[Event "Norway Chess"] [Site "?"] [Date "2021.09.15"] [Round "15.1"] [White "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Black "Rapport, Richard"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C65"] [WhiteElo "2855"] [BlackElo "2760"] [Annotator "Monokroussos,Dennis"] [PlyCount "153"] [EventDate "2021.??.??"] {[%evp 0,153,19,38,25,7,17,8,4,17,23,39,33,17,41,2,35,-8,5,-29,-3,-21,-11,-1, -10,-13,7,30,40,29,44,36,74,41,71,9,37,-10,-17,-10,32,16,30,-25,-16,-59,-3,-5, 0,5,5,6,94,9,30,10,45,31,33,42,34,34,24,26,26,3,7,0,13,22,22,22,29,-28,21,33, 28,34,29,35,45,35,34,27,35,29,38,8,19,16,23,29,29,29,29,23,53,48,37,41,27,34, 41,26,26,15,48,13,0,0,19,21,66,74,93,60,100,91,196,188,183,196,202,193,213,103, 117,132,137,142,137,137,144,150,152,146,177,195,204,213,211,211,210,210,224, 224,276,276,358,415,435,435,992,1016,1269,1297]} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Ne7 {I remember looking at this move more than a decade ago, when I was a Berlin player, but couldn't persuade myself of its goodness at the IM/GM level. Maybe things have changed since then.} 5. O-O ({At the sub-titled level, one may hope for} 5. Nxe5 $4 {, at least in blitz.} c6 {and if the bishop retreats Black has 6...Qa5+ followed by 7...Qxe5. White can do a bit better than that by taking on f7, but after} 6. Nxf7 Kxf7 7. Bc4+ d5 $19 {Black is winning, despite White having two pawns for the piece with Black's king hanging out on f7.}) (5. Bc4 c6 6. Nc3 d6 7. d4 exd4 8. Qxd4 {looks appealing for White, but maybe it's not such a big deal after} Ng6 {.}) (5. d4 $5 $14 { is logical, now that Black's knight has moved a second time. Ideas like this were what discouraged me from playing 4...Ne7 against titled opponents.}) 5... c6 6. Ba4 Ng6 7. Re1 Be7 8. d4 d6 9. c3 O-O 10. Nbd2 {White's slow approach doesn't punish Black for moving his knight three times in the opening, but he does retain a small advantage here. With some small ups and downs, he maintained this advantage for a long time; we'll rejoin the action after White's 58th move.} h6 11. Nf1 Re8 12. Ng3 a5 13. Bc2 Qc7 14. a4 Bd7 15. h3 b5 16. Be3 Rab8 17. Qd2 b4 18. Bd3 bxc3 19. bxc3 Be6 20. Qc2 Rb7 21. Nf1 Nh5 22. N1d2 Nhf4 23. Ba6 Rbb8 24. dxe5 dxe5 25. Rab1 Bd7 26. Bc4 Ne6 27. Qa2 Nh4 28. Nxh4 Bxh4 29. Nf3 Be7 30. Rbd1 Bc8 31. Qc2 Nf8 32. Rd2 Be6 33. Qa2 Red8 34. Rxd8 Bxd8 35. Rd1 Be7 36. h4 Rd8 37. Rb1 Rb8 38. Rxb8 Qxb8 39. g3 Bd8 40. Kg2 Bc7 41. Bxe6 Nxe6 42. Qc4 Qe8 43. h5 Kh7 44. Qd3 Qe7 45. Nd2 Bd6 46. Nc4 Bc7 47. Qd1 Nf8 48. Qg4 Nd7 49. Kf1 Qe8 50. Kg2 Qe7 51. Qf5+ Kg8 52. g4 Nf8 53. g5 hxg5 54. Bxg5 Qc5 55. Ne3 Qd6 56. Qg4 g6 57. Bh6 Nd7 58. Nc4 {Black has been suffering for hours, and continues to do so. His king and the g6-pawn are under pressure, the a5-pawn is weak, and the e5-pawn suffers from a sort of double whammy: it's slightly weak, and at the same time it restricts all of Black's pieces (except for the king). Worse still, Black has no activity whatsoever. He's not losing, and maybe an engine could hold the draw without the computer equivalent of working up a sweat. But after hours of suffering, Rapport cracks.} Nf6 $2 {This loses, as does everything but 58...Qe6.} (58... Qe6 $1 {looks disgusting at first glance, but it was both forced and adequate.} 59. Qxe6 fxe6 60. hxg6 Nc5 $1 {If White's knight and c-pawn could switch places, this would be hopeless for Black. Here, Black will be completely fine, *provided* that the g-pawn doesn't win the game.} 61. Ne3 $1 Nxa4 62. Ng4 Bd8 { Forced, or it's mate in two.} 63. Nxe5 Nxc3 64. Nxc6 Bh4 65. e5 {Depending on how much time Rapport had on the clock, it's possible that he reached this position in his analysis, and calculated that after 65...a4 66.Kh3! wins. If the bishop saves itself (e.g. with 66...Bxf2) White queens and mates starting with 67.Ne7+. This is also the problem facing Black after 66...a3 67.Kxh4 a2 68.Ne7+. Maybe he saw all that, or at least suspected that White's g-pawn would be too dangerous. But Black does have one way to save the game.} Nd5 $1 { That obviously stops Ne7+, and after White grabs the a-pawn Black will finally eliminate the g-pawn, and the resulting ending is a dead draw despite White's extra pawn.} (65... a4 $2 66. Kh3 $1 a3 (66... Bxf2 67. Ne7+ Kh8 68. g7+ Kh7 69. g8=Q+ Kxh6 70. Qg6#) 67. Kxh4 a2 (67... Nd5 68. Bc1 a2 69. Bb2 $18) 68. Ne7+ Kh8 69. g7+ Kh7 70. g8=Q+ Kxh6 71. Qg6#) 66. Nxa5 Ne7 $11) 59. Qc8+ Qd8 60. Qxd8+ Bxd8 61. Bg5 $1 {Threatening to take the knight, then the a-pawn, and then N(x)c6 followed by a5-6-7-8. Black can't solve the problem with 61... Kg7, as 62.h6+ pushes the king away followed by 63.Bxf6 Bxf6 64.Nxa5, etc.} gxh5 62. Bxf6 Bxf6 63. Nxa5 Kf8 64. Nxc6 Ke8 {Black's king is now close enough to cope with the a-pawn. Unfortunately, that's not his only problem.} 65. Nb4 Bd8 66. Nd3 f6 67. Kg3 Kd7 68. f3 Ba5 69. c4 Ke6 70. Kh4 f5 71. Kxh5 fxe4 72. fxe4 Kd6 73. Kg6 Bc7 74. Kf5 Kc6 75. Ke6 {Of course 75.Nxe5+ won as well, but why give Black's king any unnecessary activity?} Kb6 76. Kd7 Bb8 77. c5+ 1-0 [Event "Norway Chess"] [Site "?"] [Date "2021.09.15"] [Round "15.2"] [White "Nepomniachtchi, Ian"] [Black "Tari, Aryan"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A21"] [WhiteElo "2792"] [BlackElo "2642"] [Annotator "Monokroussos,Dennis"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2021.??.??"] {[%evp 0,68,17,1,-10,6,22,22,29,30,26,12,-1,-33,-11,0,2,3,19,-9,23,9,14,9,4,4, 8,-15,-7,-27,-16,-12,-9,-37,-43,-17,-44,-66,-81,-111,-21,-148,-149,-149,-149, -149,-159,-190,-138,-240,-188,-170,-199,-173,-189,-195,-176,-181,-207,-218, -207,-244,-244,-450,-451,-457,-470,-655,-661,-1330,-1416]} 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. Nd5 Be7 4. Nf3 d6 5. g3 Nf6 6. Nc3 c5 7. Bg2 h6 8. d3 Be6 9. Nd2 Qd7 10. O-O O-O 11. Nd5 Nxd5 12. cxd5 Bh3 13. e4 Bxg2 14. Kxg2 f5 15. f4 $2 {It's not crazy to be worried about ...f4, but this makes things far worse.} (15. Nc4 f4 16. gxf4 exf4 17. a4 f3+ 18. Kh1 $14) 15... exf4 16. gxf4 $6 (16. Rxf4) 16... Bf6 17. Nc4 $6 Na6 18. Qf3 Rae8 $2 (18... b5 $19) 19. Qh3 $2 (19. a4) 19... Bd4 20. Be3 b5 21. Bxd4 bxc4 22. Bc3 cxd3 23. Rg1 Rf7 24. Kh1 Rxe4 $2 {A moment of carelessness. Now Nepo could save the game, but on this day almost everything went wrong for him.} (24... Qa4 $19) 25. Rg6 $2 (25. Bxg7 $1 Rxg7 26. Rxg7+ Qxg7 27. Qxf5 $11) 25... Rxf4 $19 {Now White is thoroughly lost.} 26. Rag1 Rg4 27. R1xg4 fxg4 28. Qxd3 Nb4 29. Qe4 Re7 30. Qf4 Nxd5 31. Qc4 Qf5 32. Rxg4 Kh7 33. Bd2 Qf3+ 34. Kg1 Qd1+ 0-1 [Event "Norway Chess"] [Site "?"] [Date "2021.09.15"] [Round "15.3"] [White "Karjakin, Sergey"] [Black "Firouzja, Alireza"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B90"] [WhiteElo "2758"] [BlackElo "2754"] [Annotator "Monokroussos,Dennis"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2021.??.??"] {[%evp 0,68,17,17,52,44,77,60,60,31,42,42,43,18,27,28,28,-18,1,-15,16,-17,-11, -42,-34,-40,-25,-38,-38,-36,-38,-38,-43,-107,-107,-108,-108,-100,-61,-149,-98, -48,-53,-101,-114,-179,-179,-218,-218,-207,-217,-244,-236,-276,-276,-276,-266, -254,-261,-449,-299,-417,-417,-421,-296,-296,-296,-303,-310,-553,-492]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. h3 e5 7. Nf3 {A calm, positional approach. Right?} (7. Nde2 h5 8. Ng1 $5 {is an interesting line introduced by Nepomniachtchi some years ago. It seems to me that part of what Karjakin is up to is finding a way to create an enhanced version of that variation.}) 7... Be7 (7... h5 {isn't played here. The difference with the knight on e2 is that White wants to play g4 and then Ng3; here, g4 looks less to the point, and in any case playing ...h5 invites White's knight into g5 (after Bc4).}) 8. g4 $5 {Anyway! This could open a new area of Najdorf theory, though the game's outcome will probably discourage it. It's not a novelty, but it is still a rare bird. There was a super-GM outing with it at the start of the year, however.} h6 (8... O-O $6 {Playable, I guess, though it seems overly cavalier about White's idea.} 9. g5 Nh5 10. h4 $1 $14 {/+/-, intending 11.Nh2, is Stockfish's idea, and it looks unpleasant for Black.} (10. Bc4 $6 Be6 11. Bb3 g6 {was fine for Black, notwithstanding the (very) eventual result of the game. 1-0 (70) Giri,A (2764)-Vachier Lagrave,M (2784) Wijk aan Zee 2021})) 9. Rg1 Qc7 $146 (9... b5 $146 {looks like the most principled move, scoffing at White's kingside demonstration. [N.B. "Principled" doesn't necessarily mean "best"; it means the move that, in one way or another, puts the opponent's idea to the test, that says "show me!"]} 10. g5 hxg5 11. Nxg5 Bb7 12. Be3 { looks like a reasonable start to things. White is probably going to play a4, with the knight likely to leap into d5. Black's position is flexible: the knight could go to c6 or d7, and he may or may not play ...b4, for example. One thing he probably won't do is castle short, but even that may be possible.} ) (9... g5 $146 {is another, funny yet playable option. Black's structure is now just as gruesome as White's, and there may be a race to see who can get a knight to the outpost the fastest (White heading for f5, Black for f4).}) (9... Nc6 {is also playable, notwithstanding the result of the very short game that follows:} 10. g5 hxg5 11. Nxg5 Qc7 12. Bc4 Nd8 13. Bb3 Ne6 14. Qe2 Nxg5 15. Bxg5 Rxh3 16. Bxf6 Bxf6 17. Nd5 Qa5+ 18. c3 Bd8 19. Rxg7 Be6 20. O-O-O Rc8 21. Kb1 Qc5 22. f4 exf4 23. Nxf4 Re3 24. Qg2 Bxb3 25. axb3 Qe5 26. Qg4 Qxe4+ 27. Ka2 {1-0 (27) Ponkratov,P (2619)-Drygalov,A (2500) Cheliabinsk 2021}) 10. Nh4 $6 ({The obvious} 10. g5 {was probably better.} hxg5 11. Nxg5 Nbd7 (11... Nc6 $1 12. Bc4 Nd8 13. Bb3 Ne6 14. Qd3 $5 Nxg5 15. Bxg5 Rxh3 16. Be3 Bg4 17. Kd2 $1 $14 {, intending Rh1, gives White enough for the pawn and then some. Black's king will need to castle sooner or later, which will generally cost him the f-pawn, and after that White should retain a small positional edge thanks to the d5 square and Black's weak g-pawn.})) 10... g6 11. Ng2 {Funnily enough, White reverts to the sort of plan most associated with 6.a4/Be2/Be3/h3 e5 7. Nf3 lines; namely, aiming to conquer d5 with a permaknight.} Be6 12. Ne3 Nbd7 13. h4 Qc6 14. Qf3 Nc5 15. Bg2 Na4 $15 {Black has won the battle for d5.} 16. Ned5 $4 (16. Ncd5 {was better - nearly forced, really. Unfortunately for White, he's going to wind up with a pawn on d5, not a piece (let alone a knight).} Bxd5 17. exd5 Qb6 $15) 16... Nxc3 17. Nxf6+ {The only good try.} (17. Nxc3 Nxg4 $19 (17... Bxg4 $19)) (17. Nxe7 Qxe4+ 18. Qxe4 Ncxe4 $19) (17. Qxc3 Nxd5 18. exd5 Qxc3+ 19. bxc3 Bxg4 $19) (17. bxc3 Bxg4 $19) 17... Bxf6 18. Qxf6 Kd7 $6 ( 18... Rh7 $19 {looks ungainly, but it's even better.}) 19. g5 $2 (19. Be3 Na4 20. f4 $1 Qxc2 $1 21. Rc1 Qxb2 22. f5 Bxa2 23. Rd1 Qa3 $1 24. Kf2 {is White's best try, with a mess.} Nb2 $1 25. Rd2 Nc4 $1 26. Qxf7+ Kc8 $19) 19... Nxe4 $2 (19... Qc4 $1) 20. Qf3 d5 $19 {While 19...Qc4 was more or less crushing, this should still be good enough to win - and in the game, it was.} 21. Qd1 Qb6 22. Be3 $2 Qxb2 23. Bxe4 Qb4+ 24. c3 Qxe4 {White need not resign here, but it wouldn't be out of the question or appropriate for him to do so.} 25. Rb1 hxg5 26. Rb4 d4 27. cxd4 Ke8 $1 28. hxg5 Rh3 29. Kd2 Bf5 30. Qb3 Rc8 31. Rc1 Rxc1 32. Kxc1 Rh1+ 33. Kd2 b5 34. d5 Qf3 {White has no good answer to the coming ... Rb1, which will create fresh attacking opportunities for Black. (In fact, White will almost certainly have to cough up his queen to avoid mate.)} 0-1