Qatar Masters Rd9: Magnus supreme in Qatar

Qatar Masters 2015 – Magnus reigns supreme in Qatar

Report from Doha by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

And the rook swooped to e4, with a double attack on the bishop on f4 and the knight on a4. Yu Yangyi sat there with his hands on his head. He was losing an entire piece and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He held out his hand in resignation and Magnus Carlsen became the champion of the Qatar Masters Open 2015. It was quite a one-sided blitz (5 min+ 3 sec) tiebreak where the World Champion beat the Chinese player with a score of 2-0. But let’s rewind a bit to the start of the final round of the event.

The last round at the Qatar Masters Open 2015 began at 12 p.m., three hours earlier than all the other days of the tournament. When a total of US $130,000 and norms are at stake it is natural for the players to be a little anxious before the start of the final round.

The three hour early start was a little difficult for Nguyen Ngoc Truongson, although
in the game he had absolutely no trouble in holding Pentala Harikrishna to a draw

Eesha Karavade, who played an excellent tournament, needed a draw in the last round to make her
second GM norm. She also had chances to win the best woman player prize if she won the game.
However in the end she lost and all her hopes were dashed.

B. Adhiban, who was the ACP Wild Card entry in the event, didn’t have a particularly
good tournament. But that didn’t stop him from giving his all in the last round

Zhang Zhong was concentration personified in his battle against Sergey Karjakin.

Karjakin won a marathon battle and finished fourth with a +4 score

Sanan Sjugirov was quite clearly going to miss the Qatar Masters because of some flight issues. The organizers sent him a ticket and the 22-year-old arrived in Doha at the eleventh hour. Sanan made full use of this opportunity as he beat Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Dmitry Jakovenko, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the last round. He scored 6.5/9 and stood fifth in the final standings.

When two theoretical experts play the Botvinnik Variation in the Slav what you get is a real slugfest. Sethuraman (right) was much better prepared and crushed the super solid world number 18 Evgeny Tomashevsky.

Wei Yi’s (right) dismal tournament continued as he lost to his compatriot Lu Shanglei.
The Chinese prodigy, who had an excellent 2015, lost 24 Elo points in this event.

Magnus Carlsen, who was on 6.5/8, was leading by a half point margin over Kramnik and Yu Yangyi. This is what the key pairings of the final round looked like:

If Magnus beat Vladimir then it was all over: he would win the title as no one would be able to catch him. But in case the top board clash ended in a draw and Yu Yangyi was able to beat Wesley So, then both Carlsen and Yu Yangyi would be on 7.0/9. The rules of the tournament said that “in the event of a tie for the first place in the tournament, there shall be conducted a Play-Off for the first prize of $27,000 and Trophy.” The players would play a blitz (5 minutes + 3 seconds) tiebreak of two games, and in case that ended in a draw, there would be another tiebreak of two games. A 1-1 tie again would mean the person to win the next decisive game would be the champion. In any case the blitz tiebreaks would only happen if Yu Yangyi scored the full point.

Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik get ready for the last round encounter.
Notice how both the players had their drinks on their left side.

Tournament director Mohamed-Al-Modiahki asks Kramnik to keep his bottle
on the other side so that the photographers would have an uninterrupted view

Magnus was surely more interested in other games than his own after his sedate opening choice

Magnus opened with 1.e4 and Kramnik replied with his customary 3…Nf6 in the Ruy Lopez. Once Magnus played the move 5.Re1 instead of 5.d4 in the Berlin, it became quite obvious that the game with the symmetrical pawn structure would end in a draw. With just the e-file open both players exchanged their pieces and soon there was nothing really to play for. It was a result that suited both the players just fine. Magnus was happy with a draw as he now moved to 7.0/9, and Yu Yangyi could catch him only if he beat Wesley So – a task which was extremely difficult. And Kramnik was satisfied with his +4 performance to secure a joint second place in the tournament.

We stopped son Magnus and father Henrik in their tracks for a picture, as the duo were heading back to Torch Hotel, where the World Champion would take some rest and get prepared – in case he had to play the tiebreak.

Wesley So executes the favourite move of Nimzo Indian players - 3…Bb4. The onus
was now on Yu Yangyi to win the game and challenge Magnus Carlsen to a blitz playoff

After quickly finishing his game against Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen went over to the board of Yu Yangyi vs Wesley So, which would decide whether the World Champion would have to sit at the chess board once again or not.

In the Qatar Masters 2014 Yu Yangyi made a final sprint to beat Anish Giri and Vladimir Kramnik in the last two rounds to clinch the event. The defending champion had absolutely no intentions of easily giving up his title to Magnus Carlsen. There is definitely something about decisive and crucial games that brings out the best in Yu Yangyi. The Chinese grandmaster fought with great energy and spirit to subdue Wesley So. The American had an excellent position out of the opening and at one point he even held the advantage. However, Yu Yangyi kept finding resources and by the time the players were nearing the 40th move time control, it was already quite messy and complicated. They repeated moves twice and Yu Yangyi could already make a draw by just playing 38.Qh5+. But he did not. He played the quite risky 38.Kg2! which meant that the game was on. Soon Yu had four pawns for a piece and although there were decent theoretical drawing chances for So, it was just too difficult for the knight to cope with this huge armada of pawns in a practical encounter. It is an endgame worth paying careful attention to. Yu Yangyi not only won the game but joined Magnus Carlsen at the top with 7.0/9. So we were going to witness a blitz playoff between Carlsen and Yangyi to decide who would be the Qatar Masters Open 2015 Champion.

The Blitz tiebreak in pictures, analysis and videos

Yu Yangyi and Magnus Carlsen greet each other before their
two game blitz tiebreak of 5 minutes + 3 seconds increment

The arbiters make sure that both the players are on the same page with regards to the rules of the tiebreak

The video contains footage of Magnus Carlsen and Yu Yangyi preparing for their first game of the tiebreak,
the choosing of colours and also the number of people in the audience to watch this match.

Magnus starts with the London System. Both players were unable to get into the rhythm
of playing the shorter time control game and took quite a lot of minutes for their opening moves.

Magnus executed the brilliant 33.Rxe6!! with just about twenty seconds on his clock
and obtained a completely crushing position. Yu had to resign in a few moves.

Magnus Carlsen exited the playing hall after winning the first game while Yu Yangyi went to his camp where Ni Hua and Wei Yi waited to give him some instructions – most probably to play faster in game two.

As the game two is about to begin Magnus comes to the board and sits down while Yu Yangyi comes in great hurry, stumbling on the wires before making it to the board

Yu Yangyi played his opening moves with great speed but Magnus was just too solid,
and executed a superb new idea in the Nimzo Indian 4…b6 Variation in the Rubinstein System.

Ahh, I have seen it! Re4 ends the game!

A look of relief and happiness! Henrik and Ingrid Carlsen are
glad that Magnus emerged victorious.

A touch of sadness in the Chinese camp as Yu Yangyi lost the tiebreaks 2-0

Magnus Carlsen is truly the master of playoffs – there hasn’t been a single one which the World Champion hasn’t won. I was a very involved spectator at both the playoffs in the month of December – against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in London and Yu Yangyi in Qatar. While MVL looked completely exhausted in London, things were much different with Yu Yangyi. The Chinese grandmaster was clearly all pumped up and determined, and basically he was some sort of an unknown commodity for Magnus (although he did beat Yu in the Dubai World Rapid 2014). But the marathon battle against Wesley So in the final round did tire out the 21-year-old. Of course, this fatigue and lack of energy had a role in the final outcome, but I would say the way Magnus played the blitz games was simply outstanding. In the first game the Norwegian played the beautiful 33.Rxe6! with very little time on the clock. Believe me, it is not at all easy to change the tempo all of sudden when so much of maneuvering took place on the moves prior to it. And in the second game Magnus already had the 11…Bxf3 improvement prepared beforehand. I am sure it affected Yu Yangyi quite a bit when the Norwegian immediately chopped the knight on f3, and the blunder on move 15 was partly because of that as well. As of now we can sign off with the conclusion that Magnus Carlsen was the deserving winner of the Qatar Masters Open 2015.

After the tournament ended, the author of these lines was able to interview the
Qatar Masters Open 2015 Champion. Below you can find the YouTube video:

Carlsen on his favourite game in the tournament, how football helped him in the event, whether he
felt more nervous – against MVL in London or Yu Yangyi in Doha, and what are his New Year resolutions

Magnus’ speech at the closing ceremony

US $27,000 and a glittering winner’s trophy. As Henrik Carlsen said to us:
“Back to back victories (London and Qatar) in one month. Magnus is not complaining!”

A part two report with the prize winners, norm winners and
some exclusive pictures from the closing ceremony will follow shortly.

Photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India

Pairings and results for round nine on 29.12.2015 at 12:00

Final standings (after nine rounds)

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.