Norway 03: Fantastic Round!

[Event "Norway Chess 2014"] [Site "Stavanger"] [Date "2014.06.05"] [Round "3.3"] [White "Giri, Anish"] [Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E05"] [WhiteElo "2752"] [BlackElo "2783"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/1p1r2pk/6q1/4pb1p/PP2p3/2R1PnPP/5PB1/2B2Q1K w - - 0 41"] [PlyCount "6"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "NOR"] 41. Rc2 $2 Qe6 $1 {A surprisingly powerful move. The threat is not only Qb3, which is strong in on itself, but rather a far more devious idea.} 42. Qe2 (42. Rc4 Bxh3 $1 43. Bxh3 Qxh3+ $1 44. Qxh3 Rd1+ 45. Qf1 Rxf1+ 46. Kg2 Rg1+ 47. Kh3 g5 {And white will get promptly mated.}) 42... g6 $6 {Kramnik misses a chance to really push his advantage.} (42... Bxh3 $1 43. Bxf3 exf3 44. Qxf3 Bg4 45. Qe4+ Bf5 46. Qc4 Rd1+ 47. Kg2 Bh3+ 48. Kh2 Qf5 {and the threat of Qf3 and the threat of Bf1 makes White's position hopeless. However this is not easy to see over the board.}) 43. Rc4 $2 {And now Bxh3 is even stronger.} Bxh3 {White's position simply collapses everywhere, for example:} (43... Bxh3 44. Rxe4 Bxg2+ 45. Kxg2 Ng5 46. Rc4 Qh3+ 47. Kg1 e4) 0-1

[Event "Norway Chess 2014"] [Site "Stavanger"] [Date "2014.06.05"] [Round "3.4"] [White "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Black "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Result "*"] [ECO "D70"] [WhiteElo "2881"] [BlackElo "2791"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "133"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] [EventCountry "NOR"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 {Caruana's Grunfeld has proven to be solid time after time, so the amount of anti-Grunfelds thrown against him is staggering. This is a popular try nowadays, a very sharp one.} d5 (3... d6 {going for a Saemisch King's Indian is also entirely possible.}) 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nb6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O Qd6 10. Nb5 (10. h4 Rd8 11. Nb5 Qd7 12. h5 a6 13. Nc3 Nxd4 14. hxg6 hxg6 $4 (14... fxg6 {keeps things interesting.}) 15. Bxd4 {Was already losing for Black in Nakamura-Caruana from last year, a lesson that the Italian learned the hard way.}) 10... Qd7 11. Kb1 Rd8 12. d5 a6 13. Nc3 Qe8 14. Qc1 (14. Qe1 {is the more common retreat, and it has been tried against Caruana twice.} Na7 $1 $13 {Gelfand-Caruana, 2013} (14... Ne5 $6 15. Be2 e6 16. Bxb6 cxb6 17. f4 Nd7 18. dxe6 Qxe6 19. Nf3 $5 $13 { Aronian-Caruana, 2012})) 14... Na5 {The other knight moves are also possible, time will tell which one is preferable.} 15. Bh6 Bxh6 16. Qxh6 e6 17. Nh3 (17. h4 {is caveman chess, but Black might be able to equalize} exd5 18. h5 Qf8 $1 19. Qxf8+ Rxf8 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. exd5 b5 {and the subsequent Nb7-d6 maneuver should guarantee Black decent chances.}) 17... Qe7 18. Bd3 e5 $6 {Closing the center gives Black chances to blockade and then counterattack White's pawns, while killing the activity of the bishop on d3. However it does give White some time to open up the kingside.} 19. Nf2 Nbc4 20. h4 Rd6 21. Bxc4 $1 {The bishop on d3 was not valuable at all, it is important to trade it off for one of the knights.} Nxc4 22. Qc1 (22. h5 $4 g5 {is Black's defense.}) 22... b5 23. Nd3 {White is making sure that Black cannot break through while at the same time preparing h5.} Bd7 24. b3 Nb6 25. h5 g5 26. g3 $2 {Carlsen had played a great game up this point, but this move is hard to understand. Clearly Black wants to play c6 and White should at least make it hard for his opponent to do so.} (26. Qe3 $1 Rb8 27. Rc1 $1 c6 28. Nb4 $16) 26... c6 {Black breaks through and it is hard to say White has any advantage at all.} 27. f4 (27. Nb4 c5 28. Nc2 c4 $132) 27... cxd5 28. Nxe5 d4 29. Qa3 a5 $1 {A great tactical stroke. Caruana accurately calculated the complications stemming from this move.} 30. Nxb5 (30. Nd5 Nxd5 31. exd5 a4 $15) 30... Bxb5 31. Rxd4 Re6 {Black moves out of the pin and protects his queen. Now he will emerge up material, but White's activity gives him good chances to draw; he needs only one more pawn to restore material balance, more or less.} 32. Qxe7 Rxe7 33. Rc1 Nd7 34. Rc7 Nxe5 $6 {This complicates Black's position.} (34... gxf4 $1 {An important subtlety, although surely hard to calculate with so little time left.} 35. gxf4 (35. Nxd7 f3 $1 36. Nf6+ (36. Rd2 f2 $19) 36... Kg7 37. Rxe7 f2 38. Rd1 Kxf6 $19) 35... Nxe5 36. Rxe7 Nc6 37. Rd5 {and now there is no pawn hanging with check on g5.}) 35. Rxe7 Nc6 36. Rd5 Bd3+ (36... Nxe7 37. Rxg5+ Kf8 38. Rxb5 $11) 37. Rxd3 Nxe7 38. fxg5 Rb8 {The endgame should be close to a draw. White has a lot of pawns, but they are rather weak and unable to create a passer. Black on the other hand has some problems with his king and his own weak pawns.} 39. Rd7 Kf8 40. Ra7 Rb5 41. Ra8+ Kg7 42. Re8 $6 (42. Ra6 {threatening h6 was a better move.}) 42... Re5 43. g4 Rxe4 44. Kc2 Re5 45. Kd3 f6 46. gxf6+ Kxf6 {Black is unable to win this endgame. His pawns are too weak and White is too active, but more importantly the amount of pawns left for his is too small. Carlsen defends accurately.} 47. Rh8 Kg7 48. Re8 Kh6 49. a3 Kg5 50. Rh8 h6 51. Rh7 Re6 52. Rg7+ Kf6 53. Rh7 Ke5 54. Rg7 Kf4 55. b4 axb4 56. axb4 Nc6 57. b5 Ne5+ 58. Kd4 Nxg4 59. Kc5 Re5+ 60. Kc6 Rxh5 61. b6 Ne5+ 62. Kc7 Nc4 63. b7 Rc5+ 64. Kd8 Rb5 65. Kc7 Rc5+ 66. Kd8 Rb5 67. Kc7 {A suffered draw for Carlsen!} *