Carlsen knocks out Wang Yue in second blitz game (VIDEO)
Tomorrow the grande finale of the Le??n rapid tournament will be played between Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk. Today Carlsen defeated Wang Yue 3.5-2.5, deciding the match in the second blitz game. Full report; video added.ChessVibes brings on-the-spot coverage of the XXII Magistral de Ajedrez Ciudad de Le??n. The rapid knockout takes place June 4th to 7th and has Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk and Wang Yue playing.One semi-final is played on Friday (Ivanchuk-Morozevich), one on Saturday (Carlsen-Wang Yue) and the final on Sunday. Each match contains four rapid games with twenty minutes on the clock, plus ten seconds increment each move. In the case of a 2-2 tie, 2 blitz games (5 minutes + 3 seconds increment) are played and if needed a sudden death games where White has 4 minutes and Black 5.
In the first game of the second semi-final yesterday Carlsen built up some pressure and Wang Yue decided to sacrifice an exchange. It was not such a bad idea since all pawns on the queenside were exchanged, but as Carlsen explained at the press conference, the fortress wasn't impenetrable from the start: if White doesn't allow the black king to f7/f8 it's winning.
Wang Yue then played an excellent second game and showed that he can also handle positions where it's important to play aggressively - in this case a line from the Gr?ºnfeld in which White sacrifices an exchange. In an already difficult position Carlsen missed 24...Kh8 and after that he was lost.
Then something remarkable happened in game 3: Wang Yue made the same mistake as Anand did exactly one year ago in exactly the same tournament, against Ivanchuk in the final! The Chinese had to admit afterwards that he didn't know the game, while Carlsen answered yes to the same question. His "obviously it pays to follow this tournament" generated an applause during the press conference.
The fourth game was just even all the time and also the first blitz game was quite balanced, although more tense both on the board and on the stage, as Carlsen was on his last ten seconds around move 40. And even in the second blitz game the Chinese proved a worthy opponent; he was probably still slightly better if he had played 31.Nd4 immediately, without first Ba5. This mistake cost him a pawn and with both players down to their last ten seconds, Carlsen skilfully converted the extra material in the rook ending.The video below includes the start of the match and the press conference afterwards. Carlsen answers questions like "why didn't you play 1.e4" and (mine) "since many grandmasters have often said 'it's impossible to prepare for Chuky', what are you going to do?"Video Carlsen-Wang Yue
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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