TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
44th Biel Chess Festival 2011 (4)
Carlsen moves further clear with quick win against Caruana
Mark Crowther - Friday 22nd July 2011
Carlsen won yet against, this time against Caruana in Round 4. | http://www.bielchessfestival.ch
Magnus Carlsen moved to 10 points out of a possible 12 after four rounds of the 44th International Chess Festival in Biel. He put the maximum pressure on Fabiano Caruana and eventually his opponent didn't find the single defensive move that would have saved him. The other games were drawn. Whilst Carlsen was playing his country Norway was subject to extraordinary terrorist attacks out of the blue and one wonders if this may have an affect on him. Round 5 1pm UK time on Saturday 23rd July: Vachier-Lagrave-Carlsen, Caruana-Morozevich and Pelletier-Shirov.
Magnus Carlsen won yet again in a fascinating Scotch Game against Fabiano Caruana. Carlsen was in danger almost from the start of allowing his opponent immediate equality but instead sacrificed an exchange which set all sorts of problems. There were a couple of chances for black to activate his pieces better than in the game. After 25.f4 his position was critical. As it was he had one escape route, one that only involved very short lines of calculation but nevertheless is a line a computer finds easier to find than a human. With 25...Ne3 Caruana would have had full equality but he did not find it and resigned on move 27. Whilst this last chance doesn't make the game perfect we again see Carlsen's ability to squeeze the maximum from a position that others might allow to slide to a quick draw.
Carlsen,Magnus (2821) - Caruana,Fabiano (2711) [C45]
Biel ACCENTUS GM Biel SUI (4), 22.07.2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bd3 Qh4 7.Qe2 Ne7
[7...Nf6 8.h3 d5 9.g3 Qh5 was 0-1 in 68 moves Ivanchuk,V (2739)-Malakhov,V (2706)/Warsaw POL 2009]
8.Nc3 0-0 9.Be3 Bb6 10.0-0 d5 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Bd2 Bd4 13.Rae1 Nb4 14.Qe4 Qxe4 15.Bxe4 Ba6 16.Ne2 Bc5 17.a3 Nd5 18.b4 Bd6
[18...Rfe8]
19.Nd4!
Fabiano Caruana
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Magnus Carlsen
Position after 19.Nd4
White sets all sorts of problems with this exchange sacrifice. Alternatives such as Bd3 are obviously nothing at all.
19...Bxf1 20.Kxf1 Nb6
It may be this is a mistaken idea as white's plan involves hunting this knight down.
[20...Rae8]
21.Nxc6 Rfe8 22.a4 Kf8 23.a5 Nc4 24.Bc1 a6
[24...f5 trying to develop the pieces he has at the cost of a pawn was worthy of consideration. 25.Bxf5 Rxe1+ 26.Kxe1 Re8+ 27.Kd1 Ne5]
25.f4!?
Fabiano Caruana
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Magnus Carlsen
Position after 25.f4!?
If white delays this then black really will play f5.
25...Re6?
There is now only one move for black here, I'm not at all sure Caruana shouldn't have been able to find it, if not by anything else a process of elimination. Unless he didn't spot what bad trouble his knight was in.
[25...Ne3+!! with an interference theme. 26.Rxe3 Bxf4 27.Rf3 (27.Re1 Bxc1) 27...Bxc1 is equal.]
26.Bd5
winning material and nor is it the only move for white that is good here.
26...Rf6 27.Re4 1-0
See Carlsen's video commentary on the game. He missed 25...Ne3! until after he had played f4 but admitted that he probably didn't have anything by now anyway.
Alexei Shirov drew with white against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew by repetition after 24 moves of a Sicilian where he was in danger of being worse. Vachier could have continued if he wanted.
Yannick Pelletier managed to set up a fully blockaded position where his light squared bishop was a defensive plus on the black side of a French Defence against Alexander Morozevich.
Commentary on event itself is being broadcast for free on ChessBase' PlayChess site who are experimenting with some analytical demonstration methods of the players post-match commentary, you watch the YouTube videos of the result: Biel Video Analysis Page, and they seem to be publishing the onscreen analysis in PGN files: (eg. ChessBase's Biel Round 3 Report)
Note that the organisers are using three points for a win and one for a draw.
| Biel ACCENTUS GM 2011 Biel (SUI), 18-29 vii 2011 | cat. XIX (2709) | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||||||||
| 1. | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2821 | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | . | 1 | . | . | . | 1 | . | 10 | 3013 |
| 2. | Morozevich, Alexander | g | RUS | 2694 | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | . | . | 6 | 2806 |
| 3. | Shirov, Alexei | g | ESP | 2714 | 0 | . | ½ | . | * | * | . | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | 5 | 2737 |
| 4. | Pelletier, Yannick | g | SUI | 2590 | 0 | . | ½ | . | . | . | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | . | 3 | 2650 |
| 5. | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | g | FRA | 2722 | . | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | . | 3 | 2590 |
| 6. | Caruana, Fabiano | g | ITA | 2711 | 0 | . | . | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | * | * | 2 | 2518 |
| Round 4 (July 22, 2011) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlsen, Magnus | - Caruana, Fabiano | 1-0 | 27 | C45 | Scotch Game | |
| Morozevich, Alexander | - Pelletier, Yannick | ½-½ | 31 | C10 | French Rubinstein | |
| Shirov, Alexei | - Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | ½-½ | 24 | B90 | Sicilian Najdorf Variation | |
View the games on this Page
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