Magnus Carlsen on chess.com
Magnus Carlsen is very active on chess.com. This may have to do with the chess24/chess.com proposed merger ( https://chess24.com/en/read/news/play-magnus-group-receives-chess-com-offer). Always a treat to catch him live !
@MagnusCarlsen is his handle, easy enough to remember.
also you can check the blitz leaderboard with the usual suspects ( @Hikaru, @DanielNaroditsky, and a few other super talented GMs)
we have the SCC (chess.com official Speed Chess Championship) coming up with potentially a final match Hikaru vs Magnus but I wouldn't be surprised if @Hikaru and @MagnusCarlsen decide soon to do an improvised blitz 3+0 match.
There are also Titled Tuesdays which provide an opportunity for them to meet and fight for #1.
This is what folks like me look forward to ! nothing like a Magnus vs Hikaru battle !
But in the meantime, we got to see Magnus playing on chess.com every day, even when he competes for the chess24 Rapid Meltwater Chess Tour which he won.
Let's analyze a few recent games by the world champion Magnus ( not to be confused with the World 960 champion @Hikaru)- and not be confused with the future world champ ( either Nepo (my prediction) or Ding Liren
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Magnus vs Ray Robson
Position after move 9
Magnus with White has double fianchetto. Nothing special so far, I cannot say he wins because of his special opening prep here.
Position after move 18, White to play
What would you do ?
it turns out Magnus has a winning advantage, as he spotted a tactical pattern.
he played Ng5! with the following position
He spotted that ..Nxg5 is not possible because the knight on f5 would jump to h6+ with a nasty discovery winning the queen.
Here's how the game finished with my light annotations
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Let's see how he wins against @DanielNaroditsky next.
Magnus with the white pieces, here's the opening
We have a typical King's Indian Defense which is one of Danya's favorite openings ( just like his mentor Garry Kasparov).
White to play ( quiz !)
congrats if you were able to spot the move by Magnus.
Here's the rest of the game
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and another example of Magnus play on chess.com against GM Daniel Naroditsky
the opening , a Nimzo Defense where Magnus is White
now in the diagram, he plays Nd2. This is interesting as Magnus moves his knight again, while conventional wisdom would be to develop all pieces and not play the same piece...
next position in the opening with a potential explanation.
We can see that Nd2 helped push e3-e4 which he supported with f2-f3. Then the knight got re-rerouted via Nd2-f1-e3.
This is a very positional type of game, which is not so easy to play in a 3+0 format. But lets say how White makes progress.
Magnus just pushed f3-f4.
Starting with Nd2, the theme of the game is a strong pawn presence, and Magnus is advancing his pawns.
next key moment
White just played Nd5!
So here Magnus targets c7 and the knight on e7. This forces Black to take on d5. This means that Magnus continues his strategy to roll his pawns forward.
Position after 26 e5
This is a very interesting game because lets' not forget White had doubled pawns on the c file and now on the d file. less than ideal usually.
Here I was wondering if Naroditsky could take on d5 with 26..Bxd5, taking one of Magnus' central pawn. Alas this would not work
26..Bd5? 27 e6! Nf6 28 e7! wins for White
This is how the game further developed
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and now we are ready for the finish
White to play
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solution
below
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and Magnus finished with the elegant Qxf8+ which prompted Black to resign as white would do c8=Q+ followed by checkmate.
a brilliant positional effort crowned by a little tactical touch at the end. Vintage Magnus !
I cannot help but wonder that Magnus is "quitting" at the top. not quitting chess but surrendering the world chess title while still a dominating player. Whether classical ( Wijk Aan Zee) or Online Rapid (Meltwater) , or right now with best blitz rating on chess.com. also top of the classical rating list by a good margin
https://2700chess.com/ or https://ratings.fide.com/profile/1503014
It is clear he would have very good chances against either Nepo or Ding if he were to challenge the "new" world champion. Given the amount of time he spends on chess, why not continue to defend his title ? its another thing if he were to stop playing chess. but he intends to remain fully active as a pro, so this hasn't fully sinked in for me.
