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Magnus Carlsen beat Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen gave a press conference in English and translated into Russian hosted by WGM Anna Burtasova. He explained the game and made some comments about the coming World Chess Championship and his coming schedule including St Louis.

"It's good before the World Championship match to remind him that I can outplay him once in a while since obviously between us there have been a lot of draws, recently at least. But I'm not going to go around and think that's he's going to have such a bad day every day at the World Championship, I'll have to prepare for the worst, definitely. To clarify I don't mean to prepare for the worst that I'm going to lose necessarily but that he's going to be at his best and not give away anything free like today."

Carlsen has announced just two events between the Tal Memorial and the World Championship. Firstly he is helping to promote the Norwegian Championship with a four game rapid match in Lillehammer on June 28th and 29th against Borki Predojevic.

Then Carlsen's final important event with be a four player six rounds double round robin in Saint Louis, Missouri in the Sinquefield Cup Sept 9th to 15th 2013 with Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky. This is Carlsen's first appearance in the US in a strong tournament and could have huge significance going forward.

"I think it will be useful for me before the World Championship match because I think obviously the match will be tough and the players in the St Louis tournament are not only strong but also very tough characters, all of them at the board and thus it will be a good test to have such an atmousphere before the World Championship match. Besides I think not playing from this tournament until November will be too long a break for me, I'm still used to playing quite a few tournaments and that's also part of my training."

Carlsen was asked about home advantage in his World Chess Championship match against Viswanathan Anand taking place 6th-26th November 2013 in Chennai, India. Will Anand have a home advantage in Chennai?

"I think Vishy will probably get a boost from all of the support at home at least that's something he should be going for. Right now I just try to focus on this tournament and as for the question of home advantage probably I'll believe more in home advantage if a Russian managed to win again. Which to be fair I'm sure will happen quite soon."

Carlsen,Magnus (2864) - Anand,Viswanathan (2786) [E46]
8th Tal Memorial Moscow RUS (5.2), 18.06.2013

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Nge2 d5 6.a3 Be7 7.cxd5 Nxd5

[7...exd5 is a serious alternative.]

8.Bd2

"I chose a line he hadn't faced for a long time. I hopefully he wouldn't be too prepared for that." - Carlsen

8...Nd7

Anand varies from his game against Aronian from 2002.

[8...Nxc3 9.Bxc3 b6 10.Ng3 Bb7 11.Bd3 Nd7 12.Qc2 h6 13.0-0 Nf6 14.e4 c5 15.dxc5 bxc5 16.Bc4 Nd7 17.f4 Nb6 18.Be2 Bf6 19.Rad1 Bd4+ 20.Bxd4 cxd4 21.Qd2 Rc8 22.Qxd4 Qxd4+ 23.Rxd4 Rc2 24.Rb1 Rfc8 25.a4 a5 26.Bf1 Nc4 27.Bd3 Rxb2 28.Rc1 Ba6 29.Rdxc4 Bxc4 30.Rxc4 Rd8 31.Bf1 Rb4 32.f5 Rd1 33.Rc8+ Kh7 34.Rc7 exf5 35.exf5 Rxa4 36.Rxf7 Rf4 37.Ra7 a4 38.f6 Rxf6 39.Rxa4 1/2-1/2 Aronian,L (2675)-Anand,V (2781)/Calvia ESP 2004/The Week in Chess 520]

9.g3 b6 10.Nxd5 exd5 11.Bg2

"What he did is a little bit passive. I think it was played in a game Ponomariov-Kramnik if I'm not mistaken. 10 years ago." - Carlsen.

11...Bb7

Here Anand varies from Ponomariov-Kramnik.

[11...Nf6 12.0-0 Ne4 13.Rc1 Bb7 14.Qc2 Rc8 15.Rfd1 Bd6 16.Bb4 Qf6 17.Nc3 Nxc3 18.Qxc3 c6 19.Bxd6 Qxd6 20.b4 Rc7 21.a4 Bc8 22.a5 Ba6 23.Ra1 Bb5 24.Rdc1 Re8 25.axb6 axb6 26.Bf1 Bxf1 27.Kxf1 Rb8 28.Ra6 Qd7 29.Kg1 h6 30.Qa3 Rcc8 31.h4 Qf5 32.Ra7 g5 33.h5 Qf3 34.Qd3 Kh8 35.Qa6 Kg7 36.b5 c5 37.dxc5 bxc5 38.Qg6+ 1-0 Ponomariov,R (2734)-Kramnik,V (2807)/Wijk aan Zee NED 2003/The Week in Chess 427]

12.Bb4

Carlsen didn't remember the precise moves of Ponomariov-Kramnik but he remembered it was "Bb4 at some point."

[12.0-0 1-0 Milov,V (2632)-Cheparinov,I (2550)/Dos Hermanas ESP 2004/The Week in Chess 491 (45); 12.0-0 a5 and black prevents the immediate exchange of the dark square bishops. Carlsen said that since he had place all his pawns on dark square it made sense to exchange this bishop first.]

12...Nf6 13.0-0

13...Re8

[13...c5 14.dxc5 bxc5 15.Bc3 "I think this position is in general still a little bit better for white since his hanging pawns in the centre are more likely to be weak than a dynamic strength because his pieces are not particularly active and mine are well positioned to meet whatever he's going to do in the centre." - Carlsen.]

14.Rc1 c6

"He decided to play slowly instead." - Carlsen.

15.Bxe7 Rxe7 16.Re1

16...Qd6

"I was a little bit surprised by Qd6 I thought his intention was to do this: " [Carlsen on Ne4]

[16...Ne4 17.Nf4 Nd6 "and put the Nd6 and then I can never really push the pawns on the queenside as the knight is very well place to meet that." - Carlsen. 18.Nd3 "Nevertheless with something like Nd3 with the plan of Re2-c2 putting pressure on the pawn on c6 we're pretty much playing for two results already which is an achievement for white of course." Carlsen.]

17.Nf4 Bc8?!

"Now he's trying to transfer the bishop to f5 after which his problems would be much less at least. I think it's a decent enough positional move it just doesn't work. At least as far as I could see." - Carlsen.

18.Qa4 Rc7

A logical move but "now the problem is that I change plans and go for f3" - Carlsen.

[18...Bd7 19.Qb4 and the exchange of queens is favourable to white according to Carlsen. 19...Ne8 "For instance here it's also possible to lose quite quickly." - Carlsen. 20.Nd3 f6? 21.Qxd6 Nxd6 22.Nb4 Rc8? 23.Nxc6 Bxc6 24.Rxc6 Rxc6 25.Bxd5+ "Of course this is a helpful line but it explains that black is already in a bit of trouble." - Carlsen.]

19.f3!

"I was thinking for a while about this one but I really couldn't see any good plan for him so I decided just to go for it. I really can't see any good continuation for him. If I manage to push e4-e5 he will have serious positional problems." - Carlsen who played the rest of the game quite quickly.

19...Be6

[19...Qd8 20.e4 dxe4 21.fxe4 Bd7 22.Qb3 There is no hurry so 22.Qb3 followed by e5 is going to be very strong. (22.e5?! Nd5 23.Nxd5 cxd5 Hitting the queen and saving the pawn.) ]

20.e4 dxe4 21.fxe4 Qd7

"This is what I thought was the main line... I suspect that he just missed 25.Bh3" Carlsen. White is winning here.

22.d5! cxd5 23.Qxd7 Rxd7 24.Nxe6!

The killing move in conjunction with Bh3.

[24.exd5 Nxd5 (24...Bf5 25.Re5 g6! (25...Bg6 and white is well on top.) ) 25.Nxd5 Bxd5 26.Rcd1 wins for white due to back rank problems.]

24...fxe6 25.Bh3!

"It's pretty much gone." Carlsen.

25...Kh8 26.e5 Ng8 27.Bxe6 Rdd8 28.Rc7 d4 29.Bd7

and Carlsen will pick up the d-pawn with a crushing position.

1-0

8th Tal Mem Moscow (RUS), 13-24 vi 2013															cat. XXII (2777)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2784	*	.	0	.	½	1	1	.	.	1	3½	2914
2.	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2755	.	*	.	.	½	1	½	½	1	.	3½	2912
3.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2753	1	.	*	.	.	½	½	.	½	½	3	2852
4.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2864	.	.	.	*	½	0	½	1	.	1	3	2843
5.	Andreikin, Dmitry	g	RUS	2713	½	½	.	½	*	.	.	½	½	.	2½	2789
6.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2774	0	0	½	1	.	*	.	1	.	.	2½	2788
7.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2782	0	½	½	½	.	.	*	.	.	½	2	2719
8.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2786	.	½	.	0	½	0	.	*	1	.	2	2701
9.	Morozevich, Alexander	g	RUS	2760	.	0	½	.	½	.	.	0	*	½	1½	2613
10.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2803	0	.	½	0	.	.	½	.	½	*	1½	2639

Round 5 (June 18, 2013)
Nakamura, Hikaru	- Andreikin, Dmitry	½-½	23	E12	Queens Indian Petrosian
Gelfand, Boris	- Morozevich, Alexander	1-0	33	A56	Old Indian Defence
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	- Caruana, Fabiano	½-½	46	D94	Gruenfeld Closed
Carlsen, Magnus	- Anand, Viswanathan	1-0	29	E46	Nimzo Indian Rubinstein
Kramnik, Vladimir	- Karjakin, Sergey	½-½	40	A29	English Four Knights

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