Ekspertise Mennesker Aktuelt Karriere Om oss English version Søk Tilbake Magnus Carlsens sjakkblogg Sinquefield Cup 2015 rollercoaster After a controlled draw with black against co-leader Aronian in round 6 I was very optimistic, but the next two white games was just miserable. I made several mistakes against Grischuk, and inexplicably squandered a winning position against Nakumura in the penultimate round. Aronian had won against Nakamura in round 7 and he could cruise to sole victory in the last round. Despite the emotional rollercoaster of miserable losses and lost opportunities following enjoyable fights and wins in this tournament, I’m taking great comfort from achieving 2nd place on tie-break in the end, despite scoring just 5/9. Nakamura, who saved my day with his last round win over Grischuk (who would have been second with a win or a draw), came third with Vachieve-Lagrave and Giri next. The final standing in Sinquefield Cup differ to such an extent from Norway Chess that Topalov is still leading the Grand Chess Tour with 17 points despite 7th place here. Nakamura is next with 16 followed by Aronian at 15 and me at 14. While 2nd place is acceptable I’m still concerned about the higher than usual level of mistakes. In the London Classics in early December it will be all about winning. Most likely the London Classics winner will also win the overall 2015 Grand Chess Tour. However, coming up next is the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Berlin October 10-15. That is going to very exciting. In November I’ll play for Norway in the European Team Championship in Iceland. The Sinquefield Cup finished on 1st of September and today the annual Ultimate Moves spectacle with GM’s trying to help out Rex and Randy Sinquefield took place. It was quite enjoyable but the trash talking still leaves room for improvement, and we have got a full year to prepare one-liners:). The usual August heat wave arrived last week and we spent more time by and in the pool than running and sporting towards the end. The Sinquefield Cup has been well organized and features lots of memorable games and battles. I’d like to thank the Sinquefields and all the staff and volunteers for the efforts and kindness and hope to be back next year. Before returning to Norway I’ll head out to the west coast for a few days for an event. I look forward to see friends, good contacts, the Play Magnus folks and representatives of some of my main sponsors over there. Magnus Carlsen, St. Louis, September 3rd 2015 Sinquefield Cup 2015 R5 Things have been shaping up for me after the shaky start. I got a small but clear edge from the opening against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and managed to put enough pressure on him to win quite comfortably. Against Anish Giri in round 4 I was doing fine out of the Sicilian Sveshnikov opening. He outplayed me for some time in the middle game and I had to find some accurate moves to keep the balance. He offered a draw in a dead drawn position as soon as the no-draw-before-move-30-rule allowed him to. Wesley So, whom I know from a training camp many years ago, is now playing for the US and he got the organizer wild card for the Sinquefield Cup. Wild card might be a bit misleading as he was offered a regular place in the whole Grand Chess Tour but had to decline due to other obligations. As white I played the Najdorf with Be3 and he played a sideline I didn’t know that well. White has compensation for the pawn but after my Bc4 black had his share of the chances. Maybe he played slightly indecisively at some point, and I improved my position gradually with the monstrous knight dominating on d5 more than compensating for the pawn down. Close to the time control I was a bit fortunate to find and play winning moves despite a couple of oversights. We have seen more than 50% decided games and I’ve contributed more than my part with just one draw. Most of the top ten players in the world, of which nearly all are present in St.Louis enjoys a fighting game and the lack of increments before the first time control clearly increases the likelihood of decisive games. The lack of restrictions on our use of time should in theory improve the quality of the games, and I think we all try to manage our time efficiently. Clearly indecision and not correctly foreseeing the remaining complexity until move 40 sometimes cause crazy time scrambles as in my game with Caruana in round 2. Yesterday against Wesley So I was generally doing fine time-wise although a missed opportunity on move 40 brought two more hours of concentrated thinking to bring home the full point. As last year I’ve played football and basketball (twice) with the chess students over at Webster University after the round, and enjoying the rest day today I’m optimistic about the continuation of the tournament. Following our mutual training camp prior to the tournament, Aronian – who scored another brilliancy in round 4 against Wesley So - and I, have raised our level significantly compared to Stavanger and share the lead with 4 rounds to go! Magnus Carlsen, St. Louis, August 28th 2015 Sinquefield Cup 2015 R2 Today it was great fun playing chess. Mostly because of the good fight. Black against Fabiano Caruana (who won the Sinquefield Cup so convincingly last year) is always a challenge. Today I managed to get a reasonable position in an Arhangelsk Spanish opening transposing to Anti-Marshall. Fabiano played the middle game slowly but well and I was forced to calculate deeply to find countermeasures to keep the balance. Short on time long before the first time control we could both have chosen more drawish continuations. Both desperately wanted to win as I lost to Topalov and Caruana to Aronian in round 1 yesterday. My b4-push kept the position messy while probably objectively dubious. Despite having to blitz out moves Caruana played well nearly all the way to the time control. Then he went from clearly better to about equal and in move 40 blundered away the game by first trying to avoid a perceived mate threat (where the saving combination eluded both of us) and by capturing on d2 on reflex. After the horrible result and play in Stavanger in June (7th place) I hope the training camp with Peter Heine and Levon Aronian - who is playing very well here in the Sinquefield Cup - at the East coast a week ago helps bringing me back to normal form. I’m feeling fine and it is fun playing chess. I can’t ask for more really. Sinquefield Cup is part two of the new Grand Chess Tour (following Norway Chess in Stavanger), and Topalov, who won in Stavanger, has taken the lead with 2 points here. Tuesday I’m white against M.Vachier-Lagrave who started with a win against Wesley So and a quick draw against Aronian. Magnus Carlsen, St. Louis, August 24th 2015 Successful Gashimov Memorial 2015 You don`t have to be superstitious to appreciate the statistics of tournament performances. In recent tournaments I`ve often lost round 3 and struggled in the last round. In Shamkir I won round 3, despite the black pieces. Yesterday as white against lowest rated Rauf Mamedov I got everything I could hope for from the opening having cemented his weak b-pawn at b7 and a pawn majority in the center. In the middlegame I did not find the best continuation and he defended very well. The queen and rook endgame is pleasant for white, but without a clear mistake from black it is difficult to make progress. If I had started to move my kingside pawns he would get counterplay. Surprisingly, slightly short on time, he blundered a pawn before the time control and resigned in disgust when I played Qf7. Not an entirely convincing last round victory, but overall I`m very satisfied with having made few mistakes, and the result 7 out of 9 is of course far better than expected. Most of my strongest tournament performances in the past have been in 6-player double round robin tournaments. In 10 player all-play-all events (mainly Tal Memorial and Norway Chess) I`ve consistently scored +2 for several years. With the Grand Chess Tour using the 10-player format in Norway Chess, Sinquefield Cup and London Classics, scoring +5 in Shamkir was an encouraging prelude to the Tour? V. Anand played very well in Shamkir. In addition to the three victories he had some very promising and few worse positions. His clear 2nd place secured sufficient rating point gain to place 2nd on the May rating list. My younger challengers Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana placed three and four with 5/9. I`m leaving Shamkir tomorrow having spent the day at the local chess center playing a simul and enjoying a tour with spectacular views into the nearby mountains in the Gadabay district. I hope to be back next year. The organizer Synergy Group has done everything possible to make the stay in Shamkir comfortable and pleasant for me and my team. I`m sure the other players join me in expressing gratitude for staging Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2015 in such an excellent way. Thank you! Magnus Carlsen, Shamkir, Azerbaijan, April 27th 2015 Gashimov Memorial 2015 R7 I have to go back to the winning streak in Wijk aan Zee in January to find something resembling the comfortable feeling of being in the zone at the chess board experienced here in Shamkir this week. Today I tried to surprise Vladimir Kramnik in the opening with the choice of 1.e4 and a novelty in the d3 Ruy Lopez. Kramnik is probably the player with the best opening repertoire in the world, but still I was impressed with his knowledge in the variation today. He took the pawn I offered him on a5 and objectively the position was about equal. When he allowed Nxc6 I was getting optimistic and the queen against rook and bishop ending he went for should be winning for white. He made it simple for me with his Rd1. The victory brought me to 5.5 points and a clear lead with two rounds to go. Anand won after an interesting exchange sacrifice against Adams and is sole second at 4.5 followed by Caruana and my opponent tomorrow Wesley So, at 4 points. As during most chess tournaments my focus during the event is quite limited. I do appreciate that Shamkir is surrounded by snow-covered mountains in the horizon, and it`s quite a sight on a clear sunny day. We visited a very good local restaurant a few kilometres out of town at the rest day Wednesday after the important and fun football tournament staged the same day. I`m black against So at the usual 3pm local time Saturday. Magnus Carlsen, Shamkir, Azerbaijan, April 24th 2015 Shamkir 2015 R3 About an hour into round one Friday I blundered against Anand; A pawn down without counterplay. How different compared to last year when I started off with two quite nice victories and was close to winning round 3. Surprisingly I`ve reached the same 2,5 our 3 as last year. After the blunder I defended quite well against Anand. There might have been a win for white but the Kf5-line he chose ended draw after a few accurate defensive moves. Yesterday I won a smooth game against home favorite Mamedyarov. In round 3 as black against Caurana today I was a bit fortunate when Caruana started to drift in a drawish ending. He thought there were many ways to draw, but allowing Nf3+ was a mistake, and I don`t think he could save the rook ending. Until a year ago we won several games each with white for a fairly even score, while from June 2014 onwards I`ve had black in six of our seven classical encounters and black has won four, white none! Wesley So has played well and is co-leader after beating Giri and Adams with white and even putting some pressure on Kramnik as white. Kramnik is 3rd with 2 points followed by Anand, Vachier-Lagrave and Mamedov at 50%. I have black tomorrow as well, against Michael Adams. I have a great score against him as white, but black is another matter. Magnus Carlsen, Shamkir, Azerbaijan, April 19th 2015 Gashimov Memorial 2015 in Shamkir Last year Synergy Group demonstrated that they know how to organize a top level chess event, and I was thrilled to hear that they would host another elite event in memory of Vugar Gashimov in Shamkir this spring. At the end of Easter I went for a training camp with Peter Heine Nielsen and others and arrived via Baku three days before the event. My opponent tomorrow, V. Anand, was already here. I drew no 7 and five black games in the grand opening ceremony earlier tonight. Having drawn 1st I have no one else than myself to blame? On the bright side I won most of the table tennis matches against Peter, my father Henrik and our chef Magnus Forssell this afternoon. Despite the harsh drawing, I`m filled with a joyous anticipation after a two-month tournament break. We are staying at the fine Excelsior hotel a 10-minute walk from the playing venue. The participants includes world no 2 Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand (6), Anish Giri (7), Wesley So (8), Vladimir Kramnik (9), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (11), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (13), Michael Adams (16) and Rauf Mamedov. I`ve written a lot about my esteemed opponent tomorrow, V. Anand, in the past, and probably also the fact that we played already 10 years ago in a rapid-event in Leon in Spain. Since then we have played more than 50 classical games and many rapid and blitz (and blindfold) games, and finally during the World Championship match in Sochi last autumn I reached a positive score in classical chess after having trailed heavily in my teens (up to 1-6). The organizer will broadcast the event and provide commentary in three languages. Round 1 starts at 3 pm local time (12 CET) Friday. Magnus Carlsen, Shamkir, Azerbaijan, April 16th 2015 February update A year ago my Rapid and Blitz chess ratings and world ranking (4th) was not satisfactory, and I promised to change the situation. Winning the World Rapid and Blitz Championships last summer helped, and based on live ratings I expect to be no 1 on both rating lists March 1. It feels great to have all three World Championship titles and top rating spots simultaneously, but it is not going to be easy to defend that position. In Baden-Baden early this month my level of play varied again as in Wijk, but as long as the overall performance was reasonably good, I`m quite satisfied. The final stage of the tournament was a thriller. After catching up with Naiditsch near the end, I had the chance to decide the tournament in the last round as white against Bacrot. It was not to be as I squandered a winning position just before the time control. Both Naiditsch and I drew our games reaching 4.5/7 and there was a blitz playoff that went all the way to Armageddon. After playing well in the first Rapid game my level of play went down drastically. With 2-2 in the Blitz portion I was unusually tense also for the must-win-with-white Armageddon. I got a nice initiative and he blundered or went astray with Bc5 after which I was simply winning due to his exposed king. I`m of course happy to have won another strong elite tournament, and I`m grateful to the hosts for organizing such a strong event in beautiful Baden-Baden! My next tournament will be the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan in mid April, and if feels great finally to have had a few weeks at home, and still have time to both relax and prepare for the next event. Next week I`m off to Barcelona and the week after to Nice for sponsor events. Next I'll visit Iceland during Reykjavik Open, without playing myself, to finally see some of the attractions I missed out on in 2004 and 2006, and to see how some of my friends and my father are doing first hand. Magnus Carlsen, Oslo, February 28th 2015 Baden-Baden Grenke Chess Classic 2015 I played some Bundesliga games for the strongest German team Baden-Baden many years ago. It is great to be back in Baden-Baden for the arguably strongest tournament in Germany ever. The famous spa-town does have a long and important chess history with major events stretching back to the 19th century, as well as the first two editions of this event in 2013 and 2014. I couldn`t have asked for a better way to spend the few days between Tata Steel Chess and this event. Lots of sports every day and a great cross-country skiing trip last Saturday. We are staying at the very good and grandiose Brenner`s Park-Hotel & Spa close to the playing venue, and during the five minute walk to the venue for round 1 yesterday we had some real Norwegian weather with snow and hail. This must be my tournament! We are playing 7 rounds with a restday Thursday, and my competitors are Caruana, Anand, Aronian, Adams, Bacrot, Naiditsch and Baramidze. The two local players qualified by winning the all-German edition last year. Except for Baramidze we have all played for Baden-Baden in the past or are playing for Baden-Baden now. Some of the players as well as my coach Peter Heine Nielsen came straight from Bundesliga Sunday evening. As in Wijk they turned the rating list upside down, and when it was my turn during drawing of lots Sunday night, no 6 was left resulting in 4 black games overall and 3 in the first 4 rounds. The round 1 game against Aronian yesterday was quite interesting. After some manoeuvring I got a bit too optimistic. Allowing gxf5 was an oversight, and I needed to find some accurate moves to equalize in time trouble from a cramped position. His advanced f-pawn turned out to be a weakness and I managed to put pressure on him in the 5th and 6th hour of play. He defended well and the long game ended in a draw, as did all the other games. Today I played white against the strongest UK player Michael Adams. He helped me during the World Championship match and knows me well. It was quite a challenge to find an interesting and promising opening. It was probably fairly balanced out of the opening, but at least my strong pawn center provided the potential dynamics to allow a lot of manoeuvring. I felt I had found a good plan with a4 followed with b4 and a5 to force his bishop to a7. Surprisingly it was probably not enough to break through. Maybe he could have defended more successfully by simply standing still but completely passive defense is never easy. He gave up his b-pawn to keep his pieces active. It turned out he didn`t have enough counterplay and I could slowly improve my position and trade off to a winning rook ending. All the other games ended draw despite lots of action, and I`m sole leader after two rounds. Next I`m black against Naiditsch who beat me at the Olympiad in Tromsoe last year. Magnus Carlsen, Baden-Baden, February 3rd 2015 Winning Tata Steel 2015! It feels like ages since I had my 6-game winning streak. There are not many above-ten rounds elite tournaments outside FIDE, and even if I really like to come back to Wijk aan Zee year after year the last week is always long. Some of my young competitors seemed to have retained enough energy for the last round, and I needed a draw to avoid a five-way tie for first. The final round draw against Saric was my fourth in a row, and although I was unhappy with my own play (reminding me of the near-loss against Caruana in the last round of 2010), it was enough to win outright at +5. It brought me a slight rating gain for the first time since February 2014, and my fourth Tata Steel tournament victory. It is also my first two wins in a row (2013 and 2015) in Wijk aan Zee as I didn`t participate last year. Vachier-Lagrave, Giri, So and Liren all ended at +4. Suddenly there are some 15-20 players in the world that may all win top events on the right day. I need to continue to make progress to stay ahead in the future. A formidable challenge! My 7 out of 13 decided games was more or less representative of the stat`s for the Masters group. It is always good to see a high number of decisive games. On the way to the traditional closing event I was treated with an unexpected and heartwarming ceremony at the market square in Wijk aan Zee with the mayor, the local choir and lots of people present. Thank you! The organizer did a great job as usual making the players feel most welcome and I think the tour playing two rounds in other cities - works well. It is less than a week till my next tournament in Baden-Baden, and after some rest I hope to be back in good shape for another interesting event starting February 2nd. Magnus Carlsen, Oslo, January 27th 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament R10 In my last blog the tide had started to turn with the R4 victory against Loek van Wely. I consider myself an optimist but winning the next five rounds as well came as a pleasant surprise. I did play well in the important games against Aronian in R5 in Rotterdam and against Caruana the day after. I have mixed feelings about the next three games as I missed some tactical tricks. On the bright side my positional evaluations were in general satisfactory. And of course; Winning helps. Maybe inspired by Norway Chess two rounds are played in other Dutch cities. With the traveling it results in potential long days for the players, but it is a great way to bring chess to the world. Against V. Ivanchuk you never know what to expect. It turned out he just wanted to force a draw with white yesterday and the Ragozin line I played did not offer any real possibility of stopping him. The game in Den Haag finished in less than half an hour. I was happy to spend 30-40 minutes as a live-commentator instead. For those interested there`s an imbedded video at: https://chess24.com/en/read/news/carlsen-rampage-ends-with-a-brilliant-interview The ridiculously short game yesterday followed by a rest day today is a bit too much. It helped to play some bowling yesterday evening and a long session of basketball this morning. Currently I`m sole leader with 7.5/10 followed by Wesley So, US (former Phlipines) and Vachier-Lagrave, France at 6.5 and F.Caruana, Ding Liren from China, A.Giri from Holland and Ivanchuk, Ukraine at 6. The below-25 players are dominating thus far. Whether it is the anticipated change of guard or the young composition of the field (without for instance Anand, Topalov, Kramnik and Grischuk) is hard to tell. I look forward to play again Friday. I`m white against Vachier-Lagrave at 1:30 pm, and the tournament finishes Sunday. Magnus Carlsen, Wijk aan Zee, January 22nd 2015 Tata Steel Chess 2015 is on! Eleven years ago I scored my first Grandmaster norm in the C-group here in Wijk aan Zee. At the time it was by far my best performance to date. After two subsequent years in the B-group, I played the A-group seven years in a row 2007-13, winning three of them. It was with mixed feelings I watched the tournament last year from afar and I`m really happy to be back this year. The Tata Steel Chess tournament (formerly Corus and before that Hoogovens) stands out due to the combination of strength, long tradition (77th edition!), the unique 14 players all-play-all format, and the combination of elite events with plenty of amateur tournaments in parallel. With 13 rounds a slow start is not necessarily critical, but 1/3 after two draws against Giri and So and a loss against Anand-second Radoslaw Wojtaczek was just dismal. Over the years the Dutch organizers hase been forthcoming in many ways, and on a number of occasions also the Dutch participants have contributed significantly to my results? Yesterday as black against Look van Wely I was worse out of the opening. He played solidly and my attempt at creativity once again turned out less of a success than I had hoped for. Fortunately he spent a lot of time in the critical early middle game and with several good knight-options available went for Qb3 instead having missed my response Qe6. After trading queens the position was about equal but with a lot of play for both sides. Short on time he made some accuracies and I managed to play fairly precisely to win just after the time control. Ivanchuk is sole leader with 3.5/4 followed by Caruana and Ding Liren with 3/4 I`m in the middle of the pack with 2/4. I`m here with my coach P.H.Nielsen as well as my father Henrik, and for a few days now a couple of friends from back home as well. As usual we played football with some of the other chess players on the rest day today. Last year the organizer introduced new playing sites for some rounds and this year round 5 will take place in Rotterdam and later we will go to Den Haag for round 10. With 9 rounds to go I look forward to the continuation, and tomorrow I `m white against four-time winner of this event Levon Aronian! Magnus Carlsen, Wijk aan Zee, January 14th 2015 Looking back at 2014 2014 has been a very good year for me as a chess player. Probably my best to date although while the results have been fully satisfactory for me, my level of play has varied too much. I?ll be striving to improve my game in 2015. What about memorable moments? It depends on what matters most. It is hard to compare winning the top titles (classical, rapid and blitz) in chess, or winning a close to perfect game, or the sensation of exceeding your own expectation or reaching a challenging target. In the spur of the moment any one of those experiences are truly exhilarating, even compared to winning my first Norwegian (U11) championship back in year 2000 which in a way has been a yard stick for me personally. Longer term; titles, world ranking and maybe also Chess Oscars are permanent achievements I will treasure now and later in life. 2014 has been remarkable in that most top level events have been covered live on main TV and through extensive internet coverage. I was thrilled to learn that more than half the Norwegian population tuned in to the Carlsen-Anand World Championship match live TV coverage from Sochi in November. I`m proud to note that Simonsen Vogt Wiig has been one of my main sponsors for more than 5 consecutive years and we will continue the stimulating cooperation in 2015. I wish all of you and all those reading this blog a Happy New Year! Last but not least, let me thank all of you; sponsors, management, trainers, seconds and family and others, that have helped in the past or are helping me day to day or occasionally, one way or another, contributing to success! Magnus Carlsen, December 31st 2014 Sochi World Championship Victory! Yesterday was a highly emotional day. Surprisingly I remained relatively calm during most of the game even when Anand got some initiative through his well-timed b5-break. But when he sacrificed the exchange on b4, and I subsequently moved my king to the centre (e4), played Nh5 and saw Rd7 that should be winning for me, I was overcome by anxiety. The release of emotions suppressed for weeks was overwhelming. With some time on the clock I managed to calm down and finish the game efficiently to clinch the World Championship title with 6.5 – 4.5 ! With the next match coming up in two years, the time has come to reveal all my seconds and helpers for this match. In the last minutes of the round 11 game, Norwegian media interviewed my hardworking seconds located at the Kragero resort south of Oslo; Jon Ludvig Hammer, Laurent Fressinet and Michael Adams! A special thanks to the three of them and to my main coach Peter Heine Nielsen present in Sochi. I’m very grateful also to Garry Kasparov for valuable advice before and during the match and some really good help from my friends (and former European Champions) Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vladimir Potkin who was having a training camp at the player hotel in preparation of Ian’s participation in the Russian Super Final starting later this week. Thinking back one year; In addition to several of the above seconds, Pavel Eljanov contributed significantly before and during the Chennai match. I’d like to thank all of you very much in addition, and the same goes to my team consisting of manager Espen, chef Magnus, doctor Brede and my family for the support and help during the two Anand matches. My esteemed opponent former World Champion Viswanathan Anand was excellently prepared and put up at great fight. The match was not decided at all until the end of the 11th round cliffhanger. The Agon organizers deserve praise for a well-organized match and for doing their utmost to make me and my team as comfortable as possible here in Adler, Sochi. Directly, and through Espen and my father, I’ve received so many joyous greetings after the game yesterday and during the celebration last night, from friends, fans, family and representatives of Simonsen Vogt Wiig and my other main sponsors. The prize giving will take place at 6 pm Tuesday and I’ll return to Norway on Wednesday. Magnus Carlsen, Sochi, November 24th 2014 Halfway lead in Sochi match! The opponent W. Anand is the same as in Chennai. The match format, regulations and FIDE rules are the same as in Chennai. But each match has a life of it’s own, as has been demonstrated in the first six rounds of the Sochi match. This time the players offered energetic fights and exhilarating excitement from day1. Magnus felt slightly uncomfortable in the early middle game against the innocent-looking Bd2 variation in the Grunfeld. The white bishop on h3 paralyzed black, and Magnus had to find several precise defensive moves. Anand let him slip and the slightly better ending for black was nothing but harmless. Magnus achieved a significant edge, but instead of the probably winning Re3 he went for Re2. He had missed Anand’s only defence (Qh1), leaving both players fairly satisfied with the outcome of the first game. Game 2 was a treat for the spectators. After achieving a fairly equal but playable position Magnus launched a formidable kingside attack. Anand’s defensive moves where not always the best, and in due time Magnus could convert the attack into dominance of the open e-file supported by the white f5-pawn. Anand blundered in a difficult position and Magnus got an early match lead. Anand hit back immediately and impressively after being close to winning out of the opening in game 3. In the next two games, white was pressing. Magnus drifted a bit in game 4 and Anand escaped by finding some only-moves in the queen ending. Magnus was in trouble in game 5 but surprisingly Anand decided to force a draw instead of trying to push to benefit from the destroyed pawn structure of white. Game 6 has already received a lot of publicity due to the mutual blunders. The rest of the game is worth a closer look. Magnus got the opportunity to demonstrate how to exploit the initiative with a nice rook lift to d3 and pressure in the g- and h-files. As warranted by the general game development (outside the blunders), Magnus won his second white game in the match to catch the lead 3.5 - 2.5 at the halfway mark! Calling the hotel, the food and the playing venue in Chennai high class is an understatement. The Radisson Blu Paradise hotel we are staying at in Sochi is also very good. In addition to the usual amenities, the spa and the outdoor sports facilities are splendid. Coupled with close to 20oC in the sun at noon, Magnus and his team are enjoying the days in Sochi! The match is covered extensively in Norwegian media, including live coverage in main channel NRK1 and VGTV, and the coverage is also impressive in many other countries. Towards the end of the match we expect more journalists and visitors from Magnus’s main sponsors. Hopefully the basketball session today is a good preparation for the important game 7 tomorrow. Colors are reversed halfway in the match, so that Magnus has the white pieces once again in game 7. Magnus Carlsen, Sochi, November 16th 2014 World Championship match 2014 When I visited the winter Olympics in February this year, the idea of coming back later this year for the World Championship match did not cross my mind, and certainly not when (non-Russian) Anand won the Candidates. In retrospect maybe it is not such a surprise that Sochi was chosen as the venue in the end considering how the Russians consistently host international events in Sochi. Last month they staged a Formula 1 race, and towards the end of November chess will coincide with the World Robot Olympiad. It’s now two months since I signed the contract to play in Sochi at the backend of the Sinquefield Cup 2014. Preparations for the match have progressed as planned. My team and I particularly enjoyed a week of chess, hiking, skiing and team building in the Alps in the middle of October. I arrived in Sochi Tuesday night together with manager Espen, trainer Peter Heine and my father. The chef Magnus was already in place and the doc’ Brede arrived yesterday to complete the core team. We are staying at the seaside Radisson Blu Paradise hotel in Adler. The climate is nice and we enjoyed a good game of basketball in the sun both yesterday and today. The playing venue is scheduled to be ready tonight for the final inspection. The opening ceremony is Friday November 7th (as last year!) and Game 1 Carlsen-Anand 2014 finally starts on Saturday at 3 pm. Magnus Carlsen, Sochi, November 7th 2014 Sin­que­field Cup 2014 Half way In the first half we saw 10 deci­sive games out of the 15 excit­ing games, and Caru­ana cruis­ing through the field with a highly impres­sive 5/5. In round one as black against Vachier-Lagrave I accepted his invi­ta­tion to play a sharp line. Unfor­tu­nately he seemed bet­ter pre­pared, but I man­aged to find the right con­tin­u­a­tion. The ensu­ing bat­tle was tense and sharp all through the game. He found a per­pet­ual at the end. If felt great to play in St.Louis once again! I was black again against Naka­mura in round two, where I went for an unusual side­line. My oppo­nent chose the safe rather than risky con­tin­u­a­tion both in the open­ing and in the mid­dle game. I allowed the awk­ward look­ing pawn struc­ture in the cen­tre with my pawns on d4 and d6, with just enough time to cre­ate a king side attack before he could round up my d4-pawn. He wisely allowed a per­pet­ual, and in lack of any bet­ter alter­na­tive for me, we drew well before the time con­trol. Caru­ana won against Vachier-Lagrave with a nov­elty in a sharp Caro-kann and Aronian’s bish­ops came alive to fin­ish off Topalov after the lat­ter won an exchange out of the opening. With white against Caru­ana I made sev­eral mis­takes in the open­ing, and by the time I under­stood I was worse I was already in trou­ble. When he allowed the inter­est­ing bishop sac­ri­fice on f7 I felt the game could go either way. Despite the ensu­ing com­pli­ca­tions, he played the rest of the game very accu­rately. Hav­ing missed his great Nd3 resource I ended up a pawn down with­out much hope of sal­va­tion, when I even blun­dered hor­ri­bly just before the time con­trol los­ing immediately. In round 4 with white against Topalov I had a strong ini­tia­tive in the mid­dle game with ample com­pen­sa­tion for the sac­ri­ficed pawn. My e4-plan was dubi­ous as he could sac­ri­fice back a pawn to reach an equal end­ing. I seem­ingly tried very hard to lose the game, over-pressing well beyond being in con­trol. If he had seen Rc5 I would have had to find some really accu­rate defen­sive moves to save the draw. He didn’t, and we swapped all pieces and drew with kings and one knight left each. Despite play­ing below par in round 3 and 4, it didn’t feel as if I was doing as bad over­all as the mea­ger 1.5/4 would indi­cate, and it felt great to win with black in round 5 against Aron­ian. A fairly decent game by me, but win­ning with black usu­ally requires some assis­tance from your oppo­nent as well. A pawn down he seemed to be defend­ing. His Nb3 was a mis­take, and maybe the 5 against 4 pawn-ending can be held for white but it is pretty dif­fi­cult. Instead of push­ing g6 he could have cho­sen the 3 ver­sus 2 pawn end­ing where I would have had a passed pawn in the e-file. That might also be a the­o­ret­i­cal draw, but in prac­tice it is very dif­fi­cult to defend. Finally I got my first vic­tory in this event, and Topalov and I are an ocean of points (2.5) behind Caru­ana with 5 rounds to go. On the rest day today we played golf at the excel­lent 1904 Olympic course at Glen Echo, and later there was The Burn­ing Boards event at the World Chess Hall of Fame in the evening. Tues­day at 2 pm local time I’m white against Vachier-Lagrave Magnus Carlsen, St.Louis, September 1st 2014 Sin­que­field Cup 2014 in St. Louis It was not only about chess. I’ve looked for­ward to com­ing back to St. Louis and the Sin­que­field Cup for some time, hav­ing had lots of good expe­ri­ences dur­ing the visit last year. The peo­ple, excur­sions, sport activ­i­ties, restau­rants, the nearby park and even some sight­see­ing are fond mem­o­ries. And, it was no draw­back that I won and gained con­fi­dence prior to the Chen­nai match. The hos­pitable Sin­que­fields hosted a nice din­ner yes­ter­day, and today we had sign­ing and photo ses­sions, did inter­views, and of course the open­ing cer­e­mony with the draw­ing of lots. For once I’ll start with two black games against M. Vachier-Lagrave and H.Nakamura. The rest of the his­tor­i­cally high-rating-field aver­ag­ing above 2800 con­sists of L.Aronian, F.Caruana, V.Topalov and me. The chess Olympics in Tromso wasn’t a great suc­cess for the Nor­we­gian top team as lost a crit­i­cal match against Croa­tia in the penul­ti­mate round. Until then we had had many good results merged with the occa­sional dis­ap­point­ing result. On the last rest day I par­tic­i­pated in a nice chess exhi­bi­tion event hosted by one of my main spon­sors Simon­sen Vogt Wiig before return­ing home to pre­pare for this event. In the last round my team­mates won 4–0 as expected, and it was enough for 29thplace. In the past, being the best Scan­di­na­vian coun­try was an ambi­tious goal. This time this achieve­ment did not feel as much of a consolation. I’d like to con­grat­u­late the Open group win­ners China, and the sil­ver and bronze medal­ists from Hun­gary and India with their impres­sive results. Espe­cially when con­sid­er­ing that none of them were rated top three in advance and both China and India played with­out sev­eral of their high­est rated players. Hope­fully the Olympics and the broad Nor­we­gian media cov­er­age con­tributed to an (even) broader national chess interest. The Sin­que­field Cup will be cov­ered live on TV2 start­ing tomor­row at 2 pm local time in St.Louis (9 pm back home). Magnus Carlsen, St.Louis, August 26th 2014 Trom­soe Chess Olympiad 2014 Round 9 I started with a decent win against Caru­ana after the rest day. Since then my play has been unusu­ally erratic. Spoil­ing a much bet­ter posi­tion against Najditsch and even los­ing in the end was pretty tough, espe­cially as we lost the match against Ger­many 2.5–1.5. I wasn’t happy with my play yes­ter­day against Borki Pre­do­je­vic either, but it was enough to win. Today we faced Turkey and in the NRK live stu­dio after the game one of the reporters ques­tioned my inspi­ra­tion. The prob­lem today was rather too much inspi­ra­tion. In a top­i­cal Slav set-up I went for a g4-g5 plan, while miss­ing the strength of Solak’s coun­ter­play a pawn down. With­out a safe haven for my king I chose to cas­tle long. He main­tained a strong ini­tia­tive but seemed to panic in time trou­ble, and after his a3-check I was call­ing the shots and man­aged to win the tricky end­ing. With two draws and a loss on the other boards we drew against Turkey and needs to win tomor­row against Croa­tia in the penul­ti­mate round. Norway2 came close to another sen­sa­tion today but lost 2.5–1.5 against Rus­sia in the end. I look for­ward to the rest day after tomorrow! Magnus Carlsen, Tromsoe, August 11th 2014 Trom­soe Chess Olympiad 2014 The Rapid and Blitz World Cham­pi­onships in Dubai in June had high pri­or­ity for me this year. I hoped the Dubai Chess &Cul­ture cen­tre would con­tinue to be a suc­cess­ful venue for me 10 years after scor­ing my final GM norm down there. A month later it has resided into the back­ground, but at the time win­ning the Rapid and Blitz titles resem­bled the feel­ings after round 10 in the World Cham­pi­onship match against V.Anand in Novem­ber last year! The tense, some­times nerve-wracking swings within games and in the stand­ings dur­ing the tour­na­ments made it exhil­a­rat­ing and exhaust­ing at the same time. I look for­ward to sim­i­lar events in the future. With the titles in my belt, it is good to have a vari­ety of chal­lenges ahead. Hav­ing dropped the 2012 Chess Olympiad, I’ve looked for­ward to play­ing on home soil in the Trom­soe Olympiad together with the great bunch of GM’s (Agdestein, Ham­mer, Johan­nessen and Lie) on the Nor­we­gian team. We did some chess train­ing and team-building at the Krageroe resort last week where I suc­cess­fully pre­pared for the World Cham­pi­onship match last August. And, I’ve already achieved one of my ambi­tions dur­ing the Olympiad hav­ing trekked the Troms­dal­stind (1238 meter above sea level) with my par­ents ear­lier today. In my absence the Nor­we­gian 1st team won 2.5 – 1.5 against Yemen in Round 1, and we will grad­u­ally meet stronger oppo­nents in the days ahead. Fin­land is next. Stay tuned! Magnus Carlsen, Trom­soe, August 2nd 2014 Til toppen Pressekontakt Mona Søyland Managing Partner, Oslo Mobil: 922 93 651 mos@svw.no Ring oss 21 95 55 00 Magnus Carlsen sjakkblogg Sosiale medier Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Copyright © 2015 Simonsen Vogt Wiig Advokatfirma | All rights reserved | Please do not hesitate to contact us for any enquiries you may have