Magnus Carlsen is again the centre of attention as the world champion leads the Canada Chessbrahs in the chess.com professional league, revived this year for the first time since pre-pandemic 2019.
The world No 1 had a narrow escape at the start against Awonder Liang, 19, but then raced to seven straight wins, including victory against the best-known US woman grandmaster, Irina Krush. In contrast, Carlsen’s great rival Hikaru Nakamura overreached in a won position and suffered a stunning defeat to Berlin’s fourth board Josefine Heinemann.
Game eight for Carlsen, and he opened 1 b3 against the world No 19, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Indian Yogis. All seemed well as Carlsen’s bishop pair targeted the black king on adjacent diagonals, then the unbelievable happened. With 30 seconds on his clock, the world champion failed to notice the blatantly obvious winning move which many readers will spot within a few seconds or even instantly.
Is this the worst blunder ever by a reigning world champion? True, it was a semi-blitz game, but the Pro League is a serious competition. Perhaps the only rival claimant is Vlad Kramnik’s 2006 match against the Deep Fritz computer, when the Russian failed to notice that the robot was threatening checkmate in one.
Back in 2019, the Pro League included two English teams, London Towers and London Lions. This year, there are none, and the only English player, Gawain Jones, represents Norway Gnomes.
It seems ironic for an event where half the commentary team ( David Howell and Jovanka Houska) are English, that English teams are totally absent. A squad of players in their 20s and teen talents like Dan Fernandez, the British champion Harry Grieve, Matthew Wadsworth, Jonah Willow, Shreyas Royal and the British woman champion, Lan Yao, would have given a good account of themselves and gained valuable high-level experience. Hopefully this will be corrected in the 2024 Pro League.
Meanwhile, the WR Masters in Düsseldorf is approaching its final two rounds on Friday and Saturday. Levon Aronian, at 40 the oldest competitor, had led throughout but was decisively beaten in Thursday’s seventh round by the world title contender Ian Nepomniachtchi, who had drawn all his six previous games. That meant that Aronian was joined in the lead on 4.5/7 by the youngest player, India’s Dommaraju Gukesh, 16, with both Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So of the US half a point behind. The remaining six grandmasters are all tied for last place on 3/7. Final round pairings on Saturday include Aronian v Gukesh, so that could be the first prize decider.
The most eye-catching game has been Nodirbek Abdusattorov’s round-two demolition of Andrey Esipenko with a sophisticated version of the Greek Gift sacrifice. This tactic, where the black king’s castled position is uprooted by a Bd3xh7+ sacrifice, is easy to understand and remember, yet it still claims dozens of victims, especially in online blitz.
A typical Greek Gift scenario occurs when Black, unaware of the Greek Gift mating pattern, defends the Queen’s Gambit with passive routine moves, while White systematically regroups in preparation: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 e3 Nf6 4 Bxc4 e6 5 Nf3 Be7 6 Nc3 0-0 7 e4 c6? 8 e5 Nd5 9 h4!? b5 10 Bd3 Bb7?? 11 Bxh7+! Kxh7 12 Ng5+ Kg8 13 Qh5 Bxg5 14 hxg5 f6 15 g6 with unavoidable mate.
3856 1 Bxg7+! Kxg7 (if Kg8 2 Qh7 mate) 2 Qh7+ and if Kf8 3 Qh8 mate or Kf6 3 Qxh6 mate. Carlsen, with 30 seconds on his clock, chose 1 Qh7?? f6 when Black eventually escaped and won. A historic blunder …
