Moscow, November 8th 2009, Tal Memorial Round 4
People say top chess is becoming younger, but it doesn’t show in the top 10. We’re only 3 players below 30 in this tournament. The Armenian Levon Aronian (27), may very well be my fiercest competitor when the “old” guard retires. We’ve had several tense encounters already and after he eliminated me from both the World Cup in 2004 (I was just 13) and the World Championship Candidate Matches in 2007, I’ve won quite a number of games to have a positive score in our classical encounters.
Today I was not in much of a fighting mood and was quite happy to play a relatively short but somewhat complicated drawn game against him despite having the white pieces. I’m starting to feel somewhat better this evening after a few days with a sore throat and also fever. Tomorrow is a rest day and I hope to be back in good shape for round 5 on Tuesday. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik won again and is leading with 3 out of 4. I’m still shared 4th with a 50% score.
Magnus Carlsen
2009-11-08 21:03:45
Moscow, November 7th 2009, Tal Memorial Round 3
After some snow this morning we had a rainy day in Moscow. I played black against Boris Gelfand from Israel (born and raised in Belarus). At 41 he is the oldest player in the field. My opening preparation worked well and at the crucial point Boris had to choose between a complicated game with chances for both sides and simplifications leading to a slightly better position for me. He chose the latter, but I soon concluded that my marginal advantage was insufficient to create serious winning chances. We traded off more material and entered a dead equal ending. Draw.
At this level it is not easy to win with black unless white complicates the game or makes some serious mistakes. My main competitors Anand, Aronian and Kramnik all used the opportunity to win and they are sharing the lead with 2 points out of 3. I’m sharing 4th at 1,5 points and will have white against Aronian Sunday.
Magnus Carlsen
2009-11-07 21:09:50
Source: http://www.arcticsec.no/index.php
Special thanks to a Norwegian fan from Norway for sending us the information.
Thanks for posting this Susan. And thank you for supporting Magnus and Norwegian chess.
Supporting Magnus does not necessarily mean supporting Norwegian chess!?
poark
Polgar is a big advocate for Norway / Tromso Chess Olympiad 2014. She’s supporting both Magnus and Norwegian chess.
Managing to draw at this level of competition while fighting a flu or bad cold is commendable,I think Magnus will play a lot stronger as his health improves and I wish him good luck
hahahahaha!! Wow, Susan this is really too much! They have centuries of claiming white’s advantage of the first move and now they are beginning to realize how ridiculous they are, so they wanna cover up by introducing the level they playing on what a joke! Hes under 21 and still very young so i wont say too much more ! hehe. Susan between me and you i dont need their approval! hahaha.
Oh Susan im getting old like Kasparov said, if they think its tough being WHITE, plz tell them i havent even started throwing this ULTRASTUFF in their face! haha.That na6 f5 stuff thats just me saying hello!!! with the LOVE though Susan with the Love, its all with the Love!!!
Kramnik also has flu .
Don’t start to search for excuses already ..
Lionel, somehow I doubt that Susan is your co-conspirator. How sad.
Magnu,Magnus,Magnus,can you people stop worshiping young man ,there are plenty loke him (and probably better) around
Name them and how they have demonstrated they are as good as Carlsen.