Magnus Carlsen got off to a strong start at Biel this week as the 27-year-old world champion ground out victories by his favourite formula of a strong will to win, an inventive approach and accurate calculation.
However, Azerbaijan’s world No 3, Shak Mamedyarov, also proved to be in fine form and took a half-point lead in Friday’s sixth round (of 10). Mamedyarov has 4/6, Carlsen 3.5/6.
Carlsen beat the Czech Republic’s David Navara by giving up his queen for rook, bishop and knight, then defeated France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by a single tempo in a complex four-rook endgame. He drew a sharp Sicilian against the eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler before a setback when he only halved with the Swiss tailender Nico Georgiadis.
While Carlsen carefully rations his outings before his world title defence in London starting on 9 November, his US opponent, Fabiano Caruana, continues with a schedule so hectic that it gives the impression of a chess junkie. These are harsh words but how else to describe it?
Caruana continued his fine form from the Berlin Candidates into the Grenke Classic and to Altibox Stavanger, both of which he won. That victory in early June could have been a good moment to stop. Since then it has been all downhill in the speed chess which will come into play if the London series is tied 6-6.
Following his 25 defeats (of course there were also many wins and draws) at last month’s Grand Tour rapid and blitz events in Brussels and Paris, Caruana this week took on GM Levon Aronian in the first round of the chess.com speed knockout and was crushed 20.5-6.5.
Next month Caruana will play another 27 speed games at St Louis, followed by the classical Sinquefield Cup where Carlsen also participates. Then comes the 190-nation Olympiad at Batumi, Georgia (23 September – 7 October) where Caruana has the responsibility of leading the US gold medal team.
Even after that Caruana is listed as the No 1 seed in the very strong chess.com Isle of Man Open on 20-28 October, which ends only 12 days before his match with Carlsen starts in London. Nobody else has ever prepared in such a hyperactive way for a world championship series.
Biel continues until 1 August (1pm start, with a rest day on Saturday) and can be followed free and live online, with grandmaster and computer move-by-move commentary, on chessbase.com, chess24.com, or the official Biel website. Commentators include the English GM Danny King, the former US champion Yasser Seirawan, and the Hungarian woman master Anna Rudolf.
Meanwhile, Russia’s ambitions to regain chess supremacy received a boost when Ian Nepomniachtchi finished a point clear of the field in the traditional Dortmund tournament. “Nepo” was born in 1990, the all-time vintage year for grandmaster births which also included Carlsen, his 2016 challenger, Sergey Karjakin, Vachier-Lagrave, and England’s David Howell.
Dortmund used to be the favourite territory for the former world champion Vlad Kramnik, who won there 10 times. But Kramnik is now aged 43 and in decline, so finished with a minus score, losing his individual game to Nepo.
The 28-year-old did some impressive home preparation before his final round victory over Germany’s Georg Meier, which ensured the Russian a full point victory margin and a rise to No 12 in the live rankings.
The Rubinstein French with 3…dxe4 is Meier’s favourite but is passive and has a poor historic reputation. A century ago Siegbert Tarrasch crushed Jacques Mieses in a match, and since then classical attackers headed by Paul Keres and Boris Spassky have regularly garnered points against it.
Nepo cooked up 11 Qe2! as a novelty,and Meier, not fancying cxd4 12 0-0-0! tried for queen activity which White dodged by the accurate 17 Kf1! and 18 Qe4! Watching computers went berserk at Black’s 19…Kg7? where the robot preference Kh7 might have survived. After that White’s attack crashed through and Meier resigned after 27 Bh7! since Rh1+ 28 Kg2 Bc6+ is defeated by 29 f3.
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Nf3 Ngf6 6 Nxf6+ Nxf6 7 Ne5 Bd6 8 Bg5 h6 9 Bh4 O-O 10 Bd3 c5 11 Qe2! Qa5+ 12 c3 cxd4 13 Nc4 Qc5 14 Bxf6 gxf6 15 Qg4+ Kh8 16 cxd4 Qb4+ 17 Kf1! Bc7 18 Qe4! f5 19 Qh4 Kg7? 20 g4 f4 21 Rg1 Bd7 22 Qh5 Rh8 23 g5 hxg5 24 Qxg5+ Kf8 25 Qf6 Rxh2 26 Rg7 Be8 27 Bh7! 1-0
3577 1...Rxe5! 2 dxe5 Qg4 (attacking d1 and g2, so forcing the reply) 3 Qf1 Nh3+ 4 Kh1 Qxd1! 5 Rxd1 Nxf2+ and Nxd1 wins.
