ChessBase Magazine #201: Carlsen under pressure - A review by Nagesh Havanur

by ChessBase
6/4/2021 – The ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. This issue offers games from two major events, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational and the Opera Euro Rapid, 547 games, 3 opening videos, 12 opening surveys, demo, lectures and exercises for training. It also includes games annotated by Anish Giri, Wesley So and Jan-Krzysztof Duda to mention a few. Prof. Nagesh Havanur takes a look.

Expert videos: Jan Werle, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Mihail Marin explain new opening ideas in 30 minutes. Special: "Vassily Ivanchuk - just a genius!". Analyses by Anish Giri, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wesley So and others. 11 exciting opening articles and much m

CBM 201:  Carlsen under pressure - a review by Nagesh Havanur

Even as I write these lines, Magnus Carlsen has won the FTX Crypto Chess Cup beating Wesley So in an armageddon tie-break. This was a powerful contest with Carlsen facing his forthcoming world championship challenger, Ian Nepomniachtchi and rivals, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Daniil Dubov among others. Carlsen struggled with his form throughout as Mark Crowther put it in his TWIC report on this competition. What is clear is that Carlsen’s opponents have closed in on him over the last 12 months. This issue includes games from two major events, the Carlsen Invitational and Opera Europe Rapid Tournaments in which Magnus played and allowed himself to be outpaced by others.

Anish Giri prevails

https://en.chessbase.com/portals/all/2018/03/Anish%20Magnus/Anish%20Magns.jpg

Wijk aan Zee 2018, good old days when they met face to face | Photo: Alina l'Ami

The first, Carlsen Invitational had a star-studded field led by Magnus himself followed by Wesley So, Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi among others. As it turned out, it was Anish Giri who overcame resistance from every one else. In this issue he has annotated quite a few games from the event including his encounters with Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi.

Here is the game with Carlsen with a deep personal commentary by the winner.

Anish Giri- Magnus Carlsen, Carlsen Invitational 2021

 
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I played a couple of very interesting games from a chess viewpoint, but in terms of a result, the win against the World Champion definitely stands out. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 Magnus has already played this move on the same day so it didn't come as a surprise. As I joked, I sent my fellow Dutchman Jorden as a soldier in the first round. He lost the game, but that gave me the information of where my enemy's defensive forces were. In the Accelerated Dragon apparently. 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.c4 This is the principled way of dealing with the Accelerated Dragon move order, White is grabbing the opportunity to build a strong Maroczy Bind structure, defined by the e4 and c4 pawns, that massively control the light squares in the center. Nf6 6.Nc3 d6 7.Be2 Nxd4 Move order finesse, not giving White time to defend the knight with Be3. 8.Qxd4 Bg7 9.0-0 The modern touch. The traditional way is to go Be3/Qd2, which appears healthier, but there are nuances. 0-0 10.Qd3 The queen stands a little odd on d3, but the computers don't mind and neither did I. a5 11.Be3 Bd7!? This move surprised me a little. I had expected Black to use the opportunity to grab the space with 11...a4 12.Bd4 Bd7 13.b4 axb3 14.axb3 was the kind of position I didn't mind playing. Black still lacks space and although he is happy to trade some pieces, the now isolated b-pawn may be weak. 12.Bd4 I decided to play it very simple. More principled is to keep the dark squared bishops on the board, though Nd7-Nc5 would come with a tempo on the d3 queen. Bc6 13.b3 Nd7 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.Qd4+ Embracing a potential Qb6 trade. Kg8 16.Rfd1 Qb6 17.Qxb6 Nxb6 18.f4 White is not playing for much here, but I still have more space and the position seemed easy to play. Magnus, having pretty much solved his opening problems, decided that it was time to play for more, which to me felt very premature at this point. f5 interesting decision, but it did him no good. 19.exf5 Rxf5 20.g3 g5 Black is trying to trade my central pawns, but he lacks some harmony which I was able to exploit. 21.Bd3 I decided this was simple and strong, but I missed an even more challenging continuation here. 21.Bg4! is even more accurate- Rc5 22.Re1! gxf4 23.Rxe7 fxg3 24.Rf1! This seemed too far fetched to me, but it actually works quite well. gxh2+ 25.Kxh2 Rg5 26.Be6+ Kh8 27.Rff7 Rh5+ 28.Kg3 White's rooks on the 7th rank are dominant, white king runs away, while Black is stuck in the corner and Ne2-Nf4 is an unpleasant idea he will be facing. 21...Rc5 22.Re1 Re8 Natural. 22...gxf4! would lead to equality. 23.Rxe7 fxg3 24.hxg3 Rh5 I liked the look of my position, but it seems Black has nothing to worry about, as 25.Ne4 is well met with 25...Rf8!, guarding against Nf6+ and mobilising the pieces. 23.Ne4! Trading a pair of minor pieces and gaining the momentum. Bxe4 24.Rxe4 gxf4 25.Rxf4 In general Black can be happy with some of the developments- he has traded my central pawns and has some potential to have a good knight on e5. At the same time, he is not quite coordinated yet and may experience concrete issues with his weak h7-pawn and exposed king. Nd7 Black needs to reroute this knight. 26.Re1 Ne5 27.Be4 Tempo play, hitting the b7 pawn. b5 Another good positional trade. Black now gets connected passed pawns in the center, but at the same time he loses some of his coordination after the trade. 27...b6! would have avoided the issues that Magnus suddenly had to face in the game. 28.cxb5 Rxb5 29.Rh4! Asking Black a concrete question. Suddenly, after the natural 29...Ng6 there are some complications with 30.Bc6. Rb4?! A shocking decision, but I understood where Magnus was coming from. After the obvious 29...Ng6, Black may end up in a dangerous looking bishop vs. knight endgame with White not having to take any difficult decisions of his own. In a way this was a practical move, but it certainly backfired. 29...Ng6 30.Bc6! The point. Nxh4 31.Bxe8 It's important to grab this rook first, otherwise there is Nd3!-Nc1! after the 31.Bxb5? Nf3+ 32.Kf2 Nxe1 33.Bxe8 sequence. 31.Bxb5? Nf3+ 32.Kf2 Nxe1 33.Bxe8 Nd3+ 31...Nf3+ 32.Kf2 Nxe1 I was also calculating 32...Rf5 here, when White has a strong intermezzo 33.Bd7! followed by 34.Rxe7 with a big advantage. 33.Bxb5 Nc2 I wouldn't know how to judge whether this endgame is fine for Black and if it is, how comfortable it is to play for him. All I could see is that White is having easy play with passed pawns on both sides of the board, while Black's central pawns aren't very fast yet. The computers, however are much better at judging such things these days and point out that this endgame is objectively a draw. 30.Bxh7+ Kg7 31.Be4! It is best to return, without allowing Black to neutralise my queenside pawn majority by allowing the a5-pawn to recapture on b4. a4 Black has to start defending this pawn down endgame. I thought the idea may have been 31...Rxe4, which seemed interesting, going for a rook endgame with 2 connected central pawns, vs my 2 pairs of connected side pawns. I assumed this was likely lost for Black, though it seemed so unusual that I wasn't completely sure. 31...Rxe4 32.Rhxe4 Nf3+ 33.Kf2 Nxe1 34.Kxe1 e5 35.Ra4 d5 36.Rxa5 d4 Black seems to be a tempo too short here. With White to move this odd rook endgame is winning. White can either start pushing the b-pawn or try and prevent Black from activating his king and push g4 h4 instead. 32.bxa4 Rxa4 33.Re2 The most obvious human move, but the engine points out a sophisticated 33.Rh7+! Kg8 34.Rh5! ever-so slightly improving the position of the rook and using the Rxa2 Bd5+ tactic. It is better to keep all 4 rooks on the board, as Black's king is in danger here. Rh8 Good defensive attempt. Black is losing time and misplaces his king into a corner, but trading away a pair of rooks is essential, else Rh7+ was always hanging in the air. 34.Rxh8 Kxh8 35.Bd5! Strong move. From now on my plan is to slowly advance my kingside pawns, but first and foremost try and slow down Black's central pawns as much as I can. 25.Bd5! is a good first step, stopping e6. Ra5?! Not the best. 36.Bb3 Nc6 Good try, preparing e5 and Nd4, trying to get some counterplay. 37.Rd2! Another strong move, stopping the e5 Nd4 idea. Now it has become clear to me that I am winning. Black just doesn't have any counterplay. Kg7 38.Kg2 Ne5 39.h3 This is very fine, intending g4 Kg3, but 39.h4! followed by Kh3 would have been more energetic. Nd7 40.Re2! Another accurate move, preventing counterplay with Nc5. Kf8 41.Rf2+ This stage of the game was well played by me. Now Black doesn't have a comfortable response. Nf6 42.g4 White keeps advancing, while Black is still unable to create any sort of play of his own. Kg7 43.Rf4 decent, intending h4, amongst other things. d5 44.g5?! A better move was the sophisticated 44. Rb4!, getting the rook out of the way and starting to annoy Black from the side. Ne4 45.Bxd5? Very poor decision. True, the position becomes even easier with a pair of pawns gone, which was an argument in the time trouble, but still, clearly this gives Black far more drawing chances than keeping both the connected passers. 45.h4 e6 46.Rg4! is very hard to find though. intending h5 Kg6 47.Kf3 Nd2+ 48.Kf4 Nxb3 49.axb3 and White is dominating in this rook endgame, with Rg3 to follow. 45...Nxg5 46.Bb3 Another phase of the game starts. It is now clear that Black has nothing to look forward to, as he has no more connected passers, but at the same time, there are some drawing tendencies with so little material left. For example if we imagine that Black gives up the knight for the a2 pawn while also trading the rooks, the game would be a draw. e5? 46...Re5! was a huge resource that we both missed, getting the knight back into the game via e4, which would be crucial. 47.Ra4 Now White is objectively winning again. I offered the trade of rooks, seeing that the knight will not be able to sacrifice itself against the a-pawn. Rc5 48.Rc4?! Switching back and forth a little, but much stronger was to push 48.h4 with rook not being on c4, as not to allow Ne6. Quite clumsy of me to allow it, though I have to say at this point the time was a serious factor. 48...Ra5? A better defense would be 48...Rb5! not allowing the Ra4 switch. 49.h4?! Not the best moment to push it, allowing Ne6. Objectively though, White is likely still winning. 49.Rg4! this would be the classiest of the solutions. Kh6 49...Kf6 Now White wins by force: 50.Ra4 Rc5 51.Rc4 Ra5 52.h4! Nh7 Now 52...Ne6 is losing to 53.Rc6!+- , that's why 49.Rg4! first. 53.Rc7! 50.Ra4 Rc5 51.h4 Nh7 52.Rc4 Ra5 53.Rc6+ and White has a good version of things, having gained a lot of tempi to push back Black's pieces and activate his own. 49...Ne6 50.Ra4 Nf4+ I was okay with this intermezzo, as I get to activate the king with tempo, but it was still better not to allow the knight to get to this decent, relatively centralized outpost. 51.Kf3 Rc5 52.Rc4 Direct 52.Kg4! is best according to the engine. 52...Ra5? The computer strongly prefers 52...Rb5! here, which in human time trouble could only be played because of intuitive reasons, rather than the concrete ones. At this point, though we had established the Ra4-Rc4 and Ra5-Rc5 pattern, which we mostly used to gain time on the clock. 53.Rc7+ Kh6 Black was anyway lost, objectively, but this falls into a mating net. 54.Bc2! I suspect Magnus had seen this and saw that he could defend with Ra3+ and Nd3. Unfortunately for Black, though, this is still losing. Ra3+ 55.Kg4 Nd3 56.Kf5! The only winning move. I was quite pleased to find this in the final seconds. Nb4 56...e4 was probably the best practical try. Now White would have to find one final strong sequence. 57.Kxe4 Nb4 and here the only winning move: 58.Ke5! and after Kh5 59.Rh7+ Kg4 60.Bf5+ Kg3 61.Kf6! accurate. Rxa2 62.h5 Kf4 63.Rd7 and the h-pawn is unstoppable. Not an easy sequence. 57.Be4! Now clearly the knight on b4 is dominated. Black is already lost, but with his next move Magnus allows a picturesque finale. Rxa2 57...Nd3 would prolong the game, but the rook endgame is winning. 58.Bxd3 Rxd3 59.Kxe5 Ra3 60.Rc2 Kh5 61.Rh2 The easiest, keeping both the pawn and intending to bring the king to the queenside, though there would still be some work to be done here. I had once seen a similar study, these side pawns positions can get quite complicated. 58.Kg4! A beautiful position. With so little material on the board, the mate with Rh7+ is completely unstoppable. A study-like finish. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Giri,A2776Carlsen,M28471–02021B36Carlsen Inv Prelim4
Giri,A2776Carlsen,M28471–02021B36Carlsen Inv Prelim4

Magnus misses again

https://en.chessbase.com/portals/all/2019/12/wesley-so-fischer-random-official-world-champion/1.jpg

Wesley So beating Magnus Carlsen in Fischer Random Championship 2019 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

The second event, Opera Euro Rapid was arguably more exciting than the first. Here it was Wesley So who prevailed over the rest to meet Carlsen in a mini-match. The world champion missed more than one opportunity to level scores and move ahead. But this did not happen. A case in point is the following position. Here Carlsen only played the relatively "safe" 16…exd4 and drew. Was there a win? Your turn.

 

Black to play

In fairness to Wesley So, he did outplay Carlsen with White and won, a game that he annotated in a recent issue of New in Chess Magazine. But it was the last game of this mini-match that turned out to be more exciting. Carlsen played the opening with finesse and with Wesley So taking unreasonable risks, should have prevailed in the middlegame. Then the tide began to turn. Here is what happened:

Magnus Carlsen-Wesley So, Opera Euro Rapid 2021

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.Re1 a5 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Bb6 11.Na3 Nh7 12.Nc2 h5 13.h3 h4 14.Bh2 g4 15.hxg4 Bxg4 16.d4 exd4 17.Ncxd4 Nxd4 18.cxd4 Ng5 19.Qd3 Nxf3+ 20.gxf3 Bh5 21.e5 d5 22.Bb3 a4 23.Bd1 Qg5+ 24.Kh1 Bg6 25.Qe2 Bxd4 26.Rg1 Qh5 27.Qd2 c5 28.f4 Qh6 29.Rg5 f6 30.exf6 Bxf6 31.Qxd5+ Kh8 32.Bf3 a3 33.Rag1 axb2 34.Rxg6 Qxg6 35.Rxg6 b1Q+ 36.Rg1 Qh7 37.f5 Rg8 38.Re1 Rae8 39.Re6 Rxe6 40.Qxe6 Qh6 41.Bd1 Qg5 42.Qe4 Qd2 43.Bg4 Qg5 44.f3 Qc1+ 45.Kg2 h3+ 46.Kxh3 Qh6+ 47.Kg3 Rd8 48.Bh3 Qg5+ 49.Bg4 Qh6 50.Bg1 Qh4+ 51.Kg2 Rd2+ 52.Kf1 Rd1+ 53.Kg2 Rd2+ 54.Kf1 Rd1+ 55.Kg2 Rd2+ ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2862So,W2770½–½2021C54Opera Euro Rapid KO3.24
Carlsen,M2862So,W2770½–½2021C54Opera Euro Rapid KO

An uphill battle in which the outcome is far from clear even on the last move!

After the knockout match Wesley So was modest about his victory and sincerely thanked Carlsen for giving an opportunity to play in the series. He also made amends for "celebrating" his victory on camera.

Vassily Ivanchuk, the Ukranian maverick

Vassily Ivanchuk vs Magnus Carlsen | Photo Courtesy: ChessPro.ru

The Special Section includes a tribute to Vassily Ivanchuk with 22 annotated games. His victims here include Kasparov, Anand and Shirov among others.  This is a small sample offering a glimpse of his play. The MegaBase alone has more than 4000 games.

Our Gen.Next may wonder who is this grandmaster and what is special about him. One word would describe him best. He is unpredictable. You never know what happens when he plays. Ask Carlsen and Kramnik who have been at the receiving end of his play. "Then why didn’t he become world champion?" young readers may ask.

The Ukranian maverick is a man with a volatile temperament and a bundle of nerves in fatal moments. Judit Polgar also pointed out another strange trait, immersed in deep thoughts, he would overlook simple moves, allowing his opponent to escape.

He is a man of moods. On occasion he would play strange moves and when they don’t work, suffer a terrible defeat. Or else he would play listlessly and lose. No one suffers as much as he does when this happens.

Linares 1991: His finest hour

It was all so different when he was young and he wouldn’t put a foot wrong when he was inspired. Old timers still remember his visit to Linares in 1991. Everything about it was "crazy". He had arrived in the city at 5 o’clock in the morning just ten hours before the first round. It was a long and tiring journey riddled with hold-ups and delays. When he made enquiries at Hotel Anibal, the tournament venue, he was informed, he had to play Kasparov, the world champion in the afternoon. Garry was at the height of form, having beaten Karpov in a world champion the year before. Anatoly still smarting under that defeat was here to play and show every one what he was capable of. The other players included veterans, Beliavsky, Yusupov and Timman, young hopefuls, Anand, Speelman and Gelfand. Then an extraordinary drama unfolded. Our young hero disposed of both Kasparov & Karpov not to mention his own peers, Anand and Gelfand to come first with 9½ out of 13 points (+6, =7 -0).

The 21-year-old Vassily Ivanchuk, pictured after winning Linares 1991 Tournament Credit: unknown.) | Photo Courtesy: Douglas Griffin’s blog on Soviet Chess History

He was barely 21 at the time. How had he prepared for the tournament? With his wife, Alisa Galliamova, a strong female chess player at the time. They had just married and she was his talisman, so to speak.

This issue highlights both Ivanchuk’s games and that famous Linares Tournament 1991.

Mihal Marin has chosen 16 games from Linares 1991 for his question and answer session on strategy.

During 1990s Linares was known as the Wimbledon of chess. It was here that young stars, Anand, Ivanchuk Kramnik and Shirov challenged the dominance of Karpov and Kasparov. Veteran chess journalist, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam wrote a whole book, recreating the atmosphere and ambience of the tournament.

Here is a fascinating passage on Ivanchuk from the book:

Ivanchuk's victories have earned him an unbelievable popularity with the Linarese. People greet him everywhere with a brief and warm 'Ivanchuk!' The warmth they feel at his unaffected behaviour outweighs their admiration for the distant Kasparov. Ivanchuk doesn't push his way haughtily through the crowd of noisy children thronging at the bottom of the hotel stairs every day begging the players for a signature in their programme booklets. He always stops to sign a few. In the year of his third tournament victory, he invited these young admirers to join him in eating the cake that the restaurant kitchen had prepared for him.

(Linares! Linares: A journey into the heart of chess)

Opening videos and surveys

There are 3 opening videos by Mihail Marin, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Jan Werle (they are featured on the cover of this issue).

The first by Mihail Marin deals with Mikanes System of the English opening (A19). This is an obscure line, rarely seen.

The second by Kasimdzhanov deals with an important line, 11…Ne7 in Sicilian Sveshnikov (B33).

The third by Jan Werle deals with 4.f3, the Sämish Variation of the Nimzo-indian (B25).

This should be studied along with an opening survey on the same line by Evgeny postny in this issue.

Incidentally, there are as many as 12 opening surveys ranging from the Sicilian to the Semi-Slav in this issue.  For now I would like to single out the surveys on the Belgrade Gambit (C47) and Sicilian Grand Prix Attack (B23) for special mention.

Besides opening surveys, this issue has standard features on tactics, strategy and the endgame.

Summing up

The main database of the issue has 547 recent games of which 32 are deeply annotated.

Commentators include Anish Giri, Wesley So and Jan Duda among others. Major contributions are made by Michal Krasenkow (8 games) and Romain Edouard (14 games)

It may be noted that there are more annotated games in the sections on opening theory and training. Well, practice makes perfect.

Note: More info on the early career of Ivanchuk may be found in Douglas Griffin’s chess blog

There are two collections of Ivanchuk’s games in English.

1)Vassily Ivanchuk: 100 Selected Games by Nikolai Kalinichenko (New in Chess 2013).

2)Ivanchuk, Move by Move by Junior Tay (Everyman Chess, 2015)

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