Lindores Abbey: Carlsen and Dubov win convincingly

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/25/2020 – The second pair of mini-matches in the quarter-finals of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge finished much more quickly than Saturday's encounters. Magnus Carlsen and Daniil Dubov needed only three games to defeat Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin respectively. Dubov in fact won all three games, while Carlsen survived a scare in the second game and saw his opponent agreeing to a quick draw in the third. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / V. Saravanan

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A short day at the office


The Lindores Abbey Chess Challenge started on May 18th. Twelve players are taking part. After a three-day preliminary, the best eight players will advance to the deciding knockout section. The time control is 15 minutes for the game, with a 10-second increment per move.


There was a world of difference between Saturday's and Sunday's quarter-finals at the Lindores Abbey online tournament. While both mini-matches were hard-fought confrontations that were only decided in Armageddon on Saturday, Sunday's encounters were over after three games.

Daniil Dubov used his usual brand of chess to score three consecutive wins over the more technical Sergey Karjakin. In game two, for example, Dubov played ...g5 with black as early as move 5, taking his compatriot out of his comfort zone. The ever-fighting Karjakin nevertheless tried to come back in the next game, even after a disconnection on his side seemed to indicate it was time to call it a day and agree to a draw — the former World Championship challenger continued playing and later tweeted:

Before the all-Russian mini-match came to an end, Magnus Carlsen had already secured a victory over Wesley So. The Filipino-born grandmaster defeated the Norwegian in last year's Fischer Random World Championship, but will need to win the next two mini-matches if he wants to knock Carlsen out this time around. 

Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge 2020

Carlsen 2½:½ So

The result of this mini-match does not reflect how hard-fought it actually was. In game one, the players repeated twelve moves of a Carlsen v Ding Liren game from the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. Although Ding had trouble holding the balance back then, it was clear that So was prepared to face this line.

White heavily damaged his pawn structure, but also had a strong initiative against Black's undeveloped pieces. So kept things under control, until he made a big blunder on move 19:

 
Carlsen vs. So - Game 1
Position after 19.fxg5

So spent over two minutes (in a 15-game encounter) on 19...Rc8, which loses to the forced 20.gxh6+ Kh8 21.Qxc8+ Bxc8 22.Rxc8+ and Black can only save the a8-rook by wasting a number of key tempi. The American had to give up that rook and eventually accepted defeat, with his queen unable to deal with White's active pair of rooks.  

Down by one against the world champion, So played the Exchange Variation of the Spanish in game two. He got the initiative in the middlegame, but Carlsen did a good job in handling the complications. So gained an exchange on move 34, but Black had enough counterplay in the endgame thanks to his strong bishop and his passer on the queenside. However, Carlsen gave his opponent a chance to tie the score on move 44:

 
So vs. Carlsen - Game 2
Position after 44...a2

43...a2 was a blunder, as it allowed 44.R5e3 defending the pawn and planning to grab Black's passer on a2 later on — if Black captures the e7-pawn and trades his rook, he will be left without enough counterplay in the technical endgame an exchange down. None of this happened, though, as So played 44.Ra1 immediately, when 44...Bxb3 defends the pawn and keeps things complicated. 

In the end, this oversight cost So dearly, as he erred on move 61 and lost the game. The American now needed back-to-back wins to even the score and, instead of fighting on against such an opponent, he decided to agree to a triple repetition as early as move 15 in game three. Carlsen later commented that his rival probably felt he would get better chances by giving up and focusing on winning the next mini-match.

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 12 e6 0 3.Nc3 0 Bb4 0 4.Nf3 1 0-0 0 5.Bg5 1 c5 0 6.Rc1 2 cxd4 0 7.Nxd4 1 h6 0 8.Bh4 1 d5 0 9.cxd5 1 g5 0 10.Bg3 0 Qxd5 0 11.e3 0 Qxa2 0 12.Qc2 1 Bxc3+ 20 13.Qxc3 3 Ne4 2 14.Qc2 1 Qa5+ 34 15.Ke2 2 Nxg3+ 38 16.hxg3 3 Kg7 0 17.f4 27 Bd7 3:45 18.b4 6:37 Qxb4 2:37 19.fxg5 15 Rc8 2:29 20.gxh6+ 15 Kh8 3 21.Qxc8+ 16 Bxc8 0 22.Rxc8+ 0 Kh7 0 23.Nf3 1:13 f6 2:47 24.Kf2 39 Qb2+ 26 25.Be2 4 Na6 10 26.Rxa8 19 Nc5 0 27.Rd1 2:32 Ne4+ 26 28.Kg1 2 f5 56 29.Bd3 2:22 Qf2+ 30 30.Kh1 4 Qxe3 22 31.Bxe4 3 fxe4 0 32.Rd7+ 3 Kg6 29 33.Rg8+ 5 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2881So,W27411–02020Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge-KO1
So,W2741Carlsen,M28810–12020Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge-KO2
Carlsen,M2881So,W2741½–½2020Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge-KO3

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Dubov 3:0 Karjakin

Playing white in game one, Dubov repeated a line Pentala Harikrishna had used to draw Karjakin at the Jerusalem Grand Prix last year. True to his style, the younger Russian opted for sharp continuations in the early middlegame and created the sort of imbalanced position he revels in. When an endgame ensued, Dubov was an exchange up, but had to deal with Karjakin's far-advanced passer on the c-file:

 
Dubov vs. Karjakin - Game 1
Position after 44...c3

White gave up his rook for Black's bishop and pawn, entering a favourable knight ending. Karjakin did all he could, but was forced to accept defeat on move 72.

Dubov was leading on the scoreboard, but did not shy away from entering another sharp struggle in game two:

 
Karjakin vs. Dubov - Game 2
Position after 5.c3

The 2018 world rapid champion continued 5...g5 6.a4 g4 and naturally castled long later in the game. His strategy worked marvels, as his opponent was never able to create the kind of stable position in which his strengths come to the fore. Dubov later explained why he chose his 13th move, shedding light on his thinking process:

 
Position after 13.g3

After 13.g3, the computer considers d5, g2 or g6 as the best escaping squares for the attacked knight. Dubov later confessed that he knew his 13...Ne6 was not the best alternative, but justified his choice by noting that he had a plan after this move. This practical approach served him well once again, as he got a quick 21-move win.

Needing a win, Karjakin played the King's Indian in game three. Dubov did not make waves given the circumstances — he got a clear positional advantage and went on to score a third consecutive victory. 

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.Nc3 dxc4 7.Ne5 c5 8.dxc5 Qxd1+ 9.Nxd1 Bxc5 10.Ne3 c3 11.bxc3 Nbd7 12.Nd3 Rb8 13.Nc4 b6 14.Bf4 Bb7 15.Bxb8 Bxg2 16.Bd6 Bxh1 17.Bxf8 Kxf8 18.f3 Bg2 19.Nf4 Bh1 20.Kf1 b5 21.Nb2 e5 22.Nfd3 Ba3 23.Nd1 e4 24.N3f2 Bxf3 25.exf3 exf3 26.Rb1 a6 27.Rb3 Bc5 28.c4 bxc4 29.Rxf3 Ne5 30.Rf5 Nfd7 31.Ne4 Bd4 32.Ke2 g6 33.Rf1 Ke7 34.Ne3 f5 35.Nd5+ Ke6 36.Nf4+ Ke7 37.Rd1 Bb2 38.Nd5+ Ke6 39.Ng5+ Kd6 40.Nf6+ Kc6 41.Nxd7 Nxd7 42.Nxh7 Nb6 43.Nf8 Nd5 44.Rf1 c3 45.Nxg6 c2 46.Kd2 Nb4 47.a4 Kd6 48.h4 c1Q+ 49.Rxc1 Bxc1+ 50.Kxc1 Nd3+ 51.Kc2 Nf2 52.h5 Ng4 53.Kd3 Kc5 54.Nh4 Kb4 55.Nxf5 Kxa4 56.h6 Nf6 57.Kc4 Ka5 58.Ne3 Nh7 59.Nd5 Ka4 60.g4 a5 61.Nc3+ Ka3 62.Ne4 a4 63.Kc3 Ka2 64.g5 Nf8 65.Kc2 a3 66.Nc3+ Ka1 67.Kb3 a2 68.Nxa2 Kb1 69.Nb4 Kc1 70.Kc3 Kd1 71.Kd3 Ne6 72.h7 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Dubov,D2770Karjakin,S27091–02020Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge-KO1
Karjakin,S2709Dubov,D27700–12020Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge-KO2
Dubov,D2770Karjakin,S27091–02020Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge-KO3

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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