I was asked in another thread if I could show my game against Magnus Carlsen.

And I am really sorry to disappoint you, but I can't. At that time I had no idea that he would become world no. 1, so I did not take special care of the game. Of course I have tried to find it afterwards, and I actually think I have all the other games from that year, but not the most important one.

But I can tell you the story about the game, as I remember it very clearly. So sit tight for a "thrilling" (or at least very long) tale ;)

The tournament

The tournament was the Norwegian championship, in the group of juniors, summer 2001. Quick calculations show that he has been 10 years old. I can see on Fides page that Magnus at that time had an astounding 2084. I, on the other hand, did not have a Fide rating at that time. I had about 1700 in national rating, where he had about 2150.

Magnus was already a very ambitious young kid. He could have played in the youngest age group (miniputt), but in stead jumped skipped both the lilleputt group and the kadett group, to go directly for the junior group (under 20). It was the first time such a young kid had played in that group, and he was actually considered to be one of the outsiders for the title. The winner of this group qualifies for the National group the next year. There was A LOT of attention on Magnus already here - although only from Norwegian chess players. He was also already under Agdesteins guidance, which made quite an impression on the rest of us (who prepared more or less on our own).

I was one of the three girls in this group (and yes, it was the age appropriate group for my, no high ambitions here!) - the lowest rated among them - and one of the lowest rated in the group, actually. There's always some attention to the few girls who play, but not extremely much. This year there was a new rule - the girl who did the best in this tourney would represent Norway in the European Championship for Women. In reality that meant the best placed girl in either the junior group or the master group (I think there were two or three women in that group as well).

To be continued...

by attention, do u mean the girls have cooties in norway? :-)  did magnus bring his teddy bear?  i hear the auroras in norway are very beautiful.  congratulations on beating him, apparently u did not scar him for life. :-) beating a 2100 as a junior is a nice accomplishment.

By attention I just mean that there are usually more spectators to my games than the game next to mine - I prefer to think it's because of my brilliant chess of course ;)

No, Magnus did not bring his teddy bear. He ate raisins during the game.

This is getting exciting, Trulte! Thank you, and please continue

The game

I was white, and even though I don't remember the exact moves, I know that I must've started with 1.e4 - as I always did at that time. Probably the next move was 2.d4, as I played against almost anything back then.

The game was i quite quiet game. Not much happened for the first 40 moves - neither of us even castled. I had a semi-open h-line, but there was not much to do there. So the game was very strategically - every time either of us threatened something, the other one defended. I like to think that it was actually a fine game - of course it's easy to say when there are no counter-proofs.

In the end, the game was withdrawn. We were playing two games that day, and we had played to the limit of the first game. I had learned that it was a good idea to have the sealed move, so I took one extra long thinking break to be sure to have it, and to be sure that it was a good one.

Well, if you contact Magnus he might remember it. And if not, I am quite positive that his father Henrik has documented all his history, tournaments and games. Unfortunately though, it seems his weblog is down now. But you could try contacting him in some way or another. He'll be sure to have the game.

The adjournment

During the adjournment we were really busy. Another game was played that day, and then we had to finish our game the next morning, before another game started in the afternoon.

I looked at the adjourned position with my brother, and we quickly agreed that it probably was a draw. However there was one trap in the position - if Magnus played the most natural-looking move, there was a strange mate i 5 or so. So it was an easy decision - wait and see what Magnus played, then offer a draw if he didn't mess up.

The finish

The morning the game was finished, there were almost no people in the playing hall. Only five or so other games had been adjourned, and only a few people bothered to see the games. My sealed move was played by the tournament leader, and Magnus thought for a few minutes before moving the only losing move. I only needed to do the first couple of moves in the combination before Magnus resigned - we only played for at most 10 minutes that morning.

The aftermath

Afterwards I of course had to ask if he hadn't looked at the game at all - with Agdestein's help and all? Yeah, they had set up the position, but Agdestein and Magnus had quickly agreed that the position was a dead draw that they needn't spend more time on, and in stead used some time on opening for the next game.

Magnus was sporty and took the loss OK, even though it happened in an irritating way. My brother tried some different exercises with him and some kids his age from our club, and Magnus was of course quite a lot better than them.

Magnus was no more sporty though, than he threw the score sheet away after the game. His father didn't document this one :) The game is lost forever, but its memory lives on ;)

Thanks for posting your memories Trulte. Much appreciated.

+1

Laila S.?

Nei.. Opp :)

Torill må det være da. Dere er en hel gjeng jo! How did I miss that? :D

Jepp :) Det var i samme turnering laget SuperSilje, TøffeTorill og MirakelMarte ble til.