6 March 2016

Who Will Challenge Carlsen? Part Two: Youth

Dmitry Kryakvin analyses the young foursome's chances.

"The challenger must be younger than the champion!" wrote Garry Kasparov in 1992, saluting Nigel Short's victory over Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman. Indeed, there is some historical truth behind these words: over the 150 years of official chess matches for the world crown, a violation of this unspoken rule (unless we include the rematches and the two K super series) generally resulted in a one-sided battle between the world's two greatest minds: Siegbert Tarrasch lost badly to Emanuel Lasker (1908 ― 3:8 with five draws), while Dawid Yanowsky was completely thrashed by the great champion (1909 ― 1-7  with two draws, 1911 ― 0-8 with 3 draws; granted, Yanowsky was older than Lasker by just half a year); and Efim Bogoljubov created no intrigue in his matches versus Alexander Alekhine (1929 ― 9.5-15.5, 1934 ― 10.5-15.5). Only Viktor the Terrible was almost a match for Anatoly Karpov in Baguio 1978  (5-6 with 21 draws) in a standoff that still excites players around the world, but in Merano 1981 he lost by a big margin (2-6 with 10 draws).

Even the Elista 2006 reunification match was won by the slightly younger player: Vladimir Kramnik was born on June 25, 1975, while Veselin Topalov on March 15 of the same year. You could retort that Viswanathan Anand is older than Kramnik, but after the championship tournament in Mexico City 2007 it was the Indian grandmaster who was the world champion, so Anand's success in Bonn 2008 doesn't violate our rule. Finally, Boris Gelfand, who was born a year earlier than Vishy, shook the throne considerably in Moscow 2012, but even he couldn't go against the Law of Time and take the crown. 

So, it's about Youth. Youth that can settle a score with Magnus Carlsen, dreadful and powerful, but not so young in her eyes. Youth that represents players who will dictate to the Norwegian genius their own game where Time will not be on the Scandinavian's side.

Hikaru Nakamura. Age: 28. Elo rating: 2790. Score versus Carlsen: 0-12.



The American leader is not only older than the chess Thor, but also loses to him with a surprising consistency, an unheard-of case in modern chess. Nevertheless, Hikaru has already resolved his previous problems of inconvenient opponents with respect to all the other chess gurus, and is looking into the future with confidence. Indeed, if the games lost by Nakamura to Carlsen weren't calculated, his rating would be by far the highest in the world compared to that of all other players.  

The chess samurai himself has repeatedly said that his first ten losses to the world rating list's leader don't matter at all: it's all in the past, and now he is ready to storm the Olympus. Granted, Magnus could only rub his hands as far as those games are concerned: everything worked his way there ― the speedy attacks, the endgame masterpieces, and the comebacks in objectively difficult positions.

Carlsen — Nakamura
Wijk Aan Zee 2013, round 12
Sicilian Defense

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.g3 h5!?

The aggressive thrust is Nigel Short's idea. Black wants to force the b1 knight to leave its home square and kick the other knight out of play. On the one hand, pawns don't move backward, and the reserved 6...Be7 or 6...Nf6, according to Sveshnikov, would have been better. But the American craved to win his first game versus Carlsen.

7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 b5

Short and Nann played 8...h4 9.Bg2 h3, which I think was fine for the Norwegian: Black undertakes considerable responsibilities. White scored a confident win in that old game. Nakamura, in turn, planned to gradually drive the White king away from d5, but Black obviously wasted many tempos on pawn moves, which certainly affected the odds. 
 
9.Nd5 Nge7 10.Bg2 Bg4

10...Nxd5 11.exd5 Ne7 12.0–0 looks dangerous: f2-f4 is threatening, and opening the game up is lethal for Black. But he could still have tried 12...h4, slowing down the f-pawn ram. With the white-squared bishop surviving, Black might have hoped to mobilize his pieces successfully. But he preferred to give away his "clergy", hoping to puzzle White by pressurizing the g3 point, and this proved to be a bad positional mistake. 

11.f3 Be6 12.c3 h4 13.Nc2 Bxd5? 14.exd5 Na5 15.f4 Nf5



This is what the American counted on! If White doesn't protect the pawn now ― 16.Qf3?!, then after 16...g6 with a subsequent Bg7 and Nc4 the white bishops will become passive, whereas the black knights have excellent outposts. But Magnus made a quick scalpel cut, and it turned out that Black had neither the outposts nor development, but only lots of weak, windswept squares.

16.g4! h3 17.Be4 Nh4

The tempting check 17...Qh4+ is followed by a cold-blooded 18.Kf1 Ne7 (or 18...Nh6 19.Rg1) 19.Qе2; either Nb4ха6 or а2-а4 is threatening, and the black queenside collapses. Black has to face the failure of his plan.

18.0–0 g6 19.Kh1 Bg7

Black can try to lock the position down: 19...f5 20.Bd3 e4 21.Be2 Bg7 22.Nd4 Bxd4 23.Qxd4 Kf7 24.b3, but White retains a considerable edge even here.

20.f5 gxf5 21.gxf5



White has achieved a lot, but if the passive bishop is exchanged: 21...Bh6! 22.Bxh6 Rxh6 23.Qg4 Kd7, then the game's outcome isn't clear yet: the black queen heads for b6, and the rook for g8.

But Nakamura played 21...Ng2?, trying to provoke Carlsen into 22.Rg1 Bf6 23.Bxg2 hxg2+ 24.Rxg2 Qd7 25.Qf3 0–0–0 26.Nb4 Rdg8, where Black has a compensation for a pawn, and overlooked a simple two-move combination.

22.f6! Bf8

Alas, the planned 22...Bxf6 23.Qf3 Rh4 is countered with a point-blank shot: 24.Bg5! Further moves were a mere finishing-off.

23.Qf3 Qc7 24.Nb4 Nb7 25.Nc6 Nc5 26.Bf5 Nd7 27.Bg5 Rg8 28.Qh5 Nb6 29.Be6



What a nightmare!

29…Rxg5 30.Qxg5 fxe6 31.dxe6 Black resigned. 



Nakamura – Carlsen
Zurich 2014, round 3



This supertournament, Oleg Skvortsov's brainchild, is a favorite of Nakamura, who won the two latest events in Zurich. Since a misunderstanding arose between the organizers and the champion, Skvortsov hasn't invited Carlsen, so Hikaru walks around Swiss streets at leisure. But in 2014, the Norwegian inflicted a painful blow on his opponent: Naka had an almost winning position, he only had to find the decisive combination attack, then he had another tactical chance, but... Magnus won even in that desperate position!

35.Qg4

A tactical case study. Position number one. White's move. 35.Qf2 b6 (35...Nd6 36.Rh6) 36.Rxh7! Qxh7 37.Nh6+ was winning, but the queen move doesn't spoil anything.

35...Qb6

Position number two. The elegant solution was 36.g6! Qxg6 (36...fxg6 37.Nh6+ Kxg7 38.Qd7+) 37.Qh3, and there is no protection from 38.Rg2.

36.Qh3 Qg6

Position number three. If 37.Qf3!, White resumes the irrefutable threat of striking on h7.

37.d6? Nxd6! 38.Nxd6 Rd8!



In a decisive moment, Carlsen found a brilliant practical chance, and two moves before the time control Hikaru faced a challenging problem amid time trouble: 39.Nf5?? Rd1+ leads to a forced mate.

39.Nc4?

The advantage was retained by 39.Nc8!! Kxg7 40.Ne7 Rd1+ 41.Ka2 Qe6+ (worse is 41...Qb6 42.Qxh7+ Kf8 43.Qh6+; 41...Qxg5 42.Nf5+ Kf8 43.Ne3) 42.Qxe6 fxe6 43.Rh6, and Black has many pawns for a knight, retaining chances for a draw in the endgame.

39...Qxe4 40.Qh5??

A harakiri! A precise 40.Ne3 with the threat to return the knight to f5 would have kept the balance and forced Black to execute a perpetual check.

40...Rd3!

Now Carlsen's king is safe, and the looming b7-b5 forces White to give away all his last pawns.

41.Rh4 Qf5 42.Qe2 b5 43.Nd2 Qxg5 44.Qxd3 Qxh4 45.Ne4 Kxg7



The knight fights against as many as five pawns, and this fight proves to be unequal. The phalanx commander has to be precise, however, to prevent the knight-and-queen tandem from spoiling his position.

46.Qf3

The stronger side's main threat is a queen exchange. For instance, 46.Qd5 Qf4 47.Nxc5 Qd4+ or 46. Nхс5 Qd4+.

46...Qf4 47.Qg2+ Kf8 48.Kb2 h5 49.Nd2 h4 50.Kc2 b4 51.axb4 cxb4 52.Qa8+ Kg7 53.Qxa4

Nakamura greets the horde of black cockroaches on the queenside with a bug killer, but on the kingside they break through into the kitchen.

53…h3 54.Qb3 h2 55.Qd5 e4 56.Qh5 e3 57.Nf3

The last defense line, but White's pieces are overloaded with protective functions, and the small flick has led to a collapse of the entire structure.

57…e2 58.Kb3 f6 59.Ne1 Qg3+ 60.Ka4 Qg1 61.Qxe2 Qa7+! Without a hint of a perpetual check. White resigned.

In fact, Hikaru Nakamura has tried each and every method of fighting Carlsen...

But their score is incredible, given that Nakamura is one of the world's best tacticians today. Indeed, there is something mystical about this 0:12 score. Hikaru's victory in the candidates' match is more than possible, considering the American's strength and fighting spirit, but will such a world crown match be of interest to the public?

Perhaps the main threat for the world champion

Sergey Karyakin. Age: 26. Elo rating 2760. Score against Magnus Carlsen: 1-3



The Russian Olympiad team member used to be the leader of the legendary 1990 generation, probably the strongest in chess history. Sergei Karyakin's ascent is still seen as unique: he became the youngest grandmaster of all time, and while Carlsen still took a beating from Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergei Zhigalko at children's world championships, the Simpheropol star already faced elite grandmasters and defeated several of them.   

But the Norwegian took a dashing blastoff in 2004, and during his first encounter with Sergey (Wijk Aan Zee 2005) his rating was already catching up with that of his peer (2553 versus 2599), and that encounter finished with a draw after a vigorous fight. Interestingly, it's the Dutch supertournament that will later become the arena for Karyakin and Carlsen's bloodiest battles.

In 2006, the youngest grandmaster in history put the future world champion out of the fight at a rapid knockout tournament in France, while Magnus and Sergey's classical control score remained equal until 2010. The rivals had already swapped their roles by then: the Norwegian, rated 2810, was at the top of the global rating list, while Karyakin, freshly transferred to the Russian Chess Federation and rated 2720, was only starting to join the elite. In Wijk Aan Zee Carlsen managed to trap his opponent's rook and shed the first blood.

A completely equal struggle followed in 2011, and Sergey craved to take revenge at the next Wijk.

Carlsen ― Karyakin
Wijk Aan Zee 2012, round 9



18...Bxe4 19.Bxe4 d3!

Suddenly the central pawn became a formidable force, which is illustrated by the lines 20.Bxa8 d2 21.Bc6 Qd4+ 22.Kh1 dxe1Q+ 23.Qxe1 Nd3 24.Qf1 Re6 25.Rc2 Nxf4 or 20.Rxc5 Qd4+!

The most resilient would have been 20.Re3! Qd4 21.Qf3 Rac8 22.Rd1 d2 23.Kf1, erecting the barricades, and after Magnus's move Black's attack develops without a hindrance.

20.Rc4 Rc8 21.Bf5 Qd5 22.Rc3 Rcd8 23.Qd2 Qd4+ 24.Kh1 a5!

Another move that is unpleasant for White: Karjakin makes sure that the c5 knight is untouchable, after which it becomes absolutely clear that the White army will have to hide in cold and damp trenches for the rest of the game. 

25.Rb1 a4 26.Rd1



26…Rd5?!

A minor imprecision, a stronger move would have been 26...g6! 27.Bxd3 Ne4 28.Bxe4 Qxd2 29.Rxd2 Rxd2 with an immediate win. Now Carlsen, after providing a flight square for his king, finds the last chance and delays the unpleasant moment of surrender.

27.h4 g6 28.Bxd3 Red8 29.Qe1 Qxf4 30.e6! Nxe6

There is no 30...Nxd3 31.Rdxd3 Rxd3 32.e7, so Sergey has to put up with having only an extra pawn for the time being. However, White doesn't have any real chances to save the game given the king's open position.

31.Bc2 b5 32.Rxd5 Rxd5 33.Re3 Nd4!



The black knight continues to threaten the enemy, and the important thing is that there is no 34.Bxg6 fxg6 35.Re8+ Kg7 36.Re7+ Kf6!

34.Bd3 Kg7 35.Kg1 Qf6

Karjakin has positioned his pieces ideally, and the stage of reaping the harvest begins. 

36.Kh2 Rh5 37.Rh3 Ne6 38.Rf3 Rxh4+ 39.Kg1 Qd4+ 40.Qf2 Qxf2+ 41.Kxf2

The queens have disappeared from the board, but the control has been passed, White lacks two pawns, and the illusory hope to take advantage of the a4-b5 pin is soon destroyed by Black's logical play. 

41…b4 42.Re3 Rd4 43.Bb5 Kf6 44.Rf3+ Ke7 45.Rd3 bxa3 46.bxa3 Rf4+ 47.Ke3 f5 48.Rd7+ Kf6 49.Rd6 Re4+ 50.Kf2 Kg5!

Carlsen did everything he could, but after 51.Bc6 there is 51…Nc5! White has to spend time on capturing the a4 infantryman, while the black pieces' team pays a visit to the Scandinavian's monarch.



51.Be8 Nf4 52.Bb5 Re5 53.Bc4

53.Bxa4 Re2+ is not playable.

53...Nh5! 54.Ra6 Nf6 55.Rxa4 Ng4+ 56.Kf1 Kh4!

The mating net is ready and the fight is over.

57.Be2 Kg3 58.Bxg4 fxg4 59.Rb4 h5 60.a4 Kh2, and here Carlsen stopped the clock.

Sergey Karjakin stopped his peer from winning the first place at several supertournaments
 

Our heroes' next resultative encounter took place in the Netherlands in January again. This time the world rating list's No. 1 demonstrated his phenomenal endgame technique, which allowed him to lead the score in his games versus Karjakin.  

Carlsen — Karjakin
Wijk Aan Zee 2013, Round 8



It's difficult for Black to defend, but his position is far from lost. The defensive line f7-g6-h5 hinders the white pawn's onslaught, the black bishop and king are capable of protecting the f7 square on their own, and the rook moves to the enemy's rear holding his king at bay. Several moves later, Carlsen decided that the opponent's bastions can't be taken without laying some dynamite.  

53.f4 Bd6 54.Re8 Rb7 55.Ra8 Be7 56.Kg2 Rb1 57.e5 Re1 58.Kf2 Rb1 59.Re8 Bf8 60.Rc8 Be7 61.Ra8 Rb2+ 62.Kf3 Rb1 63.Bd5 Re1!

Now the white king can't get to e4 and d5.

64.Kf2 Rd1 65.Re8 Bf8 66.Bc4 Rb1



After strengthening his rook's position as much as possible and lulling his opponent with the "to-and-fro" game, the great chess practitioner suddenly spiced up the position by giving away as many as two pawns and attacking the enemy king violently. 

67.g4! hxg4 68.h5 Rh1

Karjakin had just one brilliant chance to save the game, but alas, it was very difficult to find at the board: 68...gxh5! 69.f5 h4 70.f6+ Kg6 71.Rxf8 Kf5!!, then starting to check the white king that can't leave the kingside due to the black pawns' proximity to their coveted queening squares. And now White wins.

69.hxg6 fxg6 70.Re6 Kh6 71.Bd5 Rh2+

Black's last threat 71...Ra1 turns out to be an empty one: 72.Be4 Kh5 73.Re8! Bh6 74.Rh8 with an easy win. Karjakin is obliged to let the white king pass forward, but now the solid team of the rook, the bishop, the king and the connected passed pawns easily decides the outcome of the game.

72.Kg3 Rh3+ 73.Kxg4 Rxd3 74.f5, and White wins. 

A prelude to the endgame torture executed by the No. 1 ranked player
 

2013 was a milestone year in Magnus's and Sergey's careers. Carlsen won the candidates' tournament in an inconceivable fight, and then defeated Vishy Anand in the first match comparatively easily. In the meantime, Karjakin, his manager Kirill Zangalis and Alpari launched a large-scale project "Return the Crown to Russia!" aiming to prepare the Russian challenger for the throne. 

In May 2013, the Muscovite won a supertournament in Stavanger, leaving even the home player behind. Karjakin, who played brilliantly, could have had an even more astounding success had he converted the big edge he got in a game versus Carlsen. Alas, the Russian blundered, and then blundered again ― 1-3. Since then the games between the world champion and the Alpari banner-bearer finished in a draw. 

Karjakin was born in the same year as Carlsen, and who knows whether it is of importance that he was born in January while the chess king in November? In his recent interviews, Sergey has repeatedly mentioned that he is not afraid of his formidable foe and is ready for a big match versus the invincible Thor. Given that Karjakin is one of Russia's main bets in the struggle for the chess throne and there are no younger superchallengers on the horizon, many view the World Cup holder as Russia's "last hope". And I would really like this hope to come true! 

Fabiano Caruana. Age: 23. Elo rating: 2794. Score versus Magnus Carlsen: 5-8



It's the American-Italian grandmaster who first made chess fans believe that the next generation of players is getting ready to challenge the champion and that a new confrontation of the two great Cs will soon begin. Indeed, the history of Caruana and Carlsen's standoff developed like in a good old action movie of Clint Eastwood's era. Magnus outplayed the young Fabio at Biel-2011, but already in the finals of the Grand Slam Cup (2012) the rivals exchanged full-fledged blows, and at the Tal-2013 Memorial the Norwegian blundered away an important pawn, so the score became equal: 2-2!  
Carlsen led the score at Zurich-2014, but Caruana's come back followed before long: a new encounter took place at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial, and Magnus's Berlin bastions fell this time. The world champion came back in the second round of the event commemorating the Azerbaijanian who had died such an early death, then he emerged victorious at the Tromse Olympiad during the Norway-Italy match, but an immediate backlash followed at the Sinquefield Cup: 5-4!

They started to talk seriously about a Carlsen-Caruana match. Soon Vladislav Tkachiev, a famous grandmaster and a talented journalist, even voiced an interesting theory saying that the Norwegian hadn't signed a contract for the second match with Anand because of his secret talks about a match versus Fabio to be sponsored by Rex Sinquefield and played outside FIDE.

A critical moment in the two "CARs" encounter was a battle in Wijk Aan Zee, which is becoming a crucial venue in this article. The splendid victory juiced Carlsen up in the fight with his rival, and despite an emerging crisis Magnus was able to defeat Fabiano badly several times.    

Caruana – Carlsen
Wijk Aan Zee 2015, round 6



29.Bxf4?

A bad mistake in a critical moment. Fabio decided to sacrifice the exchange and head for a double-edged endgame, but underestimated Black's resources.

29.Kh2 c5 was tempting, and here a precise 30.Rb7! (if 30.Rg1 c4 31.Nb2 cxd3 32.Nxd3 Nxd3 33.cxd3 Rxf2, a long struggle for a draw versus Carlsen would have ensued) 30...c4 31.Rg1 cxd3 32.cxd3 Nxd3 33.Be3, and with such pieces White doesn't even have a hint of a problem.

29...exf4 30.Kxg2 f3+ 31.Kf1

After 31.Kh3 Bxa1 32.Rxa1 Kh8 33.Nc5 Rg8, the white king would have been under the threat of a linear checkmate, which would have made it much easier for Black to convert the exchange.

31...Rf4!

An elegant solution! The greedy 31...Bxa1 led to an unclear endgame: 32.Rxa1 Rb8 33.Ke1 Rb5 34.Kd2 Kf7, and, for example, 35.d4 Rd8 36.Ke3 Rdb8 37.Rh1 Ra5 38.Nc5 Rxa3+ 39.Kf4 Kg7 40.e5. Black has an extra exchange and a remote passer on each flank, but the outcome is unclear because of the extremely strong group of white pieces in the center.

32.c3

32.Ke1 Rd8 33.Ra2 Rh4 led to a catastrophe too.



32...Rd8!

A knockout. It turns out that 33.Rd1 Rh4 34.Ke1 Bh6 is simply a checkmate, and Fabio has to give away all his pawns to avoid it.

33.d4 Bh6 34.Ke1 Rxe4+ 35.Kd1 c5 36.Kc2 cxd4 37.Kd3 Re2 38.c4 Rxf2 39.Rd1 Re2 White resigned.

Caruana ― Carlsen: always playing to the last bullet

Carlsen continued his winning streak. He scored 7-4 at the 2015 Vugar Gashimov Memorial, but another Berlin caused some new problems for the Viking. 

Caruana – Carlsen
Stavanger 2015, round 2



22.Ba3!

A strong move and a hidden trap. In the event of an unhurried 22.Kg2 g6 23.Ng3 Bg7! Black is close to consolidation, and his bishop h7 is already thinking about piercing the a2 pawn's armor.

22...Ne6?

Magnus, who was in a streak of bad shape, complained at press conferences after the first four rounds that he had been overlooking his opponents' moves in forced lines all the time. The same happened this time. But what should Black have done?

22...g6 23.Bxc5 gxf5 24.Bxf8 Rxf8 25.Kg2 with a difficult endgame is obviously bad. Black would have to face an unpleasant defense after 22...Bxf5 23.gxf5 g6 24.fxg6 fxg6: the two bishop advantage is no longer there. Most probably, he can't afford the luxury of 22...a5 due to 23.Nh5! g6 24.Bxc5 Bxc5 25.Nxh6 gxh5 26.Nxg8 Bxg8 27.gxh5, and, the black monarch being cut off, the rook and the pawns are stronger than the bishops.

This is why a relatively good tip is 22...b6. The knight is protected, the h5 push doesn't work now, and if 23.Kg2 Nd3 24.Nxd3 Bxa3 25.f4, the black bishops are limited, but they are still bishops.

But Black's position in the game became so hopeless that even Carlsen couldn't do anything about it.

23.Nxe6! Bxa3 24.Nexg7 Bf8

24...h5 25.f3 changes little.



Is the knight trapped? No, it isn't.

25.e6! Bxf5

The other lines are very simple: 25...fxe6 26.Nxe6, 25...Bxg7 26.Ne7+, 25…Rхg7 27.Nхg7 Bхg7 28.e7. Carlsen has to part with one of his proud clergymen and is left with broken infantry and without any chances of salvation.

26.Nxf5 fxe6 27.Ng3 Be7 28.Kg2 Rf8 29.Rd3

A tough move. While the black king is cut off, the rook bursts in along the f line, threatening with an exchange unacceptable for Magnus.

29…Rf7 30.Nh5 Bd6 31.Rf3 Rh7



32.Re3!

The line 32...e5 33.f4 exf4 34.Re8+ Kd7 35.Nf6# emphasizes the weaker side's tragic position. After 32...Re7 33.f4 Ba3 34.Kf3 Bb2 35.Re2 Bc3 36.g5 Fabiano pushed the g passer forward cold-bloodedly, forcing Black to part with a piece. 

Another White serve by Don Fabio

Carlsen's crisis continued, and at a stage of Grand Chess Tour in the United States Caruana, who had returned under the banners of his native country, almost evened the score! But he made a major blunder in time trouble and lost ― 5:8.

The battles of the world's No. 1 and No. 3 rated players are the most spectacular delicacies on offer at today's supertournaments. Just think that over a few years only the partners played 13 (!) resultative games. Magnus and Fabio strive to prove their superiority in each encounter and play heated, fascinating games; such a match could become a real gem for the championship cycle!

Anish Giri. Age: 21. Elo rating: 2793. Score versus Magnus Carlsen: 1-0



"Most importantly, Vladimir Kramnik possessed the skill of throwing Garry Kasparov off his attack", noted grandmaster Evgeny Bareev, Kramink's assistant, in his book Notes of a Second. I need to say that the reigning chess king also has such an inconvenient opponent who often prevents Magnus from pressing the trigger. But Kasparov and Kramnik's encounters were similar to matches between the Brazilian and the Spanish national soccer teams, where top class opponents exchanged extremely strong attacks, whereas Anish Giri plays versus Carlsen in the Italian team's style. He scores a quick goal and then hunkers down, hoping that his opponent will overreach and allow himself to be punished in a quick counterattack.
     
Carlsen – Giri
Wijk Aan Zee 2011, round 3

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Nf3 Nb6 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.e3 0–0 9.0–0 Re8 10.Re1 a5 11.Qd2?! 



In this popular tabia, White can make much better use of its queen ― by placing it on e2, for example. By building a pretentious battery, the Norwegian hoped to unsettle his less experienced rival, but nothing of the sort happened. By the way, Viktor Korchnoi subjected Carlsen's play to slashing criticism when talking to a colleague of mine, Vladimir Barskij, immediately after the game. 

11...e5 12.d5 Nb4 13.e4 c6 14.a3 cxd5!

A precise and timely decision. It turns out that the black pieces are better prepared for complications in the center than the white ones that are jammed by their own queen.

15.axb4 axb4 16.Rxa8 bxc3 17.bxc3 Nxa8



18.exd5?!

Carlsen wasn't happy about the capture 18.Qxd5 Nb6 19.Qa5 Qf6 20.Bg5 Qc6, where White would have struggled for a draw, but the actual situation proved to be even worse.

18...Nb6 19.Rd1?

The last chance would have been 19.c4!? Nxc4 20.Qb4 Nd6 21.Be3, getting some compensation for the loss of the pawn; but now the Norwegian's position simply falls apart.

19...e4 20.Ng5??

Blundering away a piece, but the other options also lose: 20.Nh4 h6, 20.Nd4 Qxd5 or 20.Ne1 Bg4 21.f3 e3 22.Qe2 Bd7 23.Bxe3 (23.c4 is refuted effectively: 23...Nxc4! 24.Qxc4 e2 25.Rd2 Qb6+ 26.Kh1 Qf2) 23...Ba4 24.Rd2 Bxc3 with a routing. The game happened to be much more down-to-earth.



20...e3 21.Qb2 Qxg5 22.Bxe3

There is no 22.Qxb6 e2 23.Re1 Qxc1! 24.Rxc1 e1Q+ 25.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 26.Bf1 Bh3, which means that it's time to resign.

22...Qg4, and Carlsen resigned in light of 23.f3 Nc4. A terrible thrashing!

Carlsen's misadventures with Giri started in Wijk Aan Zee
 

In the past few years, Magnus has been holding on to the chess crown smashing everyone out of his way. He started to defeat regularly the once inconvenient Levon Aronian, turned the tables on the experienced Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, and found the keys to Fabiano Caruana. But he never defeated Giri!

The interest in encounters between the world champion and the Dutch who has burst into the top ten is regularly warmed up by Anish's gibes at the world's No. 1 that often appear in the social media. Once Giri wrote that Carlsen wasn't aware of the latest theoretical novelties that even Giri's wife knew about. Another time he expressed hope that Magnus would finally find a girlfriend. And the draws still followed.

At a supertournament in Norway, the home player finally almost got his chance. He caught the opponent in the opening and won a pawn. The game seemed to move on to the technical stage, but... 

Carlsen ― Giri
Stavanger 2015, round 3



33… f5!?

Anish twisted the game skillfully in time trouble, not wishing to wait till Magnus grasped him at the throat.

34.exf5 Nf4 35.Be4! R3c5

35...R3c4 36.Qb1! looks doubtful, so Giri goes for the b5 and d5 pawns.

36.fxg6 hxg6 37.Bxg6! Rxb5

The champion is in good shape so far: 37...Nxg6 38.Qg4! Kf7 39.Qe6+ Kg7 40.Nh4! loses, which is why Black's reply is forced.



38.Qe4?!

Missing the chance to win in Maxim Notkin's column "Game of the Year". The thunderous 38.Bf7+!! Kxf7 39.Qe4 would have started a decisive attack: Black's king can't get on the e line due to the loss of the f4 knight, and otherwise the white queen and knight are transferred to the squares f5 and g5.

38...Rf8! 39.Nxe5?

Mistakes don't appear alone! The precise 39.Nh4! Bxd5 40.Qa4 would have preserved the pawn and some initiative, but now an endgame ensues where Black has a piece for three white pawns on the same flank.

39...dxe5 40.Rg3 Rxd5! 41.Qb1

Magnus probably overlooked that after 41.Rb1 Rd1+! 42.Kh2 Rxb1 43.Bf5+ Kh8 44.Qxe5+ Qf6 45.Qc7 Rf7 (46.Qb8+ Rf8 47.Qc7 Rf7 with a draw) Black defends.

41...Qxb1 42.Bxb1+ Kh8 43.Be4 Rd7 44.Bxb7 Rxb7 45.Rxe5 Rh7 46.Re4 Rhf7, and after around 30 moves only the kings remained on the board.



Once again you haven't won, Magnus!
 

Of course, a Carlsen ― Giri match won't be as spectacular as a match versus Caruana, but won't you find it interesting to watch a battle between Magnus and a player against whom he hasn't won a single game?

The tournament will kick off within just a few days. I wish good luck and strong play for all the participants, and may the strongest win!