Hi all,
Today I had the pleasure of following closely the games that were played on the first day of the World Blitz Chess Championship in Dubai.
After the first day it is Magnus Carlsen who leads the field with a whopping 9 out of 11!
I noticed that also in Blitz he has a great love and feel for the endgame and that is where today he scored a lot of his points.
There was one classical example that stood out, Carlsen – Le from the 7th round.
It was classical in the sense that White (on the light squares) had the proverbial “good” bishop versus the notorious “bad bishop” for Black.
All white’s pawns were on dark squares and all of Black’s on light squares.
But that in itself was not enough to win.
In order to obtain real winning chances, Carlsen initiated a nice sequence of breaks on the kingside of which the ultimate goal was to gain space and cramp Black’s position.
Then in the end some tiresome manoeuvring did the trick.
Towards the end of the game no piece had been taken nor had a pawn been moved during fifty moves.
But to realize and claim that would have been very difficult for Le.
You can replay the game below, I have annotated it lightly:
[pgn]
[Event “World Blitz 2014”]
[Site “Dubai”]
[Date “2014.06.19”]
[Round “7.1”]
[White “Carlsen, Magnus”]
[Black “Le, Quang Liem”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A49”]
[WhiteElo “2837”]
[BlackElo “2817”]
[Annotator “Waldemar Moes,Better Your Chess”]
[PlyCount “205”]
[EventDate “2014.??.??”]
[WhiteClock “0:00:15”]
[BlackClock “0:00:05”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 d5 5. c4 c6 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. Ne5 O-O 8. Nc3
e6 9. O-O Nfd7 10. Nf3 Nf6 11. Bf4 Nc6 12. Rc1 Bd7 13. Qd2 Rc8 14. Ne5 Qe7 15.
Rfd1 Rfd8 16. Bg5 Qf8 17. h4 h6 18. Bxf6 Bxf6 19. f4 h5 20. e3 Be8 21. Bf3 Ne7
22. Kf2 Nf5 23. Ne2 Qd6 24. Qa5 Qb6 25. Qxb6 axb6 26. Rxc8 Rxc8 27. Rc1 Ra8 28.
a3 Nd6 29. Nc3 Kf8 $2 30. e4 $1 dxe4 31. Nxe4 Bxe5 32. dxe5 Nxe4+ 33. Bxe4 Bc6
34. Ke3 $14 Ke7 35. Bd3 $5 (35. Bxc6 Rc8 36. Rc4 bxc6 37. Ra4 $14) 35… Ra5
36. Rc3 Rc5 37. Rb3 b5 38. Rc3 $1 Rxc3 (38… Rd5 39. Be4 Rd1 40. Bxc6 bxc6 41.
Rxc6 $14) 39. bxc3 Kd7 40. Kd4 b6 41. Ke3 Kc7 42. Kd2 Bd7 43. Ke3 Kc6 44. Kd4
Kc7 45. Be2 Bc6 46. g4 $1 {White tries to get to the base of the pawn chain at
f7!} hxg4 47. Bxg4 Kd7 48. Be2 Kc7 49. h5 gxh5 50. Bxh5 $16 {White has reached
a strategically winning position!} Be8 {This fails tactically.} (50… Kd7 51.
Bxf7 Bf3 52. Bg6 Bg4 53. Bd3 Kc6 54. Ke3 {should also win in the end.}) 51. f5
Kd7 (51… exf5 52. e6 $18) 52. f6 $1 {This space gaining move seals the deal
even though the blitz factor makes it still quite difficult to let the reality
of the situation sink in and execute the correct plan immediately. The idea is
to attack f7 once more with the white King while it is not possible for the
Black king to help in the defense of that pawn as well.} Kc7 53. Bf3 ({A
direct line would be:} 53. Ke4 Kc6 54. Bd1 $1 Kc5 55. Bb3 {cutting the Black
king} Kc6 56. Kf4 Kc5 57. Kg5 Kc6 (57… Bc6 58. Bxe6) 58. Kh6 Kc5 59. Kg7 Kc6
60. Kf8 Kd7 61. Bd1 Kd8 62. Bh5 {and all becomes clear. Obviously this was
impossible to work out with seconds on the clock. Instead Carlsen tries to
edge Black out in other ways, probably letting the advantage slip here and
there.}) 53… Bc6 54. Be2 $2 {This allows the king to take over as a defender
of f7.} Be8 (54… Kd7 55. Bh5 Ke8 56. Ke3 Bb7 57. Kf4 Bc6 58. Kg5 Be4 59. Kh6
Kf8 $1 {and for the moment White is halted.}) 55. Bd1 Bd7 56. Bb3 $2 (56. Bh5
$1) 56… Be8 $2 57. Ke4 $2 (57. Bd1 $1) 57… Kd8 58. Kf4 Bd7 59. Bd1 Bc6 60.
Be2 Bd7 61. Bd3 Bc6 62. Ke3 Kc7 $2 63. Kd2 $2 (63. Bg6 $1 Be8 64. Bh5) 63…
Be8 $2 64. Be4 $2 (64. Be2 $1) 64… Bc6 $2 65. Bc2 $2 Be8 66. Kd3 Kc6 $2 67.
Kd4 $1 Kc7 68. Ke4 (68. Bd1) 68… Bc6+ 69. Kf4 Kd8 70. Bb3 Bd7 71. Kg5 Ke8 72.
Kh6 Kf8 73. Bc2 Bc6 74. Kh7 Bd5 75. Bd3 Bc6 76. Be2 Be4+ 77. Kh8 Bc6 78. Bf1 {
(!)} Bd7 79. Bg2 Be8 80. Bb7 Bd7 81. Ba6 Bc6 82. Bc8 Be4 83. Bd7 {Carlsen now
tries to box in Black’s king on the king side, but in itself that is not
winning.} Bd3 84. Bc6 Bc4 85. Kh7 Bd3+ 86. Kh6 Kg8 87. Kg5 Bc4 88. Kf4 Kh7 89.
Kg5 Kg8 90. Bd7 Kh7 91. Be8 {gaining a tempo.} Kg8 92. Kf4 Kf8 93. Bc6 Kg8 94.
Ke4 Kh7 95. Kd4 Bf1 96. Be8 Kg6 97. Ke3 Kf5 {The Black king has come out of
the box via the King side and does some attacking of it’s own. But Carlsen has
some new ideas on the queen side up his sleeve.} 98. Kd4 Kg6 99. Ke4 Bc4 100.
Kf4 Bf1 101. Bc6 Kh6 102. Bb7 Bc4 {The fifty-move rule!} 103. Ba6 {and in this
position faced with the threat of a3-a4, Quang Liem Le lost on time.} 1-0
[/pgn]