Wesley So in Stavanger
6th Altibox Norway Chess 2018 Stavanger, Norway May 27-June 8, 2018 Final Standings
1. Fabiano Caruana USA 2822, 5.0/8 2- 4. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2843, Hikaru Nakamura USA 2769, Viswanathan Anand 2760, 4.5/8
5-6. Wesley So USA 2778, Levon Aronian ARM 2764, 4.0/8
7. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2808, 3.5/8
8-9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2789, Sergey Karjakin RUS 2782, 3.0/8 Average ELO 2790 Category 22 Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves followed by the rest of the game in 15 minutes. Sixty seconds is added to your time after every move starting move 61
Wesley So has a bad score against world champion Magnus Carlsen. In 12 previous classical chess encounters he had lost 4 and drawn the rest. The 4 losses included this bad beating from the Bilbao Masters 2016 where he was outplayed like a child.
Carlsen, Magnus (2855) — So, Wesley (2770) [C65] 9th Bilbao Masters (4), 16.07.2016 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.Qe2 Qe7 7.Nbd2 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.a3
Carlsen: “I won’t hide the fact that playing h3 and a3 on consecutive moves in the opening gave me pleasure.” 9...Nd7 10.b4 Bd6 11.Nc4 f6 12.Ne3
Carlsen: “A key point of the a3–b4 operation is that the e3–square is freed up for the knight. The knight can later jump to f5 without having to play g4 first.”
12...a5 13.Nf5 Qf8 14.bxa5 Rxa5 15.0–0 Qf7
With just natural moves Magnus Carlsen has obtained a strong hold on the position. For example, Black won’t be able to castle for some time here because of White’s Bh6. 16.a4 Nc5 17.Qe1 b6 18.Nd2 Rxa4 19.Nc4 Bf8?! 20.Be3 Kd7 21.Qc3!
The threat is 22.Nxb6+ cxb6 23.Bxc5 Rxa1 24.Rxa1 and now Black can’t recapture on c5 because of the Ra7+ threat. 21...Nxe4
[ 21... Rxc4 22. dxc4 Nxe4 23. Qd3+ Nd6 24.g4 Bg6 25.Rfd1 Black is threatening both Bxb6 and Ra7.] 22.Nxb6+! cxb6 23.dxe4 Qc4
Of course not 23... Rxe4 24.Ra7+
24.Qd2+ Kc7 25.g4 Bg6 26.Rfd1 1–0
[26.Rfd1 Rxa1 27. Qd8+ Kb7 28. Rxa1 with forced mate]
That was before the two of them met in the 6th Altibox Norway Chess tournament.
In Norway it looked for a while like Magnus Carlsen was on track to win the tournament with a huge score. He beat Fabiano Caruana in the first round ( the two of them will be playing for the world championship in November of this year) and Aronian ( last year’s Altibox winner) in the third. This early he had already opened up a full point lead against the rest of the field. Then he played Wesley So.
In Magnus’ own words: “Great start, and then my tournament kind of died, but I guess it all boils down to the game with Wesley. If I don’t lose that then I’m cruising, but with that loss I couldn’t really recover.” So, Wesley (2778) — Carlsen, Magnus (2843) [D13] 6th Altibox Norway Chess Stavanger (6.1), 03.06.2018 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5
Wesley thought for eight minutes before executing this move which led some onlookers to conclude that he was in unfamiliar territory. That is of course not true — c’mon, we are only
on the third move. It was later revealed that Wesley had studied the Exchange Slav recently with another GM and was going over the lines in his head to decide whether to use it or not. It turned out to be an inspired choice. 3...cxd5 4.Bf4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nf3 a6 7.Rc1 Bf5 8.e3 Rc8
We all know that in the Slav whenever the c8– bishop goes to f5 or g4 Black has a weakness on the queenside. Some people have tried to address that weakness with 8...Qb6 9.Bd3 (9.Na4?! Qa5+ 10.Nd2 Ne4 White is already on the defensive. Mitchell,M (2266)-To,N (2413) Budapest 2010 0–1 34) 9...Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Qxb2 11.0–0 Qa3 12.Qb1 Nb4 13. e4! White is fully developed and switches over to the attack which is properly played should be fatal for Black. Nester,I (2352)-Buturin,V (2298) Lvov 2010 1–0 20. 9.Be2 e6 10.0–0 Nd7!?
Nakamura: Magnus played a line which is slightly dubious. Wesley wasn’t ready for the Slav, so he played this boring exchange, and Magnus tried to provoke him and now Magnus is in a lot of trouble.
According to the Chess Openings website www.chessopenings24–7.com the best mutual play in this line is 10... Bd6 11.Bxd6 Qxd6 12.Na4 0–0 13.Nc5 Rc7 14. Qb3 Qe7 15. Rc3 Bg4 16. Rfc1 e5 with a balanced struggle ahead. Khenkin, I ( 2609)- Karjakin, S ( 2732) Dagomys 2008 1/2 22.
Black has to know his theory. Who would think, for example, that 10...Be7 is considered inferior here? Take a look at the following game: 11.Qb3 Na5 ( 11... Qd7 12. Na4 Na5 13. Rxc8+ Qxc8 14. Qb6 Nc4 15. Qa7! 0– 0 16. Rc1 Nh5 17.Be5 f6 18.b3 Ba3 19.Rc3 Qc6 20.Bb8! g6 21. bxc4 Qxa4 22. c5 Bb4 23. Rb3 White is clearly better) 12. Qa4+ Nc6 13. Bxa6! Ra8 ( 13... bxa6 14. Ne5 Qb6 15. Ne2 Nh5 16. Nxc6 Qb5 17. Qxb5 axb5 18. Rfd1 White is clearly better) 14. Bxb7! Rxa4 15. Bxc6+ Kf8 16. Nxa4 g5 (16...Ne4? 17.Bb7 Nd6 18.Bxd6 Qxd6 19. Rc6 White is clearly winning. V. Kramnik-V. Anand, Moscow ( blitz) 2007 1–0 21) 17.Bxg5 Kg7 18.Nc3 Rg8 19. Ne5! Qa5 20. Ba4 Qb6 21. Bc2 Bg6 22. Bxg6 hxg6 23. Rc2 Qa6 24. Rfc1
Bb4? 25. Bxf6+ 1– 0 because if 25... Kxf6 then you have Nxd5+ followed by Rc6+. Zhang,P (2657)-Zhao,Z (2554) China 2007. 11.Na4 Be7 12.h3!
According to Wesley this move is important. If he plays 12.a3 immediately then Black quickly develops a kingside pawn storm with 12...g5! 13.Bg3 h5 Black quickly gains an initiative on the darksquared bishop and launches a pretty intense pawn storm. 12...0–0
Now if Black proceeds with the pawn storm then 12...g5 13.Bh2 h5 14.Nd2 g4 15.hxg4 hxg4 16.Bxg4 White has gained a pawn and Black’s kingside action can be parried. 13.a3 Na5 14.Nc5 Nc4 <D>
15.b4! Only a temporary sacrifice of the a3– pawn. Wesley will get it back soon with a dominant position.
15...Nxc5 16.dxc5 Nxa3 17.Nd4 Be4 18.f3 Bg6 19.Qb3 Nc4 20.Bxc4 dxc4 21.Qxc4 Wesley: “Here I’m a little better.”
21...Qe8
Wesley was surprised by this move — he expected 21...Bg5 to exchange some pieces. “I thought for some reason he is playing for a win again.” Black’s idea is to play 22...e5 23.Bxe5 Bxc5 with muddied waters. 22.Bg3 e5 23.Nb3 Bd8?
The alternative 23...e4 is not so appetizing either, but this move appears to be based on a miscalculation, as Wesley pointed out after the game.
24.Qd5 Simply winning a pawn, either on e5 or b7. 24...Qb5 25.Bxe5 Be7
The miscalculation Wesley was talking about is that now 25...Qxb4 is refuted by 26.Bd6 Re8 27.c6 discovering an attack on the black queen. 26.Qd2 Rfd8 27.Bd6 Bf6 28.e4 h6 29.Nd4 Bxd4+ 30.Qxd4
Bishops of opposite color have appeared on the board. This is drawish in a king+bishop+pawns endgame, but, as our BW readers know, in the middlegame the opposite colors favor the attacker.
30... Re8 31. Rfe1 Kh7 32. g4 f6 33. f4 Qc6 34. f5 Bf7 35. h4 Ra8 36.Rc2!?
A loss of time. He should have played 36.g5 right away as after 36...Bh5 37.Rc3 a5 38. Rg3 the white rook gets to the g-file right away. 36...a5 37.g5
Now 37. Rg2 allows Black to get his queen back into action with 37... Qb5 38. g5 Qc4 White is still clearly better but at least Black is still fighting. 37...Bh5 38.g6+
Wesley did not want to take any risk. It appears that 38.gxf6 is very strong but 38...Rg8! complicates matters a bit. White had only a little more than a minute left to reach the time control so he chooses prudence. 38...Kh8 39.b5 Qxb5 40.Rb2 Qc6 41.Rb6 Qc8 42.Qd5 a4
Wesley had to calculate to ensure that 42...Bxg6 does not lead to perpetual check: 43.fxg6 Qg4+ 44.Kf2 Qxh4+ 45.Bg3 the checks end. 43.Rxb7 Rg8 44.c6 1–0
And with c6–c7 followed by Rb3 staring him in the face Magnus Carlsen resigns.
Here is what Magnus Carlsen said the day before the game: “To be honest, usually nothing happens in these games. I can’t remember him ever being close to beat me. If I want a draw, I will often get it easily.”
And here is what Magnus Carlsen said after:
Carlsen: “This was not fun. Well played by So. Credit goes to him, because he played a great game.”
Finally, some respect.