18 Jan 2010

CORUS round 3



Carlsen plays Black against Van Wely

D35 QGD
EXCHANGE VARIATION

My take on the game as it was being played is below the playable board.







Carlsen plunges right in and offers the pawn. So far about seven games left in my database.


On move 13...Carlsen plays Kasparov's move, to steer away from the Van Wely vs Piket game, 1997, draw in 52 moves.

13. Kf2 Bf8
Piket played 13...Qf5

84 vs 103 mins





And Carlsen has equalized.
14.Nc3 might have offered more to White or
14. Ned2 possible sequence ...Nb6 15. e4 Be6 16. Kg1
which I rather like as it gives White a solid center.

Whose side am I on?
To be truthful: I will always choose the game itself.
To me a chess game between two equals is the creation of a work of art.
Both sides contribute.
OK, players want to win, but they can't win without a great affection for the games they produce. Not possible.

Take the conversation between Carlsen and Smeets yesterday after their game:
Carlsen asked Smeets, technically the inferior player, what he should do about certain moves Smeets produced in their unusual game.

Now, I am 100% convinced that these questions originated from Carlsen's love of the game. Pure and simple. Sadly, Smeets took it for an invasive look into his research and refused to answer. To me that means that he will never be a winner.





Not much to find a win with for either side.

35 mins vs 63 mins

Sadly, Loek van Wely also fell apart in the Zeitnot. He went astray on Move 31, where he played Rd2, when Rxf7 would have kept it on a drawing keel.
Pity. From then on it all went downhill and Carlsen is 1/2 point behind the overal leader A. Shirov.




0 comment: