Magnus Carlsen became marathon man this week as the world champion battled through five long games at the Grenke Classic in Germany. Carlsen averaged 69 moves and 5hr 18min of playing time for each of his five games, yet still could not dominate the opposition. Entering Friday’s sixth round (of nine) the Norwegian, 28, was in a bunch of five grandmasters separated by just half a point.
Everything went Carlsen’s way in Friday’s sixth round. He beat the tail-ender Georg Meier in 58 moves, advanced his total to 4.5/6, and took a clear one point lead over the field with three rounds to go as all his rivals drew or lost.
It all seemed set up this week at Karlsruhe for the world champion to continue his splendid form of Wijk aan Zee and Shamkir where he stormed to first prizes. Sure enough, Carlsen confidently won his first two rounds in Germany with the black pieces, grinding down the 14-year-old prodigy Vincent Keymer and then Francisco Vallejo Pons in patient endgames.
His encounter with the Spaniard eventually reached the very rare endgame of king, rook, and dark‑squared bishop against king, knight and light‑squared bishop. It was difficult enough as it was, and Vallejo Pons could have made it even harder had he spotted and set a hidden stalemate trap.
That made it five wins in succession for the world champion, who had won his last three games at Shamkir in dazzling style. Speculation was rife on whether he could equal or better his US challenger Fabiano Caruana’s seven straight wins at St Louis 2014, and on how soon Carlsen’s performance rating of around 2860 would rise to equal his own all-time 2889 record.
However, the latest three rounds before Thursday’s rest day showed that he is still human. A fighting draw against Caruana with the black pieces, once again testing the sharp Sicilian Defence from their world title match, was expected; but dropped half points with White against Vishy Anand and Arkadij Naiditsch reflected their resilient defence. In both games Carlsen missed at least one possible winning chance, and both continued for hours as he tried in vain to create a fresh opportunity.
After five long and hard-fought games even tough Norwegians need a rest. On Friday the Grenke Classic moved to Baden-Baden, headquarters of its IT leasing company sponsor.
The standings after Wednesday’s fifth round were tight, with half a point covering the leading five players, but everything went Carlsen’s way in round six. He defeated the tailender Georg Meier in 58 moves after another grinding game where the world champion eventually broke through a defensive fortress, while none of his rivals could win. Anand lost to Naiditsch, and the others drew.
With just three rounds left, Carlsen now leads by a full point: Carlsen 4.5/6; Anand, Caruana, Naiditsch, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Peter Svidler and Levon Aronian all 3.5/6.
England’s over-65 team were seeded only sixth at the world senior teams in Rhodes, Greece, but following their 2-2 draw against Russia’s ex-Soviet legends they went on to capture silver medals behind Russian gold. Final leading scores were Russia 14 match points (23.5 game points), England 13 (23.5), France 13 (22.5), Israel 13 (21).
These totals do not tell the full story, as despite their draw with Russia, England lost two matches in a row in mid-tournament and looked out of it. Then they recovered and jumped into second place in the final round with another ex-Soviet scalp when they beat St Petersburg.
England’s squad was former British champion Robert Bellin, of Walsall (4.5/8), international master Nigel Povah, of Guildford (4.5/7), Fide master Tony Stebbings, of Charlton (third board gold with 5/7), Ian Snape, of Beckenham (fourth board bronze with an unbeaten 6/8) and John Quinn, of Ealing (3.5/6).
England’s over-50 team finished sixth behind the US, Italy and Israel but GM John Emms (6/8) won the third board gold and GM Keith Arkell (6/8) the second board silver.
3616 1...Kf3?? (Kh5 and Kh3 both draw) 2 Nh4+! and Black resigned because Ke3 3 Rg3+! Kd2/e2/f2 4 Rg2+ wins his rook.
Bengt Hammar (Sweden) v Tony Stebbings (England)
This week’s game celebrates the individual gold and team silver medallist from Charlton Chess Club. Tony Stebbings plays the early moves in an ultra-strategic style, but subtlety is not required from move 19 onwards when White self-immolates.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Bb4+ 4 Bd2 a5 5 Nc3 b6 6 g3 Bb7 7 Bg2 0-0 8 0-0 d6 9 Qc2 Nbd7 10 Rad1 h6 11 Rfe1 Bxc3 12 Bxc3 Be4 13 Qc1 c6 14 Bh3 d5 15 b3 b5 16 Nd2 Bg6 17 Bb2 Qb6 18 Bg2 a4 19 h3? axb3 20 axb3 bxc4 21 bxc4 Ra2 22 Bc3? Bc2 23 e4 Bxd1 24 Rxd1 dxe4 25 Nxe4 Qb3 26 d5? Rc2 27 Qe3 Nxe4 28 Qxe4 cxd5 29 cxd5 Rxc3 30 Rb1 Qxd5 0-1
