Carlsen did it
The leading items of the news last week involved the small nation of Norway. One was the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama for “Yes you can.’’ The other was plaudits to 18-year-old Magnus Carlsen for “Yes, you did!’’ For what Carlsen did was level his opponents in the second Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament in Nanjing, China and lift his FIDE rating beyond that of world champion Viswanathan Anand and behind top-rated Veselin Topalov.
This year the contestants all had ratings above 2700 and Topalov’s rating was a towering 2813. Topalov was last year’s clear winner. Besides Topalov and Carlsen, the other contestants were Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia, China’s Wang Yue, Teimour Radjabov, the former 2004 Knockout world champion from Azerbaijan, and Peter Leko of Hungary, who was substituted at a late date when Anand withdrew. Anand and Topalov will play for the world championship next year.
Carlsen, who has been coached recently by Garry Kasparov, amazed the world by registering four straight wins against Topalov, Jakovenko, Leko, and Radjabov, and drawing with Wang in the fifth round.
In the last half, he slowed up a bit by drawing with Topalov, Leko, and Radjabov, but defeated Jakovenko and Wang. His final score: 8-2! No one was even close to Carlsen in the last half. Topalov had drawn all his games in the first half, except for the loss to Carlsen. He registered two wins in the last half and ended with 5.5 points. An oddity of this tournament was that in the first half, the games were all drawn except for Carlsen’s four wins. In the entire tournament, the scores of Leko, Radjabov, and Wang were all earned with eight draws, no wins.
Carlsen is now rated second in the world, behind Topalov. Not necessarily an aggressive player, he seems to have a shrewd understanding of good chess positions, and an ability to polish off his opponents in advantageous positions. In their first game, Topalov allowed Carlsen to appropriate a rook pawn. This was possibly a Topalov error or instead a gamble to open up a rook file against Carlsen’s king. Whatever it was, it only led to a bad position.
Turning to a different subject, Mark Donlan is retiring as editor of the Massachusetts Chess Association’s magazine “Chess Horizons.’’ The highly literate and diligent Donlan has built this magazine up to receive annual awards as the best or second-best state chess magazine in the country. The association is now seeking candidates to become editor. Are there any sophisticated players who will step forward?
Brevity: Carlsen v.Ibraev 2004 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5 Bxc5 6.Nf3 Qb6 7.e3 Qc7 8.b3 b6 9.Bb2 Bb7 10.Nb5 Qd8 11.0--0--0 0--0 12.Ng5 Re8 13.h4 e5 14.Nd6 Bxd6 15.Rxd6 h6 16.Qf5 Nc6 17.Rxf6. 1-0 (As after 17...Qxf6 18.Qh7+ Kf8 19.Ne4 and there is no hope.)
Winners: Fall Foliage Scholastic, Oct. 4: High School, 1st: Vikas Shiva, Lexington, 3-1; 2nd: Jesse Nicholas, Newton, 3-1; Age 14&U 1st, Zongyuan Yuan, Brookline, 4-0; 2nd: Alexander Sorets, Newton, 3-1; 3d: Varun Palnati, Westford, 3-1. 11&U: 1st, Charlie Fauman, Newton, 4-1. 8&U: 1st, Samuel X. Qiu, 4-0.
Coming Events: Oct. 25, 75th Greater Boston Open Kennedy Sr. Center, Natick, GBOInfo2009@masschess.org; Oct. 31-Nov. 1, NE Scholastic Championships, Sheraton Hotel, 1 Bradley Airport, Windsor Locks, Conn., www.chesstour.com.
