Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, shares the half-way lead in the second leg of the $1m Grand Tour despite a first-round defeat and a near-disaster for the 24-year-old Norwegian in round two.
Carlsen’s defeat by Veselin Topalov in Norway had been accidental, a misunderstanding of the rules by the national hero which led to him overstepping the time limit in a winning position. It put Topalov up to world No2 and the draw for pairings in the Sinquefield Cup at St Louis eerily matched them in the first round again. Carlsen, who claimed before Stavanger that he could stay at the global top for 20 years, reacted to his disaster there by setting up an intensive training camp before travelling to the US.
He was primed for revenge but the wily 40-year-old Bulgarian got in first. Carlsen’s planned slow crush starting 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ Nd7 4 0-0 Nf6 5 Re1 a6 6 Bd3 b5 7 c4 was jolted by the pawn offer g5! 8 Nxg5 Ne5 which permanently opened the g1-g8 file with threats to the white king. And at the business end of the game, in an unclear position, Carlsen missed a simple tactic based on that very file by which Topalov forced off queens with a won ending. Just as at Stavanger, Carlsen had begun with a defeat as White against the man from Sofia, who had made the provocative pre-game statement that “many players can beat Magnus”.
Carlsen was Black in round two against the ambitious Fabiano Caruana, who had won seven straight games at St Louis 2014. Caruana had the edge for most of the game but both became acutely short of time, with only a few seconds before the move-40 time control. Carlsen’s position was worse, so he banked on the American’s known weakness at blitz chess and launched a tricky rook invasion. Caruana cracked. He missed a win at move 39, a draw at 40 and instead made a huge blunder which led to mate or loss of queen. Carlsen was out of jail and in his next three games his play rapidly improved back to world champion level.
After five of the nine rounds Carlsen and Levon Aronian (Armenia) lead on 3.5, followed by Anish Giri (Netherlands) and Topalov on 3. This weekend’s rounds six and seven, which should be entertaining, can be watched free and live online with grandmaster and computer move-by-move commentaries (7pm BST start).
Aronian’s win from Wesley So (US) was one of the best so far. His 8...Ba5! was a novelty and when So erred by 13 g4? (13 0-0 b4 14 Nb1 is safe) Black got a crushing attack for a piece. If 16 gxh5 f5! 17 Be1 Qf6. Black’s threats steadily mounted, and could have been crowned with a brilliancy (see puzzle diagram). White resigned because of 29 Bxf5 d3 30 Qe1 Rc2 and wins.
Wesley So v Levon Aronian
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 f3?! c5 5 d5 O-O 6 e4 d6 7 Nge2 a6 8 a4 Ba5! 9 Bd2 exd5 10 cxd5 Nh5 11 g3 Nd7 12 Bg2 b5 13 g4? b4 14 Nb1 Qh4+ 15 Kf1 Ne5! 16 Be1 Qf6 17 gxh5 Nxf3 18 Bf2 Bg4 19 Qc1 Nd4 20 Nxd4 cxd4 21 e5 dxe5 22 Nd2 Rac8 23 Qb1 b3 24 Nxb3 Bb6 25 a5 Ba7?! 26 Kg1 Bf5 27 Be4 Qg5+ 28 Kf1 Qf4 0-1
3405 25...Rc2! 26 Qxc2 d3 27 Qd2 Be2+ mates or wins the queen.
