Magnus Carlsen Openings
In the lead-up to Dubai World Chess Championship, lets explore Magnus Carlsen repertoire with the White pieces. Certainly Magnus is expected to press Ian Nepomniachtchi with the White pieces.
As you can see, Magnus has tremendous experience in top tournaments and world championships, and played the Giuoco PIano italian game variation. I can refer you to an older post where I explored this specific variation, as well as http://www.chess.com openings survey
https://www.chess.com/blog/thechesscorner64/italian-game-giuco-piano-variation-bc4-d3-c3
https://www.chess.com/openings/Giuoco-Piano-Game-Main-Line-Giuoco-Pianissimo-Variation
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in the same match, Magnus tried 1.d4 but he lost the game and returned to 1.e4 playing the Ruy Lopez several times.
In 2018 against Caruana in their World Championship, Magnus also tried 1.d4, this time going for the main lines of the Queen's Gambit
That match saw too many draws as each player couldn't break through. Only the rapid tie-break match saw wins by Carlsen.
Carlsen also opened with 1.e4 against Caruana, and here's a position they reached in the Petroff Defense where White chose a rare sideline at top level:
In the World Cup 2021, Carslen relied on 1.d4 coupled with Nf3, Queen's Indian style which fits his style.
Here's an example
Of course Magnus played a lot of chess online in rapid and blitz ( Meltwater or Magnus Carlsen Tour) but I wouldn't trust this as a reference as he experiments a lot. I think World cup or Wijk Aan Zee or Norway chess classical games are more important to understand his style in long games.
Against a strong opponent like Duda, he once again opted for Queen's Gambit which I think we may see in Dubai
Now in the same event, he also opened with 1.e4 against Wojtasek, who is a strong GM. But I noticed that Carlsen tends to avoid main lines with 1.e4 and here in the Sicilian wen for 3 Bb5+ a sideline. So I don't expect him to play the open sicilian with White but more closed sicilian, 2c3 or 3 Bb5 (Rossolimo) or even 3 b3. I can see him going for the main lines in the Ruy Lopez but not in Sicilians.
