Another online weekend, another first prize for the world champion, but Magnus Carlsen suffered angst against lower ranked opponents which continued and increased on Wednesday and Thursday as he narrowly qualified for the Lindores Abbey quarter-finals.
The online Steinitz Memorial blitz was an occasion for bitter self-criticism by the 29-year-old after his opponents missed numerous chances. “I’m happier than I would have been if I hadn’t won the tournament, but that was terrible from start to finish,” said Carlsen. “Even the times I played a good game I feel I messed it up with bad technique.”
His next event, the online version of Scotland’s distillery tournament at Lindores Abbey in Newburgh, Fife, began brightly on Tuesday. Carlsen was co-leader with 3/4 at the end of the first day and won a brilliant miniature against Levon Aronian where he exploited the Armenian’s move 14 mistake and at the end was poised for a queen sacrifice for mate.
Wednesday’s four rounds, however, failed to follow the script as Carlsen was beaten first by China’s Yu Yangyi and then by Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda in games which the No 1 called “frustrating, completely unacceptable”.
Duda was personally congratulated by the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, who was able to state that he was even more proud of Jan-Krzysztof’s victory against the world champion because they shared the same surname.
The game resurrected an old English Opening system worked out by Michael Stean and Raymond Keene in the 1970s whose key moves are 7 Qf5! and 9 Qh5! Black acquires the bishop pawn but his wrecked pawn formation means advantage for White, which Carlsen compounded by failing to exchange queens at move 14.
After such a disastrous day Carlsen tried to go into damage limitation mode with solid play in the remaining rounds, but received yet another defeat, this time by Russia’s Daniil Dubov, before scoring in Thursday’s final game against the prodigy Alireza Firouzja.
The start of the Steinitz Memorial had been bizarre. A few days earlier, Carlsen had used 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 h5?! in banter blitz against the eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler, who retorted with an expletive. When they were then paired again in round one of the Steinitz, Carlsen tweeted in advance that he would open with 1 c3?! e5 2 c4 Nf6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 h4?! and duly did so, in effect renouncing the edge of playing White.
That game was drawn after both missed simple wins, but Svidler was well motivated for the return, was soon on top, and finally mated with a rook sacrifice at h6 which echoed Carlsen’s own queen sacrifice in his final world title game in 2016.
The Steinitz blitz also had a women’s section, which ended in a strange manner. After three days of play Russia’s world blitz champion Kateryna Lagno and China’s Lei Tingjie were tied first on 12/18. The rules stipulated an Armageddon shootout where White had five minutes on the clock, Black four minutes, but a draw on the board counted as a win for Black in the points total.
In recent years most players who win the toss in Armageddon chose Black on the grounds that the chances of a draw are greater than a time forfeit. Lei, however, preferred White. She had noticed that the rules for this particular event did not include the normal one-second-per-move increment after move 61.
Lei established a completely blocked position, then began to roam her king all over the board, aiming to flag her opponent with the aid of her extra minute. Lagno realised what was happening and began to make fast short distance replies with her bishop between b7 and c6, which it did more than 20 times.
The Russian managed to keep up with the clock until it became clear that she was successfully heading for a draw under the 50-move rule, provoking Lei into an unsound sacrifice and a loss in 152 moves, probably the longest ever Armageddon game.
Lagno dislikes online chess, preferring direct contact with an opponent, and she even had to buy a mouse shortly before the tournament as her husband Alexander Grischuk’s model was too large for her. Grischuk is ranked No 6 among men and Lagno No 5 among women, so they are chess’s strongest married couple by a wide margin.
Saturday’s Lindores Abbey quarter-finals, starting 3pm, can be viewed online, free and live with grandmaster and computer move-by-move commentaries.
3672: 1…R5h4! wins. If 2 Nxf6 R4h2 mate. If 2 gxh4 Qxh4+ 3 Qg3 Rf1+! wins the queen,. White’s best defence 2 Qe5 Rxg4 leaves him a bishop down with no compensation.