Linares R12: Carlsen defeats Grischuk, lead narrows

XXVI Linares 2009

This year the Linares 2009 tournament is being staged only in Spain – in the previous three years the first half was in Morelia, Mexico, and next year the first half will probably be in the Arab Emirates. The 2009 event goes from February 19th to March 7th, with three rest days. The prize fund is 314,000 Euros, with the winner getting 100,000 Euros, followed by 75,000 and 50,000 Euros for second and third place. There are no appearance fees for the players, so the motivation to fight for points may be unusually high. The venue is el Teatro Cervantes de Linares, the starting time of the games is 16:00h (4 p.m.) Spanish/European time.

Round twelve report

Commentary by GM-elect Anish Giri

Carlsen,M (2776) - Grischuk,A (2733) [B84]
XXVI SuperGM Linares ESP (12), 05.03.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6. The Najdorf Defense – or actually Attack. One of the most populair openings in the world. 6.Be2 A calm reply, which was the favourite moves of, among others, Anatoly Karpov. 6...e6 choosing Scheveningen type of position. Other popular move is e5. 7.0-0 Be7 8.a4 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.f4 Qc7 11.Kh1 Re8 12.Bf3

Now we are at a very known position, which occured in about 2000 games and was even played in the famous match Karpov-Kasparov. 12...Bf8. One of main moves, bishop goes away and Black is preparing e5 at some point. 12...Rb8 is another main move here. One which was played more often. 13.Qd2. The standard manoeuvre: the queen goes to f2. Another typical queen manoeuvere beginning with 13.Qe1 is not dangerous now as after 13...Nxd4 14.Bxd4 e5 Black gets good play. 13...Rb8. 13...Na5 is other move. Black wants to activate his knight and bring it to c4. 14.b3 not allowing Nc4. (14.Qf2 leads to a very sharp game after 14...Nc4 15.Bc1 e5 16.Nde2 d5!) 14...Bd7 with a complicated battle. 14.Qf2 e5. The standart move, which was part of Black's plan, beginning with the move 12...Bf8. 14...Na5? would be a typical blunder 15.Nxe6! Bxe6 16.Bb6 winning back the piece, and White is a pawn up.

15.fxe5!?N. The novelty, which probably was prepared by Magnus. 15.Nde2 is the main move here. 15...b5 16.axb5 axb5 with an unclear position. 15...dxe5. 15...Nxe5 was of cource an alternative. 16.Bg5 (16.Be2 allows 16...Neg4 17.Bxg4 Nxg4 18.Qf4 Nxe3 19.Qxe3 Qc5 and with two bishops Black will not have any problems I think.) 16...Nfg4 17.Qg1 Nxf3!? is tricky, but good I think. (17...Be6 18.Be2 keeping the bishop. And the deeper I analyzed this position, the more I liked it. I think White is better here.) 18.gxf3 Qc5! attacking the guy on g5. 19.Nd5 Re5 20.Bd2 Rxd5 21.exd5 Ne5 with some compensation for an exchange. The position is totally unclear. 16.Nb3 Nb4. The standard move in these positions. But it might be not the best. 16...Be6 was a great alternative. I actually prefer this move to the text. 17.Bb6 (17.Rad1 Nb4 18.Bb6 Qc8 now we see the point of Be6! Black is totally fine.) 17...Qc8 18.Nd5 (18.a5!?) 18...Bxd5 19.exd5 Nb4 20.c3 e4 21.cxb4 exf3 22.Qxf3 Qd7 23.Bd4 Qxd5 24.Bxf6 Qxf3 25.Rxf3 gxf6 with equality. The line was of cource not forced. 17.Ba7. It is useful to force the rook back to a8 before playing Bb6. 17...Ra8 18.Bb6 Qe7. 18...Qc6 is not satisfactory either. 19.Na5 Qe6 20.Rad1 and White keeps a clear advantage. The bishop on c8 is probably wanting to go back to move 16... and play 16...Be6! 19.Rad1. Good move: White develops his rook. Always useful!

19...Be6. The first really inaccurate move. 19...Bg4! A very strong move, which probably keeps equality. 20.Bxg4 (20.Bc5 Qc7 21.Bxf8 Kxf8! and black is fine.) 20...Nxg4 21.Qe2 (21.Qg3 Nf6 22.Bc5 Qe6 23.Bxf8 Kxf8! and Black has no problems.) 21...Nf6 22.a5 with an unclear game, but in my opinion Black is not worse. 20.Nd5. Yes! Creating a dangerous passed pawn, which will be really dangerous with support of the nice bishop on b6. 20...Bxd5 21.exd5 e4 22.d6

22...Qe6?! The idea of Grischuk was to exchange queens. He will succeed, but the arising endgame is very bad for him. 22...Qe5 was stronger. 23.d7 Nxd7 24.Rxd7 exf3 25.Qxf3 f6 26.Nd4 Qe4 27.Rxb7 Rac8 28.c3 (28.Qxe4 Rxe4 29.g3 Nxc2 30.Rc1 Re1+ 31.Rxe1 Nxe1 32.Ra7 Nd3 33.Rxa6 Nxb2 34.a5 Nc4 35.Kg2 Re8 and even though White's pawn looks dangerous, Black probably can hold.) 28...Nd3 29.Ba7 Qxf3 30.gxf3 g6 31.Kg1 and White is a pawn up, but Black still has some chances, as White's pieces are not so well coordinated. 23.Nc5 Qf5 24.Be2 Qxf2 25.Rxf2 Nbd5. 25...Nfd5 was bad 26.d7 Reb8 27.Nxb7! Rxb7 28.d8Q Rxd8 29.Bxd8 Ne3 30.Rd4 and White is just an exchange up.

26.a5 This very natural and strong looking move was a bit inaccurate. 26.Rxf6! was a right move: 26...Nxf6 (26...Nxb6 and now, just 27.Rff1 and Black is hopeless.) 27.a5 Rec8 28.b4! just pushing it, with a big advantage for white. 28...Rc6 The only move to force White to play d7. 29.d7 Nxd7 30.Rxd7 and White is almost winning. If not winning. 26...Nxb6 27.axb6

27...Rab8? Mistake. 27...Rec8! was very strong and could give Black some chances. 28.b4! (28.Nxb7 Rxc2 29.g3 the only move, otherwise e3 comes. 29...Nd7 30.b4 Rb2 31.Nc5 Nxb6 32.Nxe4 Rxb4 and Black is at least OK.) 28...Rc6 29.Nxb7 Rxb6 30.d7 Rxb7 31.d8Q Rxd8 32.Rxd8 Rxb4 33.Kg1 and White is better, for example: 33...e3 (33...Rb6 34.Rc8! g6 35.Bc4 with pressure on f7.) 34.Rf5 Rb1+ 35.Rf1 Rb2 36.Bd3 and Re1-e3 to follow, with advantage for White. 28.Rxf6! Not difficult, but nice. 28...gxf6 29.Nd7. The point is the fork: f6 and b8 are hanging. 29...f5 30.c4. White is simply improving his position. Black cannot save himself anymore. 30...a5. 30...Bg7 does not help. 31.Nxb8 Rxb8 32.c5 Bf6 33.Bxa6 and White wins, just like in the game. 31.c5 Bg7 32.Nxb8 Rxb8

33.Ba6!! A brilliant move, which wins on the spot! 33...Bf6 34.Bxb7 Rxb7 35.c6 Rxb6 36.Rc1 Bxb2 37.d7

1-0. [Click to replay]

Our annotator Anish Giri is currently the world's youngest grandmaster. He completed his final norm on January 30th in Wijk aan Zee at the age of 14 years, 7 months and two days. In the meantime he has achieved a fourth GM norm and leaps directly from FM to full grandmaster. Anish is of Russian-Nepalese extraction and lives in Holland. He is a player to watch very carefully in the future.

Current standings

Pictorial impressions from round twelve

By Frederic Friedel

Armenian GM Levon Aronian, who moves with the left hand while writing down the moves with his right

Chinese GM Wang Yue, who often looks to be in deep agony during the game

A first defeat in this tournament: Alexander Grischuk from Russia

Magnus Carlsen at the start of his critical game against leader Alexander Grischuk

Leinier Dominguez, who saved a tough 65-move game against Teimour Radjabov

Azerbeijani GM Teimour Radjabov, watched by Armenian GM Levon Aronian

Vishy Anand, who drew against Vassily Ivanchuk in 32 moves

Vassily Ivanchuk, who first won this event back in 1991

A critical game under way in round twelve

Pure determination: Magnus during the decisive phase of his game against Grischuk

The tables are projected for the spectators on giant screens

Inside the playing hall in the Cervgantes Theatre

The entrance to the Theatre in a side road in Linares

In the press room

In the press room Luis Rentero, who started it all decades ago, watches the games

Always faithfully in the press centre: Aruna Anand, wife of the champ

Aruna and Pilar Molina. Now where have we seen these two together before? How about here, and here, and here?

Chatting with Ingrid Carlsen, 15, second of three sisters of Magnus

Ljubomir Ljubojevic making a point to Henrik Carlsen, Magnus' father

Hostesses in Linares: Pilar Molina and Maite Lopez, who is head of the press room

Video reports by Europe Echecs

Video reports and interviews are now being provided by Vijay Kumar for Europe Echecs

Schedule and results

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