Oct-14-20
 | | An Englishman: Good Afternoon: 42. White to Play will become a nice midweek puzzle some day. After 20.Bxf6, it became quite obvious which piece would find a permanent home on d5. Funny how often a Knight on that square will facilitate a mating attack. |
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| Oct-14-20 | | Ulhumbrus: Both Kramnik and Carlsen said that after 21 Nd2 Black's position was strategically lost. One example of a reason for that is that Black's black bishop lacks any good targets and is almost worthless compared to White's knight so that for the rest of the game Black cannot avoid playing in effect with a piece less. Botvinnik has said that in positions of opposite coloured bishops the player who has the initiative plays in effect with an extra piece. This suggests that Carlsen's advantage is similar to that of a position with opposite coloured bishops where he has the initiative and plays in effect a piece ahead. |
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Oct-14-20
 | | keypusher: 
click for larger viewFinal position. One of the many great things about this game is, after 45....Rxf6 46.Qxe8, the rook is trapped. |
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Oct-14-20
 | | perfidious: Yet another example of why the main lines of the Closed Spanish fell from favour during the 1970s: the worst minor piece on the board does little but constrict its own army and is worse than useless at the finish. |
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Oct-14-20
 | | Diademas: <An Englishman: Good Afternoon: 42. White to Play will become a nice midweek puzzle some day.> Tari must be sick and tired of seeing Magnus throwing his rooks at him. In the last round, A Tari vs Carlsen, 2020, 26...Re1!! spelled doom. This time it was 42.Re8! |
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Oct-14-20
 | | Sally Simpson: ***
it is a good game K.P. Classic example of a Good Knight v Bad Bishop, the cherry on top was the Rook sac. It was obvious from the moment White played Bxf6 the d5 Knight outpost was a moth to flame plan and when the Knight finally settled on d5 Black's problems really began. I wonder if Carlsen would have bought the d5 Knighpost for a pawn here (Black to play.) 
click for larger viewBlack played 31...h5 a move which Carlsen used to good effect later by opening the h-file. (h3 and g4). However 31...Rb3 32.Rc1 Rb7 is annoying tame (33.Ne2 Bh6 and Bxe3) so I reckon Carlsen would have gone for the positional pawn sac 32. Ne3 Rxc3 33.Nd5 and cooked up enough OTB problems to still win though if Black plays possum with his pawns Carlsen will have more work to do. After 31...h5 White gets the d5 outpost for free, opens the h-file, ties Black in knots and wraps it up wonderfully. *** |
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Oct-14-20
 | | chancho: Outstanding tactical play. Carlsen's renown in the Chess world for his positional play and endgame technique, but he is demonstrating sublime mastery in just about every facet of the game these days. |
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| Oct-14-20 | | SChesshevsky: Speaking in generalities, seems black is under serious pressure when white is able to invade on the Queen side with rook and/ or queen in the RL. Some examples that come to mind was kind of famous Deep Blue - Kasparov, Fischer - Spassky 1992, game 1 maybe, a Kasparov- Karpov 1990 match game, and a Polgar win in 1993 match with Spassky. Could be since Black usually has to deal with king side pressure routinely, another possible area of serious attack is too difficult to handle? Don't remember any other decisive Carlsen RL queen side invasions. Think he likes to focus more king side directly. But here seems Tari was nice enough to open the door. |
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Oct-15-20
| | chancho: I was thinking about this game and then remembered this one: Botvinnik vs G Szilagyi, 1966 There are similarities in how Magnus recognized the importance of the c4 and d5 squares (just as Botvinnik did) and he made use of them to reach a winning position and ended the game with a nice tactical finish. |
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| Oct-16-20 | | MordimerChess: Video analysis of this game:
https://youtu.be/Q3WvnAambgA
Enjoy! |
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| Oct-18-20 | | Ulhumbrus: Both Kramnik and Carlsen said that after 21 Nd2 Black's position was strategically lost. One example of a reason for that is that Black's black bishop lacks any good targets and is almost worthless compared to White's knight so that for the rest of the game Black cannot avoid playing in effect with a piece less. Botvinnik has said that in positions of opposite coloured bishops the player who has the initiative plays in effect with an extra piece. This suggests that Carlsen's advantage is similar to that of a position with opposite coloured bishops where he has the initiative and plays in effect a piece ahead. If 21 Nd2 threatens to play with an extra piece for the rest of the game this suggests the pawn sacrifice 21...c4 in order to open the diagonal g1-a7 for the use of Black's bishop, in order to get at least some useful work out of it. |
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| Jan-22-21 | | Gaito: This was a wonderful positional game in the best style of the great positional masters of the past, like Rubinstein, Tarrasch or Botvinnik. With very few exceptions, Magnus Carlsen always played the very best move or the best recommendation of the engines Stockfish 12 or LcZero, so I would call him "Magnus Stockarlsen". Black's position was gradually squeezed and left devoid of good moves or any counterplay. According to the engines, 25.Qd1?! was one of the very few moves by White that was not thoroughly accurate, as it allowed 25...Qh3!, a move that Aryan Tari did not play. He was not given a second chance, as Magnus quickly played 26.Kg2 with a view to preventing that possibility.
This game has a lot of teachings for the practical student, for example: 36.h3!, so as to answer ...h4 with g4, and Black is completely suffocated. Likewise, after 38...Rd7 39.Ra8! is an instructive move ("An awkward position can be somewhat relieved with exchange of pieces"), avoiding the exchange of rooks.
Another instructive move was 20.Bxf6! with a view to reaching a typical ending of knight versus weak bishop (Max Euwe: "Judgment and Planning in chess", chapter IV)
The most beautiful move was 42.Re8!! The engines take some minutes to realize that it is a crushing move. Of course, White could have continued to suffocate more and more his opponent's awkward position with moves like 42.c4 or the like, but it is always pleasurable to see a master finish off a clean positional work with some bright tactical strokes (that seems to be the ideal of a chess game).
This game reminded me of some of Tarrasch's best masterpieces, where his opponent was gradually strangled, and gradually left devoid of any decent moves or any possible counterplay.
Truly amazing! Magnus Carlsen is an amazing player. His play is the closest thing to a machine you will ever see. |
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Kibitzing
sac: 42.Re8