Magnus Carlsen faces a major and immediate test of his skills in the opening round of Wijk aan Zee on Saturday. Friday’s draw for pairings gave Norway’s world champion the white pieces against Alireza Firouzja, the brilliant Iran-born teenager who is widely considered the heir apparent to Carlsen’s throne.
Wijk aan Zee is referred to as the “chess Wimbledon” and is Carlsen’s favourite event. Round one starts at 1pm on Saturday, with rest days on 20, 25 and 28 January before the final round on 31 January. Live commentary will be available on major chess sites.
Wijk is the tournament where Carlsen struts his stuff, a showpiece for the No 1’s all-round skills, a venue where he has seen off many major rivals and ambitious new talents. His recent setbacks online are a different matter: rapid and blitz chess at fast time limits, where a missed tactic or a mouse slip can spell instant defeat, have little relevance to Carlsen’s over-the-board achievements.
His official rating remains at a stellar 2862, although his all-time record of 2889 and the magic round number of 2900 are currently out of immediate reach. After Stavanger in October, where his run of 125 games without loss was ended by Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Carlsen may want to make a fresh attempt at a new rating peak.
Some psychological effects could remain from the champion’s defeat by Wesley So in the Skilling Open, where the final was carefully designed to coincide with Carlsen’s 30th birthday and its tropical beach gourmet breakfast, incongruously arranged without seafoods. Skilling was followed by the Airthings Masters, where Carlsen was eliminated by the creative Russian Daniil Dubov, found himself checkmated in the process, and described it as a “collapse” and a “deep funk”.
Dubov was listed to compete at Wijk, but on Thursday the Muscovite withdrew, citing a Covid-19 case near to him. He has been replaced by Germany’s Alexander Donchenko, 22, ranked No 71 in the world.
Stavanger, won by Carlsen ahead of Firouzja, has been the only other elite over-the-board tournament during the lockdowns. That was a six-player double-rounder, whereas Wijk will have its normal 14, although without spectators or the normal master and amateur subsidiary events.
Due mainly to the effects of the pandemic, the overall quality of the field at Wijk is lower than usual, with eight of Carlsen’s 13 opponents ranked outside the global top 20. Past greats José Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov all used to score high percentages against the bottom half in mixed fields.
Fabiano Caruana. America’s world No 2 who won Wijk 2020 ahead of Carlsen, and was third to Carlsen and Firouzja at Stavanger, kept a low profile during the 2020 online Tour. The 28-year-old’s main objective is the world title candidates, due for resumption in spring 2021. In round one at Wijk, Caruana meets the rising Dutch talent Jorden van Foreest.
The big question over the next two weeks will be whether Firouzja, whose second prize behind Carlsen at Stavanger has established the 17-year-old who now plays for France as the prime heir to the throne, can maintain that status or even improve it. Firouzja’s performance levels for his age have been at a similar level to Fischer, Kasparov and Carlsen in their late teens, which implies that he can hope to make a serious bid to challenge Carlsen in the period 2022-25. Winning Wijk, Carlsen’s favourite territory, would be a major boost.
David Howell was a convincing winner of last weekend’s online centenary Caplin Hastings with an unbeaten 9/11, which included impressive wins in contrasting styles. Howell’s endgame skills saw off the seven-time British champion Michael Adams, whose attempted fortress with rook and bishop against queen fell into checkmate, then he refuted Luke McShane’s eccentric opening. Howell v Ameet Ghasi reached the rare ending of queen and g pawn against queen, where Black failed to put his king on the unlikely but correct square a2, diagonally distant from the pawn’s queening square so making it hard for White to force a queen exchange.
A 12-player online all-British event could also be the right format for Hastings in future, creating its own individual niche rather than inviting negative comparisons with Wijk. Up to six 2600+ elite grandmsters, two qualifiers from the online British championship, two or three young talents, and one or two wildcards would provide a credible Hastings Premier to boost British chess and attract actual and potential top players.
3706: 1...Qf1+ 2 Kh2 g3+! 3 Kxg3 Qg1+ 4 Kh3 Qh1+ and Qxh8 wins.
