Magnus Carlsen was in 3rd-4th places after five rounds, climbing to a tie for 2nd with two rounds left (avenging his 3rd round loss to Vallejo in the 8th). He then thumped tournament leader Ivanchuk in the 9th and drew with Nakamura in the last round, to end in a tie for first with the unpredictable Ukrainian. The two then played a two-game blitz tie breaker which the 20-year-old Norwegian won.
“Who plays better, Ivanchuk in good form or Carlsen?” asks Israeli GM Boris Gelfand, who will challenge Anand for the world title next year. “It seems to me it’s Ivanchuk in good form.”
Well, Carlsen just dominated Ivanchuk in an elite tournament, beating Chuckie three times in four games!
Final standings: Carlsen, Ivanchuk 15 points, Nakamura, Aronian, Anand 12, Vallejo 10. Blitz playoff: Carlsen 1.5-0.5 Ivanchuk.
Here’s what Mark Crowther, our annotator, has to say about the recently ended event:
“Vassily Ivanchuk…played a fine tournament but his play was more uneven. The mugging in Sao Paulo can’t have helped but also Ivanchuk has had a very busy recent schedule too. Nevertheless he added so much to this event given the disappointing nature of some of the other performances.
“Hikaru Nakamura will be very disappointed with his final result but there are clear signs that the changes he decided to make to his game after winning in Wijk aan Zee at the start of the year are beginning to work. It was a brave decision, not to play the U.S. championships, the probable work he is doing with Garry Kasparov, the change in opening repertoire. All of which takes time to work but it will be interesting to see what happens in Moscow and London later in the year.
“Levon Aronian was below par throughout with his win against Viswanathan Anand one of the few bright spots. He has had his ups and downs in his career and hopefully he will be better in Moscow.
“Viswanathan Anand has done it all, he has had a stellar tournament career and it is clear that the title of world champion is now his priority, as with so many other champions of the past. My guess is Anand will aim to play a lot better at the Tal Memorial where all but Vallejo will play and the lowest rated player is the fantastically talented Ian Nepomniachtchi. He will have to.
“As for Francisco Vallejo Pons I doubt very much he enjoyed the challenge of playing this event very much where he was targeted every round. He’s a good and very strong professional but the other players are different class. With the luck he had he managed to avoid losing too many rating points but these tournaments can take quite some time to recover from.”
Game of the week.
White: M. Carlsen (2823)
Black: V. Ivanchuk (2765)
Nimzo-Indian Defense
4th Final Masters Sao Paulo/Bilbao 2011
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 b6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.Qxc3 Ne4 8.Qc2 f5 9.g3 Nf6 10.Bh3 [10.Bg2 0-1 Rossen,C (2168)-Hansen,S (2552)/Copenhagen DEN 2004/The Week in Chess 508 (81)] 10…0-0 11.0-0 a5 12.Rd1 Qe8 13.d5 Na6 14.Bf4 exd5 15.Bxf5 dxc4 16.Ng5 Qh5 17.Rxd7! Already black’s position is thoroughly unpleasant but there really isn’t anything concrete. 17…Kh8 18.Re7 Nd5 19.Bg4 Qg6 20.Nf7+ Kg8 21.Bf5 Qxf5! Carlsen was big enough to admit he didn’t see this queen sacrifice and is very lucky not to be just losing here. 22.Qxf5 Nxe7 23.Nh6+! This move rescues things for Carlsen. The position is roughly dynamically equal but even as the game goes you’d rather be white in this position any day. 23…gxh6 24.Qg4+ Ng6 25.Bxh6 Rf7 26.Rd1 Re8 27.h4 Nc5 28.h5 Bc8 29.Qxc4 Ne5 Black had about two minutes for the rest of the game now. 30.Qh4 Nc6 31.Rd5 Ne6 32.Qc4 Ncd8? It is here the Ivanchuk missed that this move unprotects the bishop. [32…Ne7 33.Re5 Nf5 34.Rxf5 Rxf5 35.Qg4+ Ng5 36.Bxg5 Rxf2 37.Qc4+ Rf7] 33.Qg4+! Ng7 34.Qxc8 1-0.
Puzzler.
White: Ka5, Nb5, Qc1, Bd3, pawn on d4
Black: Kd5, Ne5, pawns on a6 and f3
White to play and mate in three moves.
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