Carlsen lives up to his name: Charles the Great

The magnificent performance of Magnus Carlsen at the world championship in Chennai (India) continued to make headlines worldwide. Hardly a day passes without mention of Carlsen’s name in sports section of various international newspapers. The boyish face has graced many a magazine cover, some of which ran a full page on the new world champion.

With all the media fad, now comes one big question. To whom must credit go for Scandinavia’s first and only world champion? Obviously the biggest share must go to Carlsen himself. It was he who studied, sacrificed and struggled to attain the goal. Possibly the other persons are Magnus’ parents who encouraged their son to stray into the labyrinth of chess to be engulfed by its magic powers, and guided him in his quest. Magnus comes from a family of chess players. His two elder sisters are also ardent lovers of the game.

Then we have the Norwegian Chess Federation which has thrown its all-out support, and lastly his business manager, Espen Agdestein.

After all the accolades, what comes next? In an interview with the international press, Carlsen said he will be an active world champion and continue winning. His first official tournament as world champion is the Zurich (Switzerland) Chess Challenge slated next month. The new chess king is also committed to participate in the Norway Invitational scheduled to be held in June, and will spearhead the Norwegian national team in the forthcoming Chess Olympiad, which his country is hosting in August.

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Meantime, a young team from Azerbaijan led by world contender Shakriyar Mamedyarov, captured the gold medal in the 2013 European Team championship held Nov. 7-18 in Poland’s famous city of Warsaw. France was second and Russia third. Thirty-eight teams took part. Below is an instructive game taken from the tourney.

2013 European Team Ch.

W) A. Naiditsch g 2727 (GER)

B) B. Socko g 2661 (POL)

French Defense

1. e4      e6

2. d4                      d5

3. Nc3                    Bb4

This razor-sharp Winawer Variation of the French leads to interesting complications.

4. e5      c5

5. a3       Bxc3ch

6. bxc3  Ne7

7. Qg4   ...

The usual move here, but there are also good alternatives such as 7. Nf3 and 7. Be2.

7...          Kf8?!

As the old writers in chess wrote, “The purpose of castling is to provide safety for the King and to get the Rook into play quickly.” Here Black prematurely surrenders castling. The normal continuation is 7...Qc7 8. Qxg7 Rg8 9. Qxh7 cxd4 10. Ne2 Nbc6 11. f4 Bd7 12. Qd3 dxc3 13. Nxc3 a6 with even chances. Or 7... 0-0 8. Bd3 (8. Nf3 Qa5 9. Bd2 Qa4 is equal) 8...Nbc6 (8...Nd7!?) 9. Qh5 h6 10. Bxh6! gxh6 11. Qxh6 Nf5 12. Bxf5 exf5 13. Nh3 f6 and White has the edge. I.e. 14. Qg6ch Kh8 15. 0-0-0! fxe5 16. Rd3 f4 17. Rg3!! and White wins.

8. a4                       ...

After 8. Nf3 Kg8 9. Be2 Qc7 10. Ra2 Nbc6 11. 0-0 h5 12. Qf4 c4 the game is heading for equality.

8...  Qc7

9. Qd1                   ...

9. Bd2 cxd4 10. cxd4 Qxc2 11. Rc1 Qxa4 12. Nf3 Nbc6 13. Bd3 h5 14. Qf4 Nf5 15. 0-0 Kg8, is a possibility with chances for both sides.

9...         cxd4

10. cxd4                Qc3ch

11. Bd2                 Qxd4

A famous writer once said: “All of us like to go pawn-hunting on occasion, but it could turn out to be a dangerous sport.”

12. Nf3                  Qe4ch

13. Be2                 Nbc6

14. Bc3                  Ng6

After 14...Nf5 15. Qd2 Nh4 16. Nxh4 Qxh4 17. 0-0 Kg8 18. f4 Qd8, the position leads to complications.

15. 0-0                   Nf4

16. Bd3                 Nxd3

17. cxd3                Qf5

17...Qg6 may have been accurate.

18. a5                    a6

The alternatives are 18...Kg8 and 18...h6.

19. Qb1                 h6

An interesting idea is 19...g5, and after 20. Bb4ch Kg7 21. Bd6 g4.

20. Nd4                 Nxd4

21. Bxd4               Kg8

22. Rc1                  Kh7

Finally, Black was able to place his King into a safe spot, but perhaps too late as White’s pieces will swarm all over the board.

23. Rc7!                ...

This is the painful invasion, intensifying the pressure on Black’s pieces which are now pinned.

23...                       Rd8

24. Bc5!                ...

A fine move which will maintain the initiative. After 24. Re7 Rd7 25. Rxd7 Bxd7 26. Qxb7 Qxd3 27. Be3 (27. Qxa8 Qxd4 is even) 27...Rd8 28. Qc7 d4 29. Qxd8 dxe3 30. Qb6 e2 31. Qb1 Qg6 the game is still unclear.

24...                       d4

25. Be7                 Rd5

26. Bd6                 f6

After 26...Rb5 27. Qf1 Rb3 28. Rac1 Rxd3 29. Rxc8 Rxc8 30. Rxc8, White is probably winning.

27. Re7     fxe5

28. Qb6     Qf8?

A fatalistic reply. Better is 28...Qf6, when 29. Qc7 e4 30. dxe4 d3 leads to unclear consequences.

29. Qc7                 b5

30. Rf7!                 Qxf7

There is nothing better. For instance 30...Qg8 31. Rf8 leads to the same result.

31. Qxf7               Rxd6

32. Rc1                  Rd8

33. Rc7                  Rg8

34. g4!                   ...

Combinations where a meek little pawn plays an important role in the mating attack are particularly attractive.

34...        e4

35. g5!      ...

A sharp pawn stab which ends the story. Now the threat of 36. Qh5 and 37. Qxh6 mate will be hard to meet.

35...        e5

36. Qh5     Kh8

37. gxh6    gxh6ch

38. Kf1      1:0

Solution to last week’s puzzle:

(White=Kd4, Na6, Nd1, Pa2, Pb3, Pg2, Ph3;

Black=Kd6, Be4, Bg3, Pb5, Pf5, Ph7)

1...      Bc2

0:1

If 1. Nb2/Nc3 Be5ch or 1. Ne3 Be5 mate.

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White to play and win.