Magnus Carlsen

Magnus played 4 tournaments in the 1^st quarter and 2 in the 2^nd quarter of 2009. He will be less active in 3^rd quarter with more tournaments coming up in the 4^th quarter again. 

Before turning to a follow-up of Sofia and Leon, I'd like to dwell briefly on the 1^st quarter super tournaments.
Despite the financial crises, traditional top level chess events have continued in 2009. The only notable difference seems to be that the crisis have made the organisers even more focused on presenting the best possible event to players, on-stage spectators,  via internet and for the media in general.  
Corus has a unique position in the chess world due to the 70 + year tradition, the presence of the whole world elite most years, and the huge number of players participating in the various tournaments.
Linares, 'the Wimbledon of chess', exudes brilliancy by being closely tied to the World Champion and 9 time winner Garry Kasparov. Amber Rapid and Blindfold has attracted the world elite for 20 years and is renowned for the luxurious standard in every aspect and the relaxed atmosphere accompanying a fast time control event without rating implications. 
This year they all seem to have managed to improve further!  

The financial challenges seemed to make the Corus organiser and management present during the event even more enthusiastic and helpful.
Linares staged the whole tournament locally this year after the successful cooperation with Morelia in 2006-8 and everything from the decoration of the playing venue to the helpfulness of the organisers made a lasting impression. Regarding Amber it was difficult to see how the organisers could improve further but somehow they managed! 

Magnus participated in Sofia for the first time, and despite his last round loss to tournament winner Shirov, he was very satisfied with his performance. In the second half he held Topalov and Ivanchuk to a draw with black in a convincing manner. His white piece victories against Dominguez and Wang Yue, added to his first round win against Topalov, gave him an impressive 4/5 score with white.
In the last round Magnus (and Shirov) thought black had amble compensation until he blundered with Qc7 (mistakenly thinking he had mate threats preventing Nb4). 
The Sofia organisers deserve the highest praise for a very well organised event. The hotel and the playing venue were excellent. The park area where the event was held had a great atmosphere with plenty of chess players grouped around the benches deeply emerged in their favourite pastime.
The city centre is compact, has many historical sights as well as modern buildings, and several new shopping malls.

Magnus played in a class cube for the second time, and in Sofia it was surrounded by a large group of enthusiastic and knowledgeable spectators following expert comments from female World Champion Stefanova and others.
The air conditioning worked excellently in the cube. The players could hear a little noise from outside occasionally, but not to the extent that it represented a real problem.
We think the cube is good idea and it has already succeeded in promoting chess in a great way.
Some practicalities may be improved further, including, even better noise protection, one-way glass to avoid contact from outside and maybe an inclined spectator area to allow more people direct vision. 

Magnus played in Leon 2005 in one of his first encounters with really top players. Although he had beaten Shirov in a single game in Drammen in January 2005, he was clearly no match for Anand in June 2005 and lost 3-1. But it was a useful experience, and it was a good backdrop for reflecting on his progress during the last 4 years having gone from a promising young player to the 3^rd rank position in the world. 

With semi-finals played on Friday and Saturday and the final on Sunday, the Leon Rapid tournament programme is not much of a burden for the losing semifinalists, it is reasonable for the Friday winner with his day off on Saturday, while quite tough for the Saturday winner.

Ivanchuk won fairly convincingly 2,5-1,5 in his semi against Morozevich, while Magnus needed more than 5 hours and 6 games to defeat Wang Yue on Saturday.
In the first game, Magnus missed a win in the endgame (he discovered too late that he should have prevented the black king from returning to the 7^th (and 8^th) rank.
In the second game he went for a very sharp line and later made too many ambitious (and not so good) moves and lost to a well-playing opponent.
In the third game he more or less had to win and amazingly Wang Yue did the same mistake in the opening as Anand did last year in the final he lost to Ivanchuk.
After drawing game 4, Magnus did not manage to get much from the opening in the first blitz game and it fizzled out in a draw.
In the final game, Magnus played quite well, but was still maybe slightly worse when Wang Yue made a mistake in the ensuing time trouble and later lost the difficult rook ending.  

The final against Ivanchuk brought all the nerve and excitement the audience could hope for. Lots of fighting chess with both playing some excellent chess mixed with some bad mistakes.
Having defended well, Magnus got the chance to counterattack in the 3^rd game and was trying to win the bishop endgame when he blundered his g-pawn. After another mistake he simply lost.
In a must win situation in the 4^th rapid game he got a very good position but from there on Ivanchuk defended excellently for 20 moves. Magnus missed a few promising continuations and in the end the queen and rook ending was probably theoretically drawn. In practice though, it is nearly hopeless for black as there as some many pits to fall into and so little time left on the clock. Ivanchuk erred with Kd6?, and the checks won the rook. 2-2.
In the first blitz game, Magnus got a promising position from the sharp Sveshnikov variation and looked great when he missed a winning continuation. Ivanchuk again defended superbly and reached a rook + knight against rook ending which he held for 53 moves ending in a stalemate.
In the second blitz game Ivanchuk held the dynamic balance my pushing his pawns on the kingside, but Magnus had an advantage and could have made it difficult with Ne4 instead of Nc4 as pointed out by Ivanchuk at the press conference. Draw.
In the Armageddon, Magnus drew the white pieces, 6 minutes against 5 and had to win.
Ivanchuk had a promising position for a while but when Magnus finally counterattacked the position was very difficult to defend. In a nice combination Magnus won a piece and when Ivanchuk's last piece was trapped he resigned with only a few seconds left. The Leon rapid has 4 participants as compared to the more typical 6, 8, 10 or 14 in classical high level tournament. Anyhow Magnus was very pleased to win Leon Rapid 2009, his first tournament victory in nearly a year (after being pretty close in Linares, Nice and Sofia).   
The Leon organiser does not escape our highest praise either :-)
 A very well organised event by Marcelino Sion with first class media coverage headed by famous journalist and commentator Leontxo Garcia, and lots of spectators in the large auditorium.
Leon is a nice city with plenty of cultural sights and park areas.
The devil is in the detail and the organiser excelled in many ways. For instance, when the hotel internet performed poorly they got Magnus a mobile internet card before we had even asked for one. Great job! 

Friday 12^th Magnus had his final high school exam and later that day he was celebrated as the "sport-student of the year" at the top athletes high school despite strong competition from a world class snowboarder and a junior world champion golf player.

Magnus is now planning to become a full time chess player for some time. 

He is leaving for Dortmund on June 30. Round 1 starts July 2^nd and the tournament finishes on July 12^th.
Format has changed from previous years, six players, double round robin and ten rounds this year.
Magnus (2772) is first seeded ahead of Kramnik, Jakovenko, Leko, Bacrot and Naiditch in the strong category 20 (nearly 21) event.   

Lommedalen, June 17^th 2009,
Henrik Carlsen

The halfway mark of the 2009 edition of Mtel Masters was celebrated with a football match at the Levski stadium, between Chess United and (former stars) of PFC Levski, the Bulgarian 25 time league champion.


All six Mtel Masters chess players participated in the football and the team was strengthened with young FM Berbatov (closely related to Man U's player with the same name). 



With some help from the Levski stars Chess United scored three goals in the final 2 minutes to level the score (6-6).

In the penalty shootout Ivanchuk again did a great job as goalkeeper and also scored on his (close-up) penalty.
It ended in an 8-7 victory to Chess United and everyone was delighted with both the match and the outcome.

The first half of Mtel Masters 2009 has seen lots of fighting chess, and with the 90/40 + 30/rest time control it is more of a coincidence to have had only 5 out of 15 decisive games. As a good example, Dominguez has played his usual sharp openings, has even had lost positions during the time trouble in at least 3 games, but has managed to save them all in the end by resourceful defence. 
Magnus and Shirov has been in the lead since their first round victories over Topalov and Ivanchuk, while Topalov has picked up speed winning in round 4 and 5 to join the leaders at the half way mark at +1.
Wang Yue and Dominguez are at 50% while Ivanchuk lingers at -3 having had as much headwind as he had tailwind last year (to reach 5 out of 5).
Yesterday he played a beautiful attacking game against Topalov, avoided repetition several times but blundered in time trouble and lost in the end. 

After a 7 weeks break from tournaments Magnus is happy to play here in Sofia.
He is satisfied with his shared lead halfway but not completely satisfied with his own play.  
The game against Topalov in round 1 was probably a good one. 23... Bxe4 was maybe the decisive mistake after which Magnus finished the game in style. In the end his king reached a safe heaven on g3 while there was no such place for black king. 1-0, and Magnus first victory against a 2800-player! 

Magnus played the Najdorf against Dominguez in round 2. White was better until 14.Bxd4?!. After 14...dxe5 15.dxe5 Qa5!, the position looked promising for black. Magnus tried hard but could not find anything decisive. Dominguez found the best defence and after simplifications he went for a repetition before the time control. (Interestingly he had the choice between checking the black king between g8 and h8 or 'checking' the black queen in the opposite corner!) Draw. 

After blundering badly in the two first games, Ivanchuk played quite well against Magnus. Magnus did not get anything from the opening, in the middle game he was maybe slightly better at one point (after e4), but even as he won a pawn in the time trouble Ivanchuk easily held the rook ending to a draw. 

Against Shirov, Magnus played the sharp Botvinnik variation in the Slav and thought he had a promising position out of the opening. However, when he played 24.Re3 he had missed 29...Ra5! after which white, if any, has the more difficult job to defend accurately.
A piece down for 3 pawns (including looming queens-to-be on f6 and h6), moves were repeated before the time control in face of the deadly black threat Qf3!  

Yesterdays game as black against Wang Yue was a bit of an anti-climax. White got a little initiative and could try to put some pressure on the black double b-pawn, but black probably has enough compensation in the bishop pair.
Moves were repeated before move 30 in a position Magnus considered equal. Afterwards, Magnus told the press that sometimes it is hard to avoid such results when you play black. 

Never having been to Sofia before, it is quite a revelation. The city centre is fairly modern, and the 1.3 million-inhabitants-city is nicely situated between various Balkan mountains reaching up to 2.300 meters. We see plenty of snow from the hotel window. (No need to feel homesick :-) ) 

The tournament is played in a glass cube in one of the main squares in Sofia, a popular attraction for spectators and passers-by. As in Bilbao, it is a little bit noisy inside the cube, but this is maybe a prize worth paying for bringing chess closer to the audience. 

Tomorrow Magnus has black against co-leader Topalov at 4 pm local time.

Sofia, May 18^th,
Henrik Carlsen

All aspects of the Amber tournament are of high quality, and the free day excursion to Cannes and the island St Honorat today was no exception. 
On the way along the coast line via Antibes we got an introduction to local history. The seaside location of towns like Nice has been both a blessing and a threat.
Back in 2003 Magnus played a round robin in magnificent Taormina in Sicily, and we leaned that it had been conquered by at least ten different folk groups since 600 B.C.
Conquerors have treated Nice slightly better, but it has had much the same history starting with the Greek seafarers followed by the Roman period and several folk groups during the dark ages.  


The Greeks brought vine and olive to Nice and the monastery of St Honorat makes it own products.
Upon arrival on the island we were treated with the 2007 red and white wines produced locally.
After a light lunch and a walk to the monastery and ferry back, we had one hour in Cannes before returning to Nice.
Impressively, nearly half the Amber participants had joined the excursion despite the relatively early start, and I think all enjoyed it very much in the perfect spring weather. 

After the first free day Kramnik was leading with +3, but during the next four double rounds, Anand has gone straight from 50% to +5 and looks like a clear favourite the was he is playing.
Kramnik, losing to Anand in the blindfold yesterday, is still at +3, while Magnus and Aronian are at +4 in shared second place.
Leko in 5^th at +1 is still in contention for the top places while the rest has a minus score with three double rounds to go. 

In round 5 against Aronian, Magnus played well in the blindfold as black and secured a draw in a sharp battle.
As white in the rapid, he outplayed black in the middle game, won a pawn and thought he was winning.
However, he took an additional exchange a bit too quickly, and the game became very complicated as his bishop was trapped on b8. Continuing to play for a win Magnus in the end lost.
After the long game he was both tired and a bit devastated by losing this way and hence being pushed back to 50%.
At this stage he showed great determination to start a new trend and decided to focus on playing quickly and staying relaxed in the next rounds.
In round 7 in a fairly equal position Wang Yue fell for a trick in the blindfold and Magnus subsequently won in style also in the rapid.
He was also very satisfied with his blindfold win over Morozevich the day before.
Against Topalov yesterday, the position he entered in the opening did not allow him to continue the strategy of playing fast. His position was 'loose' and he had to check it properly for every move.
Topalov played a bit hesitantly, but by the time Magnus got a clear advantage he was also down to increments in a complex position.
In the ensuing complications both players lost control. Magnus somewhat foolhardy avoided a repetition, but as Topalov blundered last, Magnus managed to win the game in the end.
In the rapid he had the black pieces and as he commented after the game, he had had enough excitement for one day and was inclined to play safe. Draw. 
Amazingly Magnus is currently at +5 and a one point lead in the blindfold while he has -1 and 7^th to 10^th place in the rapid. The surprisingly great difference must partly be explained by having had the margins on his side in the blindfold while clearly not so in the rapid. 

Tomorrow Magnus has the black pieces in the blindfold against Karjakin at 4 PM.
The day after, he plays Kramnik, and lastly Radjabov in the final round. 

Nice, March 23^rd 2009,
Henrik Carlsen

What some may consider good news and others as not so good, I won't be updating the blog very often in the months ahead. One reason is that Magnus has become more sensitive with regard to sharing information about his games, and he will in general not reveal more on the blog than what he does in video interviews after the game and in the occasional annotations of games. 
Back to Linares;
We would like to start by congratulating the 2009 winner Grischuk and equal first Ivanchuk!
Maybe somewhat surprising to some, Magnus was not in any way devastated by ending half a point shy of the winners after having blundered quite badly in a winning position in the penultimate round against Radjabov.
He is rather quite happy with having played many really good games and with the +1 result and sole 3^rd place, despite the loss of concentration and some half points in the 5^th or 6^th hour of play.
He emerged from the openings without any serious problems as black, and he got many good positions with white although he was out-prepared by Dominguez and Aronian.
He beat World Champion Vishy Anand for the first time with classical time control and also won their "match" 1,5-0,5.
It was also absolutely noteworthy that he beat the winner A.Grischuk (also for the first time with classical time control) in a great Sicilian, causing Grischuk's only Linares loss in 2009.
The tournament showed that Magnus has again expanded his opening repertoire.
And despite some opening problems in two games as white, as well as two major endgame blunders, he performed according to his January 1^st 2009 rating, and expects to be ranked 3^rd in the world on April 1, 2009! 

Six out of the eight Linares participants had played in Corus this year, and Magnus has scored better than any of the others in the two events combined (+2)!   
As a last note on Linares, we'd like to thank the organiser for another excellent top event.
It was well organised, in a most friendly atmosphere, and everything ran smoothly. Thank you! 

Having waited for the release of the audio files from the December 27^th video conference on World Championship cycles in vain for more than two months some news finally emerged from FIDE early this week.
During the last weekend of Linares, the FIDE Presidential Board met and the press release did contain news about the World Championship cycles.
The Anand-Topalov match has been deferred to latest April 2010 and UEP's bid for the next World Championship cycle was accepted.
What is amazing about the press release is the lack of information regarding changes to the World Championship Regulations which the acceptance of the UEP bid must rest upon.
If the regulations indeed were changed to accommodate the acceptance of the UEP bid for a candidate tournament / matches (and the 2011 World Championship match), with the candidates replacing the current stipulated match between the GP and World Cup winners, this could well have been worth mentioning in the press release.
For one thing, we imagine that the GP participants in Nalchik would like to know the status of the World Championship regulations after several months of frustrating uncertainty. It could also have provided a tiny bit of much needed credibility to FIDE despite the appalling act of introducing a change to the regulations in the middle of the cycle.
Alternatively, the possibility that the PB did not formally decide to change the WC Regulations and FIDE is planning to let the GP participants play another event without alignment between regulations and what FIDE is actually planning to do, would simply be beyond belief, and will hopefully be disproved shortly.         

Today the 18^th edition of the Amber Rapid & Blindfold started. This great event, organised with the courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. van Oostrom, is staged for the second time in a row in the exquisite Palais de la Mediterranee in Nice. The 2009 edition is stronger than ever with the top 5 and 10 out of the world top 13 ranked players.
The drawing of lots and opening dinner was held in the grand hall of hotel Negresco yesterday.
Having drawn start number 12, Magnus played Gata Kamsky in round 1, and in an interesting position in the blindfold game, Gata blundered a piece and Magnus finished the game without allowing much counterplay.
As black in the rapid game, Magnus was maybe slightly worse most of the game and having spent too much time in the middle game, he was down to increments in the endgame.
In a worse, but maybe drawn queen ending, Magnus lost on time. 1-1 in round one.
Two of the other blindfold winners, Anand and Kramnik also lost the rapid (to Leko and Morozevich).
Only Aronian managed to win both games (against Ivanchuk) and is the sole clear leader a whole point ahead of ten players at one out of two points. 

The weather is great in Nice, sunshine and +15oC. 

Tomorrow Magnus plays black against Ivanchuk in the blindfold at 2:30 PM and he'll have white in the rapid at 17:45. 

Nice, March 14^th 2009,
Henrik Carlsen 

Today is a free day in Linares, and the organiser has most accommodatingly arranged for a game of tennis in the beautiful spring weather.
The timing is excellent as today is also a free day in the Nordic skiing World Championship which Magnus follows with great interest (although his enthusiam does not match the level of Peter Svidlers passion for cricket:-) 

In the first four rounds Magnus has been focused and spent more time on the clock than what we have become used to. He has fought well in every game, but has made too many oversights to be fully content with his play and result.
 With 10 rounds to go he is quite relaxed though. 

In round 2 as white against Dominguez Magnus went into a line of deep preparation from Dominguez.
Having spent lots of time investigating the critical line with e4 which would allow black to chase the white king into the middle of the board, Magnus wisely concluded that he should go for the repetition. 

As black against Wang Yue in round 3, Magnus equalised from the opening. As white did not show any ambition to play for a win, Magnus made several attempts to get an advantage. 
18...Na5 instead of Ke7 looked very promising, but later white defended well at the critical moments.
Magnus still felt he had a slight edge both before and after a rook was exchanged close to the time control.
White offered a draw at move 37, but Magnus decided to play on.
Unfortunately he missed 40.Rc5!, blundering the a-pawn just before the time control, and he had to pull himself together and concentrate on securing a draw.
In the end moves were repeated as white correctly concluded that pushing for a win with the a-pawn could easily backfire and lose. 

Yesterday Ivanchuk played a side-line in the Grunfeld with 5.... Be6 and Magnus again spent lots of time in the opening. When black avoided the most critical line (11.... Nxe4), Magnus was simply better after the opening.
He decided on 16.Nd5 and had a slight advantage due to his more active pieces.
However, 22.Bc4 was a mistake, and after the response e5! Magnus discovered that black has 24.... Qxd4 after which white has to trade off most of the pieces.
Black is slightly better in the ending, but as white has more than sufficient resources, Ivanchuk decided to trade knights and enter a dead drawn rook ending.
With the resulting draw both players have 2/4 and share 4^th - 5^th place thus far. 
Anand has had three white's and has had winning positions in all three!
Against Aronian the position was very tricky and he went on to blunder at a critical moment and lose though.
As black against Dominguez in round 3 he did not seem to be in any serious danger, and yesterday he convincingly grind down Wang Yue to move back to +1.  

Aronian played patiently against Dominguez yesterday and slowly outplayed him to win a pawn and later a second one. Dominguez wisely decided to fight on and Aronian somewhat surprisingly seemed to have serious problems finding the win with R+N+ two pawns against R+N.
Finally he embarked on the right plan and after the exchange of rooks the knight ending is lost for black. 1-0, and an impressive 3 out of 4 for Aronian.
He is sharing the lead with A.Grichuk who has started very well. Despite 3 black games, and getting into slight time trouble nearly every game, he has played and scored excellently.
Yesterday he got some help though, as Radjabov misplayed a seemingly very good position to end up in a lost endgame.  

In round 5 Magnus face co-leader Grischuk with the black pieces at 4 PM. Lets hope for a good fight!   

Henrik Carlsen

Linares, February 23rd, 2009

Magnus (and I) arrived in Linares early in the morning on the 18^th and had a full day to relax before the opening ceremony last night.
Despite participating in Linares both in 2007 and 2008, this is the first time we experience the opening ceremony in Linares. It was a very impressive performance staged in the playing venue, the Theatro Cervantes, in the centre of Linares.
The piano and guitar duo has toured most of the world and showed us why they are so popular. A great performance!
The drawing of lots came off to a humorous start as Anand, as the first to chose among 8 olive tree placates, picked number 1, and next Aronian picked number 2. Magnus came next and picked number.... 7. (He probably wanted black against Aronian in round 1 as in Bilbao in September 2008 :-)
My understanding of Spanish is still hopelessly inadequate, but I think major Fernandez mentioned the possibility staging the 2010 version of Linares in two venues, possibly in the Emirates this time. 

Despite Topalov withdrawing due to the match against Kamsky, the rating average in Linares 2009 is a record 2757 (category 21), featuring V.Anand (2791), Ivanchuk (2779), Magnus (2776), Radjabov (2761), Aronian (2750), Wang Yue (2739), A. Grischuk (2733) and L.Dominguez Perez (2717).  

The tournament is played between February 19^th and March 7^th, with free days on February 23^rd, 27^th and March 4^th. All rounds starts at 4 PM. 
It'll be a very challenging tournament. Compared to the already strong and long Corus tournament this year, the rating average is significantly higher, there is one more round with the same number of free days, and draw offers are not allowed until move 30. 

Magnus faced Aronian in round 1 and drew without too much problems when moves were repeated just before the time control.
Anand won against Radjabov to take the sole lead as Dominguez-Grischuk and Yue-Ivanchuk ended in draws as well. 

Tomorrow Magnus has the white pieces against Dominguez.                                 

Henrik Carlsen,
Linares, February 19th, 2009

During the Corus tournament, representatives from the main sponsor Corus, as well as from the organiser, brought up the issue of the financial crisis on several occasions. Responding to their own rhetoric question about organising the chess festival in such difficult times, the answer was a resounding YES!
Thank you!
And thank you also for confirming to continue the Corus Chess festival tradition until at least 2013! 

As you know Magnus went "all in" as black against Wang Yue in the last round. He declined a draw offer after 18 moves and developed a strong initiative on the queenside, but subsequently blundered several times in the continuation.
In a long interview with ICC chessblog, he explained in more detail the development of the game and how he lost in the end to take shared 5^th overall with 7/13 points. 

Congratulations to Karjakin for taking sole first place in Corus A.

And congratulations also to B and C group winners Caruana and Wesley So!

Henrik Carlsen,
February 19th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Henrik Carlsen
Wijk, January 31st, 2009

A childhood fascination of mine was the Viking story by Snorre Sturlasson about our first king Harald Hårfagre (Fairhair).
At young age he was the heir to some scattered kingdoms in Vestfold located by the Oslofjord.
When he was rejected due to lack of might when proposing to Gyda Eiriksdatter (the daughter of king Eirik of Hordaland, a southwestern part of Norway), he swore that he would not cut his hair until he had united Norway. Fighting all the other local Norwegian kings he finally succeeded after 10 years and was the undisputed king of Norway from about 872 ac (when he won the battle of Hafrsfjord).
He subsequently cut his hair, married Gyda and ruled Norway for more than 60 years!

After some initial draws by Magnus I contemplated to threaten to stop blogging until Magnus achieved a decisive result (choosing the blog as weapon as my current hair growth doesn't lend much credibility to any threats in that direction).
Anyway, below you'll find a few comments about round 6 to 9.

In round 6 against Karjakin Magnus came very close to scoring his first victory despite having a complete off-day. Magnus played imaginatively on the kingside but felt that he couldn't calculate a single line properly. He unfortunately missed some fairly obvious winning continuations to reach a drawn double rook ending.

The day after as black against Loek Van Wely he was nearly as close to a decisive result (but this time a loss). Magnus had taken some risks early in the game to keep it complicated. He very much wanted to win and thought he had a reasonable position throughout the game. When he played the dubious 27... Bf2? he still thought he was okay as he had miscalculated one of the possible ensuing lines.
Fortunately for Magnus, at this stage Loek made his only serious mistake by playing 28.Red1? instead of Re2 in ensuing time trouble. When Magnus found g6! it was white who had to avoid the worst pitfalls to reach a drawn ending.

In round 8 Magnus found an interesting pawn sacrifice 9.e4! as white in a Slav opening against Kamsky when the latter had played the somewhat unusual 7....Nbd7.
In the continuation Kamsky wisely turned down the second pawn offered by Magnus and found a way of blocking the a3-f8 diagonal so that he could castle in the end.
At this stage Magnus considered his position equal or worse, and not feeling exactly perky he offered an early draw which Kamsky immediately accepted.

On the free day we had absolutely beautiful spring weather (at least for a Norwegian) and several GM group players, including Magnus, enjoyed a game of football at the school court situated nearby.

Today in round 9 Magnus was black against Adams against whom he has a terrific score winning many games in a row with white and drawing with black.
Against 1.e4 Magnus played the Sicilian Dragon, and Adams avoided complications with 7.0-0 to reach a positional middle game.
Magnus took control of the c-file but couldn't make 17... Rc5 work and played Re8 instead.
After 18.Ra4 the position is probably quite equal.
When Magnus broke with e5! and could double his rook and queen in the e-file the position is a bit tricky for white. However, Adams found 23.Qd1 and the only-move 26.Qd5 after which Magnus had to swop queens to avoid being worse.
The ensuing two-piece ending is fairly equal. Both players can set up a kind of fortress and Magnus offered a draw after 28....Kf8. If white declines and try to win the d-pawn with Bc7?, black would in fact have been clearly better. Adams certainly saw this "trap" and he accepted the draw offer instead.

A couple of hours into the round, most of the games in the A-group looked drawish today, but in the end all the three long games were decided.
Aronian, Dominguez and Karjakin all won to reach +2 and shared lead ahead of Movsesian and Radjabov at +1 and Magnus (with 9 draws) is shared 6-9 at 50% with 4 rounds to go.

Tomorrow Magnus plays white against Dominguez. Let's hope for a good fight!

Henrik Carlsen Wijk,
January 27th, 2009

While round 4 brought 7 draws in the A-group, there was plenty of blood shed in round 5.
Home favourite Van Wely continued his principled discussion of the KID with Radjabov and succeeded brilliantly this time. The position after 20 moves is apparently not new, but a few moves later black was beyond hope and resigned at move 31.
Dominguez brought home his first victory against hapless Morozevich who has three black losses so far.
A healthy pawn up Dominguez found a nice and decisive combination to finish the game. 
Aronian grind down Movsesian and Karjakin did the same to Stellwagen to secure 4 white wins in A today. 
Magnus surprised Ivanchuk playing a sideline in the Ruy Lopez (9...a5). After Na3 white was maybe slightly better, but as Ivanchuk admitted after the game, he had missed 14....Ra8! more or less solving blacks problems.
Magnus found another only-move with 16...c5 and when Ivanchuk chose to allow the closure of the queenside, the internet audience seemed to favour white.
Ivanchuk for a while thought he was better, but after blacks sacrifice 18...Nxe5 with the plan to bring his queen to g6 black is at least equal. White discovered the potential problems and found the defence 20.Nfd2 fxe4 21.Qh5 which says a lot about his unique chess understanding.
Magnus could not find anything better than Be8 Qe2 Bd7 Qh5 Be8 etc during the game, but later he has been made aware of the alternative Rf5! Instead of Be8 which may have made the plan Qd8-e8-g6 possible after all. 
In any case he was not unhappy with the result as black against Ivanchuk. 

Karjakin is the sole leader with 3.5/5 ahead of Smeets, Dominguez, Aronian and Kamsky at 3 points in the A-group.
Magnus has 2,5 points and tomorrow he has white against leader Karjakin.
Lets hope for a good and interesting fight! 

Henrik Carlsen,
Wijk aan Zee, January 22st, 2009

Just at the blogging update regularity was beginning to improve slightly, the internet connection at the hotel has been very very slow for the last few days. With the press room available over at the playing venue it is not a watertight excuse, but it is the best I've got:-)

Except for the games of Ivanchuk and Morozevich, most other players have mainly resorted to draws so far. 

In round 2 against Stellwagen, Magnus surprised his opponent in the opening playing the Berlin Defence and equalised from the opening despite the white initiative. When he played Bd6 he saw the drawing line ending with Rd7 but could not find a better alternative.
With white low on time already Magnus decided to avoid the repetition and retreated his bishop to f6 despite being worse as he did not see a winning continuation for white.
Stellwagen continued to exploit his initiative and Magnus was left to defend and in the end a draw was agreed. 
Ivanchuk and Morozevich fought back winning against Yue and Van Wely while leaders Smeets and Karjakin drew. 

In round 3 Magnus had white against Movsesian. He seemed to get a slight initiative from the opening but Movsesian played very accurately. Black had a safe heaven for his king on e6 and after exchanging queens the ending was easily drawn.
Ivanchuk and Morozevich both lost again, the former in a terrible time scramble against Radjabov's famous KID and the latter against a ruthlessly effective Kamsky. 
Movsesian beat Adams to join the (many) leaders at 2/3. 

Yesterday Magnus had another white, this time opposite Aronian, someone whom Magnus has enjoyed a very good score against since the Candidates in May 2007.
After the opening Magnus was happy with his position. He was better and it is not obvious how black should solve his problems.
Magnus decided to allow the black sacrifice Nxe3 as he (correctly) thought it would be clearly better for white.
After fxe3 Rxe3 white has two alternatives; Bd3 or Rd3. Magnus thought both alternatives were about equally good for white, and he went for Rd3 to avoid having a black rook sitting on e3.
But, he had missed blacks move Qxb4 capturing a third pawn for the sacked knight.
The next few moves where probably slightly dubious from both sides and due to the bind on f1 Magnus had to find and make Rxb6 work to maintain an advantage. He thought the endgame should be winning for white, but Aronian defended tenaciously. When Magnus had to give up his h-pawn the winning chances disappeared. In retrospect Magnus is starting to doubt that there ever was a win in the ending.
All A-group games ended draw despite fierce fighting on many boards.   

The long game meant going straight to the sponsor dinner in the Chess Pavilion. We had an excellent meal and as usual it was followed by a simul between a young player and Corus managers and organisers. 

In the morning before round 4 Signe and I had used the nice weather to walk over to the channel leading into Amsterdam. The sea waves caused by the strong western wind, the monumental mile long pier, the broad channel and the sluices bringing the vessels down (!) 3 or 4 meters to the river beneath sure is an impressive sight!  

Magnus has had some long games already and will enjoy the free day today before facing up to Ivanchuk as black in round 5 tomorrow.

Henrik Carlsen,
Wijk aan Zee, January 21st, 2009

Bottom seeded Jan Smeets beat Ivanchuk with black! Okay, Ivanchuk lost on time on move 40, but black was certainly not worse in the end position.
In fact the day could easily have been a complete success for the Dutch players as Stellwagen had a winning position against Movsesian and Van Wely was much better against Dominguez. Both games ended draw though with Stellwagen accepting the draw in beginning time trouble after some dubious moves and Dominguez defending very well till the end. 


Against Teimur Radjabov Magnus played 1.e4 and was met with c5 2.Nf3 e6.
He felt in a creative mood and thought 3.g3 was an interesting way of deferring d4. Both players, and especially Radjabov, spent lots of time on the clock in the opening.
Magnus thought he was clearly better already after 7... Be7 8.cxd5 Bxc5.
He kept building up the pressure against the centre with the black king still on e8 and thought 14.Bxd5 would give white an advantage but that Bh6 would be even better.
After having moved, he discovered that the planned continuation was unclear due to 14...Nxe5 15.Bxg7 Nd3!
White still had an advantage in the game after 15.Rd1, but it is small. 
With his poor pawn structure, black continued to face problems throughout his long time trouble, but found a good defence to reach a double rook and two versus three pawn ending.
Magnus played on for a while, but Radjabov found a nice way of securing the draw with 53... Rg6 54.g4 Ra3 and a draw was agreed after move 60. 

Young Karjakin has struggled lately but got off to an excellent start beating Morozevich with white in a sharp Sicilian.
Black seemed okay and may even have been the one playing for a win. Then he played d5 at the wrong moment allowing 26.h6!! winning on the spot. 
The rest of the games in the A-group ended in draws.

Most of the favourites won in the B-group (Kasimdzhanov, Vallejo, Efimenko and Navara). Short drew while Motylev lost (to Navara). 
In the C-group, 15 year old top seed Wesley So beat Nijboer with black and is sharing the lead with Bosboom, Romanishin, Harika and Iturrizaga. 

Another peace of news hitting the headlines today was the cancellation of the Karlovy Vary Grand Prix tournament scheduled for December 2009. The reasons given were the withdrawal of Magnus and the change of the regulations for the cylce.
Not very surprising, the steps FIDE is taking, supposedly to strengthen the Grand Prix, have had the opposite effect. If the real purpose of the cycle change was to discredit and harm the Grand Prix, they have been quite successful. 

We're still waiting for the release of the transcript of the phone conference of December 27^th, but FIDE is completely silent on the subject.        

Tomorrow Magnus plays the black pieces against Stellwagen at 13:30. As there is a significant penalty for arriving late for the round, we may expect all games to start on time.
 
Henrik Carlsen,
Wijk aan Zee, January 17th, 2009

Magnus, (his youngest sister Signe and myself) arrived in Wijk aan Zee at the coast of Holland after a pleasant flight with SAS from Oslo to Amsterdam yesterday for the first event of the Corus tournament; the traditional "Meet & Greet" and the drawing of lots for Grandmaster Group C in the Hotel Zeeduin.
Magnus was welcomed "home" by several of the organisers, and it should not be taken too lightly taking into account how his rise to chess fame kick-started back in 2004 with the C-group victory.
He's here for the sixth time in a row and will have spent nearly a third of a year in Wijk by the end of this tournament. 


The opening ceremony of the 71^st (!!) edition was held in the refurbished Chess Pavilion in the centre of Wijk today, as usually excellently hosted by organising committee chairman Dolf Vos, tournament director Jeroen van den Berg and Corus executive Theo Henrar (picture). 

The drawing of lots was performed in a new and entertaining way.
On a computer chess board, 14 squares were highlighted by alternating lighting, each hiding a number from 1 to 14. The players in turn pressed a big red button after which the "spinning wheal" of lighted squares slowed down to stop at one of the 14 squares and the starting number was revealed.


The B-group is unusually strong this year with Sasikiran (2711) and Vallejo Pons above 2700 followed by many strong GrandMasters.

In the A group Ivanchuk started by drawing number 4.


Next Magnus went up and waited attentative for his "choice"....
The number 2 came up and he will have 7 games with the white pieces and 6 as black. 


He'll be white against T.Radjabov in round 1 tomorrow at 13:30 followed by black against Stellwagen and white against Movsesian and Aronian before the first free day. 


Before the opening ceremony sister Signe tasted the exquisite Corus 2009 Chess chocolate! 

Due to the relatively large variance in rating within the A group this year, the tournament is a category 19 event with an average rating of 2716. This should not deceive anyone. With 5 of the world top-10 players present (based on the latest January 1^st 2009 FIDE rating list) and several other strong contenders, it will be a very tough tournament. 

The weather in Wijk aan Zee is very good. A few degrees about zero, light clouds and not too windy. We will certainly enjoy our stay. 

Henrik Carlsen
Wijk aan Zee, January 16th, 2009

Gjoevik chess club celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2008.
Back in 1983 the 75-year anniversary was celebrated with a top level event which included former World Champion Boris Spasskji,and it represented a break through for Simen Agdestein, 16 at the time.
The main organiser back in '83 was the same Øystein Brekke as today. For the younger organiser and arbiter (and historian and writer)  Hans O. Lahlum, the '83 tournament maybe served as a key stimuli to take up chess.

The municipality of Gjøvik is actively hosting sports events these days, and later this winter the national cross country skiing championship as well as indoor climbing championship will be held at Gjøvik.

On Thursday, after the initial 2 rounds of the Aker Chess Challenge, the second mayor of Gjøvik hosted a visit to the great ice hockey stadium located in an enormous rock cavern excavated for the 1994 Olympics (at Lillehammer) followed by a gourmet dinner at the Brusveen mansion (owned by Mustad Industries).



Afterwards the players received a nice glass vase from the municipality.

Having started well with a win against Lie and a draw with black against Svidler, Magnus lost round 3 as white against Nakamura. Despite another win against Lie, Magnus is in a must win position today as he most probably needs 1,5 points against Svidler and Nakamura to advance to the final. Svidler has 3/4 followed by Magnus and Nakamura at 2.5.

In the main Open tournament 8 players share the lead with 4/5 while there are several Norwegian players at 3.5 and 3 points.

Henrik Carlsen,
Lommedalen, January 4th 2009