Falling Down

John B. Henderson • June 1, 2023

It’s one for the annals, as it is not often in chess, especially in classical, do you see the World No’s 1 & 2 falling on the same day and in the same tournament - but that’s just the scenario that played out in a spectacular start to the 11th Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger, as first Magnus Carlsen fell, and quickly after there came the fall of the young teenage wannabe, Alireza Firouzja.


All eyes were on the marquee match-up between former title challenger Fabiano Caruana and Carlsen, with the latter - now sans the main crown - looking for a fifth straight Norway Chess victory on his home soil. But things didn’t go to the script for the Norwegian, as he lost the plot in a critical position to all but gift Caruana his first win in classical over the World No.1 in eight years.

And with the win, the US champion continues his much-welcomed return to form, as he jumps back up the Top 10 and is now involved in a dogfight with Hikaru Nakamura to be the top US player in the world rankings, with less than one rating point separating the top two on the live ratings.


Less than 18 months ago, Firouzja, after winning the Sinquefield Cup, and storming up to No.2 in the world rankings, was seen as the obvious young pretender to Carlsen’s crown. But his career-change sabbatical from the game has seen many young Indian rising stars now hot on his tail to be the top teen - one of which being Gukesh D, who outplayed Firouzja to gift himself a belated 17th birthday present, as he joined Caruana in the early lead on 3 points.

As eve, there’s an innovative scoring system in the Norway Chess Tournament with a win in classical counting 3 points and all games drawn going to an armageddon speed playoff, with winners taking 1.5 points, and the losers one point.


And in the opening round, the remaining games all went to Armageddon and won by won by Wesley So (against Hikaru Nakamura), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (vs. Aryan Tari) and Anish Giri (vs. Nodirbek Abdusattorov).

GM Fabiano Caruana - GM Magnus Carlsen

Norway Chess, (1)

C11: French, Steinitz, Boleslavsky variation

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 Theory-wise, the Winawer variation (3...Bb4) is more popular - but the venerable Classical French is still today a very solid option. 4.e5 A little like the Advance variation in the French (3.e5), this way of playing against the Classical French was popularised by the first World Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz. 4...Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 The Classical French sees White gaining a big advantage in space, but Black has a rock-solid position with a pawn formation that can come into its own if we get to the endgame. 7...a6 8.Ne2 Carlsen playing a French Defence came as something of a surprise to Caruana, who opts for a sideline he's used in the past rather than 8.Qd2 that's more popular here. 8...Qb6 9.Qc1!? Previously, in a 2021 Chess.com blitz event, Caruana played 9.Rb1 against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Caruana certainly knew that 9.Qc1 was harmless and just a sideline of a sideline, but he had a hunch it would be better to stay clear of any of Carlsen's prep. 9...Be7 10.c3 O-O 11.g3 f6 12.Bg2 cxd4 13.cxd4 Qa5+!? Played after going 18 minutes into the tank - but the key to Black's position here, according to Caruana, is to play a ...Qb5 at some moment, and it is probably at this moment, as 13...Qb5! prevents castling and all but forces 14.Qd2 (This time 14.Kf2? is just a big blunder, as 14...Nb4! 15.Qc3 Nd3+ 16.Kf1 Qxb2 and Black has a winning advantage heading into the early endgame.) 14...Nb6! 15.exf6 (Not recommended is 15.b3?! Bb4! 16.Nc3 Qa5 17.Rc1 Bd7 and Black has a very comfortable game with easier development.) 15...gxf6 16.Nc3 Bb4 17.Nxb5 Bxd2+ 18.Bxd2 axb5 19.b3 Bd7 20.Bf1 Ra3! 21.Bc1 Raa8 22.Bxb5 Nb4! 23.Bxd7 Nxd7 24.Kd1 Rxa2 25.Rxa2 Nxa2 26.Bd2 Rc8 and Black has slightly better of equality with White's two isolated queenside pawns. 14.Nc3 Nb6 15.exf6 Bxf6 16.b3 Bd7 17.O-O Rac8 18.Qd2 Be7 19.Ne2 Qxd2 20.Bxd2 Rc7 21.Rac1 Rfc8 22.f5! Finely timed by Caruana, and now Carlsen finds himself in a difficult position as the game threatens to break open with White's pieces ideally placed to take advantage. 22...Ba3! The best move in the circumstances, given that the pawn is taboo. If 22...exf5? 23.Bf4! and Black is set for a serious material loss. 23.Rce1 Bb4 24.Bxb4 Nxb4 25.fxe6 Bxe6 26.Nf4 Bf5 27.Ne5 g6 28.g4 Be4 29.Bxe4 dxe4 30.a3 N4d5 31.Rxe4 Rc3? (see diagram) The wrong choice at the wrong time, and with it Carlsen's position soon falls apart. The key move to find was 31...Nxf4! 32.Rexf4 Nd5 33.R4f3 and now 33...Rc3 where, despite White having the extra pawn, it is difficult to see how he can make headway as Black's pieces are primed to undermine the loose queenside pawns. Now, if 34.Nd7 as seen in the game 34...R3c7 35.Rf8+ Rxf8 36.Rxf8+ Kg7 37.Rd8 Nf4! 38.Ne5 Re7 39.Rd6 Ne2+ 40.Kf2 Nxd4 41.Rxd4 Rxe5 42.Rd7+ Kf6 43.Rxb7 Kg5! 44.Kf3 Rc5 and, with careful play, Black will easily draw the R+P endgame. 32.Nd7! The subtle difference is that this time this move is winning! 32...Rxb3 The (full) point is that 32...Nxd7 33.Nxd5 and Black is set to lose the exchange with the rook on c3 attacked and the double threat of Ne7+ forking king and rook. You live and learn - well, you live anyway! 33.Nxd5 Nxd5 34.Re5 Nc3 35.Nf6+ 1-0 Carlsen resigns faced with 35...Kf7 (It's much the same after 35...Kg7 36.Re7+ Kf8 37.Ree1!) 36.Nxh7+ Kg7 37.Re7+ Kg8 (There's a mating net after 37...Kh6 38.g5+ Kh5 39.Nf6+ Kxg5 40.Re5+ Kh6 41.Ng4+ Kg7 42.Re7+ Kh8 43.Rff7 etc.) 38.Nf6+ Kf8 39.Nd5+ Kg8 40.Re3! Kg7 41.g5 that leaves Black paralysed, all but sitting in Death's Waiting Room for the killing blow.

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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