In pic: Svidler going for the solid 3.Nc3 line vs Carlsen. | Photo: Eric van Reem/Grenke Chess Classic <www.grenkechessclassic.de/en>.
[image: PeterDoggers] <www.chess.com/member/peterdoggers> PeterDoggers <www.chess.com/member/peterdoggers> <www.chess.com/about> Apr 29, 2019, 12:09 AM|
Magnus Carlsen goes into the final round of the Grenke Chess Classic <grenkechessclassic.de/en/> with a one-point lead. He checkmated Peter Svidler on Sunday but Fabiano Caruana also won his game and so the American GM still has a chance to tie for first and force a playoff. We know that it’s rare to see a checkmate on the board at the highest level. But how rare?
Well, in the whole year 2018, in games where both players were rated higher than 2700, it happened only three times (if we don’t count online play) and only once in a classical game: Duda-Nakamura in Gibraltar.
The other examples were Anand-Grischuk, Tal memorial rapid and Carlsen-Svidler (!) at the World Blitz in St. Petersburg.
Weirdly, the only time it happened thus far in 2019 (before today) was… another Nakamura-Duda (!) at the Champions Showdown in February in St. Louis.
It must have been a combination of courtesy and feeling for aesthetics that made Peter Svidlerrefrain from resigning. And indeed, Magnus Carlsen’s two pawns checkmate looked nice, didn’t it?
“Magnus played very well, but I could have played it better. It’s possible to ask more questions than I have asked today,” said Svidler, who had avoided Carlsen’s Sveshnikov with 3.Nc3.
“The opening was an attempt to acknowledge basically that at least in calculations I blunder a full piece every day here. I thought, this at least gives me a chance to get a solid position to start with,” said Svidler.
Things got interesting when Carlsen went for the plan …Kh8 and …f5, which brought “a whole new dynamic” into the game, as Peter Leko put it. A big calculation lapse by Svidler (he missed 20…Qf8) then got him into trouble.
“It was a very nice game for me,” said Carlsen. “I think he sort of misplayed it early on and then he missed this 20…Qf8 move, and after that play just flows; I get …Ne3, …g5. It was certainly a fun game today but I don’t expect to win like this every game. But the last few rounds have been great!”
Carlsen’s live rating is now 2871.2, only 10.8 points below his highest ever published rating of 2882 from May 2014. Asked how he compares to his favorite player (which he famously described as “myself, three or four years ago” at the November world championship), he replied:
“I don’t want to particularly compare but I am very satisfied with the way it’s going now and I don’t really think that I was better back then; it’s flowing so well now.” Svidler, Peter (2737) vs. Carlsen, Magnus (2845) Classic Round 8.3 28 Apr 2019 ECO: B30 0-1
1. 1 e4 0.22 c5 0.29 2. 2Nf3 0.26 7sNc6 0.29 4s 3. 3Nc3 0.19 5se5 0.22 8s 4. 4Bc4 0.31 9sBe7 0.26 12s 5. 5d3 0.23 35sd6 0.25 2m36s 6. 6Nd2 0.19 8sNf6 0.19 26s 7. 7Nf1 0.18 7sNd7 0.22 36s 8. 8Nd5 0.40 6m30sNb6 0.40 21s 9. 9Nxb6 0.32 2m10saxb6 0.23 5s 10. 10c3 0.25 5m46sO-O 0.32 51s 11. 11Ne3 0.28 7m46sBg5 0.30 31s 12. 12O-O 0.02 1m43sKh8 0.39 11m29s 13. 13a3 -0.05 5m26sf5 0.09 18m18s 14. 14Nxf5 0.02 3m09sBxc1 0.00 16s 15. 15Rxc1 -0.09 4sBxf5 -0.25 14s 16. 16exf5 -0.44 4sd5 -0.20 56s 17. 17Ba2 0.00 39sRxf5 -0.03 8s 18. 18Qg4 -0.35 18m04sRf6 -0.32 33s 19. 19f4 -0.49 20m17sexf4 -0.63 12s 20. 20Qg5 -0.20 3sQf8 -0.43 10m23s 21. 21Qxd5 -0.69 3m31sRd8 -0.26 2m30s 22. 22Qf3 -0.92 13m36sNe5 -1.10 18s 23. 23Qe4 -1.02 7sNg4 -0.93 2m52s 24. 24Rce1 -1.10 1m11sNe3 -0.85 1m01s 25. 25Rf2 -1.13 2m30sRe8 -0.96 58s 26. 26Qxb7 -1.48 1m42sg5 -1.28 1m10s 27. 27Rfe2 -4.75 4m43sg4 -3.83 6m49s 28. 28Rf2 -6.47 9m09sQh6 -4.01 3m55s 29. 29Qc7 -6.51 1m39sRef8 -4.55 23s 30. 30h3 -14.64 3m01sgxh3 -12.91 1m36s 31. 31g3 #-10 14sfxg3 #-9 23s 32. 32Rxf6 #-2 20sh2+ #-1 5s 33. 33Kh1 #-1 4sg2# #0 3s for more visit….. www.chess.com/news/view/2019-grenke-chess-classic-round-8
