Magnus Carlsen dominates day one of Tata Steel Chess India Rapid 2019

Carlsen is back in India

22nd of November is a special day in Magnus Carlsen's life. Is it because he ended day one of the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid 2019 with 2½/3 and as the sole leader? Not really! Six years ago in 2013, this happened

23-year-old Magnus Carlsen shouts out in jubilation inside a swimming pool after beating Vishy Anand 6½:3½ in the World Championship Match

Magnus is just 29 years old (will be 29 on November 30^th) and he has already been the World Champion for six years! Quite amazing isn't it! Seeing him in action, fans of the game often exclaim, "It's an honour to be born in the same era as Magnus!" Celebrating this day Magnus wrote on Instagram,

Good times so far in #Grandchesstour! Exactly six years ago I became world champion by making a draw in the Bb5+ Sicilian, today I won with it, using some preparation from the match.

Six years ago in Chennai, now in Kolkata! Nothing much has changed! He is still the best! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The playing hall at the Bhasha Bhavan (Language Hall) at the National Library | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The hall has a seating capacity of around 550 people and day one witnessed around 300 spectators | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

The rush will grow on day 2 and day 3 as they are weekends!

What was really amazing to see was how the crowd erupted into cheer and applause when Magnus Carlsen arrived on the stage! It just goes to show what a great chess culture, the city of Kolkata has.

Round 1

The opening move was made on Vishy Anand's board | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The first round of the event saw only one decisive result. On board four Anish Giri defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi with the black pieces while the remaining encounters fizzled out into draws. Anish played quite an enterprising game out of the opening, he sacrificed a pawn and managed to completely box in Nepo's dark-squared bishop. Things did turn a bit tricky around move 25 but the Dutchman had it all under control and when his opponent suffered a lapse, he pounced on his chance.

Anish had played an excellent rapid event at the Superbet GCT, and he continued his form in India as well | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Power Play 3 - Pawn storm

missing teaser!!

At this point Anish's 28...♛e6! came over as pretty decisive. Now e4-e3 was unavoidable and this could be followed up by even more powerful threats like ♛e4! 

Suddenly White was completely lost as the threats after ♛e4 or e3-e2 were impossible to counter. Nepo gave up his d2 knight to ease the position up and played on for 52 moves before calling it a day.

Round 2

In round two Vishy Anand registered an emphatic win against Wesley So to emerge as one of the leaders along with Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. Vishy had the White pieces and out of a Spanish managed to secure quite a promising position in the middlegame with excellent play on the queenside but failing to take the ideal continuation landed him in a drawish bishop-knight ending. The Madras Tiger however kept pushing on and got his chance once again on move 57 when his opponent blundered. 

A game where experience triumphed over youth! | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

White was pushing quite well on the queenside around move 25 and in the above position played the move ♕c6, which looks logical at first glance but actually gives away the initiative. Can you find an improvement here? 

The problem with 26.♕c6 is that after 26...♛xc6 27.dxc6 ♜fc8 28.♖ea1 even though White has more active pieces but Black has everything well defended and there is no straightforward way to make progress. A better move would have been 26.♘b3! which comes with the very interesting ♘c5 threat. Notice that Black actually can't capture dxc5 as that allows the devastating ♕g6+ followed by ♖xe5. In the game Vishy lost most of his advantage after 28.♖ea1 and ended up in an equal bishop versus knight ending where he had an extra pawn. 

Power Play 8 - Knights and Bishops

When we are starting out in chess we are told that knights and bishops both have a value of three points, but it is quite clear that in some positions a bishop is clearly superior to a knight - and vice versa. After watching this 8th Power Play DVD you’ll have a better idea of how to play positions with knights and bishops – what to look for, what to avoid, and how to place your pawns.

In the above position after 57.♗g7 all Wesley had to do was play 57...♞c6 keeping everything defended but he erred with 57...♞e6 which at once turned the tables.
The game continued 58.♗xe5 ♚xh6 59.♔c2 ♚g6 60.♔b3 and White brought his king to c4 to win the d4 pawn as well. With two extra pawns the rest was easy.

Vishy Anand vs Wesley So, the entire game captured in this video

It's never easy to stop force Magnus| Photo: Amruta Mokal

The World Champion got things going when he won his second round game against Ian Nepomniachtchi 

The Classical Sicilian

This DVD offers Black a complete repertoire against all weapons White may employ on move six. The recommended repertoire is not as risky as other Sicilians but still offers Black plenty of counter-play.

Carlsen vs Nepomniachtchi - full game

Round 3 results

A loss in round one to Giri, second loss to Carlsen, and yet he is in good spirits for his third round game against Anand | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Black is doing fine here. Yes, he is under some pressure, but Anand made things works by taking on c3. After 15.bxc3, White has two more things going his way - the open b-file and the bishop developing on a3. 

Attacking a king which has castled short

Every chess coach preaches that attacking a stranded king in the centre is the easiest thing to do, but how about attacking a king which has already castled? More often than not kings hide on the kingside, right? So, that’s a good reason for you to know how to attack a king which has castled short. FM Valeri Lilov is glad to help you in this tricky business! His DVD focuses on a number fool-proof plans and techniques for successfully destroying the enemy’s fortress to bring the opponent’s king to justice!

White to play and finish off the game in style!

Nepomniachtchi could have just retreated his knight to e3 and it is not possible to keep things under control. However, the Russian GM found the killer blow - 18.♘h6+! ♚h8 was followed by 19.♖xf6! The kingside was ripped open and after 19...gxf6 20.♕f3 it was all over. The f6 pawn is hanging and there is a threat of exd5 winning back material. Vishy resigned.

Nepo vs Anand - full match

To resign or not?

Ding Liren has just retreated his rook to a4. Vidit can resign here with a safe conscience. But he decided to continue playing! "I did it out of inertia", says Vidit. A few moves later we reached this position

79.b6 was expected from Ding Liren in this position. But instead he played the huge blunder 79.a7?? Vidit simply played 79...♚a8 and now his king is stalemated in the corner. This means that his rook is free to check and sacrifice itself to draw the game!

Vidit instantly seized the opportunity with 80...♜f5+ and kamikazed his rook with 81.♔a6 ♜a5+!

It's a good time to ask as to how a player of Ding Liren's stature can make a mistake like this. Well, time pressure is an obvious defence. But let's assume that instead of this endgame, if Ding Liren had to mate with a bishop and knight. No matter how low you are on time you would expect him to checkmate his opponent. In the same way, this is also a well-known theoretical position. A player like Ding Liren should not be missing such a win. With that being said, such mistakes will keep happening from even the best, every now and then, because chess is a tough game!

Vidit missed a very promising position against Nakamura in round two, but was compensated for the same when he drew a completely lost endgame against Ding Liren | Photo: Amruta Mokal

IM Sagar Shah records this video inside the playing hall and speaks about the question of "when is it a right time to resign?"

Defending champion Nakamura started off with two draws, but got going when he won his third round game against Giri | Photo: Amruta Mokal

After a fine opening, Nakamura managed to get a small edge in the position as can be seen above. The knight on c4 sits pretty and cannot be disturbed. The white rook is nicely perched on a5 and actively placed. It's time for the king to join in. Yes, the position is only slightly better for White, but as Nakamura pointed out after the game, such positions are extremely difficult to defend in a rapid game when you are running short of time. Very soon the white king made its way up from f1 to e2 to d3 to e4, all the way to d5 and Anish had to eventually throw in the towel.

No Sveshnikov, it was the Najdorf that helped Carlsen beat Aronian in round three | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Magnus was extremely alert here and found the move 34...♝xg5. The point is that after 35.♕xg5 ♛f1+ 36.♔c2, Black has the powerful 36...♝xc4 when the rook on d3 has to be given up. Levon brought back his queen to e3 and after the exchanges on d3 we reached the following position.

Black has two pawns and rook for the two minor pieces, but more importantly, the h-pawn is extremely strong. It seemed as if Carlsen would smoothly win this endgame, when...

...he blundered! 48...♜g7 by Carlsen was a big mistake. Can you find out why?

49.♘f4+ is possible and the h5 pawn is lost. Aronian missed this chance and the game ended in a win for Magnus.

Standings after round 3

VIPs! Anish Giri's second Erwin l'Ami, Tata Steel Chess India tournament director Jeroen van den Berg, important members of the Gameplan team Guru Ramabadhran and Jeet Banerjee | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Will Vishy Anand manage to repeat his success of 2018 where he had won the Tata Steel Chess India blitz | Photo: Amruta Mokal

This young fan deserved the selfie by Vidit for making such a wonderful portrait | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The well talkers — Tania Sachdev is the only official Grand Chess Tour commentator at the venue along with Anish Giri | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

With such an amazing tournament taking place in India, Kolkata is the place to bee! | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

With such an amazing tournament taking place in India, Kolkata is the place to bee! | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour

The live stream of Day 1

Humility of the greats

The players at the event are some of the greatest chess players in the world. But after their games, they are making sure to interact with the crowd, to give them autographs, take selfies and in general quench the chess craze of Indian youngsters!

Grand Chess Tour

The Grand Chess Tour is into its fifth year. It is series of events for the best players in the world. Although it is not related to the World Championship cycle, all the top players of the world take part in it because of the hefty prize fund. This year, in 2019, the Grand Chess Tour has extended itself to eight events and twelve participants. There are also wild cards added at different events to compete with the best players. The events are a mixture of classical chess as well as rapid and blitz. The Tata Steel Chess India is the seventh and the penultimate event in the Grand Chess Tour 2019. This is how the standings look till now

Magnus Carlsen is in the lead with 54.5 points. As MVL and Sergey Karjakin have played all their five tour events, their score of 36.8 and 36.5 is final. Vishy Anand on 32 points has an excellent chance of overtaking them! This is how the points are allocated. Basically Anand has to finish sixth or above to make it to the finals.

The top four finishers after the Tata Steel Chess India in terms of cumulative points will proceed to the super finals that will be held in London from 2nd to the 8th of December 2019. The London finals has an excellent prize fund of US$ 3,50,000. While Aronian's qualification looks almost certain, Vishy has to score five more points to finish fourth and make it to the finals.

Links

• Official website
• Grand Chess Tour