Francisco Vallejo Pons vs Magnus Carlsen (2011)

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Francisco Vallejo Pons vs Magnus Carlsen
Grand Slam Chess Final (2011), Sao Paulo BRA, rd 3, Sep-28
Zukertort Opening: Kingside Fianchetto (A04) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Given 13 times; par: 71 [what's this?]

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Sep-28-11		bubuli55: Who would have thought?

Sep-28-11		Wyatt Gwyon: God. What kind of time trouble was Carlsen in? That's the kind of blunder I see on chess.com playing 1600 dudes.

Sep-28-11		matey: In the post game interview Carlsen called his mistake "an optical illusion."

Sep-28-11		tharsitis: Amazing piece sacrify.So reminiscent of my last game:p

Sep-28-11		Hesam7: This gotta hurt 30. ... Qd5?? changed the evaluation from to . To add insult to injury Black could have easily wrapped things up with: 26. ... Rd3! click for larger view How do you defend against ... Rxd1 ? Here are couple of lines: <A> 27. Qc2 Be5+ 28. g3 Bxg3+ 29. Kg2 (29. fxg3? Rd2+) 29. ... Qxe4+ 30. Kg1 Bf4 31. Ne3 (defending against ... Bxc1 & ... Qe1+) 31. ... Bxe3 32. Re1 (32. fxe3 Qxe3+ is mate in 25!) 32. ... Qd5 and now 33. Rxe3 Rd1 and 33. fxe3 Rd2 both win the queen. <B> 27. Ne3 Qxf2 28. Ng4 (engine's top pick is 28. Qxc7 but then that is not worth looking from a human perspective) 28. ... Qg3+ 29. Kh1 h5 30. Nh2 Rd2 31. Qg1 (31. Rg1? Bd4) 31. ... Rf2 32. Qg1 Rxb2 33. Qf1 Rf2 34. Qg1 Qxa3 35. Rd1 Rd2 36. Qf1 Rxd1 37. Qxd1 Qa1 38. Qxa1 Bxa1 and White can resign.

Sep-28-11		whiteshark: It happens! (Dear Admin, is that ok?) :D

Sep-28-11		messachess: Paco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sep-28-11		HeMateMe: Does this mean that Pons is going to the Candidates tournament instead of MC?

Sep-28-11		whiteshark: <H#M> rofl

Sep-28-11		THE pawn: I didnt see 24...Qd2, which Carlsen played. But the moment he placed his queen there, I saw the threat of Qe1+ followed by Rd3. As soon as I saw Carlsen play Qe1+, I was certain he would go for that tactic, I can't believe not only he avoided that but he blundered his own piece a couple of moves later.

Sep-28-11		Marmot PFL: You won't find this at Reti (A04) as it soon transposes to Pirc (B08).

Sep-28-11		Honza Cervenka: Well, 30...Qd5 was a blunder. But the position of black was not so easy at that point anyway. The pin of Rd3 is quite annoying and black Pawns c and a are weak. Maybe 30...Bc3 works here but 31.Rd1 looks still quite unpleasant for black.

Sep-28-11		iking: <Wyatt Gwyon: God. What kind of time trouble was Carlsen in? That's the kind of blunder I see on chess.com playing 1600 dudes.> it does happen oftentimes ....

Sep-28-11		frogbert: <. But the position of black was not so easy at that point anyway. > true, at this point black was only clearly better, compared to simply winning some moves ago. after the correct retreat Bf6 the game might be a draw, but the position was very difficult - <for white>.

Sep-28-11		MarkusKann: 30..Qd5 ... OMG...

Sep-28-11		The silent man: A lot of people must have lost precious chessbucks today!

Sep-29-11		sebagud742001: can 30...,Rd4 work?

Sep-29-11		Hovik2009: I think Magnus definetely saw that after 30...Qd5 Knight is taking his bishop as any 1600 player could see that also, but he calculated that Paco can't do that because of 31...Rd2!! attacking black queen and f2 pawn for the mate on g2 next, unfortunantly for Magnus he didn't see simple reply 31.Qc5 getting the queen out of rooks range and deffending the f2 pawn at one shot!! I think this is what happened and what Carlsen by not seeing 31.Qc5 called an optical illusion

Sep-29-11		americanlala: both anand and carlsen lost lol

Sep-29-11		Honza Cervenka: <sebagud742001: can 30...,Rd4 work?> I doubt it. At first glance and without comp i would say that simple 31.Qxe4 Rxe4 32.Nxe5 Rxe5 33.Rxc7 Re2 34.Kg2 Rxb2 35.Rc5 winning black a-Pawn gives white a Rook ending with sound extra Pawn.

Sep-29-11		Honza Cervenka: <frogbert: <. But the position of black was not so easy at that point anyway. > true, at this point black was only clearly better, compared to simply winning some moves ago. after the correct retreat Bf6 the game might be a draw, but the position was very difficult - <for white>.> Well, you can be right that after 30...Bf6 black is still better. I don't see any immediate tactical possibility to exploit the pin of Rd3, though 31.Rd1 Rd4 32.Qxe4 Rxe4 33.Nxa5 Bxb2 with simplification looks playable at first glance but I can be wrong here. But from purely human point of view that pin of Rook is quite unpleasant and not easy to deal with in a time pressure situation. Carlsen is not a machine, not to say Rybka 4.1.:-)

Sep-29-11		arkansaw: Carlsen is only beatable, by first obtaining a losing position against him :p

Sep-29-11		wordfunph: game quote.. "Well, to unnecessarily drift into time trouble and lose a winning position in a few moves is of course outrageous." - Magnus Carlsen http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessne...

Sep-29-11		Atking: <arkansaw: Carlsen is only beatable, by first obtaining a losing position against him :p> The first step - getting a losing position - is quite easy especially vs Carlsen but alas the conclusion of your assumption doesn't work often.

Sep-29-11		frogbert: <from purely human point of view that pin of Rook is quite unpleasant and not easy to deal with> carlsen chose to enter the position with that pin himself, so i doubt he found it too unpleasant. maybe he overlooked something in the alternative (better) line with Qf3! instead of Rd3, here: click for larger view the point being that after 28... Qf3! 29. Nc3 Bd4! the rook is taboo. if 30. Qxb3?? there follows 30... Qxf2+ 31. Kh1 Qxg3! and after this "quiet" move, mate or winning the queen is forced: click for larger view there's no defence against the combined threats of Qxh3 mate and Qf3+ followed by Qf2+ and Be5 with mate on h2 (the latter if white defends h3 via Qb8+ and Qc8). 32. Qc2 Bf2 renews the threat of Qxh3 mate, and white must give up the queen. so in the 28... Qf3 line white must try 29. Nc3 Bd4 30. Rf1 or some such, after which black still has a big advantage. of course, as anyone with engines know, black had the clearer win with 26... Rd3 instead of Qxe4, but that line is again not all that clear (as long as white doesn't play like the engines and take on c7 with the queen, of course): the human approach to trying to save the d1 knight is 27. Ne3 click for larger view during the game i saw the engine line with 27. Qxc7 instead of Ne3, so I wondered what black's follow-up would be to Ne3. maybe Be5+ i thought, as it "wins" an exchange - but the problem of course, is that it runs into a perpetual. however, Qxf2 attacks the knight again: 27. Ne3 Qxf2 28. Ng4 Qg3+ 29. Kh1 h5! click for larger view if carlsen followed this line here, i doubt he feared Ne3, so i'm not sure what kind of oversight he might have made. possibly it was the Qxc7 line that scared him off after all: 27. Qxc7 Rxd1 28. Qb8+ (if Rxd1 Rxd1 then black's simply winning and has no worries) 28... Bf8 29. Rc8 might have pulled carlsen out of his comfort sone - white wins the piece back: click for larger view would you enter this position in time trouble, if there are alternatives? ;o) there are still calculation left to be done, so my guess is that Qxe4 appeared the pragmatic, safer choice for carlsen.

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