Chess Piece -- By Bobby Ang
Magnificent Magnus
4th Kings Tournament
Medias, Romania
June 14-25, 2010
Final Standings
1 GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2813, 7.5/10
2-3 GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2740, GM Boris Gelfand ISR 2741, 5.5/10
4 GM Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2733, 4.5/10
5 GM Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu ROU 2672, 4.0/10
6 GM Wang Yue CHN 2752, 3.0/10
Average ELO 2742
Category 20 Tournament
Time Control: 120 minutes for first 40 moves, 60 minutes for next 20 moves, 15 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 second increment to start on the 61st move.
Top 10 Standings in the world after this tournament:
1 GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2826.4
2 GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2803.4
3 GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2799.8
4 GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2790.0
5 GM Lev Aronian ARM 2783.0
6 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2761.4
7 GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2760.0
8 GM Pavel Eljanov UKR 2754.9
9 GM Alexei Shirov ESP 2748.6
10 GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2748.3
Magnus Carlsen distanced himself further from his rating pursuers with a great victory in the Kings Tournament in Romania and pushed his ELO rating to 2826.4, the second highest ever in history. The record is held by Garry Kasparov, 2851 in 1999 (he was 36 years old at that time). Garry started off that year in Wijk aan Zee winning the so-called Game of the Millennium against Topalov and carried on with his inspired play, winning every tournament he had participated in, often with huge margins.
The Kings Tournament was Magnus’ first serious tournament after winning the 2010 Corus Wijk aan Zee event and his appearance was much awaited. He cruised along with draws in the early rounds but then started a 4-game win streak by surprising Wang Yue with a Kings Gambit in round 3 followed by victories over Nisipeanu, Ponomariov and Radjabov. He capped off the event by once again destroying Wang Yue in the last round. Carlsen is only 19 and still getting stronger by the tournament. It is not that far-fetched that he will continue this level of performance and hit 2900 within the next 2 years.
Kasparov and Carlsen went about their climb up the ELO rating ladder in different ways.
In 1999 the information age had not quite caught up with the chess world yet and Kasparov with his very strong analytical team and appreciation of the wonders of chess databases had a big advantage over everybody. He would hit them with theoretical novelties and emerge from the opening with some sort of advantage, even if only a tiny one like more mobility. His magnificent skills would take over and take care of the rest.
Nowadays everybody has a laptop and gigantic four-million games databases with everything classified per opening, so you would be on equal footing come the start of play. Magnus Carlsen is theoretically well-prepared, but getting a plus or minus from the opening is irrelevant for him. Magnus will refuse to take a draw and proceed to outplay you in the middlegame or endgame.
Of course, he will once in a while win ala Kasparov:
Nisipeanu,Liviu Dieter (2672) -- Carlsen,Magnus (2813) [B76]
Kings’ Tournament Medias Bazna/Romania (5), 19.06.2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 00 9.000
The omission of 9.Bc4 provokes Black into 9...d6-d5.
9...d5
Both Nisipeanu and Carlsen are very familiar with this line.
10.Kb1 Rb8
The main line goes 10...Nxd4 but lately Black has been having trouble against 11.e5! The text is Carlsen’s attempt at getting more than a draw.
11.Ndb5 a6 12.Na7
White is supposed to be better here, but after this game maybe we have to reassess the position.
12...e6 13.g4
[13.exd5 exd5 14.Na4! (14.Nxd5? Nxd5 15.Qxd5 Qxd5 16.Rxd5 Re8 and because of the threat of a back rank mate Black wins a piece) 14...Be6 15.Nxc6 bxc6 16.Bd4 seems to give White the better game, but maybe Magnus had something prepared for it. Wahls,M (2540)-Anagnostopoulos,D (2515)/ Velden 1996 10 (52)]
13...Re8! 14.g5 Nh5
[14...Nd7? is refuted by 15.exd5 exd5 16.Nxd5 Nde5 17.Bb6 Qd7 18.f4 Nf3 19.Qf2 Nfd4 20.Bc4 and wins. Balogh,C (2616)-Fier,A (2581)/ Beijing 2008 10 56]
15.Bf2
[15.exd5 exd5 16.Nxd5 Be6 17.c4 (17.Nc3?? Bxc3!) 17...Qd7 followed by ...b7-b5 gives Black easy play]
15...Bd7! 16.exd5 exd5 17.Qxd5?
As is often the case in this very complicated line, Nisipeanu was under the impression that he was better and leaves himself open. Necessary is 17.Nxd5 Be6 18.c4 and while Black is doing fine at least it is still a game.
17...Ne5 18.Qb3?
Another mistake. He should have hung on to his g-pawn with 18.h4 Be6 19.Qc5 Nd7 20.Qb4.
18...Qxg5
White’s knight on a7 is stranded and Black’s bishops are going to become very active.
19.Ne4 Qf4 20.Be2 Be6 21.Qa3 Nc4 22.Bxc4 Bxc4 23.Nd6 Bf8
With the threat of ...Be2.
24.Rd4 Qe5 25.Rxc4 Bxd6 26.Qd3 Bf8! 27.a4 Rbd8 28.Qb3 Qd5 29.Rc3 Qd2 30.Be3 Qe2 31.Bb6 Rd1+ 0-1
Nisipeanu resigned because of 31...Rd1+ 32.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 33.Ka2 Re1 his king is going to get it.
By the way, here is something I noticed. Former FIDE world champion GM Ruslan Ponomariov lost two games on the white side of the Saemisch Kings Indian. Ruslan seems to be having problems coping with the unbalanced position arising from the Benoni and Kings Indian formations. Food for thought.
Ponomariov,Ruslan (2733) -- Radjabov,Teimour (2740) [E81]
Kings’ Tournament Bazna/Romania (3), 16.06.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 00 6.Nge2 e5 7.Bg5 c6 8.Qd2 Nbd7 9.d5
This line in the Saemisch Kings Indian is supposed to be good for White, because black does not have the option of ...Nh5 and ...f7-f5.
9...h6 10.Be3
[10.Bxh6 does not win a pawn: 10...Nxe4 11.Nxe4 Qh4+ and Black is fine]
10...cxd5 11.cxd5 a6 12.Nc1 b5 13.Be2 Nb6 14.00 Kh7 15.b4 Nh5 16.a4 Nc4 17.Bxc4 bxc4 18.N1e2 f5 19.exf5 gxf5 20.f4 Bd7 21.Rab1 Re8 22.Kh1 Rb8 23.Rf3
Ponomariov is playing too conservatively. Perhaps he was afraid of ...Qh4 and wanted to be able to oppose the queen with his rook. But there was time enough for that. Perhaps he should have gone for 23.b5 here.
23...Nf6! 24.h3 Nh5 25.Bg1 e4 26.Re3
White keeps his rook on the 3rd rank to keep a watch on the g3 square. For example after 26.Rff1 Bxc3 27.Qxc3 (27.Nxc3? Ng3+) 27...Bxa4 he cannot regain the pawn with 28.Qxc4?? Bb5 29.Qc2 Bxe2 30.Qxe2 Ng3+ with a royal check.
26...Qh4! 27.Bh2 Rg8 28.Qd1 Rb7?!
A quicker win was 28...Bxc3 29.Rxc3 (29.Nxc3 Nxf4) 29...Qf2 30.Qf1 Qxf1+ 31.Rxf1 Rxb4 one pawn up and more to come.
29.Qf1 Rgb8 30.g3 Qd8 31.b5 axb5 32.axb5 Nf6 33.g4 Bxb5 34.Qg2 Bd7 35.Rg1 fxg4 36.hxg4 Nxg4 37.Rg3 Qh4 38.Rxg4 Bxg4 39.Qxg4 Qxg4 40.Rxg4 Rb2
The first time control is met, both players get an additional 60 minutes, so it all boils down to technique now.
41.f5 R8b3 42.f6 Bxf6 43.Nxe4 Bh8 44.N4g3 c3 45.Rc4 Be5 46.Nc1 Rb1 47.Nge2 R3b2 48.Bg1 Rc2 01
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