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GM Magnus Carlsen was unable to avenge his defeat in 2004 against GM Garry Kasparov. When they played for the first time in 16 years, Carlsen spoiled a winning ending and let his legendary opponent come out of trouble in the second round of the Chess9LX online tournament.
Carlsen leads after three rounds with GM Leinier Domínguez. Like the world champion, the Cuban-born American player scored an excellent 2.5 / 3 on the first day.
Round 3 Positions
| # | fed | Name | bone scan | Perf | one | two | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | Pts | SB |
| one | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2786 | 3037 | ½ | one | one | 2.5 / 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| two | Carlsen, Magnus | 2881 | 3084 | ½ | one | one | 2.5 / 3 | 2.25 | ||||||||
| 3 | So Wesley | 2741 | 2889 | ½ | ½ | one | 2.0 / 3 | |||||||||
| 4 | Aronian, Levon | 2778 | 2781 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1.5 / 3 | 2.5 | ||||||||
| 5 | Kasparov, Garry | 2783 | 2776 | ½ | 0 | one | 1.5 / 3 | 1.75 | ||||||||
| 6 | Svidler, Peter | 2742 | 2742 | 0 | one | ½ | 1.5 / 3 | 1.75 | ||||||||
| 7 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2829 | 2808 | 0 | ½ | one | 1.5 / 3 | 0.75 | ||||||||
| 8 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2773 | 2839 | 0 | ½ | one | 1.5 / 3 | 0.75 | ||||||||
| 9 | Firouzja, Alireza | 2703 | 2491 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0.5 / 3 | |||||||||
| 10 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2860 | 2028 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 / 3 |
The tournament is an online version of the annual Chess960 event organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club. In Chess960, the pieces of the first and eighth rows are placed semi-randomly, with the king always between rooks, two bishops of opposite colors and the black ones copying the configuration of the white ones.
In addition to the classic RNBQKBNR, 959 other initial positions are possible. In this tournament, players receive the new position three minutes before the start of their game, which makes opening preparation impossible.
Unlike last year, when Kasparov faced only GM Fabiano Caruana in one match, this year he plays all nine opponents in a round-robin. His game with Carlsen was in the second round.
Before that, Kasparov had thrilled the many fans he still has by beating GM Alireza Firouzja, 40 years younger. The Iranian prodigy had a great year in 2019, but has been less successful in recent online events. Or maybe he was a little dazzled in this very special game. Who can blame him for that?
“The first game was difficult,” Kasparov said. “I think I was in trouble, but I created a lot of counterplay, and I was pretty glad I was on time and cheated on him in the end. Considering the age difference of 40 years, I did well!”
After that, it was time for the Big Clash. It wasn’t classical chess and it wasn’t off the board, but seeing Carlsen and Kasparov playing an official game, part of an official tournament with prize money and all, is definitely something historic. (And in fact, the starting position they got was pretty close to classical chess!)
During the game, the commentators were surprised that Kasparov opted for an early queen change, as Carlsen excels in finals while The Boss is famous for his dominance of tricky positions. Later, Kasparov said that he was wrong before that.
“I made a terrible move; I think it was move five, 5.Nc3. This is what you do automatically when instead 5.Qc2 stops Black’s whole idea of … c5. I made a mistake and he was kicking my head. “
Later in the interview, he pointed out something instructive about Chess960 games: “It is always a challenge to place the pieces in the opening. It bothers me that I intuitively made this stupid move on the fifth move, instinctively playing a Queen’s Gambit, not recognizing you have to start with the queen. The trickiest thing about this game is how you position your queen. Having a queen in an ideal location could give you an advantage. “
The ending was about the same until Kasparov played the overly optimistic 15.g4, trying to create some kingside play. He had completely lost Carlsen’s answer. 15 … Ba5.
Kasparov: “I wanted to play g4-g2.”
Carlsen was maneuvering very well and with many healthy moves his lead grew into a winning position. However, practically speaking, he was not done yet and with 31 … Rf7, played after four and a half minutes, blew most of his lead.
The position where Carlsen played 31 … Rf7.
Kasparov said that if his opponent had played 31 … Rd8 + 32.Ke1 Rd3 here, he would have resigned immediately. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s based on the fact that the thirteenth world champion thought the pawn ending was lost.
“If I intended to quit there, it would be pretty silly,” Carlsen said with a smile. He then pointed out that the pawn ending after 33.Rxd3 Bxd3 34.fxe5 Bx2 35.Kxe2 Kxe5 is actually a draw, and 34 … Kxe5 35.Nc3 Kf4 36.h4 Kg4 37.Kd2 allows White to continue fighting .
“In the tower finale, I already have some chances,” Kasparov said. “He’s probably still lost, but he’s definitely got nervous. I created this countergame and remembered the Botvinnik-Fischer game, creating these opportunities, pushing the pawn …”
Kasparov referenced the famous game between his former coach, sixth world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, and later world champion Bobby Fischer at the 1962 Varna Olympiad, a game that Kasparov also describes extensively in his My great predecessors IV.
In short, Fischer refuted Botvinnik’s preparation behind the board, gained a winning lead, but fell into a trap and lost his lead. During the postponement, Botvinnik and his team managed to find the narrow path to the draw.
The similarity to the tower end at Kasparov-Carlsen is striking. Here too, the youngest player lets the oldest, a former world champion, escape with a draw.
“It was a very, very bad game,” Carlsen said. “What can I say? He started to defend himself very tenaciously at some point. I was overthinking when I went for this 31 … Rf7 idea. I was trying to be hyper-precise when there really was no reason for that. Very very poor. “.
Kasparov ended up finishing his first day with a score of 50 percent, as he lost in the third round to GM Peter Svidler, himself a bit of a Chess960 specialist. There was a moment when Kasparov missed an opportunity, after which he was outmatched:
“I’m happy that I won a game, but it’s probably not my choice of who I wanted to defeat,” Svidler said after the game.
Carlsen had beaten GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the first round and after his draw with Kasparov, he finished with another victory, and quite a good one, against GM Fabiano Caruana.
“I thought they were beating me sometime in the middlegame, so I decided to make the position a little bit simpler,” Carlsen said. “This exchange bag was all the same style. I just thought, after this, I have very few practical difficulties and it should be easier for me to play. I didn’t expect it to be as easy as in the game, but nevertheless, I think White has an easier position to play and very little risk. “
The Chess9LX tournament will be played September 11-13 at lichess for a $ 150,000 prize pool. The time control is 20 minutes plus a 10 second increment.
Chess9LX, Day 1 | All the games
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