‘Back to the Future with Casablanca Chess’ was the tagline for the elite rapid tournament held in Morocco last month. The intriguing premise was that games would begin from positions taken from the opening phase of famous historical games. The four guinea pigs for this experiment – dubbed the Casablanca Chess Variant – were Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura and Bassem Amin; the latter grandmaster from Egypt is rated in the world’s top 50.
Other strong grandmasters selected the positions from historical world championship matches. Most allowed the players considerable creative scope, and all were balanced according to engine evaluations, so players might be happy to play with either colour. Well, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. I would have recoiled from the position dished out to Anand and Amin in the first round, which began with the following moves, as played in the fifth game of the Chigorin-Steinitz World Championship match in 1889.
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4 Bxb4 5 c3 Ba5 6 O-O Qf6 7 d4 Nge7 8 Bg5 Qd6 9 Qb3 O-O 10 Rd1 Bb6 (see diagram 1)
The pawn sacrifice on move 4, known as the Evans Gambit, remains popular today. White gains time and a strong central pawn duo, but Steinitz relied on the lack of weaknesses in his position, counting on the extra pawn for the long term. To my eyes, this is miserably constipated, and the lifeless bishop on c8 requires urgent attention. Modern grandmasters prefer to give back the pawn quickly to catch up in development.
Of course, in the diagram position Steinitz has acceded to return the pawn after all. After 11 dxe5 Qg6 12 Qa3 Re8 13 Nbd2 d6 the position was even, and remained so until Chigorin made an elementary blunder five moves later and lost. Instead of winning back the pawn, Carlsen and Nakamura maintained the tension and both scored a quick win.
Magnus Carlsen-Viswanathan Anand
Casablanca Chess, May 2024
11 Na3 Na5 12 Qa4 Nec6 13 dxe5 Qc5 13…Qg6 was called for, with d7-d6 to follow. 14 Rd5! Qxf2+ 15 Kh1 (see diagram 2)
There is no good answer to the threat of 16 Rf1 Qb2 17 Rb5, trapping the queen. Qb2 16 Rb1 Qxa3 17 Qxa3 Nxc4 18 Qa4 Ne3 19 Rxb6 Nxd5 20 Rxc6 Black resigns
Hikaru Nakamura-Bassem Amin
Casablanca Chess, May 2024
11 Bf1 Taking the sting out of Nc6-a5 and eyeing up Nb1-a3-c4. exd4 12 cxd4 Ng6 13 Nc3 Nxd4 13…h6 14 Be3 Qe7 was still ok, though I fancy White’s chances. 14 Rxd4 Bxd4 15 Nb5 Bxa1 16 Nxd6 cxd6 Black retains a nominal material edge, but Nakamura strikes briskly on the kingside, before the dozy bishop on c8 can join the defence.
17 h4 d5 18 Qd1 Bb2 19 Qb3 Ba1 20 Qb1 Bc3 21 Qc1 d4 22 h5 Nh8 23 e5 Re8 24 Bf6 h6 25 Qf4 Bb4 26 Bd3 d5 27 Bxg7 Kxg7 28 Qf6+ Black resigns
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