Hi all! Let's have a look at another amazing blitz game from the YourNextMove
Blitz in Leuve, in Belgium. Magnus Carlsen against Vassily
Ivanchuk - d4 - Ivanchuk plays Nf6 - we have now the super solid looking Bishop f4 so
this is rarer than the standard c4. c5 is an energetic play from Vassily
Ivanchuk - with this move he wants to have a more dynamic aggressive feel to
the game I believe and in fact after d5 we see b5 so very very aggressive
maybe d5 can be attacked later - maybe Bb7 for example - we have c4 so this is
starting to have a feel of a Benko gambit type style position after g6
especially - White takes - a6 - e3 - this is solid as well not even not trying to
give black too much to target here Bg7 Nc3 Black castles
Nf3 d6 and there's a possibility of pinning the knight - this is extinguished
actually with Nd2 actually Nc4 could be useful as
well say with Nc4 and b6 - we have Nbd7 e4 Ne8 a4 Nc7 - this is a
pretty standard maneuver in Benko gambit style positions but here white seems
particularly solid. axb5 axb5 we have an exchange of rooks and this file
actually could be useful. There could be some useful entry points. At the moment a7
is the one entry point which is available to the Queen
to bear in mind. f5 black playing energetically on this side boards as well.
exf5 Rxf5 - so undermining d5 and f4 is hit - that's moved back that pawn
is on this 'diagonal of death' - it's too dangerous to take that pawn here and
because of Bc4 after - just to show I think we could just take
and either Bc4 or even Qa2 winning the exchange that'll be good for
white so okay so after Nb6 which does put loads of pressure now it seems
on d5 we have Queen a5 which almost tries to - it well it does try to set up a
pin on any Nxd5 here - there's a nasty pin on the Queen so this is very
very interesting this entry point here
Let's see now if black tried to take on d5 say this Ncxd5 Nxd5 and we have
Rxd5 - we have a key move here - well it actually yeah it looks as though this
should be good but e6 might actually be (=) - it's not a massive advantage while
there's actually even a better way just to exploit this pin (b6 to d8) rather than this pin (d5 to g8)
With Nc4 actually yeah just go for this pin you'd think sometimes you know
the 'absolute pins' are the best but here the 'relative pin' wins against the
Queen - What does black do about that pin?! You know that piece is just dropping off
so that's crunching we just take it on b6 soon so uh yeah that point is immune
here so after Qa5 Black played Bxc3 giving up the dark squared
bishop but White now - these are just doubled pawns - Magnus plays quite an
interesting decision - he doesn't in fact take that - it might be nice in theory to
weaken the dark squares but actually he's more interested in keeping up this
pin so he sacs a pawn - and there's also a loose piece now in this position to bear in
mind - white castles (0-0) so he has achieved that relative pin mentioned earlier
Rf8 so freeing the Queen to move now - we have Qa7 and this
is very very difficult for black because of b6 and b7 coming up later - now
in this position Bf5 was played so again if we ask the question here of
Nxd5 - I believe in this position with the loose piece on b2 this
move is very very good - Qa2 - just winning material - we have Bishop f5 but after b6
it seems this is a very very dire state of affairs where Nxd5 was
played any way allowing Qa2 - so hitting b2 and d5 - black can't juggle
both of these issues - thus losing a piece and there wouldn't be much counterplay
either so black actually resigned here. Let's have a look at the alternative
If the knight had gone back there - that is a legal move in the position so let's
have a look at it.. b7 later Nc7 white really wants to play Rb1 here and
there's a killer move relatively absolute killer move in this position
just to play g4 to try and play Rb1 next so if the bishop goes to d7 just
Rb1 gaining a tempo on that loose piece and going to be he's going to be
queening - bishop moves back and you might think well - Bc2 ?! - the thing is
the bishops are both loose now - so Qa2 here is picking up material so
yeah Magnus made it look easy let's go back
to the final position yeah it seems Black's benko gambit only led to just
loose pieces in the position in this game and pins - quite nasty celebration
of pins and loose pieces really for Magnus Carlsen in this particular blitz
game - so quite instructive for high-level blitz I believe .. Comments ..
questions likes shares appreciated - thanks
very much.