Morse and Lewis

The Isle of Lewis chess pieces are one of the proudest possessions of the British Museum and also the National Museum of Scotland, which shares the hoard discovered on Uig in 1831. They represent the oldest complete chess sets in the world, with only a few pawns and a rook missing from one set. Now the rook has turned up from a back drawer in a private home and Sotheby’s are estimating a potential sale price of £1 million. The Lewis pieces are made from Walrus tusk, known as morse ivory, and give valuable insights into the Viking civilisation and environment from which they sprang.
 
This week, a game by that modern Norwegian descendant of Vikings, the world champion Magnus Carlsen, played on the traditional Viking turf of Stavanger.
 
Carlsen-Grischuk: Stavanger 2019; Grünfeld Defence
 
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 The most testing variation against the Grünfeld Defence. White establishes a huge pawn centre and speeds up his development. The main question is whether Black can snipe at White’s centre from the wings and dismantle it. 5 … Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7 7 Be3 c5 The standard undermining thrust. Without this Black’s counterplay would be swiftly stifled. 8 Rc1 Qa5 9 Qd2 0-0 10 Nf3 Bg4 11 d5 b5 It is more sensible to preface this with 11 … Nd7 and then 12 … b5. 12 Be2 Black’s previous move was largely bluff since 12 Bxc5 Rc8 13 Bd4 is advantageous for White. 12 … Nd7 13 0-0 Bxf3 14 Bxf3 c4 15 Be2 Rfd8 Natural enough but in fact varying from 15 … Qa3 which had been seen before. 16 f4 Nb6 More active is 16 … Qa3 followed by … Nc5. 17 Bf3 Qa3 (see diagram 1) 18 h4 As in so many of Carlsen’s most recent games we see here the influence of his study of one of the favourite strategies of AlphaZero.