Magnus Carlsen vs Pavel Eljanov (2008)

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Magnus Carlsen vs Pavel Eljanov
Corus Group A (2008), Wijk aan Zee NED, rd 2, Jan-13
Gruenfeld Defense: Three Knights Variation. Petrosian System (D91) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Given 27 times; par: 83 [what's this?]

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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 12 OF 12 · Later Kibitzing>
Jan-13-08		frogbert: eljanov had enough and resigned.

Jan-13-08		Marmot PFL: Not much black could have done with 2 pawns down and the rook tied to the f pawn.

Jan-13-08		chessgames.com: That's all for today; thanks to everybody who stopped by to contribute. Come back tomorrow for round #3, same time, 7:30am (USA/Eastern).

Jan-13-08		alexmagnus: <R+N vs. R is draw> By far not always. It's even less drawish than R+B vs R.

Jan-13-08		CapablancaFan: Sorry <jeremy24> for being so sarcastic, but I got a good laugh how you believed black still had a "playable" position.

Jan-13-08		MindCtrol9: Then,I was right to say:If I were playing Black,I give this game up.

Jan-13-08		keypusher: And there's the dancing rook...a little later than I expected him, but all's well that ends well.

Jan-13-08		frogbert: <to have computers show he probably had a draw.> i don't think there was a sure draw for mamedyarov yesterday. also, like today's game also showed, in worse positions, even the top gms don't defend perfectly. in practical play, i'm convinced carlsen would've won yesterday's game if played out. :o)

Jan-13-08		SCUBA diver: Why don't they show the other games. Enough dancing. ..

Jan-13-08		Eyal: <[Carlsen] has lost one theoretically drawn endgame against Kramnik if memory serves> Against Aronian, actually: Aronian vs Carlsen, 2006. But he repaid him in squeezing a win out of a theoretically drawn position in Carlsen vs Aronian, 2007 ...

Jan-13-08		MindCtrol9: <My opinion is that Eljanov could do much better in this game.Carlsen had a plan where Eljavov could not figure it out right,going to a final no favorable,and why he lost this game>

Jan-13-08		keypusher: <<R+N vs. R is draw> By far not always. It's even less drawish than R+B vs R.> The reverse is true, I think. E.g. Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual: <A draw with a rook against a rook and knight is not a hard procedure.> Or Lamprecht and Mueller's Fundamental Chess Endings: <The pawnless ending [with rook and knight] has a much greater drawish tendency than rook and bishop vs rook.>

Jan-13-08		CapablancaFan: <Ulhumbrus> I agree with you. White's win, if black wanted to put up fierce resistance, would'nt be a cake walk, but in the end, all he would have done was drag the game out an extra 10 or 15 moves.

Jan-13-08		Ezzy: Carlsen,Magnus (2733) - Eljanov,Pavel (2692) [D91] Corus Chess 2008 Wijk aan Zee (2), 13.01.2008 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg5 Ne4 6.Bh4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 dxc4 8.Qa4+ Qd7 9.Qxc4 b6 10.e3 Ba6 11.Qb3 Bxf1 12.Kxf1 0–0 13.Ke2 c5 14.dxc5 Na6 15.Rhd1 Qb7 16.c6 Qxc6 17.Bxe7 Rfe8 18.Ba3 Qxc3< Novelty I think. 18...Rad8 has been played before.> 19.Qxc3 Bxc3 20.Rac1 Bb4 21.Bb2 Bf8 22.Nd4 Nc5 23.g4 Re4 24.Kf3 Rae8 25.h3 f6 26.Ba3 Kf7 27.Rc2 Na6?!< A strange choice of move removing his well placed knight and allowing Carlsen an entry point with his rook. Perhaps this move should have 1 question mark because whites rook now runs the game keeping black restricted. I still can't see what 27..Na6 was meant to achieve.> 28.Bxf8 Kxf8 29.Rc6 Kg7 30.Nb5 R4e7 31.Rdd6 Nc5 32.Nc7< [32.Rxf6 Nd7 33.g5 Ne5+ 34.Ke2 Nxc6 35.Rxc6 Re5 Favors black] >32...Rf8 33.h4 Rff7 34.Nd5 Rd7 35.Rxd7 Nxd7 36.Kg3 Nc5 37.f3 h6 38.Nf4 g5? <This doesn't turn out well. It gives the white knight more freedom to keep the pressure on f6.> 39.Nh5+ Kg6 40.f4 gxf4+ 41.exf4 Kh7 42.f5< [42.Nxf6+?? Rxf6 43.Rxf6 Ne4+; 42.Rxf6?? Ne4+] >42...Kg8 43.Kf3 <This now stops blacks knight fork and so threatens 44 Nxf6> 43...Nd7 44.Ke4 Kf8 45.Rc8+ Ke7 46.Kd5 b5 47.Rh8 Nb6+ 48.Kc6 Nc4 49.Ra8 Ne5+ 50.Kc5 Nd7+< [50...Nxg4 51.Nf4 Ne5 52.Nd5+ Kd7 53.Rxa7+ Ke8 54.Nc7+ Kf8 55.Kxb5]> 51.Kxb5 Kd6 52.Rxa7 Rf8 53.Kb4 Nc5 54.Kc4<And the win is easy for a Grandmaster. Carlsen has a dominant king, a passed 'a' pawn and an easy breakthrough on the kingside. Too much for black to cope with>. 1–0 Nice positional win by Carlsen. Textbook stuff. Controlling an open file and using an active king. Eljanov didn’t read the textbook and allowed Carlsen to infiltrate with his rook. So 2/2 for young Magnus. All the world will be glued to his games now, especially Norway. What a start for the youngster!

Jan-13-08		Kaspy2: I knew why I would bet some chessbucks on win for Carlsen and won. maybe I change my nickname, too.

Jan-13-08		notyetagm: From http://www.coruschess.com/report.ph... <The Norwegian Wonderboy had a pleasant endgame advantage out of the opening and gradually improved the activity of his pieces (compare the positions after 19...Bxc3, 31.Rdd6 and finally 48.Kc6.> Position after 19 ... ♗g7x♕c3 click for larger view Position after 31 ♖d1-d6 click for larger view Position after 48 ♔d5-c6 click for larger view

Jan-13-08		notyetagm: <Ezzy: ... Na6?!< A strange choice of move removing his well placed knight and allowing Carlsen an entry point with his rook. Perhaps this move should have 1 question mark because whites rook now runs the game keeping black restricted. I still can't see what 27..Na6 was meant to achieve.>> Position after 27 ... ♘c5-a6? click for larger view I totally agree. I cannot see a reason why in the world Eljanov played this bad move. He plays the well-placed Black c5-knight to the edge of the board, lets the White c2-rook penetrate to c6, then puts the Black knight -back- on c5 on move 31 after White has doubled rooks on the 6th rank. Talk about closing the barn door after the horses have escaped! Position after 31 ... ♘a6-c5 click for larger view It almost seems that the point of 27 ... ♘c5-a6? is to allow -White- to activate -his- rooks! It is an unbelievably bad move for a grandmaster to make.

Jan-13-08		Ezzy: <notyetagm: Talk about closing the barn door after the horses have escaped!> An excellent way to explain it! I think I will demote 27...Na6?! to 27...Na6? Probably some kind of explanation for the move is that it was extremely difficult to find a decent move anyway. Anything but that though.

Jan-14-08		notyetagm: http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/fil... click for larger view <32.Nc7 [32.Rxf6? Nd7 33.Rfd6 Ne5+ ]> click for larger view So the Black f6-pawn is taboo on move 32 since 32 ♖d6xf6? ♘c5-d7! is a <DOUBLE ATTACK> against the White f6-rook and the e5-forking square, winning the Exchange.

Jan-17-08		THE pawn: Magnus has a good streak of won endgames from his last tournaments, most of them being quite impressive. Magnus bears a reputation of being a very aggressive player, but he sure knows how to grind his opponents down too. Quite the profile of a world champion.

Jan-17-08		sandmanbrig: I think eljanov misjudged the endgame.

Jan-30-11		notyetagm: Game Collection: Knight changes color with tempo,forks forking sq

Feb-02-11		notyetagm: Game Collection: KNIGHT CHANGES COLOR WITH TEMPO,FORKS FORKING SQ

Mar-28-12		notyetagm: Game Collection: NAVARA SQUARE: A KNIGHT CHANGES COLOR WITH TEMPO Carlsen vs Eljanov, 2008 So the Black f6-pawn is taboo on move 32 since 32 d6xf6? c5-d7! is a <DOUBLE ATTACK> against the White f6-rook and the e5-forking square, winning the Exchange.

Jan-11-16		yiotta: This game is worth some serious study; Carlsen is so patient, creating pressure on the kingside, improving the king's position, really a positional crush. Nothing flashy and violent, like the Grunfelds Kasparov and Karpov treated us to, or Fischer, more like Petrosian.

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