Wesley’s journey

80th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Jan. 12-28, 2018 Final Standings 1-2. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2834, Anish Giri NED 2752, 9.0/13

3- 4. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2787, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2804, 8.5/13

5-6. Viswanathan Anand IND 2767, Wesley So USA 2792, 8.0/13 7. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2753, 7.5/13 8. Peter Svidler RUS 2768, 6.0/13 9. Wei Yi CHN 2743, 5.5/13 10-12. Gawain Jones ENG 2640, Fabiano Caruana USA 2811, Maxim Matlakov RUS 2718, 5.0/13

13. Baskaran Adhiban IND 2655, 3.5/13

14. Hou Yifan CHN 2680, 2.5/13

Ave Rating 2750 Category 20

Time Control: 100 minutes for the 1st 40 moves followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves then 15 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.

Magnus Carlsen won for the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee for a record 6th time by tying for first with Anish Giri of the Netherlands and winning the blitz playoff 1.5-0.5. We will take that up in full starting Thursday. First let me finish my story on Wesley So.

One of our readers, Mr. Rafael Osumo wrote me after last Thursday’s column, the one on Wesley’s miracle win over Wei Yi. He says “Like you, I wanted Wesley to continue his “miracle” and retain his title. Last night, however, he got stuck in a difficult position against Carlsen. The chess engines were ranking the position equal but then when the Carlsen squeeze ( getting something out of nothing) started, Wesley has to give up. Three pawns versus a bishop was too much to handle. The loss somewhat stalled Wesley to 5.5 points with three rounds left. I don’t know but if he can win against Jones, Anand and Yifan, I hope he can at least finish second or third.”

The game is actually very interesting. Wesley is known for his tactical resourcefulness in difficult positions and indeed he fought tooth and nail and made it as difficult as possible for Magnus to win. Let us review that game.

Carlsen, Magnus (2834) — So, Wesley (2792) [D02] 80th Tata Steel GpA Wijk aan Zee NED (10.1), 24.01.2018

GM Jonathan Rowson wrote on twitter: “Gosh. I just saw how Magnus Carlsen defeated Wesley So. So many beautiful notes. Such fluency between forms of quality. Such confidence in transitions. Such abundant harmony. You would think he is World Champion or something...”

Well, it takes two to tango and the strength of opposition from Wesley elevates the game. 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.Bf4 Bf5 4.e3 e6 5.c4 Bxb1

The main line here is 6...c6 but taking on b1 also has its adherents. The point of course is that White now loses his right to castle after 6.Rxb1 Bb4+ the king has to go to e2 as 7.Nd2 Ne4 Black wins material. Wesley played the line twice (drew 1 lost 1) in his speed chess showdown against Magnus Carlsen in the chess.com Web site late last year. 6.Qxb1

White prefers his king on d1 rather than e2. 6...Bb4+ 7.Kd1 Bd6

Hereabouts Carlsen says that Wesley played too passively without giving an opinion on what Black should have played. Perhaps he was expecting to see this position again in the future? 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.cxd5 exd5 11.e4

Opening up the center with your king still in it looks very risky but it turns out everything is controlled, that’s why most commentators conclude that this is a prepared line. 11...Be7

[11...dxe4 12.Qxe4+ wins the pawn on b7]

12.Bb5+ c6 13.e5 Qf4 14.Bd3 c5 15.dxc5 Nc6 16.Qc1 Qb4 17.a3 Qxc5 18.Ke2 Nd4+ 19.Nxd4 Qxd4 20.f4

Black would like to play ...f6 to break open the center and get to white’s king, but first he has to castle. 20...0–0 21.Qd2

Threatens to win the black queen via Bh7+ 21...Qb6 22.Rhe1 f6 23.e6!

A deep sacrifice worthy of AlphaZero — he gives up the pawn but gets pressure down the central files. 23...Qxe6+ 24.Kf3 Qd7

Carlsen: 24...Qf7 better. 25.Rad1 Rad8

Maybe 25... f5 is best here. White can play 26.Bb1! Rad8 27.Qxd5+ Qxd5+ 28.Rxd5 Rxd5 29.Ba2 but after 29...Kh7 30.Bxd5 Bf6 it looks equal.

26. Qe3 Bd6 27. Bg6 f5 28. Qe6+ Qxe6 29.Rxe6 Bc5 30.Re5 Rf6 31.Bxf5 Bd6 32.Rdxd5 [32.Rexd5? g6]

32...Kf7

[32...g6 33.Be6+ Kg7 34.Re4 White consolidates]

33.Re4 g6 34.Bg4 h5 35.Bh3 Re8 36.Red4 <D>

POSITION AFTER 36.RED4

Carlsen thinks that he is winning easily but Wesley fights back. 36...Be5! 37.Rb4 g5! 38.g3 b6

It was very tempting to win the piece right away but after 38... g4+ 39. Bxg4 hxg4+ 40. Kxg4 Rg6+ 41. Kf3 Bd6 42.Rxb7+ Re7 Black winds up with a bishop against 4 pawns. 39.Rd7+

Magnus could have kept the piece with 39.Bf1 but he reckons: (1) that was

where Wesley wanted him to go, and (2) the ending there with a pawn up will be harder to win than if he had 3 connected passed pawns on the kingside. This is chess on a very high level! 39...Kf8 40.Rh7 g4+ 41.Bxg4 hxg4+ 42.Kxg4 Bd6 43.Rc4

In exchange for his bishop White has three connected passed pawns on the kingside. He should be winning, but it is not as easy as that.

43... a5 44. Rc6 Kg8 45. Rb7 Be5 46.Rcxb6 Rxb6 47.Rxb6 Bd4 48.Rb5 Re2 49.b3 Rxh2

Would you believe that this move, winning the h2– pawn, is the losing move? 49...a4 was the last chance to resist. The Web site Chess24 reports that when shown this move Carlsen asked what was wrong with 50.Rb4. It turns out that 50...Bg1! 51.Rxa4 Re3! draws. Magnus commented “5 pawns down and making a draw — that’s messed up!” 52.h4 Rxb3 followed by Bf2 white’s pawns on the kingside are no longer connected and it seems that is enough to draw for Black.

50.Rxa5 Re2 51.Rd5 Bb2 52.a4 Bc3 53.Kf5 Re8 54.g4 Rf8+ 55.Ke4 Rb8 56.Rb5 Re8+ 57.Kd3 Be1 58.a5 Bf2 59.b4 Re3+ 60.Kc4 Re4+ 61.Kb3 Kf7

[61...Rxf4 DF 62.Rf5+– forces the rook exchange and the black bishop cannot hold back White’s pawns]

62.Re5 Rd4 63.b5 Rd3+ 64.Kc2 Rg3 65.g5 Bd4 66.Rd5 Be3 67.Rd3 Rg2+ 68.Kb3 Bc1 [68...Bxf4 69.Rf3 Rg4 70.a6]

69.b6 Ke6 70.Rd4 Rb2+ 71.Ka4 Kf5 72.Rb4 Ra2+ 73.Kb5 Bxf4 74.Rxf4+! Kxf4 75.b7 1–0 A very hard-earned victory. Let’s get back to Raffy’s letter: “I learned to play chess late in my life, like when I was 10 years old. But when I was in high school, in Iloilo City, I met the late Florencio Campomanes during one of his sorties to Iloilo City to promote a chess tournament sponsored then by Pepsi. We played with Pepsi “tansans” embedded with carton chess pieces. I think that was in 1972 or 1973. I also followed the games of Eugene Torre, him being an Ilonggo, and whop it up when he finally got the norm to become Asia’s first GM.”

Yes I remember those days too in the 1970s. All this talk about the “Pepsi Generation” with Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, Tina Turner, etc. etc. Well I consider myself a part of the Pepsi Generation myself, but an earlier one started when Pepsi took out full-page newspaper ads with a huge chessboard printed on it which we cut out. Then we would buy Pepsi just to get its crowns with the chess pieces printed on it. It was not long before we completed all 32 pieces and now had a complete set fit for playing in kiddie tournaments!

Pepsi also sponsored the National Juniors Championship for two years. These events were really of a gigantic scale with local, provincial and regional eliminations and I remember that Frederic Tumanon won one of them and Antonio Elinon the other. If my recollection is incorrect I invite BW readers to write me with the correction.

Thank you Mr. Osumo for those memories.

I really thought that the idea of having cut-out chessboards from the newspapers and chess pieces printed on the backside of the Pepsi crowns (“tansans”) was a brilliant idea, both for chess and for Pepsi. Maybe we need something like that again to stir up chess in the countryside, for lately the flow of chess talent has not been as great as before.

You go to the ricefields of Nueva Ecija and you see the guys playing basketball during their breaks. At the end of the day they would gather around their friendly neighborhood sari-sari stores and what do they do? They talk about basketball, or open the TVs to watch basketball games! The key here is to get these guys to play chess after work in their favorite haunts, then organize local tournaments to recognize the talents and followthrough with training, tournaments with scholarships as prizes, and maybe the Philippines will start churning out the IMs and GMs again with regularity.

Come to think of it, with the passage of the TRAIN ( Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) Law as of Jan. 1, 2018 soft drinks have become so expensive (even fast food restaurants have stopped giving “unli” drinks), and they don’t sell sodas with crowns, or “tansans” anymore. Maybe they should start putting pictures of chess pieces inside the coffee 3 in 1? That’s the drink with no price increase, right? Now that’s a thought. BOBBY ANG is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant, he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies. bobby@cpamd.net