NORWEGIAN grandmaster Magnus Carlsen showed why he’s the no. 1 player in the world.
Carlsen developed four passed pawns in the middle game and threatened to promote two at endgame to defeat Filipino GM Wesley So in Round 10 of the 80th Tata Steel Chess Masters Tournament.
The black-playing So managed to capture one of Carlsen’s pawns before he gave up in 74 moves of a Queen’s Pawn Game at the end of a marathon encounter in Wijk Ann Zee, Netherlands.
Carlsen, who is on his 14th Tata Steel stint, claimed a share of first place with Anish Giri and Shakh Mamedyarov after posting his fourth win against six draws.
So, who won Carlsen’s admiration for being a strong player, struggled to find a chance to draw the game after his Norwegian rival pushed his rook to c6 to support his pawns at queenside on the 46th.
So made it difficult for Carlsen as the Filipino GM was able to stand his ground for 28 more moves.
“I think he played a little too passively. He certainly gave me a pleasant initiative which I didn’t think he needed to do. He should have had comfortable equality there,” said Carlsen in an online interview with Chess.com.
The loss cost So his unofficial live world ranking of no. 3 as he slipped to no. 5.
“I was always kind of pressing but I allowed too much counter play. I had to give up the bishop. Then he should have had excellent drawing chances I think. Although I am certainly the one who is pressing there still. But he certainly misplayed it,” said Carlsen.
The 2834 world ranked Carlsen, Giri and Mamedyarov now have seven points apiece, and they are half a point ahead of Vladimir Kramnik, who has 6.5 points in second.
“Once I got the four connected pawns I thought it should be enough to win comfortably. It was certainly a complicated game and I am very happy to beat a very strong player,” said Carlsen.
So dropped to a share of fourth, behind Viswananathan Anand. He has 5.5 points along with Sergey Karjakin.
Giri drew with Karjakin in 26 moves of a Queen’s Pawn Game, while Mamedyarov prevailed over Peter Svidler in 21 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Declined.
Kramnik won over Maxime Matlakov in 39 moves of a Guioco Piano.