Magnus Carlsen Takes Grenke 2019 by Storm, Wins With 7.5/9

Magnus Carlsen during the Grenke Chess Classic 2019. Image © Georgios Souleidis, http://www.grenkechessclassic.de — Image © Georgios Souleidis, http://www.grenkechessclassic.de

It was just last November, that Magnus Carlsen had us chess fans banging our heads against a wall. Alright, maybe you rose above the befuddlement of his rather lack lustre World Title defence against Fabiano Caruana, dear reader, and in that case I take my hat off to you. The whole thing almost saw me in therapy.

Since retaining his title, however, Carlsen has won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament for a record seventh time, back in January of this year. 2019 has also seen him take clear first at the Shamkir Chess Tournament. And now, he has won the Grenke Chess Classic, with a commanding 7.5/9.

The tournament was held between April 20 and 29, in Germany. Rounds 1-5 were held in Karlsruhe and for the remaining rounds, play moved to Baden-Baden. Magnus Carlsen (2854) led the field, with Fabiano Caruana (2819), Viswanathan Anand (2774), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2773), Levon Aronian (2763), Peter Svidler (2735), Arkadij Naiditsch (2695), Francisco Vallejo-Pons (2693), Georg Meier (2628) and Vincent Keymer (2516) also competing.

The World Champion totally validated his top seed status.

It is not so much the tournament win that I find so positive for Carlsen, but the way that he went about it. His chess was very lively, much more like the Magnus that we are so used to seeing. Only Anand, Caruana and Naiditsch were able to hold their own against him, with Keymer, Vallejo Pons, Meier, Aronian, Svidler and Vachier-Lagrave succumbing.

This gave Magnus a performance rating of 2990, even higher than that of Shamkir (2988), which he described as one of the best tournaments he has ever played. Surely the Grenke Chess Classic is now right up there also.

Standings:

Carlsen — 7.5
Caruana — 6.0
Naiditsch, Vachier-Lagrave — 5.0
Svidler, Anand, Aronian — 4.5
Vallejo Pons — 4.0
Meier, Keymer — 2.0

  [Event "GRENKE Chess Classic 2019"]  [Site "Karlsruhe/Baden Baden GER"]  [Date "2019.04.28"]  [Round "8"]  [White "Svidler,P"]  [Black "Carlsen,M"]  [Result "0-1"]  [BlackElo "2845"]  [ECO "B30"]  [EventDate "2019.04.18"]  [WhiteElo "2735"]   { Annotations by John Lee Shaw for www.hotoffthechess.com. } 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Bc4 Be7 5.d3 d6 6.Nd2 Nf6 7.Nf1 Nd7 8.Nd5 Nb6 9.Nxb6 axb6 10.c3 O-O 11.Ne3 Bg5 12.O-O Kh8 13.a3 { This seems new, Nd5, Bd5, and Bd2 having had outings before. Vishy Anand, scored with the latter, against Vassily Ivanchuk in the 2001 FIDE World Chess Championship Knock Out. } 13...f5 { Svidler can hardly have been surprised by this move, it is very natural. Plus, moves such as 13.a3 are like a red rag to a bull where Magnus Carlsen is concerned. } 14.Nxf5 Bxc1 15.Rxc1 Bxf5 16.exf5 d5 { Blunting the light-squared bishop before recapturing the pawn is a prudent decision. } ( 16...Rxf5 17.Be6 Rf6 { Is about equal, Bd5 and Qb3 are both playable from here. } ) 17.Ba2 Rxf5 { One would have to say that Svidler's 13.a3 has not worked out for him. Carlsen already has a pleasant stance and has had to do very little work for it. } 18.Qg4 Rf6 19.f4 exf4 20.Qg5 { Of course, the immediate Rxf4 would be a huge blunder, demonstrated by ...Ne5! It is Black's threat towards d3 that holds the power, here. } 20...Qf8 21.Qxd5 Rd8 22.Qf3 Ne5 23.Qe4 Ng4 { The knight is on its way to the lovely hole on e3. ...Nd3 seems better upon first glance, but after the rather natural 24.Rcd1 Nxb2 25.Rxd8 Qxd8 (see variation), Carlsen probably felt that White was fine and decided to maintain tension. } ( 23...Nxd3 24.Rcd1 Nxb2 25.Rxd8 Qxd8 26.Rf2 { This is about equal, despite the imbalance. } ) 24.Rce1 Ne3 25.Rf2 Re8 26.Qxb7 { In my opinion, this is a mistake. There is no Black and White reason why, but while White goes off on this pawn grab on the Queenside, it gives Black time to get moving on the Kingside and this bring all sorts of woes. The fact that there are few credible alternatives to this move, suggests that White was already in some difficulty, however. } 26...g5 { This is a very good, multi-purposed, move. Not only are the Black pawns threatening to storm the White King's position, but the Black Queen is now able to come to h6. This makes the move all the more potent -- and, I believe, Qxb7 untenable. } 27.Rfe2 { Compounding matters. This is just too slow. Looking at this situation, the fact is that the White Queen is stuck over in another arena than the one it is needed in. After ...Qh6, Black will be playing with a virtual material advantage. The problem is, White now has no pleasent way of making his Queen useful again -- Qf3, for example, begs black to play g4. To add to the pain, the usual counter thrusts to a flank attack (in the centre or on the opposite flank) don't seem to help much here either. The b7-pawn just seems poisoned. } 27...g4 { In a mere few moves, catastrophe has befallen the White position. Looking at the position and comparing the pieces that Black is attacking with, against those that White has to defend, tells the sad story. } 28.Rf2 { And this is further evidence -- it's rarely a good sign to move a piece back to where it was a move ago. } 28...Qh6 { The World Champion has his eyes firmly set upon the White King, now. } 29.Qc7 Ref8 30.h3 { Peter Svidler no doubt decided that his position was unrecoverable, here and good egg that he is, decides to play to mate. White's problem is that there is no way to stop the Black pawns from ripping his King's position open. Black's Kingside setup is extremely powerful, with all of his pieces optimumly placed and White does not have the time to organise any defence. } 30...gxh3 31.g3 fxg3 { Mate is inescapable from here. Svidler will have seen this some moves ago -- it's a gentleman's way of resigning. } 32.Rxf6 h2+ 33.Kh1 g2# { A nice finish from Magnus and a nice game! } 0-1