Emmpate entre Alex Morozevich e Mag Carlsen

Alexander Morozevich draw Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen. What will he do with a decent position? Photo © http://video.russiachess.org.

Alexander Morozevich tried a rare sideline in the Nimzo-Indian
Classical with 11.Rc1 which offers the a-pawn for a lot of
compensation against Magnus Carlsen. This move has been
seen before but not many times and Carlsen immediately went
wrong. Either he can capture on a2 straight away or probably he
doesn't do it at all. Both players agreed his 11...Nd7? was a bad
idea and it was one mentioned as such in the very popular club
player's manual The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White (US). The point is
12.Nge2 Qxa2 13.Kd1! is close to winning for white. (Draw
Priborsky-Gordon Liverpool 2008 but Priborsky was rated well
below Stephen Gordon). Carlsen quickly realised his mistake
and went into immediate defensive mode just trying not to be
lost straight away. He certainly put up strong resistance in a
pretty disgusting looking position. The players didn't come up
with an absolutely concrete win, and Carlsen didn't think it was
his place to make that judgement.
Question: Have you considered your position to be completely lost or just to be something a bit
down.
 Carlsen: It doesn't make any sense for me to evaluate whether my position is lost or not you know.
I just have to fight and find my best chances. Yes I knew my position was difficult but whether it
was lost or not was not a question that was on my mind.
The alternative 24.Be2 suggested by Morozevich looks like a
probable improvement because Carlsen started to get a lot of
counterplay as his opponent got into time trouble. It seems
Morozevich was counting on 37.Kc5 but realised it failed to
37...Bxf3 when he has to be careful, Carlsen didn't spot this but
also seemed to have things under control with 37...Rg5.
Morozevich very short of time lost all remaining winning chances
and even put himself in slight danger with 40...Rxc4 shedding a
pawn back. Carlsen tried for a bit after first time control but a
draw was always the right result then.
I do wonder what Magnus Carlsen has being doing these last 5
months he has had off. An ambitious player would have been
working on his openings and theoretical skills (there is no
arguing about the quality Carlsen's practical play) but there is
precious sign of that so far.
Morozevich,Alexander - Carlsen,Magnus [E35]
7th Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (2.1), 09.06.2012
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5
h6 7.Bh4 c5 8.dxc5 g5 9.Bg3 Ne4 10.e3 Qa5 11.Rc1
"Rc1 is a rare but promising gambit" according to p 235 of the
The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White."
11...Nd7?
Magnus Carlsen

Alexander Morozevich

Position after 11...Nd7?

"I couldn't really remember what to do but 11...Nd7 is probably
just an awful move." - Carlsen. "Actually 11..Nd7 is just a
blunder." - Morozevich.
[11...Bf5 12.Bxb8 (12.Bd3 Nd7 (12...Nc6) 13.f3 Nxg3 14.hxg3
Bxd3 15.Qxd3 0-0-0 16.a3 Bxc5 17.Nge2 Kb8 18.b4 Qxa3
19.bxc5 Nxc5 20.Qc2 Qa6 21.0-0 Rhe8 22.Nd4 Rxe3 23.Nd1 1-
0 Albadri,A (2221)-Ernst,M (2177)/Vienna 2011.) 12...Rxb8
13.Bd3 was about equal but 1-0 Gupta,A (2644)-Yu,Y
(2626)/Zaozhuang 2012.; 11...Qxa2 was possible here draw
Finegold,B (2563)-Perelshteyn,E (2522)/Chicago 2006.;
11...Nc6 12.Bd3 (12.a3) 12...Bxc3+(12...Nxg3 13.hxg3 d4
14.exd4 Nxd4 15.Qd2 Be6 16.a3 Bxc5 17.b4 Qxa3 18.bxc5 0-0-
0 19.Nb1 Qa4 20.Qc3 Rhe8 21.Ne2 Nxe2 22.Bxe2 Bc4 23.0-0
Bxe2 24.Rfe1 Bb5 25.Rxe8 Bxe8 26.Na3 Qd4 27.Qe1 Kb8
28.Qe7 Bc6 29.Nc4 Re8 30.Qxf7 Qxc5 31.Rb1 Rf8 32.Qg7
Qxf2+ 33.Kh2 Qxg2# 0-1 Tozer,R (2380)-Lalic,S (2405)/London
1997/CBM 058 ext) 13.bxc3 Nxc5 eventual draw Lomineishvili,M
(2437)-Zaiatz,E (2364)/St Petersburg 2009.]
12.Nge2
[12.f3 1/2-1/2 Dautov,R (2630)-Khenkin,I (2579)/Germany
2002/EXT 2003]
12...Ndxc5
[12...Qxa2 was Carlsen's initial intention missing: 13.Kd1! which
has been seen before in Priborsky-Gordon Liverpool 2008 but
the game was agreed drawn here. The big rating difference was
probably a factor with black being much the better player. This
is close to winning for white.]
13.a3 Bxc3+ 14.Nxc3
14.Nxc3 "Whites advantage is clear whatever black plays" -
Kaufman.
14...Nxc3 15.Qxc3 Qxc3+ 16.Rxc3 Ne4 17.Rc7
 Magnus Carlsen

Alexander Morozevich

Position after 17.Rc7

"I couldn't see anything better than to try not to lose
immediately. Everywhere white has many attractive options." -
Carlsen. "That's the big problem!" - Morozevich.
17...Nxg3 18.hxg3 Rb8 19.Bb5+
[19.f4 "was very interesting I thought." - Carlsen.
19...Be6 (19...gxf4 20.gxf4 Be6 "OK looks ugly. But this is not
something immediate." - Morozevich.) 20.fxg5 Kd8 "I wanted to
play like this." - Carlsen. 21.Rc5 h5]
19...Kf8 20.Kd2
[20.f4]
20...Kg7 21.Rhc1 Rd8 22.Re7 Kf6 23.Rcc7 Rf8
Magnus Carlsen

Alexander Morozevich

Position after 23...Rf8. A key moment. 24.Be2 was certainly possible here.
24.b4
[24.Be2 Morozevich's post game suggestion. 24...g4 But this
does remove the counterplay in the game. (24...a5
25.Bh5 (25.Bf3 Be6 26.Rxb7 Rfe8 27.b4) 25...Bf5) 25.b4 "This
is totally lost I think." - Morozevich. 25...a5]
24...a6 25.Bd3 a5
[25...b6 "OK still looking dubious but I didn't see something
concrete here." - Morozevich 26.Ra7 a5 27.bxa5 bxa5 28.Rec7
"At least something, no?" - Morozevich. 28...h5 29.Rxa5 Be6
"OK it's not completely lost anyway." - Carlsen.]
26.bxa5 Ra8 27.Bb5 Rxa5 28.a4 Ra8 29.Kc3 h5 30.Kb4!?
Magnus Carlsen

Alexander Morozevich

Position after 30.Kb4!? Carlsen thought that he had good drawing chances here.
Both players agreed after the game this might not be best but it
really isn't that clear. "Now I think I have very good drawing
chances." - Carlsen.
[30.Kd4 "was the correct move of course." Morozevich. 30...h4
31.Re8 Rxe8 32.Bxe8 "The difference of course is that your king
now can't move." - Morozevich. 32...Be6 33.Bb5 b6 34.Rb7 Rc8
35.Rxb6 Rc2 36.a5 Rxf2 37.a6 Ra2 "This is not so easy." -
Morozevich.]
30...h4 31.Re8 Rxe8 32.Bxe8 Be6 33.Bb5 d4 34.gxh4
gxh4 35.exd4 Bd5 36.f3 Rg8
 Magnus Carlsen

Alexander Morozevich

Position after 36...Rg8

Black has suddenly activated all his pieces but he is two pawns
down for the moment.
37.Rc2
"37.Rc2 is obviously not a very happy move." - Morozevich.
[37.Kc5 "There was a problem, 37.Kc5 wasn't working." -
Morozevich talking about a tactical idea that came as a surprise
to Carlsen. 37...Bxf3!! (37...Rg5 Carlsen's planned
move. 38.Kd6 Morozevich. 38...Be6 39.Rc2 Rd5+ 40.Kc7 Rxd4
41.Kxb7 Bb3 42.Rc6+ Kg5 "OK this is interesting but Bf3 was
my main concern." - Morozevich.) 38.gxf3 h3 "This is something
strange but OK." - Morozevich.]
37...Ke7 38.a5 Kd6 39.Bc4
 Magnus Carlsen

Alexander Morozevich

Position after 39...Bxc4

Morozevich was thinking right down to the last few seconds
each move here (there was a 30 second increment)
[39.Bd3 Ian Rogers suggestion. ]
39...Bxc4 40.Rxc4
[40.Kxc4 "The result will be the same but black will be suffering
probably." - Morozevich. 40...Rc8+ (40...Rg5 was Carlsen's
suggestion. 41.Rb2 Rxa5 42.Rb6+ Kc7 43.Rf6 Rg5 44.Rxf7+
Kd6 with a probable draw too.) 41.Kb3 Rxc2 42.Kxc2 Kc6
43.Kd3 Kb5 44.Ke4 Kxa5 45.Kd5! b5 46.Kc5 b4 47.d5 b3 48.d6
b2 49.d7 Ka4 and black should hold.]
40...Rxg2 41.Rc5
There shouldn't be any winning chances for black here according
to Carlsen.
41...h3
[41...Rb2+ 42.Kc3 Rf2 43.Rf5 Ke6 44.Re5+ Kf6 45.Rb5 white
has no problems.]
42.Rh5 h2 43.Kc4 Rc2+ 44.Kd3 Ra2 45.Ke4 f5+ 46.Kf4
Kd5 47.Rxf5+ Kxd4 48.Rh5 Rg2 49.Rh7 Kd3 50.Ke5 Ke2
51.f4 Kf1 52.f5 Ra2 53.f6 Rxa5+ 54.Ke6 Ra6+ 55.Ke7
Rxf6 56.Kxf6 Kg1 57.Ke5 h1Q 58.Rxh1+ Kxh1 59.Kd4
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