Thursday 10th December 2009
After Magnus Carlsen’s two wins in the first rounds, it was only a matter of time before the pundits in the press room started speculating on him scoring 7/7 (which sounds even more impressive with the ‘football score’ equivalent, 21/21). But that is not going to happen, thanks to a resolute refusal to be ‘magnified’ by England’s David Howell and (it has to be admitted) one golden opportunity missed by Carlsen. The only three-point scorer was Vladimir Kramnik who thus moves up to within one point of the young Norwegian.
This round had two extra dimensions which made it particularly intriguing. One was that it was an ‘
The best hope of a full point for the unofficial ‘
The tiredness that Luke McShane must have felt after his seven hours 36 minutes’ marathon win against Nigel Short seemed to tell on him in round three when he lost rather a poor game to Vladimir Kramnik. Luke opened with the Bishop’s Opening (1 e4 e5 2 Bc4), which may have been a deliberate attempt to dodge Vladimir Kramnik’s possible Petroff’s Defence had he played 2 Nf3. At least, that was Vladimir Kramnik’s opinion when he talked us through the game in the commentary room. As soon as he said it, Vlad realised that he might have given a big clue to his future opponents as regards his future intentions. He quickly added: “Of course, I’m not saying that I am going to play the Petroff’s Defence!” (with a big smile).
Luke McShane
Bishop’s Opening C24
1 e4 e5 2 Bc4
The Bishop’s Opening was known to the 16th pioneers of chess (as we know it). It is not fashionable at the higher levels of the game. Though there is nothing specifically wrong with it (and it often transposes into better-known openings), it lacks the sort of bite that the super-GMs look for when playing White.
2…Nf6 3 d3 Bc5
3…c6 is another move often seen here, planning to drive back the c4 bishop with d7-d5. One snag with the Bishop’s Opening is that it doesn’t oblige Black to play Nc6 to defend his e-pawn; consequently, Black has a little extra flexibility of choice.
4 Nf3 0–0 5 Nc3
Snatching a pawn with 5 Nxe5? is unthinkable at this level. The game might proceed 5…d5 6 exd5 Re8 7 d4 Bxd4! (looks clever but most experienced players at club level would know this trick) 8 Qxd4 Nc6 and White is struggling. Elite players would dismiss such a continuation within nanoseconds, but Vlad Kramnik was kind enough to take the trouble to show us this variation in the commentary room. He is a relaxed and entertaining commentator, striking exactly the right note with his audience.
5…d6 6 Na4
If you’ve got one of those old Fred Reinfeld chess books for near-beginners, he would probably tell you that all White’s problems stem from this – making two moves with the same piece in the opening. Well… on this occasion, I would be inclined to agree. This looks insipid to me.
6…Bb6 7 c3 Be6 8 Bb3
If 8 Bxe6 fxe6, the doubled pawns aren’t much of a problem for Black. He can usually even them out later on by playing d7-d6 and he gets an open file for his f8 rook into the bargain.
8…Bxb3 9 axb3
Again, the argument in favour of doubling the pawns is to give the rook some scope.
9…Nbd7 10 b4
White’s opening has not been a success but now Black plays rather a surprising move.
10…Bxf2+!?
This looks like a tactical blow but in fact Black was probably thinking more of its positional consequences.
11 Kxf2 b5
That is the tactical point: the white knight cannot escape the pawn attack, so material equilibrium will be restored immediately.
12 Bd2 bxa4 13 Qxa4
The previous sequence may look a little unsophisticated at first sight but I’m quite sure both players would have been already focusing on this position (and perhaps beyond) for a number of moves previously. McShane must have considered it reasonably defensible, but Kramnik now begins to exert his authority on the position.
13…c5! 14 b5
Although it would offer him the chance to undouble his pawns, White cannot contemplate 14 bxc5? Nxc5 15 Qc2 Qb6 when Black has several nasty threats.
14…d5!
Black has one eye on White’s exposed king on f2 and he is trying to open up a central file in order to menace it.
15 exd5
With hindsight, 15 Rhe1 seems better. At least it doesn’t leave the h1 rook out of play as in the game. Black has several ways to proceed, e.g. 15…c4!? 16 exd5 Nb6 17 Qc2 Re8 though I’m not entirely convinced.
15…Nb6 16 Qc2 c4 17 Nxe5?
After this, White is history: 17 Rhe1 Re8 would transpose to the line given above and at least leave White with his full complement of pieces to play with.
17…Qxd5 18 d4 Ne4+ 19 Kg1
White has to go backwards and incarcerate his own h1 rook. If 19 Ke3? Nxd2 20 Qxd2 Rae8 he will lose material.
19…Rfe8 20 Nf3
There is no time for 20 Re1 because of 20…Rxe5! 21 dxe5 Nxd2 with a substantial material and positional advantage.
20…Qxb5 21 h4
White has few useful moves and he plays this in a desperate attempt to get his h1 rook into play. Spectating grandmaster were no longer bothering to follow this game, dismissing it as a routine win for Black.
21…Qb3! 22 Qb1
22 Qxb3 cxb3 and Black will play Nc4, tightening the grip on White’s position.; 22 Qc1 is even worse: 22…Ng3 would threaten the h1 rook and a king/queen fork with Ne2+.
22…Nd5 23 Rh3 h6
Removing another square from the scope of White’s already desperately restricted bishop.
24 Qc1 Qb6 25 Ra4 Rab8 26 Ra2
After 26 Rxc4 Qxb2 27 Qxb2 Rxb2 28 Be1 Rb1 it is becoming clear that the bishop is doomed. Consequently, White is tied to the defence of the b2 pawn.
26…Qb3 27 Qa1 Rb6 28 Kh2
The knot is getting tighter. White is running out of moves to play.
28…Ndf6 29 Be1
White was now very short of time. If 29 Kg1 Ng4 30 Bf4 Ngf2 31 Rh2 Nd3 it is close to the end.
29…Ng4+ 30 Kg1 Nef6 31 d5 Nxd5 32 Rg3 Ndf6 33 Bd2 Rd6 34 Ra3 Qb6+ 35 Kh1 Nf2+ 36 Kh2 N6g4+ 0–1
Let’s look at one finish: 37 Rxg4 Nxg4+ 38 Kg3 Qf2+ 39 Kxg4 Qxg2+ 40 Kf4 Rf6 mate. Vladimir Kramnik won the vote for the best game of the day with that win.
Nakamura-Short started with a slightly offbeat variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence, with Nigel Short’s 7…Nc6 not appearing in the books. Black played in accordance with ‘hypermodern’ principles for much of the game, i.e. allowing White to occupy the centre and targeting it from afar. Eventually there was a large number of pieces exchanged, reaching a clearly level rook and pawn endgame which the arbiter permitted the players to agree drawn.
Howell-Carlsen was perhaps the most eagerly-awaited clash of the day. These two young men were both born in 1990, David Howell on 14 November and Magnus Carlsen on 30 November, so David is just 16 days older than Magnus. Incidentally, 1990 was a vintage year for chessplayers. As well as these two, there were Sergey Karjakin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmirti Andreikin, Yuri Kuzubov and Ian Nepomnichtchi. David and Magnus have met twice before, once as 11-year-olds in the World Under-12 Championship of 2002 and once at a
David Howell
Sicilian c3 B22
1 e4 c5 2 c3 d5 3 exd5 Qxd5 4 d4 Nf6 5 Nf3 e6 6 Be3 Be7 7 dxc5
Inviting a queen exchange. The pawn cannot be retained for any length of time so this line doesn’t offer much hope of an opening advantage for White.
7…Qxd1+ 8 Kxd1 0–0 9 Nbd2 Ng4 10 Nb3 Nxe3+ 11 fxe3 Nd7 12 c6
White has to give the pawn back so decides the best he can do is to leave Black with an isolated c-pawn.
12…bxc6 13 Na5 Black ignores this threat to the pawn so it is probably a waste of time.
13…Bc5! 14 Nd4
If White takes the pawn with 14 Nxc6 Black will respond with something like 14…Bb7 15 Ncd4 Nf6, lining up e5 and a rook on the d-file. Even though there are no queens on the board, the white king will be in danger.
14…Nf6 15 Bc4 Ng4 16 Ke2 e5 17 Nc2 Bf5 18 h3 Nf6 19 Nb4 Be4 20 Nbxc6 Rfe8 21 Rhg1 Bb6
Notice how awkwardly placed the white knights are. If one moves, the other is lost. So White has to bring up reinforcements to support them.
22 b4 Rac8 23 b5 Bxa5
That move surprised me. I expected Magnus to play something like 23…Rc7 followed by Rfc8, to increase the pressure on David’s position. Magnus must have thought some tangible advantage would accrue from capturing on a5.
24 Nxa5 Rc5 25 a4 Rec8 26 Bd3 Bxd3+ 27 Kxd3 Rxc3+ 28 Ke2 Rc2+ 29 Kf3 e4+ 30 Kf4 R8c5
Magnus will have seen this position quite some time before and must have judged it much better for Black, with the white king stranded in no man’s land. However, White has some counterplay on the queenside.
31 Nc6!
White’s plan is to take on a7, then push his queenside pawns, in the hope or expectation that Carlsen won’t snare his king in a mating net in the meantime. David Howell was way behind on the clock, with only a few minutes to reach the 40th move, while Black had plenty of time in hand.
31…g5+ 32 Kg3 R5c3 33 Ne7+
White can perhaps play 33 Nxa7 Rxe3+ 34 Kh2 g4 35 Kh1 gxh3 36 gxh3+ and answer 36…Rxh3 “mate” by indicating that Black’s king is already in check. But, with so little time, he wouldn’t have wanted to risk this just in case he had missed something.
33…Kf8 34 Nf5 Nd5 35 Rge1?
A time trouble blunder.
35…Nf4! 36 Rg1
White has to cede rook for knight. Black threatens mate in one. If 36 Kh2? Nxg2! will win material with a devastating discovered check.
36…Ne2+ 37 Kg4 Nxg1 38 Rxg1 f6 39 h4 gxh4 40 Kxh4 Ra3
The time control was reached with Black having a material advantage of rook for knight. To be honest, you would expect the world number one to put this one away fairly easily, but Magnus Carlsen’s play from this point on looks tentative and unconvincing. Don’t just take my word for it – here’s what Magnus himself has to say on his blog: “The rest of the game [after move 40] I would like to forget as soon as possible. Despite an extra pawn and the exchange, I struggled to make any progress due to his well coordinated pieces and good defence. I missed a fairly easy winning combination at move 52. In the end I gave up two pawns to try to activate my king but did not make progress. In the end a draw was agreed after 6½ hours play. A disappointing result after the promising position I had around the first time control, but two wins and a draw still constitute an excellent start of the tournament when going into the free day.” The URL is http://arcticsec.no/index.php?button=blog&main_image=35 if you would like to read it for yourself. Nice to see Magnus give David some credit for excellent defence. It is not easy to steel yourself to defend such a difficult position but the young Englishman did very well.
41 g4 Rxa4 42 Rd1
Black now has rook and pawn for the knight – a very substantial material advantage – but that is not to say that it should be an easy win. If the world number one cannot win from here, it is, by definition, hard to win! One snag is that his king is slightly at the mercy of the white pieces, and another is that the knight on f5 is well placed. A third problem is that none of the pawns are passed or poised to advance.
42…Raa2 43 Rd7 Rh2+ 44 Kg3 Rhg2+ 45 Kh3 Rgf2 46 Nd4 Kg8?
This raised eyebrows in the press room. What is he doing? 46…Ra3 looks more to the point.
47 Re7 Kf8 48 Rc7
We expected simply 48 Rxe4 but White too is finding it hard to figure out what to do.
48…Ke8 49 Kg3 Rf1 50 Rxh7 Ra3 51 Kg2 Rd1 52 Nf5?
White goes wrong. 52 Nc6 would probably have been better though Black may be able to win eventually.
52…Rd7?
As David played 52 Nf5?, the move 52…Ra2+! flashed up on all the ‘watching computers’ of the world, winning material for Black: after 53 Kg3 (53 Kh3 Rh1+ loses the rook on h7) 53…Rg1+ 54 Kf4 Rf2+ 55 Kxe4 Rxg4+ Black will be able to capture the knight next move. As well as missing the forced win, the text move spoils most of Magnus’s remaining hopes of winning by more attritional methods.
53 Rh8+ Kf7 54 Kg3 Rb3 55 Kf4 Rb1
If 55…Rb4 56 Nd4 and White can win the e-pawn.
56 Kxe4 Rf1 57 Rh7+ Ke6 58 Rh8
58 Ng7+ looks like a perpetual check, but White is reasonably comfortable anyway. The rest of the game can be skipped over quickly as Black has no realistic chance of winning any more.
58…Rc7 59 Nd4+ Kd6 60 Rd8+ Rd7 61 Rc8 Rg7 62 Rd8+ Rd7 63 Rc8 Re7+ 64 Kd3 Rc7 65 Rd8+ Rd7 66 Rg8 Rg1 67 Ke2 Kc5 68 Kf2 Rb1 69 Rf8 Rd6 70 Rf7 Rb2+ 71 Kf3 Ra2 72 Ke4 Kb6 73 Rf8 Rg2 74 Kf3 Rh2 75 Rb8+ Kc7 76 Ra8 Kb7 77 Rf8 Rh7 78 Kf4 Rh1 79 Kf3 ½–½
As the players signed their scoresheets, Malcolm Pein took upon himself the lugubrious duty of informing the world number one what he had missed at move 52. Magnus took it pretty well, on the whole – a pained expression briefly crossed his face, and sotto voce he uttered the comment “that’s a bit embarrassing”. It broke his streak but he will come back refreshed after the rest day (Friday 11th). The last word must be for David Howell – he showed true grit to defend a horrendous position through two time scrambles. OK, ‘
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Carlsen should have been 3-0.