Pieces against the Queen

The first round of the Biel Chess Festival was played last night, and featured a very instructive game from Magnus Carlsen. Playing David Navara , Carlsen chose to give up his queen for a rook and a piece. He then picked up a central pawn to at least make the number balance (Q=R+B+P) but for a long time the game was still in the balance. After some tricky middlegame tactics, and a QvR+N ending was reached, and this is where Carlsen came out on top. Making sure his pieces had solid anchor points (eg pawns protect pawns which protect pieces) Carlsen was able to create enough threats to force Navara to return the queen for the pieces, leaving Carlsen with a won pawn ending.


Carlsen,Magnus (2842) - Navara,David (2741) [D30]
51st Biel GM 2018 Biel SUI (1.1), 22.07.2018