Sunday 4 October 2009

The four horsemen

Magnus Carlsen is currently tearing it up at the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, China. The rest of the field seems to have been left completely behind, as shown by the fact that up until todays round, the only decisive games played have involved Carlsen. (Topalov beating Jakovenko in round 6 has broken this sequence)
Carlsen finished the first half of the tournament with this win over Radjabov. I particularly like the arrangement of knights after White's 24th move. The tournament website is here (although it can be a little difficult to navigate)

Carlsen,M (2772) - Radjabov,T (2757) [B30]
2nd Pearl Spring Nanjing CHN (5), 02.10.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.0-0 Nge7 5.c3 a6 6.Ba4 b5 7.Bc2 Bb7 8.Qe2 d5 9.e5 d4 10.Be4 Qb6 11.d3 Rd8 12.a4 Nd5 13.axb5 axb5 14.cxd4 cxd4 15.Nbd2 Nf4 16.Qd1 Nb4 17.Nb3 Bxe4 18.dxe4 Nfd3 19.Bg5 Rc8 20.Nfxd4 Nxb2 21.Qe2 Nc4 22.Rfc1 Bc5 23.Nxb5 0-0 24.Nxc5 (D)
24. ... Nxe5 25.Be7 1-0

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