Archive for October 9th, 2009

Phenomenal 18-year-old Super-GM Magnus Carlsen finished the Nanjing Spring tournament (games at Chessgames) with a win to give him an unbelievable 8 / 10 score for the event, leading his nearest competitor, world number one Veselin Topalov, by 2.5 points. With the win, Carlsen broke 2800 on the Live Ratings List, making him one of the few in chess history to have done so. He is now less than 8 points back from Topalov and has an opportunity to surpass him before the year is out.

Next up is the Tal Memorial (Moscow, November 5-14, 2009) where he will have a much greater challenge, facing nearly the rest of the top 20 in the world: World Champion Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian (who is a fantastic tournament player), former champion Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler, and Ruslan Ponomariov. If he passes that test, then he should have an easier time in the London Chess Classic (Kensington, December 8-15) facing Kramnik again, Hikaru Nakamura, Ni Hua, Nigel Short, Michael Adams, Luke McShane, and David Howell. There’s lots of good chess to look forward to in the coming months!

Below are links to annotations of Carlsen’s games from Rounds 6 – 10. I will try to add more as they appear. I previously posted links to annotations of Rounds 1 – 5.

Carlsen – Jakovenko, Round 10

• Dennis Monokroussos
• Peter Doggers
• Ljubomir Kavalek
• ChessBase Report
• GM Dimitrov

Radjabov – Carlsen, Round 9

• Peter Doggers
• ChessBase Report
• Miodrag Perunovic and Goran Urosevic

Carlsen – Wang Yue, Round 8

• Dennis Monokroussos
• Peter Doggers
• ChessBase Report
• Malcolm Pein
• Miodrag Perunovic and Goran Urosevic

Topalov – Carlsen, Round 7

• ChessBase Report
• Peter Doggers
• IM Wilfredo Sariego Figueredo
• Gaprindashvil, Azmaiparashvil, Ye Jiangchuan
• GM Dimitrov

Leko – Carlsen, Round 6

• ChessBase Report
• Peter Doggers
• GM Dimitrov

Please use the comments area below to alert me to any I have overlooked.

Last night, in Garden State Chess League action, The Kenilworth Karpovs beat the defending champion Kenilworth Kortchnois 2.5-1.5 while the Kenilworth Karpovs drew Staten Island 2-2.

Details on the league’s blog. Games, when posted, will also appear there.

The penultimate round of this Women’s event was the most important. Two of the ladies in the leading group, Xu Yuhua and Zhao Xue, were able to take full points against players in the middle of the table, while Georgian GM Nana Dzagnidze drew her “remote game” against chicken-pox stricken Batkhuyag Mungutuul. Xu is in the lead by half a point. Pictorial report with commentary.

… on enemy territory. That was the theme in this game where White, a piece down, after
49….Be8 (diagram) was facing a difficult choice. Which evaluation of the position is correct?
A) the first player must give perpetual check;
B) he decides the game with 50.Qe4;
C) he wins, but with another move.

The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger diagram.

Magnus Carlsen drew the black side of a Grünfeld against Teimour Radjabov in the penultimate round to secure sole victory in this Super-GM event. Carlsen has 7.0/9 (= +5), two more than his nearest rival, and his performance so far is 2981. The other two games were also drawn, with all three showing good fighting spirit. Full illustrated report.