5th King’s Tournament: Round 5

Magnus Carlsen demonstrates yet again what it takes to have the highest rating in the world with a convincing 31 move victory against 2660 Nisipeanu. The game looked like it was headed for a draw, however Carlsen managed to turn the screws and accumulate multiple small, positional advantages which he was able to transform into an easily winning endgame. Carlsen sacrificed a pawn to divert black’s pieces and won easily with 31. Bxd5 – intending to follow with 31. …exd5 32. Rh8+ Kc7 33. Rxc8+ Kxc8 34. f4 and Nxg6 to seal the deal. A clean positional victory by Carlsen, as Nisipeanu experienced time trouble due to his difficult defensive task.

Nakamura played psychotically with the black pieces against Radjabov, perhaps trying too hard to complicate the position. Radjabov chose the Bg5 system as white to answer Nakamura’s Najdorf, and black played the very unusual 7. …e5!? – creating a true mess. Naka pushed it even further by snatching white’s b2 pawn with 9. …Qxb2!? – creating what seemed to be a worse variation of the Poisoned Pawn variation. I fully appreciate Naka trying to attack and win every game that he plays, but I think he just took it too far today. In the final position Radjabov could very well have pushed for the win, but prudently decided to accept the draw as he was short of time.

Ivanchuk played the Bishop’s Opening, and Karjakin sought to immediately punish his opponent’s tame intentions. Creating complications with a speculative piece sacrifice on 16. …Bxh3!? – Karjakin was able to effectively coordinate a strong attack against white’s king which he smoothly converted into an easily won endgame. I was very impressed by Karjakin’s tactical awareness and ability to pragmatically exchange pieces throughout his attack to strengthen his positional and material advantage. Expect a better performance from Ivanchuk in the second half of this tournament.