Sunday 12 September 2010

Carlsen beats World

The G-Star Magnus Carlsen v World challenge resulted in a fairly one sided win for the Norwegian GM. I originally had intended to sleep through the event but at the behest of my son I awoke at 2am Australian time so he could take part in the challenge. However upon waking him, he informed me he needed his sleep and closed his eyes. I decided to stay awake for the next hour, both to check out how successful the format was, and to assist the world with my votes.
As a format I thought it was pretty good. The interface consisted of a live video feed of Carlsen (although something other than a 'head-on' shot might have been better), a display of the position, and a 'tweet-box' at the side. There was also live commentary from Maurice Ashley and Gary Kasparov. When it was "The Worlds" turn to move, the choices of the three GM players involved, Lagrave, Nakamura and Polgar, were displayed, along with a voting button for each move.
I suspect my contributions to the game may not have been helpful as I was one of those who voted for 11. ... cxd5, which was a move that began the downhill slide for "The World". Indeed around this point of the game Nakamura seemed particularly unhappy with the outcome of the opening, as his tweets indicated. In the end Carlsen's positional advantage got larger and larger, but he at least organised an entertaining finish, choosing an unbalance position (materially) rather than go for the technical grind.

Carlsen,Magnus (2826) - The World [E62]
RAW World Chess Challenge New York USA (1), 10.09.2010

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.0-0 e5 8.d5 Ne7 9.e4 c6 10.a4 Bg4 11.a5 (D)
11. ... cxd5 12.cxd5 Qd7 13.Be3 Rfc8 14.Qa4 Ne8 15.Nd2 Qd8 16.Qb4 Nc7 17.Nc4 Na6 18.Qxb7 Rxc4 19.Qxa6 Rb4 20.f3 Bc8 21.Qe2 f5 22.Qd2 Ba6 23.Rfc1 Qb8 24.Na4 Rb3 25.Rc3 Rb4 26.Rca3 f4 27.Bf2 Bh6 28.Nb6 fxg3 29.Qxb4 gxf2+ 30.Kxf2 Bc8 31.Rb3 axb6 32.Qxb6 Qa7 33.a6 Kf7 34.Qxa7 Rxa7 35.Rb6 Ke8 36.Rxd6 Bf8 37.Rb6 Nxd5 38.Rb8 Bc5+ 39.Kg3 Ne7 40.Bh3 Kd8 41.Bxc8 Nxc8 42.Rc1 Rc7 43.Rxc5 Rxc5 44.a7 1-0

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