Round 6 results:
| Wang Yue | – Gelfand, Boris | ½ | |||
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | – Carlsen, Magnus | 0-1 |
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| Radjabov, Teimour | – Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ½ |
Standings after 6 rounds:
| 1. | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2813 | 4½ | ||||||||||||
| 2-3. | Radjabov, Teimour | g | AZE | 2740 | 3½ | ||||||||||||
| 2-3. | Gelfand, Boris | g | ISR | 2741 | 3½ | ||||||||||||
| 4. | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | g | ROU | 2672 | 2½ | ||||||||||||
| 5-6. | Ponomariov, Ruslan | g | UKR | 2733 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 5-6. | Wang Yue | g | CHN | 2752 | 2 |
Official website: http://sah.turneulregilor.com
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
hey Susan lil magasparov almost got a ratin like his teacher! hehe.
Magnus played badly, and had a lost position when pono played an unbelievably bad move that an average player wouldn’t have done, not even in blitz! This game he was very lucky.
Roller coaster game today between Carlsen and Pono.
Great fun watching!
“Magnus played badly, and had a lost position”
It was bad, but not exactly lost. He was still trying to create counterchances along the open b-file (and he eventually succeeded).
But the b-pawn sacrifice wasn’t sound (he was a pawn under with no compensation). Other than that, Magnus played very well today I think. He managed to turn the game to his advantage after an unsuccessful opening.
“… when pono played an unbelievably bad move that an average player wouldn’t have done, not even in blitz! This game he was very lucky.”
You obviously don’t realize that if Pono had played Kh1, black would play Ndf6 and later threaten Ng3+!
What white failed to notice, though, is that this threat could be countered. But in this complicated position it was very hard to see (unless you’re a computer). Pono was also short on time.
So Rf2 wasn’t an “unbelievably bad move that an average player wouldn’t have done”. You either haven’t analyzed the position or you’re simply using an engine without taking the human aspect of the game into consideration.
Wrong… he did not play badly.
What he did was to take deliberate risks in order to try and push Ponomariov into making mistakes.
In his first attempt, Magnus failed, and he ended up in a worse position.
In his second attempt, he did not fail, and Ponomariov made a mistake…
So, it was not bad play as such. It was a deliberate tactics to take risks in order to complicate, which failed at first, but succeeded at the second try.
It could have failed at the second try too, but on overall, i think Carlsen knew what he was doing, tactics-wise.
Yesterday’s game by Magnus was quite nice: a tense, highly tactical struggle based on decided whether white’s Na7 was strong or weak.
Today’s game was utter crap.
“What he did was to take deliberate risks in order to try and push Ponomariov into making mistakes.
In his first attempt, Magnus failed, and he ended up in a worse position.”
His first attempt wasn’t risk raking: It was a thematic pawn sacrifice which didn’t work this time as expected (black hopes to get counterplay along the open file, and use the fianchetto’ed bishop to attack the exposed queenside). Magnus has played this move several times before.
It’s true that risk-taking was involved in the second attempt (which actually started when he moved his knight to the h-file): After he sacrificed his rook for a knight he’d expected a sharp variation (probably Ndf6 and Ng3+) or white giving back the exchange (Ponomariov chose the latter, but failed to see that black could win another pawn).
“Today’s game was utter crap.”
Do you call it upper crap when someone manages to turn the tables the way Magnus did against a 2700+ player? Even Magnus can stumble in the opening, but he did well in the middlegame and endgame. He took a risk in the middlegame that paid off. He had to, otherwise he’d probably lose. But that’s one of the reasons why it’s so enjoyable watching Carlsen: He’s not the kind of player who always tries to play safe.