Karjakin Leads Norway Chess With Two Rounds Left; Carlsen Half a Point Behind

I've been letting the Norway Chess reports slide, as I've been trying to catch up on work while also moving along in the back-and-leg saga. About the latter: I had a second cortisone shot on Monday and started physical therapy today. Fun! The pain is more or less gone, but some numbness remains in my foot (and could last another six months to a year) and my body still has a lot of self-repair to do. Of course, it's also very important that I not just get through the current episode, but go on to do what I can to avoid suffering this same fate (or worse) next year, or the year after that, etc.

Back to chess. Between the last rest day, after round 3, and this one, four rounds have gone by. Sergey Karjakin was 3-0 while Magnus Carlsen was 3-for-3 as well - but three draws rather than three wins. Karjakin started the next block by defeating Levon Aronian - impressively, and with the black pieces to boot! - while Carlsen drew again. In round 5 they met, and with Karjakin having White and an eight-game winning streak (counting the blitz, and including a win there over Carlsen) it looked like a fantastic opportunity for him to practically put the tournament on ice.

Things started terrifically for Karjakin, and he obtained a significant edge against Carlsen's Breyer, winding up with an extra pawn. Around move 29 though, it started to fall apart. If Karjakin had played 29.Bb5, looking to round up the c-pawn, Carlsen would have been in trouble. Instead, 29.Bc2 looked to consolidate behind the e-pawn, but the main result was to give Black a free hand to develop his counterplay. After 36 moves Carlsen had regained his pawn and enjoyed some initiative, but the game was still up in the air. Unfortunately for Karjakin, he erred on moves 37 and 39 (and move 40 too, but by then it was already too late), and by the time he made the time control the game was as good as over.

The win brought Carlsen to within a point of Karjakin, and with a grind-'em-out victory over poor Teimour Radjabov (who was defeated by him in similar style in the penultimate round of the Candidates) he closed to within half a point. That wasn't such bad news for Karjakin though, as it meant he drew with Black against world champ Viswanathan Anand - and he did so only with great effort. That he held was both impressive and important, demonstrating both mental toughness and probably giving his confidence a boost.

He was able to build on that in round 7, defeating Hikaru Nakamura on the white side of a 6.Bg5 Najdorf. Carlsen remained "on" as well, defeating his countryman Jon Ludwig Hammer with Black. (About Hammer: he started the event 0-3, but drew with Black against Veselin Topalov in round 4 and beat Wang Hao in round 5. He lost in rounds 6 and 7 though.) Today (Thursday) was a rest day; the penultimate round starts Friday. Here are the pairings, with scores in parentheses:

• Carlsen (5) - Wang Hao (2.5)
• Topalov (3) - Aronian (4)
• Anand (4) - Hammer (1.5)
• Nakamura (3.5) - Radjabov (2.5)
• Svidler (3.5) - Karjakin (5.5)

FIDE Decides on Chennai; Carlsen Reluctantly Accepts the Decision

As a couple of commentators noted in the comments section to my previous post, FIDE decided that the Chennai bid would be accepted, end of story. Fortunately, but with understandable disappointment, Magnus Carlsen has accepted the decision, and will hopefully play his best chess against Anand in Chennai but also against his rivals starting tomorrow (today, for most of us) in the super-event starting in Norway. (Blitz today, "real" chess tomorrow and thereafter.)

Ongoing Controversy on the World Championship Location

Viswanathan Anand's hometown of Chennai, in India, has (at least for the moment) been given the rights to host the planned world championship match between Anand and his challenger, Magnus Carlsen. While this goes back to the adventures in planning the Anand-Gelfand match last year, it's obviously problematic for Carlsen, whose objection is twofold. The obvious problem is that it's in his opponent's hometown, but a second, possibly bigger problem is procedural, that there wasn't any sort of open bidding process.

Espen Agdestein, Carlsen's manager, has objected to this, and rightly so. Worse still, his letters to FIDE (the international chess federation) have for some reason not been acknowledged as constituting an"official" protest. Stay tuned.

A thought or two. First, is it necessarily wrong for the match to be played in India? In general, world champoinship and candidates matches are held in neutral sites negotiated by the players, but in (other) sports the federation simply decides such things without consulting with any players or teams. The location of the World Cup isn't determined by the rankings, to make sure that none of the favorites' home countries can host the event.

If that's right, then if the procedure that resulted in the Moscow and Chennai deal in 2011 was open and correct (and I'm not claiming it was), then maybe FIDE has (for once) a leg to stand on.

(HT: Chess Today.)

Magnus Carlsen on the Charlie Rose Show

Have a look.

(HT: Brian Karen)

A Short Interview With Peter Heine Nielsen

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with Jaideep Unudurti, who not only offers comments here on a regular basis, but is sometimes a featured part of the blog posts themselves. (You might remember his recent adventure playing blitz with Viswanathan Anand, for example.) This is true of this post as well, as we have here an interview with Peter Heine Nielsen, to appear in the May issue of Man's Magazine. Nielsen is a strong Danish grandmaster who worked for many years as one of Anand's seconds, but who recently helped Magnus Carlsen in the Candidates' tournament. Here, with thanks to Jaideep, is the interview (or at least parts of it - I'm not sure if there will be more when it's officially released):

This is the first WC you'll be sitting out after a long time, will you miss the excitement?

I would expect so! but the main difference will more be social actually. We are used to spending really a lot of time together in the team, and thats somehow a more drastic change.

You've seen Carlsen from his formative years, in broad terms how would you characterize him as a chess player?

He is an extremely strong practical player. in London he used all the chances he got, and that was the main difference to his competitors.  He is 22, and still not fully developed, so hard to attribute him a specific style yet.

Where do you see the battleground, what type of positions would Magnus like to see on the board, and vice versa, for Anand?

I actually think both players are so all-round, that what they really care about is the quality of their position. Maybe Magnus prefers longer technical games, and Vishy more dynamic positions, but they would both happily take a position in their opponents so-called terrain, if their position is objectively better.

Magnus has his own distinctive low-on-theory approach, is this the wave of the future?

It seems indeed that the days of big novelties are over, and that fits Magnus style well. If this is the future? Well maybe this match will tell!

Kasparov has stated his interest in assisting Carlsen. Will this be a key factor or has too much water flowed under the bridge? 

I really think the main battlefield by far will be the actual play, and that preparations, advisers etc. is secondary. Kasparov and Carlsen has worked together on several occasions, with both ups and downs. Kasparov's match experience might actually only be matched by Vishy's, and of course Magnus could greatly benefit from such advice. On the other hand one often has to find ones own individual approach to such a challenge as a WC-match. I think the chess-world can look forward to a very interesting match indeed!

Items From Readers

A couple of readers thoughtfully offered some content suggestions to help out once the back problems hit; I happily pass them along to you.

First, a piece about Magnus Carlsen as a marketing figure. (HT: Bob Banta.) I'm a little surprised by how little he makes (not that I'd mind his income, but considering the game's popularity worldwide, his prowess and his youth I'd have expected more), but if he becomes the champion this year and works on his body language a bit more I'd expect his income to go up dramatically. (There's also a link within the piece that's interesting, estimating the top 10 chessplayers in 2012 in terms of their earnings. Again, it's disappointing.)

Second, and in a seemingly completely different direction, Jerry Monaco passes along an article from the Smithsonian's website on the evolution of the Staunton chess set. It turns out, however, that there's a thematic link between this article and the one discussed in the preceding paragraph. Did you know, for instance, that the "Staunton" design was not designed by Staunton? (Wags, especially on my side of the Atlantic, might suggest that he didn't have time to design them, as he was too busy ducking Paul Morphy, but no: the Staunton design preceded Morphy's rise and conquest of the European chess scene.) What Staunton did do was to allow his name and prestige to be used in the marketing of the new design, which worked out very well for everyone (except for the makers of the styles that died out, anyway) - I'm sure he made some good coin off of the deal, the chess sets proved very popular, and the world gets to enjoy an attractive and more or less standardized set of pieces. Successful marketing!

Guess Who's Helping Carlsen (Again)...

Big Bad Garry (Kasparov) has already offered to help Magnus Carlsen in his preparations for the latter's forthcoming world championship match with Viswanathan Anand. (HT: Brian Gaines.) It's probably good news for Carlsen, and a bit of shrewd legacy building on Kasparov's part - both positively and negatively. Positively, he gets to take a bit more credit for helping build Carlsen into the monster he is; negatively, he helps to ensure that Anand's growing legacy doesn't eat into his own. Anand isn't likely in any case to maintain the champion's title for 15 years, as Kasparov did, nor is he likely to threaten Kasparov's peak rating record of 2851. On the other hand, Anand has won the title in three different formats, beat Vladimir Kramnik (which Kasparov of course failed to do), and has held off not only his elders and contemporaries but, with a hypothetical win over Carlsen, the next generation as well.

So it makes sense for Carlsen, whose openings are often reasonably effective from a practical standpoint but rarely an existential threat to players like Kramnik and Anand, to spend some time working with a legend of special preparation. Further, Kasparov's immense experience of pressure-packed matches will help Carlsen as well - clearly he didn't cope with that aspect of the battle as well as he could have in London. And it makes sense for Kasparov too, for reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph. (There's also what's bound to be some hefty remuneration, but as Kasparov is by all accounts a very wealthy man that can't be more than icing on the cake.)

But what about poor Anand? Should Kasparov be a polite elder statesman and leave these battles to those fighters still in the ring? And what can Anand do about this? I'm thinking there could be several silver linings for him. First, the clash of egos and approaches between Carlsen and Kasparov might prevent the young challenger from playing his best "Carlsenian" chess against the champion. Second, given the well-known and enduring enmity between Kasparov and Anand, this could motivate Anand like almost nothing else to really rise to the occasion and bring back his very best chess. Third, anti-Kasparov sentiment might turn up some surprising new volunteers for the Anand camp. I for one would love to discover that Kramnik went on to offer Anand some serious help as well. Heck, if I were strong enough I'd volunteer to help Anand prep in any way I could, gratis if possible.

Just some musings from a player motivated in part (but not only) by the wish for his generation to maintain its place at the top of the pile; the young will overthrow us soon enough! (And in turn be overthrown as well, world without end, amen.) Your thoughts?

Candidates Tournament, Final Round: Carlsen & Kramnik Both Lose; Carlsen Qualifies

It was a final round suitable for April Fool's Day. Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik entered the final round tied for first, but with Carlsen having "tie odds". If they finished the day on the same score, Carlsen would be declared the tournament winner and qualify for a title match with Viswanathan Anand (at this point scheduled to take place this November). With Carlsen having White against Peter Svidler, it was incumbent on Kramnik to take some risks with Black to try to defeat Vassily Ivanchuk.

Of course, not all risks are created equal. Both the casino and the sucker who walks in with a system for picking "lucky numbers" are gambling, it's true. It would not violate any physical or mathematical laws if Mr. Lucky Numbers won every single game he played and eventually won the property; the odds against it, however, are so far beyond those used even for astronomical values that we can discount the possibility for all practical purposes. In reality, while Mr. LN could win some money with a little luck and the self-discipline to leave forever in that happy eventuality, the casino will always win in the long run. They are gambling on a hand-by-hand basis, but in the long run there's no gamble at all - they are essentially guaranteed to take the sucker's money.

Why the digression? Well, in addition to wishing to offer the foregoing PSA, I thought it would be an entertaining way of expressing my feelings when I Kramnik uncorked 1...d6 in response to Chuky's 1.e4. Kramnik has been trying this on occasion the past few years, in blitz games, in desperate must-win situations and occasionally against comparatively weak players in classical games, but without much success. To my mind, the Pirc fits with neither his style nor his general repertoire over the past 20 years, and its employment struck me as a desperate and negatively foreboding sign.

Sure enough, he came out of the opening in poor shape, while Carlsen, on the white side of a Ruy, didn't have a whole lot but didn't have anything to worry about, either. But then things started getting squirrely on both boards. Ivanchuk allowed Kramnik to coordinate somewhat, and then sacrificed a pawn, and then as a result Carlsen shifted from safe to risky mode against Svidler. He (Carlsen) criticized his decision to play Ng4 without first swapping on e5; had he made the preliminary exchange he felt that it would be a position he couldn't (normally) lose. Without the trade, however, the position turned extremely complicated, and Svidler did a better job of navigating those complications. By the end of the first time control - which Carlsen made with just three seconds to spare - Svidler's position was winning.

So three cheers for Kramnik and his "miraculous" comeback? Not so fast. Perhaps getting a little optimistic about the favorable trend in his game, and a little nervous about what was going on in Carlsen's battle, he decided not to be satisfied with keeping his finally decent position, but somehow got confused and mixed bad activity (the pawn sac with ...h4 in particular) and passive play on the queenside. The result? Once they too made the time control, he (Kramnik) was just as lost as Carlsen.

Both Svidler and Ivanchuk finished their mighty opponents off, leaving Carlsen victorious on tiebreaks, based on his having won more games than Kramnik. Svidler, and Levon Aronian too, thanks to a nice finish against Teimour Radjabov, finished just half a point behind the "winners", and may join in Kramnik in thoughts of what might have been, had a break here or there gone otherwise. Further off the pace, Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk drew their game, and finished tied for fifth and sixth.

Final Standings:

1. Carlsen 8.5
2. Kramnik 8.5
3-4. Svidler, Aronian 8 (I believe Svidler took third on tiebreaks, for whatever that's worth)
5-6. Grischuk, Gelfand 6.5
7. Ivanchuk 6
8. Radjabov 4

Candidates Tournament, Round 13: Carlsen Wins, Catches Kramnik And Has Tiebreak Odds For The Last Round

My physical condition is roughly the same (maybe a bit better in certain respects, but maybe worse in another), so I'm afraid I'm going to offer an even more cursory report than I did for the last round. So let's get on with it while I can.

Vladimir Kramnik entered the round half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen, and scheduled for White while Carlsen was due Black (not against each other). Nevertheless, I felt that today's pairings presented a better opportunity for Carlsen, and that's just how things turned out. Kramnik pressed hard against his long-time friend (or at least very friendly colleague) Boris Gelfand and seemed close to a win at times, but Gelfand's resourceful counterattacking defense with his rooks enabled him to save the game. (For theory-watchers, Kramnik's 5.e3 was a fascinating new move (at least new to this level), and Gelfand was very complimentary about the idea and in his respect for Kramnik's ability to find new opening concepts. Gelfand offered a remark to the effect that in recent years, Kramnik may have come up with more new ideas than the rest of us combined.

I'm sure the compliment was appreciated, but the bottom line is that Kramnik didn't get what he needed today, and now his fate is out of his hands. Carlsen had virtually nothing against Teimour Radjabov for a long time, but (especially) given Radjabov's last-place status and his self-admitted lack of confidence, Carlsen was entirely justified in playing on and hoping something would turn up. As it so often happens with Carlsen's opponents, something did, and after 89 moves and almost seven hours of play, Carlsen had pulled off the win.

This leaves Carlsen and Kramnik tied for first, but due to the unfortunate decision to use tiebreaks rather than a playoff, and the further (to my mind unfortunate) fact that the tiebreak that will settle things in this case is "most wins" (why not "fewest losses?" But let me emphasize that I think both are lousy - use a playoff!), it means that if Carlsen defeats Peter Svidler tomorrow (Carlsen will have the white pieces), he wins the event no matter what Kramnik does. Kramnik will have Black against Vassily Ivanchuk, which makes for a pretty random situation. Ivanchuk has had a lot of disasters in this tournament, many of them self-inflicted, but he has also won his last two games with White - including round 12 against Carlsen.

For completeness' sake: Svidler defeated Ivanchuk in good style, while Alexander Grischuk and Levon Aronian drew, resulting in the latter's mathematical elimination from the race for first.

Standings After Round 13:

• 1-2. Carlsen, Kramnik 8.5
• 3-4. Aronian, Svidler 7
• 5-6. Grischuk, Gelfand 6
• 7. Ivanchuk 5
• 8. Radjabov 4

Last Round Pairings:

• Carlsen - Svidler
• Ivanchuk - Kramnik
• Gelfand - Grischuk
• Aronian - Radjabov

Tournament website here.

Candidates' Tournament, Round 12: Kramnik Beats Aronian, Ivanchuk Beats Carlsen; Kramnik Leads!

What a round! Magnus Carlsen had been in first place at the Candidates', either shared or alone, from round 4, and he entered today's round with a half point lead over Vladimir Kramnik and a full point ahead of Levon Aronian. With White against the erratic, self-destructive Vassily Ivanchuk he seemed well situated to increase his lead, especially with Kramnik having the black pieces against Aronian.

Instead, another "miracle" happened - or two. Kramnik came up with a fascinating plan with 10...f5 in a typical IQP position, and it looked good enough to equalize. Practically, it was even better. Aronian's best choice at a certain moment early on was to force a draw by repetition (starting with 15.Bxb5 f4, as I recall), but in his tournament situation that would have been hard to do. So he played on and was worse, but soon the board exploded with tactics. Kramnik made an error that could have allowed Aronian to escape with a draw, but missed it. Instead of finding that move - 21.Ne5 - Aronian played 21.e4?, and Kramnik was very ready for that one. A very nice tactical sequence left Kramnik with a probably winning technical endgame...but again Kramnik slipped. Aronian had several ways to draw the resulting piece-down ending (all based on the wrong-colored bishop + rook pawn combination), but when he played 50.g6?? his last chance was gone. It's hard to know what was going on in Aronian's mind, but it looks as if he was trying to win. It's tough to balance fighting spirit and self-preservation, and in this case Aronian chose wrongly - especially as it was clear by this point that Carlsen would have to struggle to draw.

Turning to that game, Carlsen played the opening poorly with White and was slightly worse. After Ivanchuk's odd 18...a5, however, Carlsen equalized, but then by the end of the first time control Chuky, with Black, was again somewhat better. Still, it wasn't clear for a long time what the result should be, and not only due to the ever-present concern that Ivanchuk would do something completely insane. This time around, he didn't, and when Carlsen failed to maintain his usual insanely high level of technical prowess the Ukranian great managed to convert his material advantage. Overall, Ivanchuk played very well, while Carlsen immediately labeled his play "absolutely disgraceful."

Thanks to that loss, and Kramnik's remarkable run in the second cycle (4.5/5; three in a row) it is now Kramnik who leads by half a point, with Carlsen in second and Aronian a point and a half behind with two rounds to go. Tomorrow is the rest day, and then they finish up on Easter Sunday and Monday. Before giving the full standings and pairings for the last two rounds, a quick note about the other two games, games which could in fact prove very important.

Boris Gelfand and Peter Svidler drew a game without fireworks, but that looked like a model squeeze by Gelfand before the inaccurate 32.Qa7. According to Svidler, 32.Qb3, maintaining the squeeze, would have kept an enduring advantage based on the bishop pair and the possibility of b4-b5. Teimour Radjabov-Alexander Grischuk was also drawn, and as in the Gelfand-Svidler game White may have missed an opportunity for more. Nothing much happened until 40...h5, but that was a serious error allowing White to target Black's f-pawn after 41.h4. Maybe 43.Rxf5+ would have given Radjabov better winning chances than 43.Bxf5; as it was, Grischuk had to wriggle before reaching the theoretically drawn ending with a rook against a rook and f- and h-pawns.

Why were these games important? The answer is that the tournament regulations have a very unfortunate provision for settling a first-place tie: tiebreaks! This is the second-most important event in the chess calendar, behind only the world championship itself, and the geniuses at FIDE are going to allow the challenger's identity to be decided by which player won more games, or how the tailender does in the last round against the next-to-last placed finisher. This is just insane, especially as plenty of far less prestigious events run playoffs in case of a tie.

About the games: I managed to goof my back up (for the second straight year; let's hope this doesn't become a tradition!), so for now I can't sit long enough to work up an in-depth analysis of the games. If things improve I may try to make up for it tomorrow, during the rest day; otherwise, my apologies.

Standings After Round 12:

1. Kramnik 8
2. Carlsen 7.5
3. Aronian 6.5
4. Svidler 6
5-6. Grischuk, Gelfand 5.5
7. Ivanchuk 5
8. Radjabov 4

Round 13 Pairings (Sunday):

• Radjabov - Carlsen (Clearly a big opportunity for Carlsen to bounce right back.)
• Grischuk - Aronian (Will Aronian burn his bridges trying to stay alive, or just play "correct" chess?)
• Kramnik - Gelfand (Gelfand has traditionally matched up well with Kramnik, and rarely loses games to him at a classical time control.)
• Svidler - Ivanchuk

Round 14 Pairings (Monday):

• Carlsen - Svidler
• Ivanchuk - Kramnik (Will Ivanchuk rise to the occasion again, or (indirectly) harm Carlsen a second time?)
• Gelfand - Grischuk
• Aronian - Radjabov