Carlsen Misses Mate In 3 vs Giri

Today Magnus Carlsen missed a checkmate versus Anish Giri, and with it, a great opportunity to move to "plus three." Wesley So drew his game as well and continues to lead the masters section.

It's quite rare, but it happened today: a world champion missing a mate in three. (Strictly speaking it wasn't a forced mate in three, but if one doesn't take into account Black giving up lots of material, it was.)

Magnus Carlsen had built up a winning position and seemed to be on his way to scoring his second win against Anish Giri, but then he just failed to deliver.

Photo Maria Emelianova.

"It will be an extra cold shower when he hears about it from a friend or a family member," said commentator Robin van Kampen. "They are drawing straws now."

The position was this, and the question is white to play and win. When you get it as a puzzle, it's not so difficult. But in a practical game, everything is different.

Giri: "This is probably the most embarrassing moment of Magnus Carlsen's career. Nobody cares about me, but he is a legend. I feel very bad for him."

Carlsen played Bf7+ without thinking, by the way. Later on, he must have felt that he was winning at some point. He eventually got a position with a bishop, rook and two pawns against a queen, and played on for a long time—even until stalemate appeared on the board after seven hours of play. 

"He wants to show how close he was to winning this game," said Van Kampen.

With this, Carlsen missed an excellent opportunity to catch Wesley So in first place, since the U.S. grandmaster drew his game with Pavel Eljanov.

Earlier in the day, it was Sergey Karjakin who had impressed the fans. The Russian player outplayed Levon Aronian in a Giuoco Piano and won an excellent game. Look how he makes Black weaken his d6-square and then exploits it.

Here's the game, followed by Karjakin's commentary with Yasser Seirawan in the Wijk aan Zee studio. The latter said: "I am not used to Levon being dominated like that."

In what was the best round so far, we also saw a game that reminded us of ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal. Loek van Wely has lost quite a few "nice" Sicilian games in Wijk aan Zee in his career (especially his games with Alexei Shirov come to mind), and this year it was Wei Yi who did it to him.

Last but not least, Baskaran Adhiban. The 2016 qualifier is making new fans every day. First he beats Karjakin by playing the French for the first time, then he draws So with the King's Gambit, and today he beat Radek Wojtaszek as Black. It must be noted that Wojtaszek was just winning before the time control, and the endgame might have been a draw actually.

Tata Steel Masters | Round 7 Standings

Games from TWIC.

After beating him the other day, Gawain Jones continues to lead the challengers alongside Markus Ragger. Both players won their games today. The latter defeated tail-ender Sopiko Guramishvili, whereas Jones won against the (also struggling) Dutch Champion Jorden van Foreest:

Tata Steel Challengers | Round 7 Standings

Games from TWIC.