TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
Magnus Carlsen Invitational 2020 (Day 15)
Carlsen comes very close to elimination from his own invitational before beating Ding to reach the final
Mark Crowther - Saturday 2nd May 2020
Carlsen just after winning game three against Ding to level the match. Photo © | https://chess24.com
Magnus Carlsen came back from the dead to beat Ding Liren 2.5-1.5 and reach the final of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational where he will meet Hikaru Nakamura tomorrow.
"I think there were clearly two phases of this match, the first one was the first 1½ games where I felt that I had some slight initiative but everything was kind of normal, and after that it was just mayhem." - Magnus Carlsen.
After a well played draw in a London System in game one, Carlsen blundered his position away with one move in game two, in game three, another London, a poor move from Carlsen early on left Ding well placed but Carlsen generated chances and eventually a winning position, even then Ding missed a final chance to save the game. The final game was another extremely tense affair where Ding turned down a draw by repetition, and then after some adventures his position fell apart, but Ding himself also had chances to win himself in this final phase. A more detailed summary of the games in the body of the article.
Final Day 16 Sunday 3rd May 2020 3pm BST Magnus Carlsen vs Hikaru Nakamura
Summary of the games
Game one was a London System where Carlsen seemed to get a little something in a fairly topical line but there weren't any clear chances. Game two was a Giuoco Pianissimo where Ding seemed to be pushing for some time but eventually Carlsen at least equalised and spent 5 minutes considering his 31st move, he thought he must be a tiny bit better but couldn't find anything forcing, most likely 31...Rc3 is the move he should have played, instead he played the immediately losing 31...Kh7?? Carlsen said he had a complete blind spot about the white Queen arriving on d2 or e3 which delivers mate, instead he only considered 33.Qe2 which is most likely the square the queen would have gone to if had played Rc3. After 32.Rxf6 gxf6 33.Qe3 Carlsen had not choice but to resign.
In game three the London System appeared on the board again and Carlsen completely messed things up with the very poor 8.cxd4 allowing 8...Bxf4 wrecking his pawn structure. Carlsen admitted he was feeling very bad at this point, almost wanting to offer a draw so that "at least he had a theoretical chance" of levelling the match in game 4. But quite quickly the game became complicated and after 20...f6 Carlsen was at least equal, 24.f5 exf5? (24...Rae8=) gave Carlsen a very good if not winning position but Ding found a tremendous shot with 27...Nd2! It shouldn't save black but Carlsen's 31.Bxf5 allowed the possibility of 31...Qe7 with equality, instead the zwischenzug 31.Qa8+ was winning. 31...Nf3 allowed mate in four which Carlsen didn't miss.
The final game of the match was also a fantastic fight with Ding offering an exchange which at the second time of asking Carlsen took on move 28 only to regret it as white got the initiative. With little time Ding turned down a draw by repetition with 37.Nc3 - things got really messy and both players had chances before 44.Qf1? (44.Qb1=) 44...Bg7 (Rd7 is winning) 45.Bc2 Rd7 ended the game and the match immediately.
"As far as tensions go, as much as I've experience in a long time. I feel the same way as I felt after game 10 of the match in London with Fabi, that's really the sort of feeling I had" Carlsen.
"I'm finding it exremely tough to play him [Ding] and I think so will other people who try to stand in his way." Carlsen
Ding and Fabiano Caruana won $30,000 for finishing joint 3rd. The winner tomorrow will win $70,000 and the loser $45,000.
View the games on this Page
Download the PGN from this page
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