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Casablanca Chess: A Stunning New Variant

SavageOppress

Updated: Oct 19, 2024, 6:29 PM | 8

Earlier this year, four top Grandmasters participated in an incredible tournament called Casablanca Chess 2024. Casablanca Chess is a variant where players are handed equal positions from the openings of old games. This variant led to a fascinating and competitive tournament. In this blog, we will be discussing this stunning new variant, its future, and who performed best in Casablanca Chess 2024.

GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Vishy Anand and Bassem Amin all battled it out in Casablanca Chess 2024 and we'll discuss how that incredible tournament unfolded. Additionally, we'll go into depth on how Casablanca Chess can become a revitalized, popular and long lasting variant if Chess.Com and FIDE just keep giving it the spotlight.

Note: The intro section mostly covers details about Casablanca Chess in general and it's perfectly viable. - and probably what I would do - to only skim the intro or skip straight to the section titled "Casablanca Chess 2024".

Intro

Casablanca Chess Explained

In Casablanca Chess, the players are given a position from the opening of a historical chess game. Per usual, white moves first and black goes second. However, the game starts well into the opening of a previous game instead of in the regular starting position.

In Casablanca Chess 2024, the viewers were given a selection of positions and voted to choose which ones the players started with. Here are the rules for ensuring a position is valuable for Casablanca Chess:

The position must be from somewhere between the 6th and 15th moves of a game.
The computer evaluation of the position must be equal or very close to it.
The position must offer "rich possibilities for both players". Meaning, it should be a game that is balanced both from a human and from an evaluation bar perspective. Additionally, it should be a position where both players can try and push for a win.

Note: If these rules are confusing to you, just keep reading and you will likely gradually come to understand them.

Benefits of Casablanca Chess

Each chess variant has aspects that are wonderful and aspects that are simply trash. Below, I have listed several of the pros of Casablanca Chess:

Variety. Chess can often feel like a redundant broken record. Instead of the same opening position each game, Casablanca Chess allows for new ones that arise from openings that were popular hundreds of years ago but may never be seen in the modern day. This lets players play out positions they have never seen before and will never see in normal chess. That is why Casablanca Chess allows players to take a wonderful break from your standard chess match.
Less Prep Needed. In most modern day chess games - especially at the master level - players memorize as many lines as possible and play them on the board. This leads to games often being more about memory and studying than creativity and strategy. Casablanca Chess - like Chess 960 (AKA Fischer Random) - allows for players to start the game with wildly unusual positions and stops them from starting off with memorized lines.
Brings Back Positions From Historical Games. Some people may view this aspect of Casablanca Chess as a con, but I view how the variant brings back positions from historical games as one of its strengths. This variant rewards people with more knowledge of historical chess games, increases interest in chess matches from the past and allows us to see previous chess games between masters be played out by the Grandmasters of today.

Origin of Casablanca Chess

Casablanca Chess was given its name because Casablanca Chess 2024 was hosted in Casablanca, Morocco. On the topic of who created Casablanca Chess, I have unfortunately been able to find any information on its origin.

Casablanca Chess 2024

Casablanca Chess 2024 was a tournament hosted in Casablanca, Morocco in May of 2024. Four incredibly high-ranked Grandmasters played a total of 12 rapid games in this two day event.

Players

As mentioned several times, there were four Grandmasters who participated in Casablanca Chess 2024: GM and GOAT of chess Magnus Carlsen, GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Vishy Anand, and GM Bassem Amin.

This is simply a star-studded lineup. It includes two former world champions (Vishy and Magnus) and all the players in it have a FIDE classical Elo of well over 2600.

Format

In Casablanca Chess 2024, the four players played 6 rounds of 15 + 10 rapid games. As mentioned above, all these games started from a preselected historical position. Lastly, there were a total of 12 games. Each player played each other player in Casablanca Chess twice; once with black and once with the white pieces.

Day 1

Round 1

The first day of Casablanca Chess 2024 started with round one of the tournament. In round one, Magnus Carlsen played against Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura faced off against Bassem Amin.

The position for each round one game started with a position from move 10 of a match between long-dead GMs Mikhail Chigorin and William Steinitz. The game this position was selected from occurred in Havana, Cuba in 1889. Steinitz was the chess World Champion for 28 years during the late 19th century and Chigorin was one of his most skilled rivals. Below is the position from the aforementioned game that was given to the players for round one of Casablanca Chess 2024:

Magnus VS. Vishy

In the following game, Magnus is given the white pieces and quickly traps Vishy's queen. Anand then has to sacrifice his queen and end up in a drastically worse position. He sacs the queen and then resigns, giving Magnus an early and impressive win.

Hikaru VS. Bassem Amin

Hikaru started off Casablanca Chess 2024 by demolishing Bassem Amin. He played four brilliant moves by saccing his rook and repeatedly saccing his bishop. He sacrificed the rook for a much stronger position and gave up the bishop to pry open Amin's kingside and create devastating - nigh unstoppable - checkmating threats.

Round 2

The position for round 2 of Casablanca Chess 2024 was picked from a match between GM Jun Xie and IM Alisa Galliamova. That match took place in 1999 in either Kazan, Russia or Shenyang, China. Xie Jun was the eighth women's world champion and the first female Chinese Grandmaster. Meanwhile, Galliamova was the women's world championship challenger in both 1999 and 2006. Here is the previously discussed position that was used for round 2 of Casablanca Chess 2024:

Bassem Amin VS. Magnus Carlsen

Below is a blatantly boring game. Amin had the white pieces and both players quickly traded into an equal endgame. The eval bar was almost completely equal throughout the entire game and it ended in a rather dull draw.

Vishy Anand VS. Hikaru Nakamura

Just like the previous game, this was a relatively uninteresting draw. Just like the game between Amin and Carlsen, the match was equal throughout and there weren't any particularly strong chances for either Grandmaster.

Round 3

The position for each round three game was selected from a match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in Moscow, Russia, in 1985. Karpov was the 12th chess world champion and Kasparov was the 13th. Both players were part of the Soviet Union's domination of chess and Kasparov has always been a contender for the title of GOAT chess player. Regardless, below is the position given to the Magnus, Hikaru, Vishy and Amin to play in round three of Casablanca Chess 2024:

Hikaru VS. Magnus

This was the most exciting match of day one of the tournament because it pitted the GOAT - Magnus - against one of his perennial challengers: GM and streamer Hikaru Nakamura. In this match, Magnus beats Hikaru with the black pieces. First, he infiltrates Nakamura's position with the knight. Then, he pressures Nakamura into undeveloping his bishop and creates a nasty attack against white's king before it can escape the center of the board. With 46 seconds left on the clock, Hikaru loses his bishop and resigns. Casablanca Chess is not classical, but evidently, Magnus seems to better than Hikaru at it too.

Bassem Amin VS. Vishy Anand
The match between Bassem Amin and Vishy Anand quickly ended in a draw. Vishy took a pawn and Amin attacked his queen with the dark-squared bishop. When the queen moved, Amin moved that same bishop to attack it again and Vishy had no choice but to move the queen back to the square it was just on or lose material. This repeated several times and the game ended in a draw by repetition.

Results From Day 1

At the end of day one of Casablanca Chess 2024, Magnus Carlsen was in first with 2.5 points. Meanwhile, Hikaru had 1.5 points and Vishy and Amin were tied for third with one point each. Here is a graphic from Chess.Com that showcases the results from day one:

Day 2

Round 4

The position for round four of Casablanca Chess 2024 came from a game between GM Alexander Alekhine and GM Max Euwe in the Netherlands in 1935. Alekhine was the fourth chess world champion and he held that title for an impressive 17 years. Meanwhile, Euwe was the fifth world champion and he held that title for 2 years. Beneath this paragraph I have inserted the position given to the players for round four of Casablanca Chess 2024.

Bassem Amin VS. Hikaru Nakamura

The match between Bassem Amin and Hikaru Nakamura quickly turned into a position where Hikaru had a slight edge. Eventually, Amin blundered with the move h4. He then launched a desperate attack in order to try and ensnare Hikaru's king. Unfortunately, he just ended up in a position where Hikaru had mate in four. Rather than playing till checkmate, Amin resigned and gave Hikaru his second win of the tournament. Both of Hikaru's two wins in the first four rounds of Casablanca Chess 2024 came against Amin.

Vishy Anand VS. Magnus Carlsen

The game between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen ended in a relatively quick draw. First, Vishy allowed himself to be down two pawns materially but won one pawn back on move 19. Vishy had a nice position where his king was castled while Magnus had his king stuck in the middle of the board. However, rather than continuing the game, Magnus made a brilliant rook sacrifice and forced a draw with the black pieces.

Round 5

The position for round five of Casablanca Chess 2024 was the second one in this tournament that came from a match between GM Garry Kasparov and GM Anatoly Karpov. The game this position came from was played in 1987 in Sevilla, Spain. For more information on these two players, see this section for round three from earlier in this blog. Regardless, below is the position for round five of Casablanca Chess 2024:

Hikaru Nakamura VS. Vishy Anand

In round five, Hikaru faced off against Vishy Anand again after drawing him earlier in the tournament. Like their previous game, this one ended in a tie. Vishy had a slight advantage for one move after Hikaru moved his knight to the edge of the board, and Hikaru had an opportunity later on in the game. However, aside from these small missed chances, the match was a relatively uneventful draw.

Magnus Carlsen VS. Bassem Amin

Magnus played Amin for the second time in Casablanca Chess 2024 in round five and he beat Amin rather handily. Magnus had lots of chances and always seemed to be pushing for a win. and he eventually only earned one after Amin got in huge time trouble and allowed Magnus to win his rook. Before losing his rook, Amin resigned. However, it is worth noting that the Egyptian Grandmaster fought extremely well against Magnus with less than 30 seconds left on the clock and equalized the position before blundering by playing bg5.

Round 6

The position for round six of Casablanca Chess arose from another game between GM Jun Xie and Alisa Galliamova. Like the game between these two players that was used for round two, this match was played in either Kazan or Shenyang in 1999. For more info on these two GMs, see the section for round 2 from this blog. Lastly, here is the position for the sixth round of Casablanca Chess 2024:

Vishy Anand VS. Bassem Amin

Vishy played in an incredible game here by making a brilliant knight sacrifice to gain a three point material advantage. Shortly after Vishy's fantabulous knight sacrifice, Amin had no choice but to resign.

Magnus Carlsen VS. Hikaru Nakamura

This was Hikaru's chance to get revenge against Magnus after losing to him in round three. Unfortunately for him, the game ended in a draw. Magnus gained an early advantage after a brilliant bishop sacrifice, but ultimately blundered his advantage and forced a draw by repetition.

Results of Casablanca Chess 2024

After all six rounds of Casablanca Chess 2024, Magnus Carlsen emerged as the clear winner. He fought tooth and nail to earn 4.5/6. Meanwhile, Hikaru came second with a score of 3.5/6 and Vishy came third with a score of 3 for 6. Grandmaster Bassem Amin is a superb player with a FIDE elo of 2593 for rapid. However, he was only able to go 1/6 because he was going up against general talents like the GOAT Magnus Carlsen and former world champion Vishy Anand.

Here is a graphic from Chess.Com that displays the final standings from Casablanca Chess 2024:

The Future of Casablanca Chess

@NM_Vanessa wrote an article about Casablanca Chess 2024 where she called it an "inaugural" event. Hopefully, that means there will be many more Casablanca Chess tournaments and this variant will outlive the year 2024. Unfortunately, nobody can know for sure.

One suggestion I would have for Chess.Com is to make Casablanca Chess an official, playable variant here on this site. There were a total of six different positions used in this tournament and they were all picked from pools of three historic and viable positions. If all these positions were put into a system and players could play Casablanca Chess and randomly be given one of them and either white or black, then that could be a great variant to play. It would be even greater with more than 18 positions. However, that isn't necessary and Chess.Com wouldn't even have to go looking for more potential positions to add the Casablanca Chess to this site. Hopefully, I hope that happens and that happens soon but there seems to be no indication of Casablanca Chess becoming a playable variant on Chess.Com so that is quite unfortunate.

Conclusion

When Casablanca Chess 2024 occurred, Hikaru made a video on it and so did GothamChess. Chess.Com made two blogs about it and now I have made one. So why? I chose to add my voice to the crowd rambling about Casablanca Chess because it has seen next to no attention since Casablanca Chess 2024 took place four or so months ago.

Additionally, I hope Chess.Com adds it as an official variant to this site and I wanted to make an in-depth, humorous blog about Casablanca Chess 2024. Unlike the blogs from Chess.Com's staff on this, I wanted to cover the two days of the event in one blog. And lastly, I wanted to talk about the variant and not just the tournament. So, hopefully I have turned Casablanca Chess into something you want to play!

And even without it being an official variant, you can play it by setting up a custom position on Chess.Com or on a physical board and you could randomly determine which of the positions from Casablanca Chess 2024 - or from other historical games that meet the criteria - to set up.

I've spent many hours on this blog, so this is my way of guilt tripping you into feeling you have to like it. Peace out!

Note/Credit: I used Canva to create the memes. Images in the memes come from istockphotos.com, vectorstock.com, etsy.com, and vecteezy.com. I also used the background remove.bg to help remove the backgrounds for images in the memes.

Casablanca Chess: A Stunning New Variant

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