Sinquefield Cup: Round 2 - Carlsenomics

by Venkatachalam Saravanan
8/4/2017 – The Sinquefield Cup continues to delight the spectators and chess fans, with its indomitable fighting games and typical drama. The second round too saw three games ending decisively and near-complete effort from all the players. | Photos: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour)

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Sinquefield Cup

Start of round 2

Anticipation for another eventful round | Photo: Spectrum Studios

Round 2

It was classic Carlsenomics in action in the second round at the Sinquefield Cup! And it was delightful to see the World Champion come up with such a strong display of pressure chess against his most recent challenger, Sergey Karjakin. The game had many ingredients of typical Carlsen ‘water-torture’: an innocuous developing of pieces in the opening, keeping all forces at his disposal ready to spring into action, looking to expand his influence on the board while at the same time making it difficult for his opponent to find any dynamism for his pieces…

 
Carlsen - Karjakin, position after 17.h4!?
Black to Move.

More than trying to understand White's objective behind the move, it is useful to think how Black should respond here. Karjakin's 17...Na4 allowed Carlsen to expand with 18.c4. Every school kid knows "a knight on the rim is dim" but Na4 is in fact the first line of chess engines!

Carlsen and Nielsen

The man and his second, Peter Heine Nielsen | Photo: Austin Fuller

“I was just trying to find waiting moves, and find a correct moment to play cxb5 or d4 but really didn’t find anything. Then I started to gamble with this whole operation on the kingside”, said Carlsen about the middlegame phase.

You can replay the full interview:

Maurice Ashley chats with Magnus Carlsen after round 2

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Carlsen-Karjakin and crowd

An absorbing clash | Photo: Austin Fuller

And typically, things reached a crescendo when Carlsen played 26.Rc6, bringing about a position where objectively Black was still doing fine, but he had strategic weaknesses which were hard to properly defend.

Vishy Anand, asked during the game for his take quipped, “Oof! I don’t know what he intends to play against 31.Rc5 - it’s getting unpleasant. Without thinking very much about (the position), I would rather be White (here). But, Sergey is the best defender in the world!”.

 
Carlsen - Karjakin, position after 26.Rc6!?
Black to Move.

Classic Carlsenomics! Objectively, Black is still doing fine here, but he is now pushed to defend precisely. But even such established defensive skills couldn’t help Karjakin much on this occasion, as his position steadily went downhill under the pressure of the clock.

“At some point I played badly — probably my biggest mistake was 31...Rc8, but I underestimated his play with f4-f5, but probably I was already lost”, opined Karjakin about his own play.

 
Carlsen - Karjakin, position after 35.f5
The breakthrough!

A well-deserved victory for the World Champion.

Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi

Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi, not commisurating, but at the opening ceremony | Photo: Lennart Ootes

On the other end of the spectrum we had Ian Nepomniachtchi, who handled a chaotic Symmetrical English in an original and confident way, but paid the price of playing fast. 

“The opening was more or less good for me. But I managed to blunder in one (move) with 17.f4, after which it was basically over. Maybe, I am not [concentrating] well, but far off my — not even best but even decent condition”, said Nepomniachtchi after the game.

 
So - Nepomniachtchi, position after 17.f4
A one-move blunder, played in under two minutes!

Wesley So had no trouble in converting his advantage, and curiously raised his score against Nepo to an impressive fine wins, no losses!

Wesley So

So bounces back | Photo: Spectrum Studios

Totally inexplicable was the play by someone who delighted everyone with his free spirit, boldness and imagination, and who conducted his game with energy in the first round. Even Carlsen opined that Levon didn’t seem himself throughout the game. We couldn’t agree more. Starting with an insipid 7.Be2, Aronian’s handling of the opening was puzzling, especially as the Queen’s Gambit Accepted is part of Caruana’s repertoire. Even then, Aronian’s play seemed a notch below par for throughout the game and a horrendous blunder with 33.Ke2? brought about a painful defeat.

 
Aronian - Caruana, position after 33.Ke2?
A momentary loss of concentration

Aronian

A painful defeat for Aronian | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Nakamura - Vachier-Lagrave was a triumph for Black’s opening preparation, and careful play by both sides brought about a draw in 33 measured moves.

Vishy Anand did his favourite act of giving up his bishops for the opponent’s knights. He did it even better by doing it twice! However, he got rid of one of White’s bishops too and sounded confident in defending the resulting position.


Svidler - Anand, 13...Bxf4

 
White to play


Position after 16...Bxf3

 
White to play

Anand

Anand in action | Photo: Lennart Ootes

This prompted the following curious exchange in the post-game chat:

Maurice Ashley: I have seen you doing it often, in terms of bishop trade for knights. It doesn’t seem as though you prefer the knights to the bishops! (Anand starts chuckling) Is that true?

Anand: (with a straight face) Quite a few people have said that of me! Yeah, I think it is true. Quite a few people have made that observation, and even I have noticed that more often than not my bishops are gone but my knights are still there!

Maurice Ashley chats with Viswanathan Anand after round 2

 

Current standings 

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Round 2 - Games and commentary

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,158,68154%2422---
1.d4941,83355%2434---
1.Nf3279,66656%2441---
1.c4181,06756%2443---
1.g319,62956%2427---
1.b314,06854%2427---
1.f45,83548%2377---
1.Nc33,72251%2384---
1.b41,73148%2378---
1.a31,18253%2403---
1.e31,05848%2407---
1.d393250%2377---
1.g465246%2360---
1.h443852%2371---
1.c341851%2423---
1.h326656%2414---
1.a410258%2474---
1.Nh38866%2510---
1.f38446%2432---
1.Na33962%2474---
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 c5 3.Bg2 Nc6 4.0-0 e5 5.e4 d6 6.d3 g6 7.a3 Bg7 8.c3 0-0 9.b4 [Steering clear of any popular theory, Carlsen strives to enter a strategic position where he can try to pressurise his opponent incrementally] a6 10.Nbd2 b5 11.Rb1 Nd7 12.Nb3 cxb4 13.axb4 Nb6 14.Be3 Be6 15.Qd2 Rc8 16.Rfc1 [Bringing all his pieces into play, and looking for ways to further his play] Re8 17.h4 [Typical Carlsen! More than trying to understand White's objective behind the move, it is useful to think how Black should respond here] Na4 [It is easy to question this move, as it allows White to expand c3-c4, but objectively it is still not a sin to carry on with this] 17...Bg4 could have been the way to play without giving any concessions for White here 18.c4 h5 [But this is a small concession, more of a weakening on the kingside than trying to stop White from grabbing space on the kingside] 18...Bg4 was called for, aiming to maintain the equilibrium 19.Kh2 Bg4 20.cxb5 axb5 21.Na5 Nd4 22.Rxc8 Qxc8 23.Rc1 Qd7 24.Nxd4 exd4 25.Bh6 Bh8 26.Rc6 [Objectively, Black is still doing fine here, but he is now pushed to defend precisely. While Black has strategic weaknesses which he has no choice but to defend with pieces, it is difficult for him to find any dynamic way to play. Classic Carlsenomics!] Nc3? [That moment when Black becomes pressured to 'do something' on the board rather than to wait for White's assaults and defend them] 26...Rc8 [Inserting of this move was very important for Black's defence] 27.Ra6 Nc3 28.Bf4 Be5 [The difference here is that White cannot proceed as he did in the game, due to Black's counter play] 29.f3 Be6 30.Bxe5 dxe5 31.f4 exf4 32.Qxf4 Nd1! [The resource which will save the day for Black - the position still remains tense but Black has counterplay here] 27.f3 Be6 28.Bf4 Be5 29.Bxe5 dxe5 30.f4 [Carlsen has got a tangible plan to push here, and to complicate things, Karjakin was under pressure from the clock too] Qe7 31.Rc5 Rc8 32.Rxc8+ Bxc8 33.Nc6 Qd6 34.Nxe5 Qxb4 35.f5!± [The breakthrough. Carlsen finishes off the game without much difficulty from hereon] Qd6 36.Nf3 gxf5 37.Qg5+ Kh7 38.e5 Qg6 39.Qd8 Be6 40.Ng5+ Kg7 41.Qxd4 Na4 42.Nh3 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2822Karjakin,S27731–02017A055th Sinquefield Cup 2017 GCT2
Aronian,L2799Caruana,F28070–12017D275th Sinquefield Cup 2017 GCT2
Svidler,P2751Anand,V2783½–½2017A355th Sinquefield Cup 2017 GCT2
Nakamura,H2792Vachier-Lagrave,M2789½–½2017B905th Sinquefield Cup 2017 GCT2
Nepomniachtchi,I2751So,W28100–12017A105th Sinquefield Cup 2017 GCT2

Commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Maurice Ashley, and WGM Jennifer Shahade

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Saravanan is an IM from Chennai, the southern-most state of Tamil Nadu, India. He has been an active chess player in the Indian circuit, turning complete chess professional in 2012, actively playing and being a second to strong Indian players. He has been consistently writing on chess since late 1980s and is a correspondent to national newspapers and news channels.

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