CORUS round 12

Once again a Carlsen game, vs the Dutch player Jan Smeets. A bit of an unknown quantity, but someone who played a creditable tournament so far.

Between them they opted for the Panov Caro-Kann, arrived at by the back door, possibly because Carlsen wanted to avoid yet another Slav today.



1.c4 c6 2.e4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Ncd5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Bb5 e6 8.0-0 Be7 9.d4 0-0 10.Re1

leading to:



Time 1:55 vs 1:40, so already Carlsen has a time advantage.

After 10.Re1 Bd7 11.Bd3 Rc8 12.Nxd5 exd5 13.Ne5 there is only one game left in my databases: Vaganian vs Serper, B10, 1993 1-0 in 20 moves, so there is obviously something fishy in that game.

Time now: 1:53 vs 1:21

13...Bf6 1:49 vs 1:14

14.Bf4 (I would have liked to see 14.Bd2 but in that case Black couldn't have made the inferior reply of -g6-) ) ...g6??


After 13.Ne5 Bf6 14.Bf4 g6 15.Qb3 Na5 16.Qb4 Be6 17.Bh6 Bg7 18.Bxg7 Kxg7 19.h4 Re8 the position is:



The hurry for 19.h4 escapes me. 19.h3 yes, so for Rac1, Re3, a4, b3. But h4?? Somebody tell me.
Compounding it with20.h5: now he needs a minor blunder from Black to get back on track. Is it all about time again? 91 mins vs 24 mins

OK, helpful move from Black : 20.h5 f6? Taking the =h5= pawn might have been wiser.

Move 23...Rcc7 has torn it: I can't see Smeets escaping now.



19.h4 Re8 20.h5 f6 21.Nf3 b6 22.Bb5 Re7 23.Re2 Rcc7 24.Rae1 Kf7 25.Qd2




Black's pieces are all over the place and White has the imminent threat of Ng5+

Whatever, curtains for Black. Notice how Carlsen doesn't make any two-pronged moves as soon as he has a slight accendancy?

Well done. Let's see how the competition is faring meanwhile.

At the end of today's round there are six player on 7/12, so tomorrow is going to be a hectic final day.