Posted by admin on March 4, 2008 in News
Seventeen-year-old Magnus Carlsen continues to prove that he is the new emerging superstar in the chess world.
In January he tied for first place at the elite Corus Chess Tournament in the Netherlands. And now at the prestigious Morelia-Linares Chess Tournament Carlsen is in second place with only four more rounds to go.
This week’s position is from Carlsen’s victory over Vassily Ivanchuk, who is ranked 9th in the world. Ivanchuk, playing white, has two dangerous, advanced pawns on g6 and h5. In addition, Ivanchuk’s bishop threatens black’s rook. Countering this is Carlsen’s advanced pawns on a2 and c4.
With this hint in mind please try and find the move that Carlsen made, which soon won the game.
In chess notation, the board is a grid: the vertical columns are numbered “1” through “8;” the horizontal rows, “a” through “h.” Each square on the board is identified by a specific letter and number.
If the pawn at a2 immediately promotes on a1, white’s bishop takes the new queen. After black’s rook captures the white bishop at a1, white’s king moves to e2, relieving the pin on white’s knight at d1.
From here, black is better and would likely win. However, it would still be a fight. This is because of white’s advanced g6 and h5 pawns.
Instead of immediately promoting, Carlson moved his pawn at c4 to c3, attacking the bishop. This forced Ivnachuk to take Carlsen’s rook. This sacrifice in turn allowed the a2 to promote safely on the next move.
Ivanchuk defended the bishop by moving his knight to d3 but then resigned. He saw that black’s king could now single-handedly thwart the advance of the g6 and h5 pawns. Meanwhile, black’s pawns would march down the board with the queen to assist them.
Oftentimes a young adult shows flashes of genius only to be shown by his elders that such promise needs time to develop before he or she can successfully compete with the best of the best. Carlsen victory over Ivanchuk, who is 39, and his success against the other 30 somethings in the Netherlands and in Spain is proving that at 17 he can already compete with the best of the best.
By admin on April 23, 2008 at 11:46 am
You are right! I’m really sorry and we have corrected it.
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By Petter Thorvaldsen on April 18, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Dear Sir,
Sorry, but I am a little disappointed due to the fact that you are spelling his name wrong. His Familiy Name is CARLSEN with an”E” and not “o” which is more a swedish fashon of spelling, and on your Introductionlist with the top-players in the world, he has been connected with , as far I can see, a wrong national Flag - It realy does not look Norwegian to me. I would appreciate a correction.
With kind regards
Petter Thorvaldsen