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Zagreb GCT: Carlsen amazes with yet another triumph
7/8/2019 – We saw history in the making, as Magnus Carlsen won his eighth tournament in a row at the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb. The world champion defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld to finish in clear first place a full point ahead of his closest pursuer with a 'plus five' score. Carlsen's official rating in August will equal his own peak rating of 2882 points — the highest ever achieved. Wesley So finished in sole second place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
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Hats off to the champ
We can already talk of a perfect semester, but it remains to be seen how far Magnus Carlsen can go during the second half of a mind-boggling 2019. The Norwegian won his eighth tournament in a row in Zagreb, where his 8 out of 11 score left him a full point ahead of second-placed Wesley So. Not only did he score five wins with no losses (his undefeated streak has reached 79 games, in fact) but he also missed a couple of winning chances in the meantime.
In the post-tournament interview, Carlsen talked about how he had never had a chance to show his strength at a lengthy elite event, with most first-class competitions lasting nine rounds. His commanding performance added 9.7 points to his rating, which means he will reach the 2882 mark in the next official list, the highest-ever published rating in history (his own). The world champion also gained 20 GCT points and $90,000 in prize money.
Besides the Norwegian's victory, one more game finished decisively in round eleven — Anish Giri showed better preparation than Ian Nepomniachtchi to get a closing win in Zagreb with the black pieces.
Results of Round 11
The man of the hour — the day, the month, the year — Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
Carlsen concluded 2018 with a triumph at the World Blitz Championship in Saint Petersburg. There followed first places in 2019 at the Tata Steel Masters, Grenke Classic, Shamkir Chess, Abidjan GCT, Lindores Abbey, Altibox Norway Chess and now the Zagreb GCT. He scored another 2900+ performance in the Croatian capital, extending his undefeated streak to 79 games in classical chess.
The latest world champion's triumph, naturally, only increased his lead in the overall Grand Chess Tour standings table:
On Sunday, the twelfth day of a jam-packed eleven-round schedule with a single rest day, he had the white pieces against world number five Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman used his pet Grünfeld Defence, and the players followed well-trodden paths until move 13. The queens had already left the board when Vachier-Lagrave took a committal decision after thinking for almost half an hour:
The Grunfeld Defence is a very dynamic opening with an excellent reputation and the list of players ready to defend it reads like a who's who in chess. It is rather remarkable, that one variation still retains the position of 'main line' and that after hundreds of games played with it some questions still remain open. GM Lubomir Ftacnik explains.
Black voluntarily gave up the bishop pair with 14...♝xf3. From that point on, Vachier-Lagrave started targetting White's centre, focused on attacking the d4-pawn, while White mobilized his agile bishops through the accessible diagonals. Carlsen was playing precisely, forcing his opponent to make positional concessions with accurate manoeuvres:
White defended the d5-pawn tactically with 20.♗g5, prompting his opponent to go for the weakening 20...f6. Vachier-Lagrave tried to muddy the waters by advancing his kingside pawns, while Carlsen continued to attack Black's rooks with his bishops. By move 28, the Frenchman's position was critical:
The computer suggests the ugly-looking 28...♜b8 here, keeping a rook on the eight rank. Instead, Vachier-Lagrave chose 28...♜xd5, and after 29.exd5 ♜e4 30.♖c8+ White went on to combine threats against the black king with the relentless advancement of his d-pawn until pushing his opponent to resign on move 37.
World champion Magnus Carlsen hard at work | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
Before the final round, the only player with a chance to spoil Carlsen's triumph was Wesley So, who had the tough task of facing Levon Aronian with the black pieces in a must-win situation (if he wanted to fight for first). The players delved into a line of the Italian Opening that was recently seen at the Norway Chess supertournament — Anand was White and none other than Aronian had the black pieces.
Both well-known specialists of 1.e4 e5 structures showed their expertise, keeping a dynamically balanced position all throughout. It was not a dull draw by any means.
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.
Wesley So had a great tournament in Zagreb | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
While talking to Maurice Ashley after the game, So expressed his happiness for having finished in second place, which he explained felt like a victory when Carlsen is in the field. The American even went on to compare his colleague's domination to that of Bobby Fischer.
The Philippine-born took home $60,000 and 15 GCT points, while Aronian shared third place with Fabiano Caruana, thus collecting $35,000 and 11 GCT points.
Levon Aronian keeps looking at chess after having faced elite opposition during eleven rounds | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
Giri beats Nepomniachtchi, and other stories
It was a dream start for Ian Nepomniachtchi in Zagreb, getting lucky breaks and showing good chess when it mattered the most to get a 3/3 score in the first phase of the event — the second half of the tournament, however, was not at all memorable for the Russian. On the other hand, Anish Giri did not fare so well at the start, but wins over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and now 'Nepo' were enough to bounce back to a respectable 5½/11 score.
Out of a Sicilian, the players got into a sharp tactical battle right off the bat. On move 13, Nepomniachtchi spent a little over five minutes before giving up a piece for an attack:
The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.
The game continued 13.♘xh7 ♚xh7 14.♕h5+ ♚g8 15.♗xg6 and White needed to prove his attack was sound if he did not want to suffer later on, when Black's material advantage would become increasingly relevant to the assessment of the position.
Giri hid his king on d7, with a pawn wall on d5-e5-e6 keeping the danger away while he pushed for exchanges whenever possible. His precise calculations in defence kept frustrating White's attempts to find a way to break through until Nepomniachtchi decided to throw in the towel after 36 moves.
At the post-game interview, Giri jokingly thanked his computer for all the work it has done for him, noting that his opponent probably thought the sacrifice was sound, as the computers show it as good for White before reaching certain depth of analysis.
A witty character — Anish Giri thanked his laptop | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
The biggest misses of the day were seen in Sergey Karjakin v Fabiano Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov v Ding Liren. The players that had White in these games — who incidentally are also good friends — failed to make the most of considerably better positions. Nonetheless, we must add that they faced resilient defenders, whose fighting spirits were not hampered by the gruelling eleven-round schedule.
Click or tap the second game in the list below the board to switch games
Master Class Vol.10: Mikhail Botvinnik
Our experts show, using the games of Botvinnik, how to employ specific openings successfully, which model strategies are present in specific structures, how to find tactical solutions and rules for how to bring endings to a successful conclusion
Fabiano Caruana saved a half point | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
A final group photo | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
Final standings
Commentary webcast
On this DVD, Grandmaster and worldrenowned commentator Maurice Ashley reviews some of the most interesting patterns with examples meant to educate and entertain.
Commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, IM Jovanka Houska and GM Alejandro Ramirez
All games
Links
- Official site
- Round 1: A red-hot start
- Round 2: A second win for Nepomniachtchi
- Round 3: Three out of three for Nepomniachtchi
- Round 4: A fighting round
- Round 5: Ding Liren beats Giri
- Round 6: Carlsen and So catch up with Nepomniachtchi
- Round 7: Carlsen grabs the lead
- Round 8: Carlsen's impressive year continues
- Round 9: Top-notch draws
- Round 10: Playing it safe
Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
@ctchess no games are given to him deliberately because nobody likes to lose. It’s just that he creates such situation that even these elite players make mistakes. He just gets the better of them. Also in some cases he is not able to convert advantage into full point... Afterall he’s a human
Obviously great result, but if you're going to talk about missed chances, you should also mention games given to the World Champion.
Until somebody beats his high score, Carlsen is definitely the player of the new millennium.
”Why are we talking about the year when just half of it is behind us? It's alright to praise someone, but let's not talk nonsense. We might just as well declare him the player of the new millennium”
Carlsen has won the seven tournaments he has played in 2019, in his five classical tournaments he has a score of +23-0=28 against world class opposition, being sole winner in all of them, and someone is unhappy about the suggestion that this is Carlsen’s year...
Carlsen has won the seven tournaments he has played in 2019, in his five classical tournaments he has a score of +23-0=28 against world class opposition, being sole winner in all of them, and someone is unhappy about the suggestion that this is Carlsen’s year...
For completeness, (since the German and Nordic friends that I knew in America and Lausanne were so good in English), I meant "scarce mention" instead of "scare mention" in my previous comment.
I like this web site covering chess topics as also other related things like trivia and math questions like a Mensa test.
Frederic Friedel seems a very smart man.
Before 2013, there were two sets of queestions from Magnus Carlsen's father:
1. What is the North-most, West-most, East-most, and South-most state in the US?
(This is a trick question: Answer for both North-most and West-most states is ALASKA, and South-most is Hawaii.
East most was stated as Alaska by Magnus's father (or Fredric), but it is actually Maine.
(Correct these answers if needed).
2. If 100 players played in a round-robin knock-out tournament, where each player player everyone until the player loses. How many games are need to decide the winner?
(Ans: (n-1) or 99, as each player plays at least one player, every player except himself (or herself) until the player loses. So the winner plays all the players once except himself/herself, directly or indirectly.
Loved such trivia/math problems (this from Magnus's father) and I love chessbase for such coverage! Thanks Fredric - appreciate this.
I like this web site covering chess topics as also other related things like trivia and math questions like a Mensa test.
Frederic Friedel seems a very smart man.
Before 2013, there were two sets of queestions from Magnus Carlsen's father:
1. What is the North-most, West-most, East-most, and South-most state in the US?
(This is a trick question: Answer for both North-most and West-most states is ALASKA, and South-most is Hawaii.
East most was stated as Alaska by Magnus's father (or Fredric), but it is actually Maine.
(Correct these answers if needed).
2. If 100 players played in a round-robin knock-out tournament, where each player player everyone until the player loses. How many games are need to decide the winner?
(Ans: (n-1) or 99, as each player plays at least one player, every player except himself (or herself) until the player loses. So the winner plays all the players once except himself/herself, directly or indirectly.
Loved such trivia/math problems (this from Magnus's father) and I love chessbase for such coverage! Thanks Fredric - appreciate this.
"Magnum" Carlsen seals the answer to the question, "Who is the greatest chess player of all times?" (obviously not considering any non-human chess players.
An all-super-GM field and Magnus Carlsen crushes it 5/8 (and it could have been 7/8) - this is extraordinary. The achievement has to be stronger than pretty much any other performance in a tournament in modern times, if ever (in real strength terms).
Wesley So did amazingly well, but he is not in the same class; his play is far less innovative, influential and interesting than Carlsen's. Carlsen, aside from a boring couple of games where his opponents did not play ball (So), was spectacular.
Wesley So did amazingly well, but he is not in the same class; his play is far less innovative, influential and interesting than Carlsen's. Carlsen, aside from a boring couple of games where his opponents did not play ball (So), was spectacular.
It is good that (chessbase) credit was also given to GM Wesley So. He was even mentioned in the 1st paragraph and not purely on Carlsen. GM Magnus deserves the accolades that even So compared it with Fischer domination in his title run in the early 70's.
Why are we talking about the year when just half of it is behind us? It's alright to praise someone, but let's not talk nonsense. We might just as well declare him the player of the new millennium. | Few players of this calibre are as humble as So. | A nice family picture: lights on two locals, everyone else in the dark. (Lennart again?)
great performance by magnus.....
2900 here we come!!
Carlsen is in his comfort zone. He is becoming very hard to beat.
But I hope, new young blood will surprise him one day!
But I hope, new young blood will surprise him one day!
The year of Magnus for sure. I hope he can keep it up. I have a hunch that he can :)
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