Round 2: Norway Chess: Chess Struggle in Practice!

"What hath God wrought?" wired Samuel Finley Breese Morse in 1844.  The first telegraphic message transmitted by the inventor of morse code raises  the biblical question that has its relevance then, now, later....as long as human mind tries to invent something in the quest of conquering....

David Bronstein wrote, in the preface to his magnificent book "The Chess Struggle in Practice" on the games of 1953 candidates tournament held in Zurich: "Each game of chess was valuable, that it was a work of art produced by a creative struggle between two masters of the same class. The core of a chess game is a creative battle of plans, a struggle of chess ideas, which reaches its highest form in the middlegame..."

It becomes inevitable to extrapolating that biblical question to the modern day chess struggle...."what have we done with our game?" The words 'creative battle of plans' - the core of Chess struggle in practice is relevant today, but with the explosion of technology and instant access to knowledge from nook and corner of the world, the struggle has intensified manifold.....and....the demarking line between the opening and middlegame phases, that Bronstein alludes to, is slowly losing its control and becoming obscure.

....at time you never know when the game starts...or ended without starting!

Every chess player, irrespective of class, is engaged in this aspect while on board. It is the unwritten duty of a player to engage himself thus, in a creative struggle and it is the duty of the onlooker to try and understand the mind of the player and what made him play such and such move!

Under this pretext, we shall observe certain moves from the 2nd round games


Alexander Grischuk - Levon Aronian

15.Rfd1!?!

For the naked eye, the Black Rook on a8 looks better placed.... in comparison!

I don't know whether this is dubious or bad, being accustomed to hitting the bed early, living in Chennai - the hot bed of India, I miss following the commentary as well as listening to the post match views of the players and hence it becomes more of a guess work!

Or as he inviting....

15.....Ng4!? 16.Nf5 g6; 17.f3 Nh2; 18.Kh2 gf5; 19.Bf5 Qh4; 20.Kg1 Rg8; 21.Be6 fe6; 22.Qe4 Rg2! 23.Kg2 Rg8; 

24.Qg4

Ofcourse, 24.Kf1?? gets nailed with Qh2!

24.....Rg4; 25.fg4 Qg4; 26.Kf2 Qh4; 27.Ke2 Qg4; 28.Kd3 Qf5; 29.Ke2 Qg4; 30.Kd3 Qf5

And Aronian wasn't interested in giving a lot of checks. Perhaps, he could have continued giving some checks and start pushing his h-pawn, but White has enough ammunition to keep the pawn restrained and Black from overdoing!

The move 15.Rfd1 managed to invite some trouble in a 'creative way' but from Bronstein's viewpoint, this game did not even come close to....


Anish Giri - Vishy Anand

11.Rfd1!?

An interesting version of the  previously seen Rfd1!  White is intending to expand his control over the central squares by playing d4.  Also, the presence of Black Queen on the same file makes this a good choice.

Here, Vishy himself could have played 11....d4!? and the game would have attained a totally different flavour!  Instead, he prefered to wait with....

11.....Rac8; 12.Nb5!

This gains a firm grip over the d4-square

12....Rfd8; 13.Rac1 dc4! 14.bc4 Qd3; 15.Qd3 Rd3; 16.Bf1 Rd7; 17.d4 Rcd8; 18.a4 Bb7!?

An invitation to force the issue!

19.d5 ed5; 20.Bh3 dc4; 21.Bd7 Nd7; 22.Nd6 Ba6; 23.Nc4 f6

This is the type of struggle that Bronstein mentioned!  The position thus reached is harmonious: for the exchange that he sacrificed, Anand has a very neat weakness free pawn structure and a nice network amongst his pieces.

Vishy precisely dealt with few minute issues in this position and created enough doubts in Anish Giri's mind to make him return the exchange to reach an equal Rook and pawn ending.



Veselin Topalov - Hikaru Nakamura 

12.Qd2!?

Interesting move, a new move perhaps, home prepared...., but more importantly in line with Topalov's proclivity for complications.  The move leaves the central pawn on e4 - often an orphan in certain variations of Ruy Lopez - enprise, but for a price!

12.....OO

Good policy not to touch a livewire with before you tuck your King in a safe corner.

13.f3 c4; 14.Ba2 Be6; 15.Nc3 b4; 16.Ne2 b3; 17.Bb1 bc2; 18.Bc2 Rb2; 19.Rfb1 Rb1; 20.Rb1 Qc7; 21.Rd1 Ne8; 22.Qb4

22....Nd3?!

Probably 22....Qa7!? as 23.Kh1 can be met with 23....Nf3!  The presence of the pawn on c4 offered this chance, which now dies in vain!

23.Bd3 cd3; 24.Rd3 Qc4; 25.Qa3! d5; 26.Kf2!

Very cunning moves!  The game is in an interesting phase.  The move camouflages a threat on Black's back-rank!

26..... Qc6; 27.Nd4 Qc4; 28.ed5

Often, the decisiveness of a game depends on a singular decision, when it comes to the central pawns and its resolution!  The move played removed all fizz out of the position and perhaps, the game would have been more interesting had White played 28.e5! The Bishops of the opposite colour offers great colourful possibilities when you retain the major pieces. White pieces are better suited in the event of 28.e5.

28.....Qd5

....and slowly the game petered into a draw.


and now comes the only decisive game of the round.



Fabiano Caruana - Magnus Carlsen


The opening - Berlin defence and its middlegame position is bread and butter for Magnus. He has won many games and had also lost to his opponent Caruana, in the past

We shall see one decisive moment in this game, as Berlin is a household name with every chess player and not anything very interesting happened in the meanwhile, except for the skirmish with the Knight and Bishops.

There are occasions when the Knight does look good on the edge!

Garry Kasparov who came to the commentators box during the first round made this interesting remark about Magnus: "He combines Karpov & Fischer, with his passion and fight to the last pawn..."

Yes he does and that is why he has blossomed into an enigmatic World Champion, whose monk like countenance which doesn't give away anything, covers a firm and fiery fighter....at times pushing him to unreasonable extent!

Already landing in an uncomfortable position, Carlsen in a bid to complicate a bit played....

31....Rh7; 32.Re3 Re7; 33.f4 Ba3;

The problem with such position is that, you need to search for moves, forget good ones. The dearth for moves makes the task more arduous for the defending side....even if he happens to be a World Champion!

The flipside of the Berlin is that, though the doubled pawns provide a solid cover for their King during the middlegame and control some vital central squares, they are a big liability in the endgame, as neither they will be mobile nor have the ability to create a passed pawn offering counterplay.

34.Kf3 Bb2; 35.Re2 Bc3; 36.g5 Kd7; 37.Kg4 Re8; 38.Ng3 Rh8; 39.h4 b6; 

....for want of a move...

40.h5 c5; 41.g6 Re8; 42.f5 ef5; 43.Kf4 Rh8; 44.Nf5 Bf6; 45.Rg2! Magnus Resigned


Perhaps the clock which suddenly stopped running in the first round is still in his mind....!


Jon Ludvig Hammer - Maxime Lagrave Vachier


An interesting game where White enjoyed a good position and a resolute defence by MVL who managed to construct a fortress....

The two pawns on d4 and h4 saved the day for Black.  If White King travels across the board to help the d7-pawn getting promoted, Black will use the remaining two pawns on f7 and h6 to disrupt the harmony of White pawns on f4 and g4 and then using the two pawns on d4 and h4, divert the White Bishop to enable the King to approach and gobble White pawns and reach.....

The final position....for the day!