemed to have migrated from the jetlagged zombie-like appearance yesterday and the day before and showed good fighting spirit today.
The playing venue Theatro Cervantes is situated in the centre of Linares in the Cervantes street. (Amusingly I'm reading Don Quixote during the round!)
Anand had an edge on the white side of a Sveshnikov against Shirov, but Shirov kept finding counterplay and reached a somewhat worse but probably drawn ending. Somewhere Shirov probably went wrong and Anand used his trademark efficiency to reign in the whole point and a one point overall lead in the tournament.
Radjabov played an interesting (but necessary) piece sack against Leko. After a tense attack from Radjabov and active defence by Leko a draw was agreed just before the time control in an unbalanced but fairly equal position.
Topalov looked very comfortable as black against Aronian. Topalov played for win and allowed an exchange acrifice by Aronian. Topalov made a seemingly incomprehensible error with Qxg2, and the ending is difficult for black. Aronian advanced the d-pawn to the 6th rank and marched his king to secure the full point.
Magnus went for e5 and the Ruy Lopez against Ivanchuk and according to conventional theory black is OK after 6.Bxc6 dxc6.
However, Magnus could not remember the theory and somewhere he obviously went wrong.
After 10.Qc2 Ivanchuk had spent more than an hour on the clock but was clearly better.
To avoid simplifications and a worse ending Magnus chose complications with Qd7 and 12...0-0-0 a piece down but with the Bf5 pinning the rook on e4.
At this point the computer gives Ivanchuk a clear advantage but for humans it is not easy to find the best continuation for white.
15.b3 was probably a little inaccurate and after 17.Nd4 black may again enter a worse but maybe drawn ending with Bxe4. Magnus chose complications and after 18.c5 white has to find Qd1 to maintain a significant advantage.
Short on time Ivanchuk played Qc4 and after the exchanges the endgame is fairly equal but unbalanced and difficult to play for white with little time left.
Ivanchuk had 54 seconds left for 12 moves and managed to play reasonably well but due to small inaccuracies his position went continuously downhill until the time control.
After 40.Nd3 the arbiter stopped the game as Ivanchuk had lost on time but fortunately the position was winning for black anyway.
After making some serious mistakes in the opening, Magnus efficiently complicated the position and played accurately.
Ivanchuk did miss some promising continuations but the loss cannot be ascribed to a single blunder in any way.
Still Magnus was obviously more relieved than satisfied with the full point today, and is now in shared 2nd place with Aronian at +1.
Magnus has had 3 blacks and 1 white in rounds 5-8 and has scored an impressive +2 in these games.
During lunch today I enjoyed looking over the decoration wall pictures from the 1999-2005 tournaments. Surprisingly to me the format changed two times also in this period.
In 1999 there were 8 players, the next two years 6 and from 2002 onwards 7 players. After Kasparov's retirement in 2005 the format was changed again with 8 players double round robin partly in Morelia and partly in Linares.
Kasparov was the only player to participate in all the 7 tournaments 1999-2005, explaining why the organisers looked for a change of format again following his retirement.
Leko, Anand, Shirov and Vallejo Pons were other frequent participants in this period. One female only (J.Polgar) participated in one of these tournaments.
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Shirov and we can expect a tough fight.
Henrik Carlsen,
Linares, February 28th 2008.
Morelia Round 7
Three more decisive games in the last round in Morelia Saturday!
(Internet was down most of the last night and morning in Morelia and we've just arrived in Linares after 24 hours on the road.)
As white against Aronian Magnus chose an unusual line with 8.a3 in the Ruy Lopez.
Aronian thought for some 10 minutes and chose Bc5 and d6 which probably equalise.
Magnus thought that Aronian's response (Re8) to 11.h3 was somewhat dubious.
He wasn't sure that the pawn sack after 12.Bg5 etc was entirely correct but went for the position reached after 17.Bh4 Nxd4 18.Nc3.
In this highly tactical position with vulnerable kings on both sides, Aronian thought for 35 minutes and exchanged on f3 with his bishop and afterwards played Kh8.
(During the closing ceremony later at night he mentioned that maybe Kh7 instead would be winning. Seemingly none of the players considered c6 a serious alternative for black neither on move 18 nor 19 during the game.)
Magnus played Nd5 and Aronian quite quickly responded Rg8+, and after Kf1 offered his queen with Ng4?! threatening mate.
However, Magnus could sacrifice back with Qxd4+ Bxd4 and take on d8 afterwards. Despite being a pawn down Magnus is simply winning after 25.Rad1 due to the trapped knight on h2. Aronian got two more pawns for the knight but due to his many weaknesses Magnus could wrap up the game and grab the whole point around the time control, having spent just above one hour on the clock. One heck of a game!
Radjabov has enjoyed a string of successes with the Kings Indian defence over the last year and a half, but Saturday he was beaten by Shirov.
Anand did not get a significant advantage against Ivanchuk after the opening and a draw was agreed well into the middle game in a fairly balanced position.
Topalov equalised after the opening against Leko and probably had a slight advantage in the middle game. In time trouble Leko chose to give up his queen for two rooks but with a knight left on each side Topalov quickly decided the game with threats against h2 and the rook on d1. 0-1.
At the conclusion of the first half in Morelia, the scorecard is symmetrical with Anand in the lead at +2, Shirov and Topalov at +1, Magnus and Aronian at 50%, Ivanchuk and Radjabov at -1 and Leko at -2.
Bearing in mind Morozevich' comeback in Linares to share 2nd (with Magnus) last year after his miserable 2/7 in Morelia, the tournament is still fairly open although the pre-tournament favourite Anand obviously has strengthened his candidacy further.
Magnus is generally very satisfied with having won two games thus far, and he hopes to reduce the numbers of blunders significantly in the Linares part.
Last year we travelled by bus to Mexico City while most of the players this year flew from the local airport in Morelia before the overnight transatlantic flight to Madrid and bus trip to Linares.
Round 8 starts at 16:00 on Thursday 28th. Magnus has black against Ivanchuk.
Henrik Carlsen,
Linares, February 25th 2008
(Internet was down most of the last night and morning in Morelia and we've just arrived in Linares after 24 hours on the road.)
As white against Aronian Magnus chose an unusual line with 8.a3 in the Ruy Lopez.
Aronian thought for some 10 minutes and chose Bc5 and d6 which probably equalise.
Magnus thought that Aronian's response (Re8) to 11.h3 was somewhat dubious.
He wasn't sure that the pawn sack after 12.Bg5 etc was entirely correct but went for the position reached after 17.Bh4 Nxd4 18.Nc3.
In this highly tactical position with vulnerable kings on both sides, Aronian thought for 35 minutes and exchanged on f3 with his bishop and afterwards played Kh8.
(During the closing ceremony later at night he mentioned that maybe Kh7 instead would be winning. Seemingly none of the players considered c6 a serious alternative for black neither on move 18 nor 19 during the game.)
Magnus played Nd5 and Aronian quite quickly responded Rg8+, and after Kf1 offered his queen with Ng4?! threatening mate.
However, Magnus could sacrifice back with Qxd4+ Bxd4 and take on d8 afterwards. Despite being a pawn down Magnus is simply winning after 25.Rad1 due to the trapped knight on h2. Aronian got two more pawns for the knight but due to his many weaknesses Magnus could wrap up the game and grab the whole point around the time control, having spent just above one hour on the clock. One heck of a game!
Radjabov has enjoyed a string of successes with the Kings Indian defence over the last year and a half, but Saturday he was beaten by Shirov.
Anand did not get a significant advantage against Ivanchuk after the opening and a draw was agreed well into the middle game in a fairly balanced position.
Topalov equalised after the opening against Leko and probably had a slight advantage in the middle game. In time trouble Leko chose to give up his queen for two rooks but with a knight left on each side Topalov quickly decided the game with threats against h2 and the rook on d1. 0-1.
At the conclusion of the first half in Morelia, the scorecard is symmetrical with Anand in the lead at +2, Shirov and Topalov at +1, Magnus and Aronian at 50%, Ivanchuk and Radjabov at -1 and Leko at -2.
Bearing in mind Morozevich' comeback in Linares to share 2nd (with Magnus) last year after his miserable 2/7 in Morelia, the tournament is still fairly open although the pre-tournament favourite Anand obviously has strengthened his candidacy further.
Magnus is generally very satisfied with having won two games thus far, and he hopes to reduce the numbers of blunders significantly in the Linares part.
Last year we travelled by bus to Mexico City while most of the players this year flew from the local airport in Morelia before the overnight transatlantic flight to Madrid and bus trip to Linares.
Round 8 starts at 16:00 on Thursday 28th. Magnus has black against Ivanchuk.
Henrik Carlsen,
Linares, February 25th 2008
Morelia Round 6
The entrance to the playing venue Ocampo theatre.
Magnus faced Radjabov with the black pieces in round 6.
In the anti-Berlin with 4.d3 Magnus felt he had equalised already after 11....Bxf3.
The position looked quite drawish but Magnus decided to play for a win with Rad8, Rxd1 and Rxe4.
White got sufficient counterplay for the pawn but Magnus still thought black, if any, was better when he blundered badly with Bb6 (instead of b6) allowing the decisive shot 27.Ba6!
With the clear and probably decisive advantage, Radjabov found many good moves in the continuation.
Magnus could not find a way to stop the queenside pawns and shortly after the time control he resigned (quite disgusted with himself due to the bad blunder).
Leko was surprised by Aronian with the interesting novelty Qa4 and spent nearly 90 minutes on the next move! Blacks position looked difficult but Leko managed to find counterplay and saved the game. It was drawn just before the second time control. An amazing game!
Topalov-Anand and Ivanchuk-Shirov was hardfought draws, so that Anand maintain his lead ahead of Aronian.
Magnus is now shared 6th-8th with 2.5/6.
Saturday Magnus has white against Aronian before moving to Linares on Sunday.
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 22th 2008
Morelia 2008 Round 5.
A day off Monday, two more rounds and another free day coming up tomorrow, may seem a bit luxurious for the Morelia-Linares participants, but judging from the number of mistakes and decisive games, they need it.
Magnus faced Topalov with the black pieces and chose the Alekhine defence as a surprise. It worked and Topalov spent nearly 30 minutes on the first 10 moves.
After choosing the not very critical 7.Nxd7, white is maybe marginally better until allowing the nice shot 13...c5!
14. dxc5 Nxc3! is complicated and if any, black is better.
Topalov chose Be4 and after recapturing on d4 with the c-pawn, white is simply a pawn down and close to loosing after 20 moves!
Feeling clear-headed and fresh today, Magnus easily found good moves to improve his position and utilize the clear advantage, while Topalov did not find the best defence.
Magnus invaded the 2nd rank and forced the white king away from d3. The white rooks were passive and Magnus advanced his king and kingside pawns to finish the game just after the time control.
0-1 and back to 50% score to tie for 3rd-5th after 5 rounds.
All the players are of similar strength this year, but on a positive note Magnus has already played the 5 highest rated opponents (avg 2768).
Leko had a slightly better ending after a long prepared line in the Sicilian Najdorf against Anand, but he over pressed and made to many mistakes close to the time control.
Anand played precisely and efficiently exploited the opportunity to win his 3rd game with black!
Radjabov-Ivanchuk was an interesting game where white had a slight advantage but after many complications Ivanchuk got a perpetual with rook and knight on the first rank.
Aronian-Shirov was starting to look interesting, although probably rather equal, when a draw was agreed on move 18. That is too early guys!
Anand is in the clear lead with 3.5/5 ahead of Aronian 3/5.
The victory was celebrated at the great Conspiracion restaurant across the street in the excellent company of host Frederic Friedel and Vishy and Aruna Anand.
Tomorrow we will get the opportunity to visit the unique Tres Marias club outside Morelia for some more tennis, swimming etc.
Friday Magnus has black against Teimur Radjabov and Saturday white against Aronian before moving to Linares on Sunday.
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 20th 2008
Magnus faced Topalov with the black pieces and chose the Alekhine defence as a surprise. It worked and Topalov spent nearly 30 minutes on the first 10 moves.
After choosing the not very critical 7.Nxd7, white is maybe marginally better until allowing the nice shot 13...c5!
14. dxc5 Nxc3! is complicated and if any, black is better.
Topalov chose Be4 and after recapturing on d4 with the c-pawn, white is simply a pawn down and close to loosing after 20 moves!
Feeling clear-headed and fresh today, Magnus easily found good moves to improve his position and utilize the clear advantage, while Topalov did not find the best defence.
Magnus invaded the 2nd rank and forced the white king away from d3. The white rooks were passive and Magnus advanced his king and kingside pawns to finish the game just after the time control.
0-1 and back to 50% score to tie for 3rd-5th after 5 rounds.
All the players are of similar strength this year, but on a positive note Magnus has already played the 5 highest rated opponents (avg 2768).
Leko had a slightly better ending after a long prepared line in the Sicilian Najdorf against Anand, but he over pressed and made to many mistakes close to the time control.
Anand played precisely and efficiently exploited the opportunity to win his 3rd game with black!
Radjabov-Ivanchuk was an interesting game where white had a slight advantage but after many complications Ivanchuk got a perpetual with rook and knight on the first rank.
Aronian-Shirov was starting to look interesting, although probably rather equal, when a draw was agreed on move 18. That is too early guys!
Anand is in the clear lead with 3.5/5 ahead of Aronian 3/5.
The victory was celebrated at the great Conspiracion restaurant across the street in the excellent company of host Frederic Friedel and Vishy and Aruna Anand.
Tomorrow we will get the opportunity to visit the unique Tres Marias club outside Morelia for some more tennis, swimming etc.
Friday Magnus has black against Teimur Radjabov and Saturday white against Aronian before moving to Linares on Sunday.
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 20th 2008
Morelia Round 4.
The games may still suffer a bit from the participant's overseas travel, but it sure was another exciting round for the spectators.
Magnus played a well-known Nimzo-Indian line against Leko.
It was supposed to he fairly good for white, and Magnus did hence expect an improvement from Leko.
The development was unfortunately somewhat reminiscent of round 3 in that Magnus sat looking at the position after 15.Bg3 and suddenly saw that black can play 16... Bxd5 instead of the normal Nxd5.
And this was indeed Leko's novelty after which black has equalised.
Magnus spent about 35 minutes on the clock and decided on playing the speculative 17.Be2?!
Leko thought Bxg2 was unclear and decided against it. But also after Rc8 the computers clearly prefer black.
After 18.e4 Leko chose Bc6 instead of Be6 preferred by the ICC commentators as well as the computer. Later this evening Leko mentioned that Be6 Rd1 Nc5 followed by the surprising Qb7!, which none of the players had seen during the game, would have been good for black.
Following a few more slightly passive moves from Leko, Magnus found a nice combination with 27.Nb5! after which white is better.
Magnus spent the remaining time trying to find a winning continuation but without success.
In the end he had to blitz out moves till the time control after which a draw has agreed in the equal ending.
Despite many good middle game moves Magnus was not happy with his play today, and he hopes that the after effects of the long tennis session in the sun yesterday will turn to the positive tomorrow.
Ivanchuk-Aronian featured the line Magnus played against Leko in Dortmund last year and after an improvement from Ivanchuk he was clearly better.
After a few more minor mistakes by Aronian white had a winning position.
Despite two extra pawns Ivanchuk spent too much time and entered a terrible, and seemingly unnecessary, time trouble where he blundered a full piece and later lost. 0-1.
Topalov played the Sicilian Sveshnikov as black against Shirov and decided to exchange queens and most of the pieces to enter a slightly worse ending.
After some ingenious manoeuvres Shirov put pressure on the black pawns on h6, f7 and d6 and after a nice king walk he secured a winning advantage and the whole point.
Radjabov sacked a pawn in the opening as black against Anand and got active play. Anand seemingly had control and the better position but after one or two inaccurate moves the advantage had disappeared and a draw was agreed.
The draw percentage is still below 50%!
After 4 rounds all players (!) have lost minimum one game and Topalov, Anand and Aronian is in the lead with 2.5/4.
Magnus is trailing with 1.5/4 together with Radjabov and unfortunate Ivanchuk.
Tomorrow Magnus has black against Topalov. A difficult task although Magnus managed to draw in Corus last month.
A note on the weather; It's about 26 oC and beautiful sunshine every day in Morelia!
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 19th 2008
Magnus played a well-known Nimzo-Indian line against Leko.
It was supposed to he fairly good for white, and Magnus did hence expect an improvement from Leko.
The development was unfortunately somewhat reminiscent of round 3 in that Magnus sat looking at the position after 15.Bg3 and suddenly saw that black can play 16... Bxd5 instead of the normal Nxd5.
And this was indeed Leko's novelty after which black has equalised.
Magnus spent about 35 minutes on the clock and decided on playing the speculative 17.Be2?!
Leko thought Bxg2 was unclear and decided against it. But also after Rc8 the computers clearly prefer black.
After 18.e4 Leko chose Bc6 instead of Be6 preferred by the ICC commentators as well as the computer. Later this evening Leko mentioned that Be6 Rd1 Nc5 followed by the surprising Qb7!, which none of the players had seen during the game, would have been good for black.
Following a few more slightly passive moves from Leko, Magnus found a nice combination with 27.Nb5! after which white is better.
Magnus spent the remaining time trying to find a winning continuation but without success.
In the end he had to blitz out moves till the time control after which a draw has agreed in the equal ending.
Despite many good middle game moves Magnus was not happy with his play today, and he hopes that the after effects of the long tennis session in the sun yesterday will turn to the positive tomorrow.
Ivanchuk-Aronian featured the line Magnus played against Leko in Dortmund last year and after an improvement from Ivanchuk he was clearly better.
After a few more minor mistakes by Aronian white had a winning position.
Despite two extra pawns Ivanchuk spent too much time and entered a terrible, and seemingly unnecessary, time trouble where he blundered a full piece and later lost. 0-1.
Topalov played the Sicilian Sveshnikov as black against Shirov and decided to exchange queens and most of the pieces to enter a slightly worse ending.
After some ingenious manoeuvres Shirov put pressure on the black pawns on h6, f7 and d6 and after a nice king walk he secured a winning advantage and the whole point.
Radjabov sacked a pawn in the opening as black against Anand and got active play. Anand seemingly had control and the better position but after one or two inaccurate moves the advantage had disappeared and a draw was agreed.
The draw percentage is still below 50%!
After 4 rounds all players (!) have lost minimum one game and Topalov, Anand and Aronian is in the lead with 2.5/4.
Magnus is trailing with 1.5/4 together with Radjabov and unfortunate Ivanchuk.
Tomorrow Magnus has black against Topalov. A difficult task although Magnus managed to draw in Corus last month.
A note on the weather; It's about 26 oC and beautiful sunshine every day in Morelia!
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 19th 2008
Morelia 2008 Round 2 & 3.
In round 2 Magnus played black against Shirov and chose the unusual 5...Ne7 line in the Kan Sicilian.
As expected this was a surprise for Shirov who spent much time on the clock. Magnus transposed to a typical French Nd2 position with an isolani on d5 and defended well.
Shirov had a slight advantage but not enough to create serious problems for Magnus.
When Shirov defended the h-pawn with 18.Qh6 Magnus seriously considered Qf4 (which is mate in one at f8...), but fortunately discovered the mate in time and played Bf5 equalising.
After 28...c4 Magnus felt that black, if any,had the advantage due to the weak black queenside, but Shirov pushed his kingside pawns creating sufficient threats to keep Magnus occupied. The queen ending was drawn on move 39.
Aronian won in style as black against Anand with the Marshall attack.
Ivanchuk got two rooks for his queen against Leko and carefully improved his position until Leko went wrong in the time trouble.
Radjabov-Topalov ended in a draw after each of the players had blundered a pawn in the Petroff.
More often found at the other side of the camera, this is Frederic Friedel, Chessbase, Macauley Peterson, Chess.FM / ICC and local media representatives in the press room.
In round 3 Magnus faced Anand with the white pieces and was eager to revenge the Corus loss. Magnus enter Slav Anti Moscow line even if Anand knows this line very well. He followed his preparation but waiting for Anands response while in the rest room, he discovered 16... Rh6! which he had missed prior to the game.
Magnus spent some 40 minutes trying to find a plan and chose to exchange pawns on c6 and b5 as well as rooks in the a-file. He was clearly worse but thought there should be a way of saving the game.
Anand maintained his advantage in a precise manner and when Magnus allowed the exchange of queens he entered a bishop + 4 pawns versus rook + 3 pawns. With the white king trapped on the 1st row it is lost for white, and Anand secured the full point with accurate play.
In the tablebase ending with pawns on h3 and h4, black forces the white king away through zugswang after which he can sack his rook and advance the h4-pawn. 0-1.
One point out of three is not so bad, but Magnus is concerned about having suffered serious lapses of concentration or oversights related to all three games thus far.
Topalov won a nice game against Ivanchuk to take the sole lead with 2.5/3 ahead of Anand at 2.
Aronian put some pressure on Radjabov but the latter found sufficient resources to force an equal ending. Draw.
Leko played the 8.Nf3 Najdorf line and maintained the control over d5 throughout the game. However, Shirov got counterplay in the f-file and after exchanging most of the material a draw was agreed just before the time control.
The Open tournament was won by GM A.Ramirez. He is full time student these days but obviously still is as strong as ever.
On the free day we'll play some tennis in the sun!
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 17th 2008
As expected this was a surprise for Shirov who spent much time on the clock. Magnus transposed to a typical French Nd2 position with an isolani on d5 and defended well.
Shirov had a slight advantage but not enough to create serious problems for Magnus.
When Shirov defended the h-pawn with 18.Qh6 Magnus seriously considered Qf4 (which is mate in one at f8...), but fortunately discovered the mate in time and played Bf5 equalising.
After 28...c4 Magnus felt that black, if any,had the advantage due to the weak black queenside, but Shirov pushed his kingside pawns creating sufficient threats to keep Magnus occupied. The queen ending was drawn on move 39.
Aronian won in style as black against Anand with the Marshall attack.
Ivanchuk got two rooks for his queen against Leko and carefully improved his position until Leko went wrong in the time trouble.
Radjabov-Topalov ended in a draw after each of the players had blundered a pawn in the Petroff.
More often found at the other side of the camera, this is Frederic Friedel, Chessbase, Macauley Peterson, Chess.FM / ICC and local media representatives in the press room.
In round 3 Magnus faced Anand with the white pieces and was eager to revenge the Corus loss. Magnus enter Slav Anti Moscow line even if Anand knows this line very well. He followed his preparation but waiting for Anands response while in the rest room, he discovered 16... Rh6! which he had missed prior to the game.
Magnus spent some 40 minutes trying to find a plan and chose to exchange pawns on c6 and b5 as well as rooks in the a-file. He was clearly worse but thought there should be a way of saving the game.
Anand maintained his advantage in a precise manner and when Magnus allowed the exchange of queens he entered a bishop + 4 pawns versus rook + 3 pawns. With the white king trapped on the 1st row it is lost for white, and Anand secured the full point with accurate play.
In the tablebase ending with pawns on h3 and h4, black forces the white king away through zugswang after which he can sack his rook and advance the h4-pawn. 0-1.
One point out of three is not so bad, but Magnus is concerned about having suffered serious lapses of concentration or oversights related to all three games thus far.
Topalov won a nice game against Ivanchuk to take the sole lead with 2.5/3 ahead of Anand at 2.
Aronian put some pressure on Radjabov but the latter found sufficient resources to force an equal ending. Draw.
Leko played the 8.Nf3 Najdorf line and maintained the control over d5 throughout the game. However, Shirov got counterplay in the f-file and after exchanging most of the material a draw was agreed just before the time control.
The Open tournament was won by GM A.Ramirez. He is full time student these days but obviously still is as strong as ever.
On the free day we'll play some tennis in the sun!
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 17th 2008
Morelia-Linares 2008 Round 1
Lots of action today!
Magnus played white against Ivanchuk. Preparing against Ivanchuk is pretty hard, he plays anything.
Magnus chose 1.e4 and Ivanchuk went for the Najdorf. Magnus has a good score with the quiet 7.Nf3, but was surprised when Ivanchuk played 9.... Be6, a variation in which he won a nice game against Topalov last year as white.
After a long think Magnus went for 10.Bb3 and the line he beat J.Nunn with back in 2006. White has a slight advantage.
Ivanchuk interestingly spent an hour on his 14th move and decided to go for a slightly worse ending rather than playing a middle game.
Magnus had a small quite comfortable edge but after some preparatory moves he suffered a lapse of concentration blundering with 28.Bc1? as he had looked at 29....Rb6 but not the obvious 29....Qb6. After exchanging queens on b3 the rook + bishop versus rook + knight ending is equal but somewhat unbalanced. When repeating moves before the time control Ivanchuk seemed to be interested in playing on but had little time on the clock.
Magnus felt he had no better than a draw and claimed based on the three fold repetition as he was uncertain about the ending after Kg6 instead of Kg8.
An acceptable start by Magnus but he hopes to improve his play in the days to come.
Some of the other players seemed to suffer even more from jetlag.
After Anand sacked an exchange on c3 in the Najdorf, Shirov spent lots of time on the clock, probably without finding the best moves and was lost before move 30. 0-1.
Aronian's position against Topalov looked difficult from the opening and despite spending much time on the clock his position just deteriorated and was completely lost before the time control. 1-0.
Leko-Radjabov's Sveshnikov looked tense and despite blitzing out moves Radjabov probably got a difficult position from the opening. At least after Be6 he has trouble, and after having to give a piece it was soon decided. 1-0.
In parallel with the main tournament there is both an Ibero American championship and a large open tournament.
After the games the players are chased by fans and enthusiasts for autographs, and they have every reason to be satisfied with the start of the tournament. No short draws, and 75% decided games!
Tomorrow Magnus is black against Shirov.
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 15th 2008
Magnus played white against Ivanchuk. Preparing against Ivanchuk is pretty hard, he plays anything.
Magnus chose 1.e4 and Ivanchuk went for the Najdorf. Magnus has a good score with the quiet 7.Nf3, but was surprised when Ivanchuk played 9.... Be6, a variation in which he won a nice game against Topalov last year as white.
After a long think Magnus went for 10.Bb3 and the line he beat J.Nunn with back in 2006. White has a slight advantage.
Ivanchuk interestingly spent an hour on his 14th move and decided to go for a slightly worse ending rather than playing a middle game.
Magnus had a small quite comfortable edge but after some preparatory moves he suffered a lapse of concentration blundering with 28.Bc1? as he had looked at 29....Rb6 but not the obvious 29....Qb6. After exchanging queens on b3 the rook + bishop versus rook + knight ending is equal but somewhat unbalanced. When repeating moves before the time control Ivanchuk seemed to be interested in playing on but had little time on the clock.
Magnus felt he had no better than a draw and claimed based on the three fold repetition as he was uncertain about the ending after Kg6 instead of Kg8.
An acceptable start by Magnus but he hopes to improve his play in the days to come.
Some of the other players seemed to suffer even more from jetlag.
After Anand sacked an exchange on c3 in the Najdorf, Shirov spent lots of time on the clock, probably without finding the best moves and was lost before move 30. 0-1.
Aronian's position against Topalov looked difficult from the opening and despite spending much time on the clock his position just deteriorated and was completely lost before the time control. 1-0.
Leko-Radjabov's Sveshnikov looked tense and despite blitzing out moves Radjabov probably got a difficult position from the opening. At least after Be6 he has trouble, and after having to give a piece it was soon decided. 1-0.
In parallel with the main tournament there is both an Ibero American championship and a large open tournament.
After the games the players are chased by fans and enthusiasts for autographs, and they have every reason to be satisfied with the start of the tournament. No short draws, and 75% decided games!
Tomorrow Magnus is black against Shirov.
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 15th 2008
Morelia press conference
Morelia is the capital of the Michoacan state in central Mexico. The historic centre of Morelia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morelia).
Hotel Los Juaninos is situated in the historic centre opposing the monumental baroque cathedral and it features in lots of traveller guides due to the location as well as the impressive style with wood-beam ceilings and stone arches.
The rooftop restaurant La Azotea offers excellent Mexican cuisine and a striking view to the cathedral.
Todays press conference was held next to the restaurant, and at least a dozen journalists and TV reporters participated in addition to all the players and host city dignitaries.
Half of the players are fluent in Spanish, while Magnus, Radjabov, Leko and Aronian responded in English.
Magnus mentioned that he of course was pleased with his result last year and that he would be satisfied if he can finish in the top half in the strong field this year.
Aronian hoped the quality of the play would be higher than last year, though he would have appreciated a few more days to adjust from the jetlag.
Radjabov was reminded of his victory against Kasparov with black five years ago. While still a very pleasant memory for him and his family he now tries to put emphasis on the games at hand.
Leko mentioned that he thought all players would be extremely motivated in this very strong top level (category 21) event.
This morning Magnus participated a net meeting hosted by Nettavisen. He spent about an hour responding to various questions although he did not manage to cover everyone.
Tonight there is the opening ceremony and round 1 starts tomorrow at 15:30 local time (22:30 in Norway).
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 14th 2008
Hotel Los Juaninos is situated in the historic centre opposing the monumental baroque cathedral and it features in lots of traveller guides due to the location as well as the impressive style with wood-beam ceilings and stone arches.
The rooftop restaurant La Azotea offers excellent Mexican cuisine and a striking view to the cathedral.
Todays press conference was held next to the restaurant, and at least a dozen journalists and TV reporters participated in addition to all the players and host city dignitaries.
Half of the players are fluent in Spanish, while Magnus, Radjabov, Leko and Aronian responded in English.
Magnus mentioned that he of course was pleased with his result last year and that he would be satisfied if he can finish in the top half in the strong field this year.
Aronian hoped the quality of the play would be higher than last year, though he would have appreciated a few more days to adjust from the jetlag.
Radjabov was reminded of his victory against Kasparov with black five years ago. While still a very pleasant memory for him and his family he now tries to put emphasis on the games at hand.
Leko mentioned that he thought all players would be extremely motivated in this very strong top level (category 21) event.
This morning Magnus participated a net meeting hosted by Nettavisen. He spent about an hour responding to various questions although he did not manage to cover everyone.
Tonight there is the opening ceremony and round 1 starts tomorrow at 15:30 local time (22:30 in Norway).
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 14th 2008
The road to Linares - revisited
Tomorrow there's the Linares/Morelia opening ceremony again!
Ready for the last leg to Morelia.
The long and time-consuming journey from Norway to Morelia was obviously quite exhausting, but renewing our aquintence with real Mexican food at the Mexico City Holiday Inn La Reforma breakfast table yesterday already made it worthwhile!
A year ago I reflected a bit on who and what had made it possible for a 16 year old Norwegian kid to get invited to Linares. (http://blog.magnuschess.com/060207230209_the_road_to_linares.html, http://blog.magnuschess.com/160207190707_the_road_to_linares__2.html)
Having performed very well last year and continuing to make steady progress (unofficially he is now at 2752 versus 2676 a year ago), Magnus was invited back for the 2008 edition of Morelia-Linares.
Below I'd like to mention some of the people and companies that have been important to us over the last year. Lastly I'll be immodest enough to reflect briefly on the state of the Chess world.
Although Magnus at his current level enjoys significant starting fees and prize money, it is important to have the support of sponsors as the economic foundation for taking optimum long term decisions regarding training and tournament participation (rather than letting short term economics decide).
Main sponsor; Last summer Magnus signed an agreement with FAST Search & Transfer, a Norwegian internet search engine company. They share the ambition of being the best in the world in their area.
FAST is currently in the process of being purchased by Microsoft (who has sponsored Magnus in the past) and we certainly hope the cooperation will continue with the new constellation.
For three years Magnus has also had a cooperation agreement with a small upstart company, Pharmalogica, selling fish oil products, and he features on some of their products, for instance Smartfish.
During last year, Magnus trained together with other strong grandmasters in addition to following the chess classes of Simen Agdestein at the Top Athletes School whenever home between tournaments.
GM Peter Heine Nielsen (mainly 1st quarter) and GM Kjetil Lie (in Elista and Khanty-Mansiysk) served as seconds for Magnus during tournaments.
Due to his love for tournament play Magnus started to travel extensively at the age of 11 and has continued to do so ever since.
However, in 2007 he was more active than ever before and spent more than 200 days away from home (which is maybe too much to live a balanced teenager life).
He will be very active also in 2008 but I think the number of travelling days directionally will go down.
I have followed Magnus to a majority of the tournaments in 2007 (and have put my consulting business on the side line for the time being). He has also been accompanied by seconds PHN and KL on several occasions and two of his school mates on one occasion.
I would also like to thank Chessbase and Fredrick Friedel for the continued enthusiastic support and the supply of chess software.
The importance of the many chess enthusiasts following Magnus' games cannot be overestimated.
This enthusiasm and support contribute significantly to making it worth while spending so much time on chess. Thank you!
After many turbulent years, the outlook for the chess world is quite good.
We have one undisputed World Champion and are looking forward to a great World Championship battle between the two current chess giants Anand and Kramnik in October 2008.
Together with Global Chess efficiently run by G.Borg and B.Kok, FIDE seems to have got their act together (but of course this remains to be seen).
The next full World Championship cycle is progressing as planned with the publication of the six host cities of the 2008-2009 Grand Prix series.
In 2008 many of the top players have simply too many strong tournament invitations. The schedule is much tighter than last year due to the GP and the October WC Match.
This is a challenge for organisers but has clearly some very positive consequences.
More players will be introduced to top level events, creating possibilities for the Elite 'challengers' around 2700. And the elite players will get the chance to show their real strength in competition with slightly lower rated players. The benefits are a likely drop in number of draws and there should be less complaints about the privileges of the elite.
Last but not least, it'll be more interesting tournaments to follow for chess lovers all over the world!
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 13th 2007
Ready for the last leg to Morelia.
The long and time-consuming journey from Norway to Morelia was obviously quite exhausting, but renewing our aquintence with real Mexican food at the Mexico City Holiday Inn La Reforma breakfast table yesterday already made it worthwhile!
A year ago I reflected a bit on who and what had made it possible for a 16 year old Norwegian kid to get invited to Linares. (http://blog.magnuschess.com/060207230209_the_road_to_linares.html, http://blog.magnuschess.com/160207190707_the_road_to_linares__2.html)
Having performed very well last year and continuing to make steady progress (unofficially he is now at 2752 versus 2676 a year ago), Magnus was invited back for the 2008 edition of Morelia-Linares.
Below I'd like to mention some of the people and companies that have been important to us over the last year. Lastly I'll be immodest enough to reflect briefly on the state of the Chess world.
Although Magnus at his current level enjoys significant starting fees and prize money, it is important to have the support of sponsors as the economic foundation for taking optimum long term decisions regarding training and tournament participation (rather than letting short term economics decide).
Main sponsor; Last summer Magnus signed an agreement with FAST Search & Transfer, a Norwegian internet search engine company. They share the ambition of being the best in the world in their area.
FAST is currently in the process of being purchased by Microsoft (who has sponsored Magnus in the past) and we certainly hope the cooperation will continue with the new constellation.
For three years Magnus has also had a cooperation agreement with a small upstart company, Pharmalogica, selling fish oil products, and he features on some of their products, for instance Smartfish.
During last year, Magnus trained together with other strong grandmasters in addition to following the chess classes of Simen Agdestein at the Top Athletes School whenever home between tournaments.
GM Peter Heine Nielsen (mainly 1st quarter) and GM Kjetil Lie (in Elista and Khanty-Mansiysk) served as seconds for Magnus during tournaments.
Due to his love for tournament play Magnus started to travel extensively at the age of 11 and has continued to do so ever since.
However, in 2007 he was more active than ever before and spent more than 200 days away from home (which is maybe too much to live a balanced teenager life).
He will be very active also in 2008 but I think the number of travelling days directionally will go down.
I have followed Magnus to a majority of the tournaments in 2007 (and have put my consulting business on the side line for the time being). He has also been accompanied by seconds PHN and KL on several occasions and two of his school mates on one occasion.
I would also like to thank Chessbase and Fredrick Friedel for the continued enthusiastic support and the supply of chess software.
The importance of the many chess enthusiasts following Magnus' games cannot be overestimated.
This enthusiasm and support contribute significantly to making it worth while spending so much time on chess. Thank you!
After many turbulent years, the outlook for the chess world is quite good.
We have one undisputed World Champion and are looking forward to a great World Championship battle between the two current chess giants Anand and Kramnik in October 2008.
Together with Global Chess efficiently run by G.Borg and B.Kok, FIDE seems to have got their act together (but of course this remains to be seen).
The next full World Championship cycle is progressing as planned with the publication of the six host cities of the 2008-2009 Grand Prix series.
In 2008 many of the top players have simply too many strong tournament invitations. The schedule is much tighter than last year due to the GP and the October WC Match.
This is a challenge for organisers but has clearly some very positive consequences.
More players will be introduced to top level events, creating possibilities for the Elite 'challengers' around 2700. And the elite players will get the chance to show their real strength in competition with slightly lower rated players. The benefits are a likely drop in number of draws and there should be less complaints about the privileges of the elite.
Last but not least, it'll be more interesting tournaments to follow for chess lovers all over the world!
Henrik Carlsen,
Morelia, February 13th 2007
Corus 2008 Prize Giving
Corus 2008 Final Round
This evening has been pretty busy with winners press conference, interviews, closing ceremony and dinner.
Despite many draws at the top of the A-group, today's games featured lots of fighting.
Aronian finished his game against Polgar first. Not surprisingly he came out of the long Marshall duel as black in a drawish endgame.
If anyone, Polgar looked slightly better and played (too long) for a win and was worse when she put up the necessary defence to draw.
Magnus and Radjabov played the Torre system and Magnus accepted a fairly equal position in order to try to outplay his opponent in the middle game. And he was quite successful. Positionally he was clearly better with both rooks in the d-file and no apparent weaknesses.
However, Radjabov found the good defence Nd6-e8-f6 and despite his better position Magnus could not find anything decisive for the next few moves and as time ran out he had to steer into a more drawish endgame towards the time control.
After exchanging rooks and queens, the opposite colour bishop was easily drawn. Radjabov played on for another 20 moves desparately trying to catch up with the leaders but with 2 against 1 pawn it was a draw in the end.
As white, Anand sacked a pawn against Kramnik and the latter avoided repetition of moves only to be allow Anand a ferocious attack against the black king. However, Kramnik defended brilliantly and after Anand missed Rd1 and gave up his bishop instead, his advantage disappeared. With queens off the board, a draw was agreed in the rook + 4 pawns versus rook + bishop + 1 pawn ending, and the winners press conference could begin.
Both co-winners Aronian (1st on second tiebreak Sonnenborn-Berger) and Magnus expressed utter satisfaction with their performance in Corus, and Aronian also qualified for the Bilbao Grand Slam Final in September.
Congratulations to Levon, a deserved and sympathetic winner, and to Magnus for his strongest tournament performance ever! (+3 against avg 2742, TPR 2830, gained 17 rating points!)
Vishy Anand was close to winning the last game and also the whole tournament, but in the end he had to settle for shared 3rd with T.Radjabov.
In Corus B and C, leaders Movsesian and Caruana secured their lead and won clear 1st and will promote to A and B next year. Congratulations.
Lastly, we would like to express our gratitude to the professional and friendly organisers, and to all the sponsors headed by main sponsor Corus.
Despite many draws at the top of the A-group, today's games featured lots of fighting.
Aronian finished his game against Polgar first. Not surprisingly he came out of the long Marshall duel as black in a drawish endgame.
If anyone, Polgar looked slightly better and played (too long) for a win and was worse when she put up the necessary defence to draw.
Magnus and Radjabov played the Torre system and Magnus accepted a fairly equal position in order to try to outplay his opponent in the middle game. And he was quite successful. Positionally he was clearly better with both rooks in the d-file and no apparent weaknesses.
However, Radjabov found the good defence Nd6-e8-f6 and despite his better position Magnus could not find anything decisive for the next few moves and as time ran out he had to steer into a more drawish endgame towards the time control.
After exchanging rooks and queens, the opposite colour bishop was easily drawn. Radjabov played on for another 20 moves desparately trying to catch up with the leaders but with 2 against 1 pawn it was a draw in the end.
As white, Anand sacked a pawn against Kramnik and the latter avoided repetition of moves only to be allow Anand a ferocious attack against the black king. However, Kramnik defended brilliantly and after Anand missed Rd1 and gave up his bishop instead, his advantage disappeared. With queens off the board, a draw was agreed in the rook + 4 pawns versus rook + bishop + 1 pawn ending, and the winners press conference could begin.
Both co-winners Aronian (1st on second tiebreak Sonnenborn-Berger) and Magnus expressed utter satisfaction with their performance in Corus, and Aronian also qualified for the Bilbao Grand Slam Final in September.
Congratulations to Levon, a deserved and sympathetic winner, and to Magnus for his strongest tournament performance ever! (+3 against avg 2742, TPR 2830, gained 17 rating points!)
Vishy Anand was close to winning the last game and also the whole tournament, but in the end he had to settle for shared 3rd with T.Radjabov.
In Corus B and C, leaders Movsesian and Caruana secured their lead and won clear 1st and will promote to A and B next year. Congratulations.
Lastly, we would like to express our gratitude to the professional and friendly organisers, and to all the sponsors headed by main sponsor Corus.
Many thanks for inviting Magnus to the A group in 2008, and many thanks for a great chess festival!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk, 27.01.2008
Corus 2008 Round 11 & 12.
Yesterday's round 11 is old news.
Despite the loss against Anand, Magnus got a lot of praise for his fighting spirit and will to win.
Frankly he had lots of doubts about what to play yesterday and probably spent too much time preparing various openings. He was a bit tired (both after a short night and a long tournament), but choosing 1.e4 he was prepared to fight for a win.
After Vishy played the somewhat dubious 14...Bd7 allowing 15.g5 at the right moment, Magnus felt he was better and had to go for it.
When Anand offered to exchange queens with 22.Qc5 both players thought white's attack would be overwhelming and Magnus went for the pawn sacks with Qh4 instead.
However, Anand defended well and after 28.Bf3 white is probably worse.
Commentators have pointed out that 28.Nf3 may have been better or even decisive for white but the lines are complicated.
After 32.g6+ Kg8 Magnus could probably draw with Rxf5 but missed Rhf3 after Qxd5+. (Kg1 is losing.)
Short on time and not calculating at his best, he quickly played Qh7+? and the black king escapes to d6. 0-1.
Anand deserves praise for a good defence and taking the opportunity when it arose.
Aronian and Radjabov also won pushing Magnus down to shared 2.-4. with 6,5/11.
Today the roles was reversed in that Magnus was well rested and ready for a good fight after a quiet evening yesterday and a long sleep, while Kramnik had a cold and didn't show his best play.
Magnus played the Hedgehog against Kramnik's 1.c4 and looked a bit cramped after 12.Qf4 0-0.
White had lots of space and active pieces.
Magnus spent much time and came up with the nice sequence Ne8, Ra8-a7-d7, Nc7, f5, g5, g4 after which black has regained space and despite apparent weaknesses on the queen side, the position is fairly equal.
Magnus got his knights to e4 and e5 and was maybe somewhat better when Kramnik played 29.Qxa6.
After Ra7 white has go to b5 as Qxb6 loses the queen after Rfb7 Qd4 Bf6!
Magnus had expected to have to fight for a draw and for the first 25+ moves he would happily have accepted a draw offer. But, when it came after 30.Qb5, he decided he was already better due to his more flexible and active pieces and played on.
Both players was low on time but in this game Magnus continued to find very good moves and at the time control black is winning!
Kramnik fought on until move 57 but with two extra pawns and continues mating threats on the first rank Magnus had no real problems realizing the win. 0-1 as black against the World ranked no.1!
A remarkable comeback by Magnus. He is again co-leader as Aronian drew with Ivanchuk.
His rating performance is well above 2800, he has won five (5!) games already in Corus and is unofficially at 2750 in rating right now!
Tomorrow he has white against Radjabov while Aronian is black against Polgar (who won with black against Adams today).
Movsesian and Caruana both won today and look like likely winners of B and C.
Thank you for all the supportive comments to the blog!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 26th, 2008
Despite the loss against Anand, Magnus got a lot of praise for his fighting spirit and will to win.
Frankly he had lots of doubts about what to play yesterday and probably spent too much time preparing various openings. He was a bit tired (both after a short night and a long tournament), but choosing 1.e4 he was prepared to fight for a win.
After Vishy played the somewhat dubious 14...Bd7 allowing 15.g5 at the right moment, Magnus felt he was better and had to go for it.
When Anand offered to exchange queens with 22.Qc5 both players thought white's attack would be overwhelming and Magnus went for the pawn sacks with Qh4 instead.
However, Anand defended well and after 28.Bf3 white is probably worse.
Commentators have pointed out that 28.Nf3 may have been better or even decisive for white but the lines are complicated.
After 32.g6+ Kg8 Magnus could probably draw with Rxf5 but missed Rhf3 after Qxd5+. (Kg1 is losing.)
Short on time and not calculating at his best, he quickly played Qh7+? and the black king escapes to d6. 0-1.
Anand deserves praise for a good defence and taking the opportunity when it arose.
Aronian and Radjabov also won pushing Magnus down to shared 2.-4. with 6,5/11.
Today the roles was reversed in that Magnus was well rested and ready for a good fight after a quiet evening yesterday and a long sleep, while Kramnik had a cold and didn't show his best play.
Magnus played the Hedgehog against Kramnik's 1.c4 and looked a bit cramped after 12.Qf4 0-0.
White had lots of space and active pieces.
Magnus spent much time and came up with the nice sequence Ne8, Ra8-a7-d7, Nc7, f5, g5, g4 after which black has regained space and despite apparent weaknesses on the queen side, the position is fairly equal.
Magnus got his knights to e4 and e5 and was maybe somewhat better when Kramnik played 29.Qxa6.
After Ra7 white has go to b5 as Qxb6 loses the queen after Rfb7 Qd4 Bf6!
Magnus had expected to have to fight for a draw and for the first 25+ moves he would happily have accepted a draw offer. But, when it came after 30.Qb5, he decided he was already better due to his more flexible and active pieces and played on.
Both players was low on time but in this game Magnus continued to find very good moves and at the time control black is winning!
Kramnik fought on until move 57 but with two extra pawns and continues mating threats on the first rank Magnus had no real problems realizing the win. 0-1 as black against the World ranked no.1!
A remarkable comeback by Magnus. He is again co-leader as Aronian drew with Ivanchuk.
His rating performance is well above 2800, he has won five (5!) games already in Corus and is unofficially at 2750 in rating right now!
Tomorrow he has white against Radjabov while Aronian is black against Polgar (who won with black against Adams today).
Movsesian and Caruana both won today and look like likely winners of B and C.
Thank you for all the supportive comments to the blog!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 26th, 2008
Corus 2008 Round 10
As he'll be the first to agree, Caissa smiled at Magnus yesterday.The day didn't start well though. (We had both forgot to leave the "don't disturb" sign outside his room the night before, and house cleaning forgot my oral message to this extent.)
Just before the game Magnus discovered a big hole in his opening preparation and decided to try a Volga line gambit against Van Wely that turned out to be rather dubious....
Hence he soon got trouble out of the opening. The attempt to regroup and prepare f5 went too slowly and was efficiently punished by Loek.
After 16....Ne8 it went downhill and after 21.Bh3 black is already loosing.
Magnus thought for 40 minutes and decided to play f5, not the best but maybe the most efficient defence.
He continued to strive for complications, and while Van Wely found ways to strengthen his advantage further but at the cost of a complicated position and running low on time.
Frankly Magnus thought he was dead lost and at some point expected to play only a few more moves before resigning. And indeed, the computers showed winning lines until the time control.
But with Magnus blitzing out moves and with little time left himself, Van Wely started seriously missing the thread from move 37 onwards. His main mistake 41.Qf2 turned the position from drawish to lost. Quite unfortunate as he had passed the time control probably without knowing.
After 41.Qf2 black is winning and following a forced line white is losing his queen or being mated and by move 49 it was 0-1. Puh!
Internet kibitzers with their computers turned on, could see lots of dubious moves from both sides, but this is something that does happen even at top level in complicated positions in time trouble.
Magnus deserves praise for never giving up and for keeping his head in time trouble, and Van Wely for outplaying Magnus for some 35 moves.
Ivanchuk grinned down tailender Eljanov as black while the rest of the games ended draw, which means that Magnus is back in the lead at 6.5/10!
Aronian is trailing at 6 and Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk and Radjabov at 5.5.
Magnus was invited to see Ajax-Utrecht after the game and on his third visit (in four years) to Ajax home turf they finally won!
Movsesian strengthened his lead in group B beating Smeets, while Caruana lost but is still the leader of C.
Magnus surely appreciate another rest day preparing for the final weekend playing Anand, Kramnik and Radjabov!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 24th, 2008
Just before the game Magnus discovered a big hole in his opening preparation and decided to try a Volga line gambit against Van Wely that turned out to be rather dubious....
Hence he soon got trouble out of the opening. The attempt to regroup and prepare f5 went too slowly and was efficiently punished by Loek.
After 16....Ne8 it went downhill and after 21.Bh3 black is already loosing.
Magnus thought for 40 minutes and decided to play f5, not the best but maybe the most efficient defence.
He continued to strive for complications, and while Van Wely found ways to strengthen his advantage further but at the cost of a complicated position and running low on time.
Frankly Magnus thought he was dead lost and at some point expected to play only a few more moves before resigning. And indeed, the computers showed winning lines until the time control.
But with Magnus blitzing out moves and with little time left himself, Van Wely started seriously missing the thread from move 37 onwards. His main mistake 41.Qf2 turned the position from drawish to lost. Quite unfortunate as he had passed the time control probably without knowing.
After 41.Qf2 black is winning and following a forced line white is losing his queen or being mated and by move 49 it was 0-1. Puh!
Internet kibitzers with their computers turned on, could see lots of dubious moves from both sides, but this is something that does happen even at top level in complicated positions in time trouble.
Magnus deserves praise for never giving up and for keeping his head in time trouble, and Van Wely for outplaying Magnus for some 35 moves.
Ivanchuk grinned down tailender Eljanov as black while the rest of the games ended draw, which means that Magnus is back in the lead at 6.5/10!
Aronian is trailing at 6 and Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk and Radjabov at 5.5.
Magnus was invited to see Ajax-Utrecht after the game and on his third visit (in four years) to Ajax home turf they finally won!
Movsesian strengthened his lead in group B beating Smeets, while Caruana lost but is still the leader of C.
Magnus surely appreciate another rest day preparing for the final weekend playing Anand, Kramnik and Radjabov!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 24th, 2008
Corus 2008 Round 9
The game of the day was obviously Topalov's knight sack 12.Nxf7 winning in style against V.Kramnik. The computers suggested Topalov had sufficient compensation for the piece and after Kramnik seemed to miss the most promising continuation, Topalov soon got a winning position having reclaimed the material and continuing to attack. He chose to leave his queen a prix on f7 and take on d5, followed by Rxc6+ and Nxf7 and was still winning. Just after 40 moves Kramnik resigned in a hopeless position.
A lot of on site spectators follow the games live from the sideline and on monitors.
Magnus was fit for fight today and faced Leko with the black pieces.
Leko again chose 1.e4 (indicating that Magnus have left the impression that his repertoire against e4 could well be improved upon).
They played the Ruy Lopez and Magnus went for the Breyer variation. After 15....a5 Leko thought for more than 30 minutes before 16.Bd2.
Magnus' queen side pawns looked exposed but he felt comfortable line after 18....d5.
However after the mistake 20...Bxb4? white may win a pawn.
Leko chose a move order giving Magnus the possibility to choose between giving up a pawn the complications arising in the game. Magnus ended up with 2 knights against a rook and two pawns. He was worse because of the white free pawns on a2, b3 and d4 but had some counterplay against the weakened white king. Magnus found a good continuation and had a drawn position just before the time control.
He spent most of his remaining time on 33....Qb4 (which is good) and after 34.Re7 the computers give many drawing lines.
After 4 checks on d5 and d1 Leko avoided a repeat. Magnus could have played Qd4 and it is hard to see how white is better. However, Magnus had planned 39....Qf3?? long way back and played it with 20 seconds left on the clock, blundering the knight on b6. 1-0.
Too many mistakes by Magnus, but due to Kramnik's loss and Aronian, Radjabov and Anand drawing their games, Magnus is still co-leading with Aronian at +2 with 4 rounds to go. Anand, Kramnik, Radjabov and Adams (beating van Wely) is in contention at +1 and we should also include Topalov at 50% as one of the outsiders to win.
Movsesian (6,5) and Caruana (7,0!) is still leading the B and C groups.
Tomorrow Magnus has another black against van Wely.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 22th, 2008
A lot of on site spectators follow the games live from the sideline and on monitors.
Magnus was fit for fight today and faced Leko with the black pieces.
Leko again chose 1.e4 (indicating that Magnus have left the impression that his repertoire against e4 could well be improved upon).
They played the Ruy Lopez and Magnus went for the Breyer variation. After 15....a5 Leko thought for more than 30 minutes before 16.Bd2.
Magnus' queen side pawns looked exposed but he felt comfortable line after 18....d5.
However after the mistake 20...Bxb4? white may win a pawn.
Leko chose a move order giving Magnus the possibility to choose between giving up a pawn the complications arising in the game. Magnus ended up with 2 knights against a rook and two pawns. He was worse because of the white free pawns on a2, b3 and d4 but had some counterplay against the weakened white king. Magnus found a good continuation and had a drawn position just before the time control.
He spent most of his remaining time on 33....Qb4 (which is good) and after 34.Re7 the computers give many drawing lines.
After 4 checks on d5 and d1 Leko avoided a repeat. Magnus could have played Qd4 and it is hard to see how white is better. However, Magnus had planned 39....Qf3?? long way back and played it with 20 seconds left on the clock, blundering the knight on b6. 1-0.
Too many mistakes by Magnus, but due to Kramnik's loss and Aronian, Radjabov and Anand drawing their games, Magnus is still co-leading with Aronian at +2 with 4 rounds to go. Anand, Kramnik, Radjabov and Adams (beating van Wely) is in contention at +1 and we should also include Topalov at 50% as one of the outsiders to win.
Movsesian (6,5) and Caruana (7,0!) is still leading the B and C groups.
Tomorrow Magnus has another black against van Wely.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 22th, 2008
Corus Round 8
Chess finally hit the media headlines again today.
Unfortunately the main topic was not the hard fought 8th round of Corus but rather the Cheparinov-Short handshake indecent.
Cheparinov, seeking revenge for Short comments in media regarding San Luis, arriving a bit late for the game he avoided Short's extended hand after which Short demonstratively demanded a handshake a second time. Being turn down again he asked the arbiter to forfeit Cheparinov. The arbiter did, despite Cheparinovs willingness to shake hands upon the urging of the arbiter. Later last night the wise appeals committee ordered the players back to the table today after an official apology by the Bulgarian.
Today Short playing white finished off the Bulgarian in a nice game to reclaim the point he won and later had to let go yesterday.
Outside providing (negative) publicity for chess, neither player has any reason to be proud of this incident.
The Corus A group can be pretty satisfied delivering another day of mainly hard fought games despite only one being decided.
Anand spent much time in the Najdorf opening as white against a well prepared Topalov but obviously found a good continuation and outplayed Topalov in style in the late middle game.
Seemingly Anand is back in form just in time to join the fight for the tournament win.
As white against Gelfand, Magnus followed a line prepared earlier and got a small advantage in the opening. Magnus felt comfortable as he could press without any real downside. The computers supposedly saw the position as equal for instance after Magnus playing 25.Bf1.
However, Magnus correctly anticipated that Gelfand would avoid the risky but probably good 25...Nd5, and after 25....h5 white is better.
After trading most pieces Gelfand gave up the b pawn to enter a rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with a pin against the knight on c3 and the pawn on b2, so that Magnus in the end had to give up the b-pawn and take the h-pawn instead. The position looked drawish when Magnus found a nice trick with g4! fxg4 Ng5! after which black is forced to exchange the bishop for the knight and is left with his pawn on g4 and king on h4 against white's pawn on f2 and e3.
The problem was that this is a theoretical draw with the correct defence.
Magnus tried for some 15 moves and Gelfand defended accurately. Draw.
Kramnik was a pawn up in the rook ending against Polgar but had to concede a draw in the end as well.
Aronian drew Mamedyarov to leave the lead unchanged with Magnus on +3. Kramnik and Aronian at +2 and Anand joining Radjabov at +1.
The other games were drawn between move 20 and 28.
In Corus B Movsesian beat Spoelman with the black pieces to claim the lead with 6/8 ahead of Bacrot at 5.5 and Short at 5. (I hope I haven't made the mistake of counting his win against Cheparinov twice....)
In Corus C, Caruana beat co-leader Braun to take the sole lead also at 6/8 ahead of Reinderman at 5.5 and Braun, Negi (after two initial losses!) and Van der Wiel at 5.
Magnus played some squash on the free day and is looking forward to round 9 as black against P.Leko tomorrow.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 21th, 2008
Unfortunately the main topic was not the hard fought 8th round of Corus but rather the Cheparinov-Short handshake indecent.
Cheparinov, seeking revenge for Short comments in media regarding San Luis, arriving a bit late for the game he avoided Short's extended hand after which Short demonstratively demanded a handshake a second time. Being turn down again he asked the arbiter to forfeit Cheparinov. The arbiter did, despite Cheparinovs willingness to shake hands upon the urging of the arbiter. Later last night the wise appeals committee ordered the players back to the table today after an official apology by the Bulgarian.
Today Short playing white finished off the Bulgarian in a nice game to reclaim the point he won and later had to let go yesterday.
Outside providing (negative) publicity for chess, neither player has any reason to be proud of this incident.
The Corus A group can be pretty satisfied delivering another day of mainly hard fought games despite only one being decided.
Anand spent much time in the Najdorf opening as white against a well prepared Topalov but obviously found a good continuation and outplayed Topalov in style in the late middle game.
Seemingly Anand is back in form just in time to join the fight for the tournament win.
As white against Gelfand, Magnus followed a line prepared earlier and got a small advantage in the opening. Magnus felt comfortable as he could press without any real downside. The computers supposedly saw the position as equal for instance after Magnus playing 25.Bf1.
However, Magnus correctly anticipated that Gelfand would avoid the risky but probably good 25...Nd5, and after 25....h5 white is better.
After trading most pieces Gelfand gave up the b pawn to enter a rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with a pin against the knight on c3 and the pawn on b2, so that Magnus in the end had to give up the b-pawn and take the h-pawn instead. The position looked drawish when Magnus found a nice trick with g4! fxg4 Ng5! after which black is forced to exchange the bishop for the knight and is left with his pawn on g4 and king on h4 against white's pawn on f2 and e3.
The problem was that this is a theoretical draw with the correct defence.
Magnus tried for some 15 moves and Gelfand defended accurately. Draw.
Kramnik was a pawn up in the rook ending against Polgar but had to concede a draw in the end as well.
Aronian drew Mamedyarov to leave the lead unchanged with Magnus on +3. Kramnik and Aronian at +2 and Anand joining Radjabov at +1.
The other games were drawn between move 20 and 28.
In Corus B Movsesian beat Spoelman with the black pieces to claim the lead with 6/8 ahead of Bacrot at 5.5 and Short at 5. (I hope I haven't made the mistake of counting his win against Cheparinov twice....)
In Corus C, Caruana beat co-leader Braun to take the sole lead also at 6/8 ahead of Reinderman at 5.5 and Braun, Negi (after two initial losses!) and Van der Wiel at 5.
Magnus played some squash on the free day and is looking forward to round 9 as black against P.Leko tomorrow.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 21th, 2008
Corus Round 8
Corus 2008, Round 7.
Black against a V.Topalov on the run (having won his two last games) is about as tough as it gets.
Magnus did not really feel as fit for fight today as in earlier rounds, but he managed to pull himself together and felt he played a good game.
In the Ruy Lopez Topalov went for 8.h3 to avoid the Marshall attack and later chose the unusual 13.Bd2. Magnus started spending time and found 13....Nd4.
After 14.Nxd4 cxd4 15.Ne2 d5 Topalov played the novelty 16.Ng3! and Magnus had to struggle to find adequate defensive resources while seeking some activity.
Spending unusual long (about 70 minutes) on the first 20 moves Magnus had to find several only-moves and was facing potential time trouble as well as being slightly worse.
Topalov traded queens and a rook to enter a slightly better rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with 2+3 pawns each.
Magnus was a bit surprised by his 41.b3 and 44.f3 but managed to keep the balance.
After Kh8 Magnus thought the draw was imminent and was surprised to see Topalov play on with 48.f4 maybe thinking he was playing for a loss :-)
But, soon Magnus discovered the possibility of being mated by the active white pieces and again he had to play accurately to defend.
After trading two pawns, Topalov offered a draw after 56.Kg5 and Magnus accepted.
Magnus felt he had balanced on a tightrope to keep a Topalov-in-form at bay and is very satisfied with the result as well as the continued position as sole leader, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Aronian (who beat Radjabov today).
Anand won with black against Polgar to join Topalov and others at 50%. They may still catch up with the top 3 but it''ll be tough with 6 rounds to go.
To put 5/7 in some perspective, Kramnik, who despite Anands World Championship win was the top performer in 2007 ratingwise, has got much deserved praise for his Dortmund and Tal Memorial victories. He met a rating average of 2720 in Dortmund and 2726 in the first 7 rounds of Tal Memorial (and had an extra white in both tournaments), while Magnus has met 2736 in Corus A so far (with only 3 white).
Achieving the lead during a tournament is obviously not the same or as difficult as winning tournaments, but Magnus' performance so far is anyhow stunning, (and above even the most optimistic trajectory I had the imagination to think of prior to the tournament :-).)
In round 8 tomorrow Magnus is playing white against seemingly slightly out-of-form B.Gelfand whom he has never beaten before.
Let's hope for another interesting game.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 19th, 2008
Magnus did not really feel as fit for fight today as in earlier rounds, but he managed to pull himself together and felt he played a good game.
In the Ruy Lopez Topalov went for 8.h3 to avoid the Marshall attack and later chose the unusual 13.Bd2. Magnus started spending time and found 13....Nd4.
After 14.Nxd4 cxd4 15.Ne2 d5 Topalov played the novelty 16.Ng3! and Magnus had to struggle to find adequate defensive resources while seeking some activity.
Spending unusual long (about 70 minutes) on the first 20 moves Magnus had to find several only-moves and was facing potential time trouble as well as being slightly worse.
Topalov traded queens and a rook to enter a slightly better rook+bishop against rook+knight ending with 2+3 pawns each.
Magnus was a bit surprised by his 41.b3 and 44.f3 but managed to keep the balance.
After Kh8 Magnus thought the draw was imminent and was surprised to see Topalov play on with 48.f4 maybe thinking he was playing for a loss :-)
But, soon Magnus discovered the possibility of being mated by the active white pieces and again he had to play accurately to defend.
After trading two pawns, Topalov offered a draw after 56.Kg5 and Magnus accepted.
Magnus felt he had balanced on a tightrope to keep a Topalov-in-form at bay and is very satisfied with the result as well as the continued position as sole leader, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Aronian (who beat Radjabov today).
Anand won with black against Polgar to join Topalov and others at 50%. They may still catch up with the top 3 but it''ll be tough with 6 rounds to go.
To put 5/7 in some perspective, Kramnik, who despite Anands World Championship win was the top performer in 2007 ratingwise, has got much deserved praise for his Dortmund and Tal Memorial victories. He met a rating average of 2720 in Dortmund and 2726 in the first 7 rounds of Tal Memorial (and had an extra white in both tournaments), while Magnus has met 2736 in Corus A so far (with only 3 white).
Achieving the lead during a tournament is obviously not the same or as difficult as winning tournaments, but Magnus' performance so far is anyhow stunning, (and above even the most optimistic trajectory I had the imagination to think of prior to the tournament :-).)
In round 8 tomorrow Magnus is playing white against seemingly slightly out-of-form B.Gelfand whom he has never beaten before.
Let's hope for another interesting game.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 19th, 2008
Corus 2008 Round 5 & 6.
In the game as black against Ivanchuk in round 5 Magnus was a bit surprised in the opening as he had not seen b3 and Ba3 in the Ruy Lopez Exchange variation before.
After some calculations he found that he could equalize with Bxf3.
Afterwards the continuation was forced and the rook ending dead draw already after 19 moves when Ivanchuk offered a draw and Magnus accepted.
Topalov outplayed a struggling Gelfand in a fearly equal but tactical middle game while Radjabov beat Eljanov with black to tie for first with Aronian and Magnus.
Against Polgar Magnus played Qc2 in the Nimzo Indian variation but instead of her previously used 4.... 0-0 she played 4....d5. Magnus had looked at this variation some time back and thought 10.e3 Qf6 11.f3 looked interesting. Polgar played 10... Qf6 and indeed, white got excellent positional play despite the black knights threatening f3. Magnus continued to play fast, finding natural moves putting pressure on black weaknesses. After 40 moves he was two pawns up in the knight and bishop ending and could soon decide the game with the unstoppable h-pawn. 1-0!
At chessvibes.com you may find the two videos from the press conferance after the game, the first one at the following link http://www.chessvibes.com/videos/lang_nlpersconferentie-magnus-carlsenlang_nllang_enpress-conference-magnus-carlsenlang_en/
Kramnik blitzed out more than 30 moves against Aronian but did not manage to find a completely winning plan. After locking his h-pawn on h5 he had to give up his a-pawn to make progress and entered a rook ending with f and h-pawn which is theoretically drawn.
Kramnik did not make much progress until Aronian blundered in time trouble and supposedly lost on time in a lost position.
It is interesting to see how these kind of positions get played till the end even at top level and how hard it can be to defend accurately at the end of a long and tense game.
(Some of the ridicule 13 year old Magnus received after loosing the World Cup tie break back in 2004 against Aronian in a similar position, seems to have fallen dead now.)
Topalov continued his turnaround with another win, this time as black against Leko, to reach 50% (and still counting...)
Magnus' tough tournament schedule this autumn and the subsequent 30 day break digesting the new experiences seems to have brought new progress.
I'm not making any predictions about the second half, let us just enjoy Magnus' as sole leader after 6 rounds in Corus A half a point ahead of pursuers Kramnik and Radjabov!!
(And his unofficial rating is 2748 and the rank no. 7 in the World!!)
Today Magnus has black against Topalov. A difficult task especially as Topalov again has started winning games convincingly.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 19th, 2008
After some calculations he found that he could equalize with Bxf3.
Afterwards the continuation was forced and the rook ending dead draw already after 19 moves when Ivanchuk offered a draw and Magnus accepted.
Topalov outplayed a struggling Gelfand in a fearly equal but tactical middle game while Radjabov beat Eljanov with black to tie for first with Aronian and Magnus.
Against Polgar Magnus played Qc2 in the Nimzo Indian variation but instead of her previously used 4.... 0-0 she played 4....d5. Magnus had looked at this variation some time back and thought 10.e3 Qf6 11.f3 looked interesting. Polgar played 10... Qf6 and indeed, white got excellent positional play despite the black knights threatening f3. Magnus continued to play fast, finding natural moves putting pressure on black weaknesses. After 40 moves he was two pawns up in the knight and bishop ending and could soon decide the game with the unstoppable h-pawn. 1-0!
At chessvibes.com you may find the two videos from the press conferance after the game, the first one at the following link http://www.chessvibes.com/videos/lang_nlpersconferentie-magnus-carlsenlang_nllang_enpress-conference-magnus-carlsenlang_en/
Kramnik blitzed out more than 30 moves against Aronian but did not manage to find a completely winning plan. After locking his h-pawn on h5 he had to give up his a-pawn to make progress and entered a rook ending with f and h-pawn which is theoretically drawn.
Kramnik did not make much progress until Aronian blundered in time trouble and supposedly lost on time in a lost position.
It is interesting to see how these kind of positions get played till the end even at top level and how hard it can be to defend accurately at the end of a long and tense game.
(Some of the ridicule 13 year old Magnus received after loosing the World Cup tie break back in 2004 against Aronian in a similar position, seems to have fallen dead now.)
Topalov continued his turnaround with another win, this time as black against Leko, to reach 50% (and still counting...)
Magnus' tough tournament schedule this autumn and the subsequent 30 day break digesting the new experiences seems to have brought new progress.
I'm not making any predictions about the second half, let us just enjoy Magnus' as sole leader after 6 rounds in Corus A half a point ahead of pursuers Kramnik and Radjabov!!
(And his unofficial rating is 2748 and the rank no. 7 in the World!!)
Today Magnus has black against Topalov. A difficult task especially as Topalov again has started winning games convincingly.
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 19th, 2008
Corus Round 3 & 4.
As the 7 draws of the A-group in round 3 as well as 4 draws and wins by Polgar, van Wely and Kramnik in round 4 are old news, I'll just comment briefly on Magnus' games and some of his own considerations.
The game as black against Adams on Monday was a Ruy Lopez. Magnus went for 5... Nxe4 and later 13.... c5 instead of the more usual Nxd2. With opposite bishops he was a little worse due to the white pawn on e5 and passive bishop on e6 but did not really feel uncomfortable as he felt he knew how to defend the position.
Finding the correct moves he countered with 22.Bc5 f4! after which he had sufficient counterplay on the kingside and in the c-file. Commentators was a bit surprised that Magnus exchanged the second rook on f1 to enter a slightly worse bishop + queen ending, but Magnus thought 29.... Rc2 would be met by 30.Bd2 after which black can't defend the f4-pawn any longer.
After exchanging rooks Magnus played Qg5-f5-c1-d1-d4 forcing the exchange of queens and could easily draw the opposite bishop ending. 0,5-0,5.
Taking into account the fact that Adams surely wanted revenge for the World Cup loss and that he is known as a "spider" with white, Magnus was very pleased with his game.
In round 4 Magnus played white against Levon Aronian, Despite a negative score in their many games, Magnus was fairly optimistic taking into account his 3 wins with white against Aronian in the Elista Candidates.
Magnus faced a novelty 11...c5 in the Ruy Lopez but felt that he was slightly better and could make natural moves without taking much time on the clock. However, Bxe6 was based a serious miscalculation and after the exchange sack on f3 black is slightly better.
Aronian could have played 22.... Rc8 and the variation Be3 Nc3 Rc1 leads to a slightly better ending for black but Magnus should be able to draw relatively easy.
However, Aronian probably overestimated his position somewhat and after Qd8-f8-f6 Magnus thought that if anyone was better it was white. The game was balanced until Aronian low on time played 30.... g6 after which white is winning. After 34.... Bh6 Magnus thought everything would be winning. He considered Rxa6 but chose what he thought was a simpler route to victory and played Qg3 to exchange queens. But,.... he had missed 35.....Qe2 after which white does not have more than a draw. After 10 minutes thinking Magnus played Qc7 forcing black to take a perpetual.
All in all, Magnus should be fairly happy to draw the co-leader in a game where he made 2 serious oversights.
It is anyway nice to enjoy the first free day as co-leader of Corus A!
I'm going back to Holland on Friday and will bring a camera this time :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, January 16th, 2008
The game as black against Adams on Monday was a Ruy Lopez. Magnus went for 5... Nxe4 and later 13.... c5 instead of the more usual Nxd2. With opposite bishops he was a little worse due to the white pawn on e5 and passive bishop on e6 but did not really feel uncomfortable as he felt he knew how to defend the position.
Finding the correct moves he countered with 22.Bc5 f4! after which he had sufficient counterplay on the kingside and in the c-file. Commentators was a bit surprised that Magnus exchanged the second rook on f1 to enter a slightly worse bishop + queen ending, but Magnus thought 29.... Rc2 would be met by 30.Bd2 after which black can't defend the f4-pawn any longer.
After exchanging rooks Magnus played Qg5-f5-c1-d1-d4 forcing the exchange of queens and could easily draw the opposite bishop ending. 0,5-0,5.
Taking into account the fact that Adams surely wanted revenge for the World Cup loss and that he is known as a "spider" with white, Magnus was very pleased with his game.
In round 4 Magnus played white against Levon Aronian, Despite a negative score in their many games, Magnus was fairly optimistic taking into account his 3 wins with white against Aronian in the Elista Candidates.
Magnus faced a novelty 11...c5 in the Ruy Lopez but felt that he was slightly better and could make natural moves without taking much time on the clock. However, Bxe6 was based a serious miscalculation and after the exchange sack on f3 black is slightly better.
Aronian could have played 22.... Rc8 and the variation Be3 Nc3 Rc1 leads to a slightly better ending for black but Magnus should be able to draw relatively easy.
However, Aronian probably overestimated his position somewhat and after Qd8-f8-f6 Magnus thought that if anyone was better it was white. The game was balanced until Aronian low on time played 30.... g6 after which white is winning. After 34.... Bh6 Magnus thought everything would be winning. He considered Rxa6 but chose what he thought was a simpler route to victory and played Qg3 to exchange queens. But,.... he had missed 35.....Qe2 after which white does not have more than a draw. After 10 minutes thinking Magnus played Qc7 forcing black to take a perpetual.
All in all, Magnus should be fairly happy to draw the co-leader in a game where he made 2 serious oversights.
It is anyway nice to enjoy the first free day as co-leader of Corus A!
I'm going back to Holland on Friday and will bring a camera this time :-)
Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, January 16th, 2008
Corus 2008 - Round 2
With 14 games out of 21 decided yesterday (3 in A, 4 in B and all 7 in C!), the organisers were all smiles today.
And today we had another interesting day.
As white Magnus opted out of the main line theory in the Grunfeld against Eljanov (2692) and grabbed a pawn on e7. Eljanov chose to take back the pawn on c3, but with the centralized white rooks, more active king and well placed pieces, Eljanov had to prepare himself for a difficult endgame. Magnus avoided exchanging the black-squared bishops and allowed Eljanov to activate his rooks in the e-file.
Later Magnus got his rooks to the 6th rank and could have won a pawn with Rxc5 at one stage. He was not sure the endgame would be won (- it is good to hear he still has something to learn!) and decided to exchange one rook and keep the pressure on black.
The position was probably theoretically drawn, but difficult to defend for black, when Eljanov blundered with 38....g5? in severe time trouble. After the time control was reached Eljanov did not make the same mistake as Mamedyarov yesterday and kept on fighting despite the much worse ending.
Magnus activated his king and could probably have won easier placing his rook on c7, but he liked the plan with Rh8. Later he saw that the tactics may not work and went over to a8.
Black could not both defend his pawns and avoid mate. Magnus won both the a and b-pawn, and 2 pawns down and without any counterplay Eljanov resigned in the beginning time trouble well before move 60.
1-0!
Aronian blitzed out the moves against Gelfand who was soon nearly an hour behind on the clock. His centralized king looked vulnerable and even after exchanging queens he could not stop the threats of the black bishops and the pawn on d4.
0-1 and shared lead for Aronian (and Magnus)!
Leko pressed for hours in the queen ending against Adams, and Kramnik pressed against Radjabov but both had to accept draws in the end. Of course anything may happen in a 13 round tournament but from my perspective Magnus has already done his job in Corus A by securing 2 wins!
(Last year he needed 6 rounds to get 2 points...)
The 3 rating favourites Kramnik, Anand and Topalov all drew today and has a meagre 1, 0,5 and 0,5 points, but we do expect them to come back forcefully soon.
As Norwegians, let us just enjoy (shared) leadership as long as it lasts!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 13th, 2008
And today we had another interesting day.
As white Magnus opted out of the main line theory in the Grunfeld against Eljanov (2692) and grabbed a pawn on e7. Eljanov chose to take back the pawn on c3, but with the centralized white rooks, more active king and well placed pieces, Eljanov had to prepare himself for a difficult endgame. Magnus avoided exchanging the black-squared bishops and allowed Eljanov to activate his rooks in the e-file.
Later Magnus got his rooks to the 6th rank and could have won a pawn with Rxc5 at one stage. He was not sure the endgame would be won (- it is good to hear he still has something to learn!) and decided to exchange one rook and keep the pressure on black.
The position was probably theoretically drawn, but difficult to defend for black, when Eljanov blundered with 38....g5? in severe time trouble. After the time control was reached Eljanov did not make the same mistake as Mamedyarov yesterday and kept on fighting despite the much worse ending.
Magnus activated his king and could probably have won easier placing his rook on c7, but he liked the plan with Rh8. Later he saw that the tactics may not work and went over to a8.
Black could not both defend his pawns and avoid mate. Magnus won both the a and b-pawn, and 2 pawns down and without any counterplay Eljanov resigned in the beginning time trouble well before move 60.
1-0!
Aronian blitzed out the moves against Gelfand who was soon nearly an hour behind on the clock. His centralized king looked vulnerable and even after exchanging queens he could not stop the threats of the black bishops and the pawn on d4.
0-1 and shared lead for Aronian (and Magnus)!
Leko pressed for hours in the queen ending against Adams, and Kramnik pressed against Radjabov but both had to accept draws in the end. Of course anything may happen in a 13 round tournament but from my perspective Magnus has already done his job in Corus A by securing 2 wins!
(Last year he needed 6 rounds to get 2 points...)
The 3 rating favourites Kramnik, Anand and Topalov all drew today and has a meagre 1, 0,5 and 0,5 points, but we do expect them to come back forcefully soon.
As Norwegians, let us just enjoy (shared) leadership as long as it lasts!
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 13th, 2008
Corus Round 1 January 12th.
In my perception there has been more focus on early draws in 2007 then ever before (or maybe I'm just following the chess press a little closer.)
It was a bit surprising to see some fairly short draws in round 1 as none of the participants could complain about fatigue.
The likely reason is that white was already slightly worse and black was relieved to have equalised and did the usual mistake of not being mentally prepared to seize the possibilities with black.
With 4 games drawn in the A-group in 27 moves or less, commentators were starting to estimate the likelihood of 7 draws.
The most surprising one was maybe Kramnik as white against bottom seeded van Wely. (Maybe van Wely has learned most of Kramnik's secrets as his second in part of 2007.)
Fortunately the remaining three games were decided with the younger players drawing first blood.
Magnus was surprised by Mamedyarovs 1.e4 and chose the Sicilian as he did not expect Shakriar to go for the sharpest continuations.
Shakriar indeed chose 4.g3 with a quiet set-up. Magnus felt he got sufficient counterplay on the queenside to offset the potential white kingside attack as well as the white bishop-pair.
It is hard to say where Shakriar went wrong but Magnus thinks he was at least equal after 24.Qxa6 and clearly better after 32.Nh5.
Magnus went on to attack the white queenside and Mamedyarov obviously disliked the position and got into time trouble.
Just before the time control Magnus sacrificed both a-pawns to threaten the bishop on g2 with 40....Ne3 and it looked lost for white after for instance 41.Ra5 Rxb2.
At this stage the players thought black was winning, but they had probably both missed the defence with Bh1. Black would still have been clearly better, but it is far from obvious how to win.
Anyhow Mamedyarov resigned, and Magnus was immensely pleased to secure his first Corus a win after his +0=9-4 score last year!
(Maybe the one hour squash game last night was the right way to clear his mind and get ready for the tournament.)
And what a great start on his 2008 tournament activity.
Radjabov presented Anand with a novelty in the semi-slav and went on to win despite a usual strong defence by Anand.
Topalov won an exchange for a pawn early on and Magnus thought Topalov was clearly better.
Somewhere he went wrong, lost a pawn, and in the end Aronian won the rook endgame.
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Eljanov (2692) who won the B-group last year.
The wind has picked up here in Wijk, but it is quite nice to feel the forces of nature in this beautiful seaside resort as long as there is some sun and not too cold.
Time for take-away pizza!
(below is a link to a video of the 20+ minutes demonstration & press conferance Magnus did after the game;
http://www.chessvibes.com/coverstory/corus-press-conf-magnus-carlsen/ )
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 12th, 2008
It was a bit surprising to see some fairly short draws in round 1 as none of the participants could complain about fatigue.
The likely reason is that white was already slightly worse and black was relieved to have equalised and did the usual mistake of not being mentally prepared to seize the possibilities with black.
With 4 games drawn in the A-group in 27 moves or less, commentators were starting to estimate the likelihood of 7 draws.
The most surprising one was maybe Kramnik as white against bottom seeded van Wely. (Maybe van Wely has learned most of Kramnik's secrets as his second in part of 2007.)
Fortunately the remaining three games were decided with the younger players drawing first blood.
Magnus was surprised by Mamedyarovs 1.e4 and chose the Sicilian as he did not expect Shakriar to go for the sharpest continuations.
Shakriar indeed chose 4.g3 with a quiet set-up. Magnus felt he got sufficient counterplay on the queenside to offset the potential white kingside attack as well as the white bishop-pair.
It is hard to say where Shakriar went wrong but Magnus thinks he was at least equal after 24.Qxa6 and clearly better after 32.Nh5.
Magnus went on to attack the white queenside and Mamedyarov obviously disliked the position and got into time trouble.
Just before the time control Magnus sacrificed both a-pawns to threaten the bishop on g2 with 40....Ne3 and it looked lost for white after for instance 41.Ra5 Rxb2.
At this stage the players thought black was winning, but they had probably both missed the defence with Bh1. Black would still have been clearly better, but it is far from obvious how to win.
Anyhow Mamedyarov resigned, and Magnus was immensely pleased to secure his first Corus a win after his +0=9-4 score last year!
(Maybe the one hour squash game last night was the right way to clear his mind and get ready for the tournament.)
And what a great start on his 2008 tournament activity.
Radjabov presented Anand with a novelty in the semi-slav and went on to win despite a usual strong defence by Anand.
Topalov won an exchange for a pawn early on and Magnus thought Topalov was clearly better.
Somewhere he went wrong, lost a pawn, and in the end Aronian won the rook endgame.
Tomorrow Magnus has white against Eljanov (2692) who won the B-group last year.
The wind has picked up here in Wijk, but it is quite nice to feel the forces of nature in this beautiful seaside resort as long as there is some sun and not too cold.
Time for take-away pizza!
(below is a link to a video of the 20+ minutes demonstration & press conferance Magnus did after the game;
http://www.chessvibes.com/coverstory/corus-press-conf-magnus-carlsen/ )
Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 12th, 2008