Magnus Carlsen's Feeling for Harmony
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I remember that I wasn’t too bothered by the pandemic and the necessity to stay at home.
I like being at home and studying chess, so without the need to go out I had even more time to do so. The example I am going to show below comes from that period. Not the game, but the time when I noticed it. Feeling and demonstrating harmony is always fascinating. Capablanca was the first player that opened my eyes to this aspect of chess, simply because in his games it was easier for me to see it. All the great champions have this feeling and they have their own way to demonstrating it, one just needs to “attune” to the specifics of their styles to start noticing it.
The following example comes from a blitz game, and coupled with the name of the opponent, makes it even more impressive.
Carlsen is White playing Kramnik at the World Blitz Championship in 2019.
22.Re2!
The beginning of the regrouping. It appears White is under some pressure on the queenside and it's not clear what he should do. The magic happens when you see what Carlsen did and then you think, but of course, it's logical and easy. However, it is logical and easy only in retrospect.
22...Rb8 23.Nc1
Here's Carlsen's idea: he defended the b2-pawn in order to reroute the knight to d3, from where it will control all the important squares, b2, c5, e5 and f4.
23...a5 24.Nd3 Qb5 25.h4!
The queenside is defended safely, it's time to start play against the king.
25...Rfc8 26.Rd2!
The final touch. The queens supports the h5-push. Compare the two diagrams and conclude for yourself who outplayed whom in the last 4 moves.
This is what amazes me when I look at the games of the great players.
Black is a former World Champion, he played sensible moves, advancing on the queenside with the standard minority attack, and yet he found himself under pressure mere 4 moves later. It’s impossible to explain how this happened, but it did.
Carlsen pushed h5 on the next move and a few more moves later developed an attack on the kingside, winning convincingly.
Games like this give out the impression that chess is easy, that we, mere mortals, are also capable of playing like this. Sometimes we are, but the real knack is playing like this when the opponent’s moves are also good - it’s easy to play impeccably against weak opposition. Playing like this and outplaying the best players in the world is a gift that only a few throughout history possessed.
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