The 42 Paradox

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.

But as Carlsen hadn’t been beaten, he also got a double-elimination ‘reset’ in the Grand Final - and remarkably, a resounding 2-0 victory from the Frenchman saw him grab the title ahead of the Norwegian favourite.


Magnanimous in defeat, Carlsen praised his opponent’s play throughout the AI Cup, after many pundits and commentators had begun the process of writing MVL’s career as being close to over. “That was a fair outcome. [...] Maxime was strong and I failed at the critical moments,’ said the world #1.


“It’s [a] great feeling to play this well and beat Magnus twice,’ commented a jubilant MVL following his heroics that not only bagged the Frenchman the $30,000 first prize but also qualified him into the series’ finals, where he’ll be joined in Toronto in December by overall Tour leader Carlsen. 


In overall Tour standings final order, the eight going forward to the $500,000 Tour series’ final will be: 1. Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 645-points; 2. Fabiano Caruana (USA) 325; 3. Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) 325; 4. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 290; 5. Wesley So (USA) 235; 6. Alireza Firouzja (France) 180; 7. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) 180; 8. Denis Lazavik (FIDE) 175.


As the brilliant writer Douglas Adams of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fame wrote in his comedic pan-galactic odyssey, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", as calculated by the enormous AI supercomputer named Deep Thought - which went on to inspire IBM’s chess supercomputer nomenclature - over a period of 7.5 million years, is 42. And paradoxically in the AI Cup Grand Final, move 42 proved to be the turning point in a scintillating key game that ultimately decided everything! 

GM Magnus Carlsen - GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

AI Cup Grand Final, (2.1)


D20: Queen’s Gambit Accepted

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 MVL's persistence in the past of sticking to his favourite defences, such as the Sicilian Najdorf, and more particularly, the Grunfeld Defence, whatever the outcome, has been his mythological Achilles' heel. But he's wised up by chopping and changing his defences, particularly against 1.d4 - and after one earlier sparkling encounter with Magnus in the QGA, we get another that's simply a joy to watch, as both players trade blows in a stand-up bare-knuckle fight. 3.e4 e5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.Nxe5 b5 7.f3 O-O 8.a3 Ba5 9.Be3 c5 10.dxc5 Qe8 11.Qd6 Be6 12.O-O-O Qc8 13.Nxb5 a6 14.Nd4! All part of Carlsen's legendary opening prep, and similarly, also known by MVL - so kudos for both players willing to duke it out with some amazing risks and play. 14...Bc7 15.Nxe6 Bxd6 16.Rxd6 fxe6 17.Bxc4 Re8 MVL admitted here that he "momentarily forgot" his home prep - which apparently was 17...Kh8 just to remove the king from the fray, the point being that now 18.Bxe6 Qe8 19.Rhd1 Qe7 with the follow-up plan of with ...Ne8, ...a5 and ...Ra6. to consolidate. 18.c6 This is one of these amazing imbalanced positions from the opening - a little like David Bronstein's innovative queen sac in the Samisch KID he uncorked against Boris Spassky at the 1956 Amsterdam Candidates - where a couple of minor pieces and pawns are more than a handful for the queen, as Black's position right now is a bit messy and not easy to play with his pieces being diss-jointed. 18...Re7 Also possible was 18...a5!? 19.Rhd1 Na6 20.Bb6 Qb8 which looks to force a repetition after 21.Nd7 Qc8 22.Ne5 Qb8 23.Nd7 etc.19.Bb6 Nbd7 Taking advantage of the pin down the c-file. 20.cxd7 Nxd7 21.Nc6! Re8 Once again, another option is just to remove the king from the equation with 21...Kh8!? leading us to 22.Bf2 (The only move with the position on a knife edge. After 22.Nxe7? Qxc4+ 23.Kb1 Nxb6 24.Rxb6 Qd3+ 25.Ka2 Qd7! 26.Nc6 Qc7 and White is set to lose the knight) 22...Nf8 23.Rhd1 Rd7 24.Kb1 Rxd6 25.Rxd6 Qc7 26.Bg3 Qb6 27.Nd4 Qc5 28.Bb3 Re8 (There's no time for 28...e5? 29.Rd5! Qxd4 30.Rxd4 exd4 31.Bd5 and with the d-pawn vulnerable, as well as the a-pawn, White has a close-to-winning endgame advantage) 29.Nxe6 Nxe6 30.Bxe6 Qg1+ 31.Ka2 Qxg2 which Mr Engine tells us is set to fizzle out to a draw after 32.Be5 h5 33.Bf5 Qxf3 34.Rh6+ Kg8 35.Bh7+ Kf7 36.Bg6+ Ke7 37.Rxh5 Qg4 38.Bxe8 Kxe8 39.Rh8+ Kf7 40.Bc3 Qxe4 41.Rd8 g5 42.Rd2 with an ideal fortress, with Black unable to make any progress. 22.Be3 Qc7 23.Rhd1 Nf8 24.Kb1 Kh8 25.h4 h6 26.g4! You got to admire both players for their fighting spirit - a fighting spirit that prevailed in both of their final matches in the AI Cup. 26...Qf7 27.Ne5 Slightly better first, according to the always reliable Mr Engine, was 27.Be2! Rec8 28.R1d2 the reason is that life isn't easy here for Black, and White should be in no hurry to rush things. The disadvantage of Carlsen's haste is that he allows MVL's queen to come into the game, which doesn't happen in the above note. 27...Qf6 28.Bd4 Qxh4 29.Bxe6 Typically for Carlsen, he continues to push the envelope regardless - but safer here was first playing 29.g5!? hxg5 30.Bxe6! Kh7 31.Bf5+ Kg8 32.Ng6 Qg3 33.Bc3 Qxf3 34.R1d3 Qf1+ 35.Rd1 Qf3 where both sides can opt for the repetition bailout - yet paradoxically, this is just not in the nature of these two legendary bruisers! 29...Qh2 30.Bd5 Kh7 31.g5? We can't all play with the accuracy of AI's Mr Engine in the heat of battle. Unfortunately, this is the only bad move in what has been an enthralling battle between these two warriors. And with it, Carlsen's position begins to seriously drift. He had to play 31.Bxa8 Rxa8 32.Bc3 Re8 33.R6d5 Ne6 34.g5 hxg5 (Slightly more confusing was the alternative capture 34...Nxg5 35.Ng4 Qe2 36.Rd7 Re7! 37.Nf6+ Kg6 38.Re1 Qxf3 39.Rxe7 gxf6 40.Ka1 which the engine laughingly calls a "decimal draw" with the nothing-happening-here AI "0.00" assessment) 35.Ka2 Rc8 36.R1d2 Qg3 37.Rd1 Qh2 38.R1d2 Qg3 39.Rd1 repeating moves, and what would have been a very fighting and deserving draw for both players. 31...Rac8! MVL pounces on the ...Qc2+ game-changer - now in a complete reversal of fortunes, the Frenchman is well on top. 32.Rc6 Rxc6 33.Nxc6 hxg5?! Even stronger and more accurate was 33...Qe2! 34.Rg1 Ne6 35.g6+ Kh8 and Black is on top with his queen picking off some key pawns. 34.Bf7?! The only move to fight on was 34.Bc3! Ne6 35.e5! Nf4 36.Be4+ Kh6 and really any three results for either side is quite possible here! 34...Rc8 35.Be5 Qg2 36.Nd4 g4 Even stronger was 36...Nd7! 37.Bd6 Nb6 with the big threat of ...Na4 - but in the mutual time-scramble, you can't blame MVL for going for the natural-looking move breaking up the pawns. 37.fxg4 Qxe4+ 38.Ka2 Rd8 39.Rf1 Qg2 40.Rf5 Threatening Rh5 mate, which is easily parried. 40...g6 41.Rf6 Qxg4 42.Nf3? (see diagram) This is where Douglas Adams’ #42 AI paradox comes into play. It is natural to be single-minded and want to point all your pieces in the general direction of your opponent's king - but the saving move 42 was to head to the other wing with 42.Nc6! Rd3 43.Rf4 Qh3 44.Rf2 Rf3 45.Rh2 Qxh2 46.Bxg6+! Kxg6 47.Bxh2 Rh3 48.Bd6 Nd7 49.Nb8 Rd3 50.Nxd7 Rxd6 51.Nc5 Kf5 52.b4 Ke5 53.Kb3 Kd4 54.Ka4 and a very likely draw with Black's a-pawn set to fall soon. 42...Rd3! It takes just one very accurate and brave move 42 from MVL, and Magnus is on the morphine drip as his pieces start to hang. 43.Bd5 If 43.Nh2 Qe4 44.Bc3 Rxc3! with ...Qg2+ picking up the knight to follow. 43...Rxd5 44.Rf7+ Kh6 The king runs up the board to safety, leaving Magnus to deal with his wreck of a position. 45.Bg7+ Kh5 46.Rxf8 Qc4+! 47.b3 Qe2+ 48.Bb2 Kg4! MVL's king turns out to be the silent assassin as he moves in for the kill. 49.a4 Qxf3! Black having the g-pawn makes all the difference in winning now rather than drawing, as we saw in the above note to move 42. The rest is now a very effective clear-up by MVL, as the Frenchman wins the first of two amazing back-to-back wins over Carlsen to sensationally snatch the AI Cup title and the final berth in the Tour finals in Toronto in December. 50.Rxf3 Kxf3 51.b4 g5 52.Kb3 g4 53.Kc4 Ke4 54.b5 axb5+ 55.axb5 g3 56.b6 g2 57.b7 Rd8 0-1

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.

Vanity Fair

By John B. Henderson • August 29, 2023
The game’s world governing body, FIDE, has launched yet another World Championship event, the inaugural World Team Championship , that was held over the past weekend in Dusseldorf, Germany - but this one is mildly controversial, as the clue can be found in the eventual final result, as it took on the air of a vanity project dominated by the event sponsor’s own powerhouse WR Chess team. It had its attractions though, with forty-two sponsored teams registered to take part in the tournament and a unique blend of professional players, top women, and amateurs on each team. The novel format, faster time control (15 minutes per player, with a 10-second increment per move), and inclusion of amateur players alongside professionals aimed to make the event accessible to a wider audience (and that part failed, apparently).
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