Magnus Carlsen's Magnificent King Hunt - Carlsen vs. Tallaksen, 2005

Magnus Carlsen is the greatest positional chess player of all time (Don't agree? Fight me in the comments 😛), but in his younger days, he seemed more likely to be a reinvented Tal than a Karpov.

Many first saw his tactical brilliance in his brilliant victory over Sipke Ernst in Wijk aan Zee, but today I wanted to show a beautiful win from Carlsen's victory at the 2005 Norwegian Championship. Playing a Norwegian opponent, G. Tallaksen, who is now an IM and JUST outed GM Alexander Donchenko in the 2019 Fischer Random Championship (see my own victory over GM Donchenko here), Carlsen makes no effort to hide his aggressive intentions.

I'm certain the modern Carlsen would scoff at his Re4-h4-h3 maneuver, but the gorgeous finish he achieves cannot help but please. Once the sacrifices begin, Carlsen plays perfectly, beautifully concluding the attack with quiet moves like Bc1! and Kg2!

I've annotated this game below. Do you think you could have fended off 14-year-old Magnus' impetuous assault?

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