Blitzkrieg

Chess, unlike football, appears to confer little or no home advantage. In a recent article for Kensington & Chelsea Today, my esteemed colleague Barry Martin, who enjoys more space than any other chess columnist in the UK, and possibly even the world, inveighed against the psychological pressures which seem to afflict great players operating on their home turf. Barry drew attention in particular to the setbacks suffered by Topalov against Anand in Sofia, and the humiliation of Anand himself in Chennai last year, in his match defence against Carlsen. Carlsen has shown signs of this syndrome when he twice failed to capture first prize in the annual elite Norway tournament (see last week’s column), on both occasions finishing as runner-up to Karjakin.
 
Once liberated from the shackles imposed by competing in front of his own home crowd, Carlsen sailed on to a further two impressive set of laurels in Dubai. There, to add to his possession of the Classical world title, he conquered in both the championships of Rapid (usually 25 minutes per player per game) and Blitz (standardly completing all moves in 5 minutes each).
 
Here are samples of each fresh victory by the prodigious Norwegian.
 
Carlsen-Caruana; FIDE World Rapid, Dubai 2014; Philidor Defence
 
1 d4 d6 2 e4 Nf6 3 Nc3 e5 4 Nf3 Nbd7 5 Bc4 Be7 6 0-0 Tempting alternatives are 6 Bxf7+ Kxf7 7 Ng5+ Kg8 8 Ne6 or 6 Ng5 0-0 7 Bxf7+ Rxf7 8 Ne6, although both lines are unclear. 6 … exd4 7 Qxd4 Nb6 8 Bb3 0-0 9 a4 a5 10 Bf4 Bg4 11 Qd3 Nfd7 12 Nd4 Bf6 13 Ndb5 Nc5 14 Qg3 Nxb3 15 cxb3 Be6 16 Rac1 (diagram 1) 16 … Nd7 16 … Bxb3 fails to 17 Nxc7 Qxc7 18 Nb5. 17 Nd5 Bxd5 18 exd5 Rc8 19 Bd2 Be5 20 Qh3 c6 If 20 … b6 21 Na7 followed by Nc6 with a dominating knight. 21 dxc6 Rxc6 21 … bxc6 again fails to 22 Na7. The text, however, loses material to a separate tactic. 22 Bxa5 Qxa5 23 Qxd7 Rxc1 24 Rxc1 Qd2 25 Rf1 Qxb2 After this White’s passed a-pawn is decisive. Black should prefer 25 … Qd5. 26 Qxb7 Qxb3 27 a5 d5 28 Qc6 Rb8 (diagram 2) 29 Rc1 Threatening to mate with a queen sacrifice: 30 Qc8+. 29 … g6 30 a6 Qa2 Both 30 … Qxb5 and 30 … Rxb5 are met by 31 a7 winning. 31 a7 The a-pawn guarantees victory. 31 … Rf8 32 g3 d4 33 Qb7 Kg7 34 Rc8 Rxc8 35 Qxc8 Qb1+ 36 Kg2 Qe4+ 37 Kh3 Qd3 38 a8Q Black resigns
 
This was an important win coming, as it did, against the player who finished second in the tournament. Carlsen now has four months to prepare for his rematch against Anand in Sochi for the supreme chess title. Anand’s result in the Candidates tournament was extraordinarily convincing, given that he soldiered through the entire event without losing a single game. I predict that Anand will be a much more formidable obstacle the second time round.