Chess: Magnus Carlsen on the brink of defeat after Wesley So takes a huge lead
Magnus Carlsen is in dire trouble and losing in his home city by a huge 1.5-10.5 margin after two disastrous days for Norway’s world No 1 in a world championship final in Oslo which finishes on Saturday.
Carlsen is meeting America’s
Wesley So in a $125,000 head-to-head for the first official global title in Fischer Random chess, devised by Bobby Fischer 25 years ago. It has 960 possible starting positions of the back row pieces and is fast gaining popularity among elite grandmasters. A mass of opening theory is avoided and there are fewer draws compared with classical chess.
After a scrappy draw in the first game, Carlsen’s form dipped alarmingly, recalling the speed games at St Louis in August where he made numerous
blunders. Losing three games in a row is almost unheard of in his entire career, and his play deteriorated during the sequence. In his third defeat he began with a bizarre advance of his flank a2 pawn to a6, while So calmly took control of the centre and remained with the advantage throughout.
Games at slower speeds count for three points, against two points for fast rapid and one for blitz. Although eight games remain, So’s nine-point lead with just 12 points left on the table should be decisive, but he remains wary: “It’s Magnus. Had I played against others I would have said that it’s over, but not now. I think he’s going to get into good shape tomorrow and will fight hard.”
A year ago Carlsen won an unofficial Fischer Random title match convincingly and he was confident before the start this week: “Whenever there are titles to be won, I want to have them. That’s my general mindset.” His 12.5-7.5 semi-final victory against his old rival Fabiano Caruana seemed to confirm his good form. Carlsen won that match with a day to spare, not needing the four scheduled blitz games. He was specially proud of one win.
In a game where the queens started on f1 and f8 with bishops at a1 and h8, Caruana opened 1 g3,which was countered by d5 2 b3 e6 3 Qh3?! g5! 4 Bxh8 Rxh8 5 0-0 h5! Carlsen said later “This is why we like Fischer Random. You play g5 and h5 and suddenly your position is great.”
The final continues online on chess.com/tv and twitch.tv/chess, starting at 4pm on Saturday, where viewers can study Carlsen and So up close with full coverage and move-by-move commentary .
England’s team, who won silver at the world championships in March, were again in medal contention this week in the European championships at Batumi, Georgia.
In round eight (of nine) England’s chances against the No 1 seeds, Russia, deteriorated in the fourth hour when Luke McShane’s defensive position crumbled under attack from Nikita Vitiugov and the Englishman lost decisive material.
But then David Howell drew with Kirill Alekseenko, Gawain Jones recovered from the verge of defeat against Maxim Matlakov while Michael Adams on top board nursed an extra pawn to victory against Dmitry Andreikin, to make the score England 2 Russia 2.
Scores after eight rounds were Ukraine and Russia 13, England 12, Armenia, Germany and Croatia 11. So England have a medal chance in Saturday’s final round, which starts early, at 7am in London.
Russia’s Daniil Dubov, the world rapid champion and aide to Carlsen in his title match against Caruana, scored the most brilliant win of the Euroteams, and one of the outstanding wins of the year in Russia v Germany when he chased the black king all the way across the board and checkmated it inside the white camp.
3643 (Black moves first) 1 Kb2 Rd5 2 Kc3 Rc5+ 3 Kd4 Nb3 mate. Composer Pal Benko, who died in August at 91, was twice a world championship candidate. He had another chance in 1970 but gave up his interzonal place to Bobby Fischer, who went on to win the world crown. The Benko Gambit 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 is named after him and he was also a brilliant and prolific composer of offbeat puzzles.