10 Brilliant games by World Champion Magnus Carlsen through the years

Brilliant Games Played by Magnus Carlsen : 10 games selected top10chess

Carlsen Spanish Torture vs Tari : Norway Chess 2020

Spanish d3 variation. Carlsen demonstrates Knight vs Bishop domination against Tari. norwaychess.no/en/

Carlsen tactics (Carlsen-Ding Liren 2020 Chess24.com Finals)

today I'd like to go over the game from Magnus Carlsen against Ding Liren, a sharp sicilian defense game.www.chess24.com for full coverage

Critical position 1:

Both players went into a dynamic types of positions ( Sicilian Najdorf by Ding Liren). with Kings on opposite sides. 

White to play in diagram above.

Hint: Magnus was looking at 27 Rf3 and 27Rf7+. Can you calculate the lines ?

Critical position 2 (analysis):

White had to evaluate 27Rf7+ Kf7 28 Qe6+ Kg7 leading to the following diagram, white to play.

can Black defend and what is White's best move ?

_____________________________________________________________________

Solution

_____________________________________________________________________

Magnus looked at 29 Qe7+ Kg8  30 Nxe5 but 30..Rh7! saves Black.

White would win by playing 29 Ne7! , and here's why:

if 29..Rab8 30 Qg6+ Kf8 31Rf1+ wins

if 29..Rh7 30 Rf1! Qc4 31 Qf7+ Kh8 32 Ng6 checkmate

if 29..Qxc4 30 Qg6+ Kf8 31 Nf5! Qe4+ 32 Ka1 wins.

in the game Magnus played 27Rf3 f5 28 gf6+ Nf6 29 Qg2 Qd7 which allowed Ding to come back into the game. But eventually Magnus won the game anyway.

Magnus wins brilliancy game ( Zugwang masterpiece) against Dubov with Black: Chessable tournament Group A : June 22, 2020

Great positional game ( Zugwang Domination) by Magnus Carlsen with Black against Daniil Dubov.

Yasser Seirawan and Peter Svidler commented the game live on chess24.com

You can see Dubov on the left and Carlsen on the right  at the start of the game

PGN Here:

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4. Nc3 e6 5. g3 Nbd7 6. Bg2 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 b6 9. Re1 Ba6 10. Nd2 Rc8 11. Bb2 c5 12. dxc5 Nxc5 13. b4 Nce4 14. Ncxe4 dxe4 15. b5 Bb7 16. e3 Bb4

17. Re2 Qd3 18. Rb1 Bc3 19. Ba3 Rfd8 20. Rb3 Qxc4 21. Qe1 Qd5 22. Bb4 Qxb3 23.axb3 Bxb4 24. Bf1 a5 25. Qd1 h6 0-1

Full game with replay and annotations below :

Brilliant positional game by Carlsen who squeezed Dubov and crowned its plan with a queen sacrifice on move 20, and won in 25 moves with Black. he must have been happy after losing 3 games to Dubov in recent online tournaments

www.chess24.com to follow the tournament

Nakamura-Carlsen Game 4 Annotated Magnus Carlsen Invitational 2020

Hikaru with White must win to tie the match 2-2. He is trailing 1-2 in a rapid match of 4 games played online at chess24.com

First key moment

Black (Magnus) to play

Here Magnus saw that 16..c5 worked and would allow Black to equalize. Opening the position will favor the bishop pair.

Second key moment

White (Hikaru) to play 

Here Hikaru played 22bc5!? . He saw 22.Nc5 Nc5 23 bc5  Rdc8 with an extra pawn but the position has opposite bishops. Magnus would put his pieces on black pieces and his next moves would be easy to find. By playing 22bc5!? White keeps more pieces on the board.


Third key moment

White to play

Here Hikaru has an extra pawn and Knight versus Bishop instead of opposite bishops. Magnus drifted as the position was near equal around move 22. The position is now between draw and win for white and chess24.com commentators thought White had good chances to convert.
Here White rushed by playing 41.Ne5 on which Black played Bxe5 to enter the rook endgame. It was much stronger to play 41.a5 or 41 Kg2 to activate pieces. Black is passive and cannot start counterplay so White should improve his position patiently.


Fourth key moment

White to play

Here white played 43 Kg2?. This is a mistake from Hikaru as Magnus replied 43..g5 and later on ..h5 and ..g4. If Hikaru had played the best move 43 h4! , Magnus could have tried 43...h6  on which White would respond 44a5 g5 46 h5!. by not exchanging the h pawns, White would have another target the h6 pawn, on top of the threat of advancing the a pawn. This rook ending is winning for white.


in the end after 43 Kg2 g5! they continued but the game ended up in a draw by perpetual check. full game below.

[Event "Magnus Carlsen Invitational Final 4"]
[Site "chess24.com "]
[Date "2020.05.03"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D52"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. Nd2 dxc4 8.
Bxf6 Nxf6 9. Nxc4 Qc7 10. Be2 Be7 11. a3 O-O 12. b4 Rd8 13. O-O b6 14. Bf3 Ba6
15. Qb3 Rac8 16. Rac1 c5 17. dxc5 Bxc4 18. Qxc4 bxc5 19. Na4 Nd7 20. Qb5 Qb8
21. Qxb8 Rxb8 22. bxc5 Rdc8 23. c6 Ne5 24. Rc3 Nxf3+ 25. gxf3 Kf8 26. Rd1 Ke8
27. Rd7 Bf6 28. Rc5 Rxc6 29. Rxa7 Rxc5 30. Nxc5 Be7 31. Ne4 f5 32. Ng3 g6 33.
a4 Kf7 34. Ne2 Kf6 35. Ra6 Rb2 36. Nf4 Kf7 37. Nd3 Ra2 38. Ra7 Kf6 39. f4 Bd6
40. Ra6 Ke7 41. Ne5 Bxe5 42. fxe5 Kd7 43. Kg2 g5 44. Rd6+ Ke7 45. Ra6 Kd7 46.
a5 h5 47. Rd6+ Ke7 48. a6 h4 49. Rb6 Kd7 50. Rd6+ Ke7 51. h3 Ra5 52. f4 g4 53.
Rb6 Ra2+ 54. Kh1 Ra1+ 55. Kg2 Ra2+ 56. Kf1 Ra1+ 57. Kg2 Ra2+ 1/2-1/2

Animated Game below