Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Giri starts strong

Giri wins three in a row

Anish Giri has so far played in all the events of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The 26-year-old star did not make it into the knockout stage at the Airthings Masters and was knocked out in quarterfinals both at the Skilling Open and the Opera Euro Rapid Tournament. Now, at the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, he left a strong impression on day 1 of the preliminaries, as he beat Alan Pichot, Carlsen and Wesley So in rounds 3-5 to go into the second day of action as the sole leader on 4/5 points.

Carlsen and Levon Aronian also scored three wins on Saturday, although they also lost one of their five games to finish the day on 3½/5 — they are currently sharing second place half a point behind the leader.

The tough lineup, with a mix of elite players and ambitious rising stars, has left two 2700+ rated players with a difficult road ahead. Russians Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin finished the day on -2 and will need to step up their game if they intend to reach the quarterfinals.

Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.1 and 2

These DVDs are about Understanding Middlegame Strategies. In the first DVD dynamic decisions involving pawns are discussed. The second DVD deals with decision making process concerning practical play.

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Round 1: Aronian’s missed opportunity

Four players kicked off the tournament with a win — Daniil Dubov beat Nils Grandelius with the white pieces, while Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov all scored full points with black.

Mamedyarov was in trouble against Aronian, but the Armenian could not make the most of his attacking chances:

17.Rxg7+ Kh8 18.Rf5 Bf6

Here Aronian played the natural 19.Rxf7, when the best move in the position was 19.Qb3 — Black cannot go for 19...Bxg7 due to 20.hxg7+ Kxg7 21.Qxf7+ Kh8 22. Rh5 winning. After the text, Black not only survived the attack but went on to create a deadly onslaught against the opposite king on the other flank. 

Endgame specialist Karsten Müller took a closer look at one of the draws in round 1. In a knight ending, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, playing white, was a pawn down but had the upper hand thanks to his passer on the h-file against Alireza Firouzja. The Frenchman failed to find the most accurate continuation on move 53 and the game ended in a draw.

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

Round 2: 1.c3

The second round started with a surprise, as Carlsen strangely played 1.c3 against Vachier-Lagrave. Commentator David Howell thought this was either a way to surprise MVL, or a polite way to let the Frenchman play freely, since he would not need to hide his preparation for the Candidates. The world champion later confessed that it was a mouse-slip. 

Carlsen ended up winning that game, scoring his second full point in a row. Jorden van Foreest, Hikaru Nakamura, Aronian and So also won in round 2, all of them with black.

In the final position of his second game of the day, the world champion was a pawn down against MVL, but Black was completely stuck. Vachier-Lagrave decided to call it a day after White’s 34th move:

Endgames of the World Champions from Fischer to Carlsen

Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.

White is ready place his bishop on b4, with decisive effect. Black resigned.

Another interesting draw in an endgame was seen in round 2. Mamedyarov was caught in a stalemate trap after getting a clearly superior position against Daniil Dubov. Karsten Müller shows us how the Russian saved a half point.

Round 3: Five decisive games

Giri, Aronian, Dubov, Grandelius and Vachier-Lagrave won in round 3. Once the round was over, Carlsen was sharing the lead with Dubov on 2½/3.

Van Foreest had a good position against Grandelius, but a single imprecision turned the tables in a sharp setup:

A quiet move like 28.Ka1 or 28.Rhe1 would have kept White’s advantage, as he is a pawn up and Black needs some tempi to create something on the queenside. Van Foreest opted for the forcing 28.Nc4 instead, and Black took over after 28...Nxe4 29.Qc6 Nxf2. The Dutchman went all-in against Black’s king, but to no avail. Grandelius scored his first win of the event.

Round 4: Giri beats Carlsen

After beating Pichot in the previous round, Giri scored a convincing win over the world champion in round 4 and was sharing the lead with Mamedyarov going into the last game of the day — Mamedyarov defeated Van Foreest with white. Firouzja and David Anton also won in round 4.

Giri got the better of Carlsen in positional fashion. The world champion found himself caught up in a mating net:

The Maroczy System

The Maroczy System of the Sicilian Defence is one of the modern openings where Black attacks the white centre mainly with pieces. After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 Nf6 the pawns c4 and e4 secure White a space advantage in the middle, however, it is exactly these central pillars which may easily become targets of the black counterattack. Sergei Tiviakov has been applying this system with Black in his tournament practice since 1991 and is considered one its greatest experts.

Black resigned.

As usual, Giri had something witty to say on Twitter. Referring to the fact that this is the second edition of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, and that he also beat the world champion in the first edition, he wrote:

Emil Sutovsky reflected:

Round 5: So blunders

Seven out of eight games finished decisively in the last round of the day — only Nakamura and Karjakin signed a 14-move draw. Giri, Aronian, Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Firouzja, Van Foreest and Teimour Radjabov all scored full points.

The leader inflicted So’s second loss of the day. The American uncharacteristically blundered in a rather simple position — for his standards:

28.c4 d4 29.Rxd4 and So resigned after 29...Rxe3 — 30.Rxd8 does not work due to 30...Re1+, while 30.fxe3 runs into 30...Qxe3+ and the d4-rook falls in the next move.

Standings after Round 5

Rk.		Name	Rtg.	Nt.	Pts.	n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	TB	Perf.
1		Giri,A	2731		4.0	5		1		½					½	1						1	3.00	2966
2		Carlsen,M	2881		3.5	5	0					1			½		1		1				1.50	2851
3		Aronian,L	2778		3.5	5				½	0							1		1		1	0.50	2860
4		Radjabov,T	2758		3.0	5	½		½					1		½						½	2.50	2786
5		Mamedyarov,S	2761		3.0	5			1			0	½	½			1						2.00	2828
6		Vachier-Lagrave,M	2860		3.0	5		0			1				½				1		½		1.50	2802
7		Nakamura,H	2829		3.0	5					½							½	½	½	1		0.50	2783
8		Dubov,D	2770		3.0	5				0	½							1		½	1		0.50	2800
9		Firouzja,A	2703		2.5	5	½	½				½							0		1		1.50	2756
10		So,W	2741		2.5	5	0			½								0		1		1	0.50	2705
11		Van Foreest,J	2543		2.0	5		0			0							1	1		0		0.00	2673
12		Nepomniachtchi,I	2778		1.5	5			0				½	0		1	0						1.50	2583
13		Anton Guijarro,D	2674		1.5	5		0				0	½		1		0						1.50	2614
14		Karjakin,S	2709		1.5	5			0				½	½		0						½	1.00	2584
15		Grandelius,N	2632		1.5	5						½	0	0	0		1						0.50	2592
16		Pichot,A	2548		1.0	5	0		0	½						0				½			0.50	2503
TBs: Koya, Wins with black, Wins

Links

• Official website
• Champions Chess Tour with $1.5 million in prizes to kick off next week
• All reports: Skilling Open | Airthings Masters | Opera Euro Rapid