Superbet Poland: Rusty Carlsen plays Polish Defence, loses

So, Duda and Aronian share the lead

Find expert commentary — video and game annotations — by well-known coach and author IM Robert Ris at the end of the article.

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Wesley So, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Levon Aronian all scored two wins and a draw to end the first day of action at the Superbet Rapid & Blitz tournament sharing the lead on 5/6 points (a win is worth 2 points in the rapid section). So and Duda faced — and drew — world number one Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian is playing his first over-the-board tournament after giving up his title as world champion in classical chess.

Despite not being the classical champion any more, Carlsen continues to hold the world title in rapid and blitz. In fact, he still has a whopping 59-point advantage over Ian Nepomniachtchi in the official (classical) ratings list published by FIDE.

Further cementing Carlsen’s status as the best-known international chess star, PUMA recently launched a personalized sneaker model together with the Norwegian.

At the Superbet Poland event, the now former world champion made sure to leave his mark right off the bat. Playing black against Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Carlsen replied to 1.d4 with 1...b5 — the Polish Defence! His experienced opponent was surely as shocked as the spectators, but he had no trouble refuting the audacious — rather reckless — proposition.

The final position shows how fun it must have been for Wojtaszek to harass his famed opponent’s king stuck in the centre of the board.

Black resigned. The Polish Defence could not prevent the accomplished Polish grandmaster from defeating one of the strongest players in history. 

After drawing his remaining two games, against So and Duda respectively, Carlsen confessed: 

I haven’t really played or studied chess much recently. [...] But at least I steadied the ship a little bit in the last couple of rounds. So it’s not a disater, but overall it was just really rusty.

Coincidentally, the two players who drew Carlsen in rounds 2 and 3 finished the day sharing the lead with plus-two scores. So and Duda are joined by Aronian atop the standings. The latter is replacing world champion Ding Liren in Warsaw, as the Chinese grandmaster decided to withdraw due to the fatigue induced by the gruelling match in Astana and the subsequent elite tournament he played in Bucharest.

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Avoiding mistakes in the opening and even learning from mistakes is a valuable tool to improve your chess. Ruslan Ponomariov, former FIDE World Champion, demonstrates basic patterns that will help you navigate through the game more easily.

Chess fever in Poland! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Wojtaszek 1 - 0 Carlsen

Wojtaszek, Radoslaw2670

1–0

Carlsen, Magnus2853

Superbet Rapid Poland 2023 Warsaw21.05.2023[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]

1.d4 b5 2.e4 Bb7 3.Bd3 Nf6 4.Nd2 c5 5.c3 cxd4 6.cxd4 e6 7.Ngf3 Nc6 8.0-0

White has castled and still has his strong centre. The small inconvenience of the c1-bishop being blocked by the knight is easy to get over. After 8.Bxb5 Qa5 9.Bxc6 Bxc6 10.e5 Ne4 Black has sufficient compensation for the pawn. 8...a6?! This defence of the b5-pawn is a bit slow. Relatively better was 8...Be7 but even here White has an advantage. 9.Re1 Wojtaszek doesn't let himself get rattled. Promising was the immediate 9.d5!± 9...Be7?! Preferable here was 9...d6 10.d5! Now this strong move gives White a clear advantage. exd5 11.e5 Nh5 12.Nb3 This knight has beautiful target squares on c5 and d4. But because the c1-bishop now controls f4, g2-g4 is also threatened. g6 13.Bh6

Cheaply (with a minor piece) White holds the black king in the centre. 13...Rg8 Once again g2-g4 was threatened. 14.Be3 Ng7 15.Nc5 This looks very good. Qc7 16.Rc1 Ne6 17.Nxb7 Qxb7 18.Bf1 18.Bb1 was stronger here. It could have been followed by h2-h4, etc. 18...Bb4 19.Re2 Ne7 With 19...d4! 20.Bxd4 Ncxd4 21.Nxd4 Qd5± Black could still fight for a draw - by giving the game a completely different direction. 20.Rec2 Nf5 21.Bg5 Be7 22.Bf6 Nfg7 23.Qd3?! Here 23.Ng5!+- is extremely promising: Nxg5 24.Rc7 23...Bxf6?! After 23...Nh5 24.Bxe7 Kxe7± Black would probably not have been lost yet. 24.exf6 Nh5 25.Qc3 Rd8 26.a3?! More energetic was 26.Qe5!+- and d7-d6 has the serious disadvantage that it weakens e6. 26...Qb8 27.g3 g5?! 27...Qd6 still offered drawing chances. 28.Re1 g4 29.Nd4 Rg5 30.Bd3 Re5 This rook managed to get involved in the game. This shows Carlsen's class again, even if it is no longer of any use. 31.Nf5?! Once again Wojtaszek plays a weaker move. 31.Rce2 Rxe2 32.Rxe2 gives a winning position simply because White's king is safer than Black's. 31...Rxe1+?! But this is not good either. Carlsen misses the disruptive manoeuvre 31...d4! 32.Qb4 Rxe1+ 33.Qxe1 Nxf6± 32.Qxe1 Nxf6 33.Qb4 d6

Now he has to move this pawn after all, and that is the decisive weakening of the black position, which ultimately brings White the breakthrough. 34.Qc3 Nd7 35.Qh8+ Ndf8 36.Qf6 Ng6 37.Re2 Qc7 38.Ng7+ 1–0

Co-leader Wesley So | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Expert analysis by IM Robert Ris

My Black Secrets in the Modern Italian

The Italian Game is considered a sound but quiet opening without early trades, giving rise to rich positions where plans are more important than forced variations. So shows black's plans on this DVD.

Standings - Round 3 (win = 2 pts; draw = 1 pt)

All games - Rapid

Links

• Official website
• Duda comes from behind, wins Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland (2022)
• All reports on the Superbet Chess Classic (2023)