The world champion had to settle for second place at Paris this week in the $150,000 opening leg of the Grand Tour, which continues in Leuven, near Brussels, over the weekend with live and free online viewing, then crosses the Atlantic to St Louis in August before its final event at London Olympia in December.
Magnus Carlsen was quite relaxed about his surprise reverse. He was playing as a wild card in the two speed chess events in France and Belgium, after which he will prepare for his November title defence against Russia’s Sergey Karjakin. He was still the favourite at a late stage in Paris even after a couple of freakish episodes benefited his main rival, America’s Hikaru Nakamura.
First Carlsen gave away a full point in the opening round when he dithered for a few seconds and lost on time a queen ahead against Wesley So. Later Nakamura, with a lost endgame against Veselin Topalov, received a gift victory because the Bulgarian advanced a pawn to the eighth rank then pressed his clock button before substituting a queen for the pawn. Under blitz rules this counted as an illegal move, for which the penalty was forfeiture of the game.
There were 27 rounds in all, a single round rapid (one-hour games) and a double round blitz (10 minutes), with points scored at blitz counting only half those for the rapid. Nakamura led narrowly after the rapid and again after the first day’s blitz but Carlsen was close behind and looked ready for one of his finishing sprints.
Then, unaccountably, the wheels came off. The world champion had a very bad day, losing four games out of nine. Nakamura was already sure of first prize with two rounds to spare, though Carlsen got a little consolation by winning their final head-to-head.
All games were live and free to watch online, with grandmaster and computer commentaries and player interviews. Yet there was criticism. Rapid games are fine for web viewing, and are arguably the best type of chess spectator sport, since there is plenty of action yet the pace is slow enough to follow in comfort.
Blitz, however, is less viewer friendly. Events develop so speedily that the move display software sometimes cannot keep up, leading to the online position jumping several moves at once. The problem for the audience is compounded because all 10 GMs are blitzing simultaneously. An obvious solution would be more rapid and less blitz, but this would run into opposition from the GMs, who mostly prefer the speedier and less stressful format. Carlsen could afford to shrug off his four losses on the final day, as could the veteran Vlad Kramnik who achieved a catastrophic 1/9.
It is hard to upstage the Grand Tour but Bilbao has succeeded by announcing the lineup for its double-round elite tournament to be played from 13 to 23 July. In a reversal of what seemed a mutual decision to avoid each other in the approach to their world championship match, both Carlsen and Karjakin will be in the field, along with Nakamura, Anish Giri (Netherlands), So and the 17-year-old Chinese champion Wei Yi, who is really plunged in at the deep end. Some consider the teen a future world No1; others think his progress has stalled. This will be the acid test with no hiding place because the other five GMs will regard him as the weakest link.
A majestic Carlsen win from the rapids in Paris. White’s 11 Nd5? (better Ne2) allows the black bishop pair to dominate the board.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave v Magnus Carlsen
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O b5 6 Bb3 Bb7 7 Nc3 Be7 8 d3 O-O 9 a3 Nd4 10 Nxd4 exd4 11 Nd5? Nxd5 12 exd5 c5 13 dxc6 dxc6 14 Re1 c5 15 a4 Bd6 16 Qh5 Qc7 17 c3 c4! 18 Bc2 g6 19 Qh3 dxc3 20 axb5 Rfe8 21 Re3 cxb2 22 Bxb2 c3 23 Bc1 axb5 24 Rxa8 Rxa8 25 Bb3 Bf4! 26 Re1 Ra1 0-1
3447 1 Rxf8+! and Anand resigned. If Kxf8 2 Qa3! wins a piece. 1 Qa3 Rxc2 is less clear.
