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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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Extract: As it happens, chess also doesn't have a host city for its 2014 world championship. The application deadline passed recently and... no one ponied up the estimated $5 million to stage the tournament. So the championship rematch between reigning champ Magnus Carlsen, a charismatic, 23-year-old Norwegian phenom, and India's Viswanathan Anand is up for grabs.
Proposition: Quick, before Vladimir Putin snags this tournament for the greater glory of Russia, let's turn Chicago into the world's chess mecca. First step: Host the 2014 world championship.
Sure, $5 mil isn't chump change. But can you imagine another bold stroke that could broaden Chicago's Capone-and-Jordan image? Think of it: The City of Broad Shoulders Hunched Over A Chess Board. What better way to proclaim this city as a brainy 21st century hub than to become a worldwide chess showcase?
It has not been followed up though.
_________
Nigel comes up with one of his provocative quotes:
No battle plan survives the first encounter with the enemy
but cannot remember who made it. The chess historian Olimpiu Urcan emails that it was written by Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard Graf von Moltke in 1871.
_________
There is a big sensation as Aronian appears to be busted after fourteen moves against Grischuk. This game is given in an earlier posting in this thread. Even though Levon has lost his queen, Nigel predicts that the game will not be a miniature because he will fight to the grim death.
________
Yesterday’s quiz question comes up. How many of the participants in this tournament don’t live in the country in which they were born?
The answer is six. Karjakin was born in the Ukraine and lives in Russia. Aronian born in Armenia, lives in Germany. Giri born in Russia, lives in the Netherlands, Kramnik born in Russia lives in France, Caruana born in the USA, lives in Spain and Topalov born Bulgaria, lives in Spain.
One chap said that the answer was 8 because only Carlsen and Agdestein were born in Norway and all the others were born elsewhere. This sharp answer did not win. Mark Page of Warwickshire won a one-year-subscription to NIC.
Today’s question – It is still undecided where the next World Chess Championship will take place. Magnus Carlsen fears that FIDE will decide upon which country?
I don’t know the answer but from the interviews today, strongly suspect that North Korea is the answer.
________
Running down the games. Karjakin is a rook down with a passed pawn on the seventh. Agdestein is still slightly better.
Aronian is still hanging on but the end is nigh against Grischuk.
Svidler-Topalov looks drawish.
Carlsen against Caruana had the upper hand and then instead of playing 26. Qe3 played 26. g3 and observers are saying that was the turning point in the game and Magnus is on the defensive now.
Kramnik is piling up pieces against Giri’s kingside. Fairly equal game though.
All this after almost four hours of play.
________
When asked his opinion of this game earlier, Peter Svidler said, “Vladimir is fashioning a positional masterpiece.”
The opening is a Catalan. Nigel Short cannot leave this alone and talks about a favorite book by George Orwell called “Homage to Catalonia”. It has his personal account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. Nigel says that George Orwell’s real name was Eric Blair and he was born in Burma. Viewers shoot back that he was born in India, which Nigel finds hard to accept.
Norway Chess 2014 Classic
Round Three
June 5, 2014
Giri, Anish-Kramnik, Vladimir
E05 Catalan, open, Classical line
So, first you make an outrageous claim. Then you agree to a wager "Alright, how shall we set this up?" Then you back out.
As Bator Sambuev said "A man should be responsible for his words".
In wagering, I have never been known to take advantage of the feeble minded.
So I will improve on my offer. I will offer 2 : 1 on the same bet. If I win, you pay me $100 and if you should win, I will pay you $200. And I will not withdraw my offer. Except of course, should Agdestein not play, the bet is void.
Too bad the mysterious "Andy Shaw" didn't take you up on your bet, Vlad. Agdestein has drawn Aronian, Giri, and Karjakin the first 3 rounds and appears to perhaps be on his way today to a 4th consecutive draw vs Kramnik. I wonder what kind of odds "Andy" would have offered you that Agdestein wouldn't lose a single game in the early rounds (:
Nigel Short (NS) and Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam (DJtG) are the commentators.
They talk about the activities of the rest day and then a bit about seconds in chess. A certain Georgian master worked with Kasparov as a trainer and second.
DJtG – There was a problem with Zurab Azmaiparashvili.
NS – He caused a problem, did he?
DJtG – He played a tournament once that many people thought was a fake tournament.
NS – Strumica in 1995.
DJtG – He played games there using many ideas that he had taken from Garry Kasparov’s laptop.
NS – This is the candidate now for the presidency of the European Chess Union.
DJtG – I remember shortly after that tourney running into Garry in Madrid and he was very upset that his ideas had been spread in that manner.
_________
The guys have Sarkhan Gashimov on as a guest. He is the brother of Vugar and says that he hopes that his memorial tournament will become an annual event.
While there is a lull in the games, they talk about the set question from yesterday (Round Three).
It is still unclear where the WC will be played. In which country is Magnus afraid FIDE will stage the match?
The interview was given in a Norwegian newspaper.
DJtG – We got a lot of answers. Among the wrong ones were Norway (Nigel laughs), North Korea was mentioned several times.
NS – Any North Korean people watching the broadcast, you have a wonderful country (and does a thumbs up).
DJtG – India, Syria and the Ukraine were also mentioned. Kalmykia was mentioned and on a different planet. Kirsan has communicated with aliens, so why not?
But the answer is that Magnus was afraid the match would take place in Far-farawayistan. So that is the right answer. Many people read Norwegian newspapers gave the right answer. The winner is from France Perrine Carpentier from Lille, France who wins a year’s subscription to NIC.
Today’s question. We are showing you a photo of ten black and white mini-Coopers, with chess designs.
Just like last year, the ten contestants have at their disposal ten stylish mini-Coopers, including drivers.
The question is
How many of the participants in No Logo Norway Chess 2014 have a driver’s license?
Topalov-Carlsen – Topalov came up with a novelty. Magnus grabbed pawns. Game ended in a perpetual.
Aronian-Svidler with a novelty from Aronian. He said he wasn’t sure what Svidler was going to play. Peter said he has played the same opening for 20 years (the Grunfeld) and people are still unprepared for it. Amazing!
Svidler: "15.Bg5 was a very devious move. I had to spend 20 minutes on it, that's 20 minutes of my life I will never get back. What happened Levon, I thought we were friends?"
This was a draw too.
Agdestein-Kramnik. Short just couldn’t see why Kramnik played solidly against Agdestein whom he outranks by 200 rating points. Simen is also low man in the tourney. But Kramnik said at the press conference that when playing black his approach it to just play his normal chess and Simen is a very strong player anyway. The game was a draw.
Look at the crosstable. After four rounds, both Carlsen and Agdestein have four draws and stand equal 3-7.
Caruana-Giri – both players used to have the same trainer, Vladimir Chuchelov, so they know a lot about each other. Now Giri works with Vladimir Tukmakov. Caruana had the upper hand but left himself with 2 minutes for 10 moves and the game fizzled out to a draw.
In a Grunfeld, Karjakin beat Grischuk, who hasn’t had a single draw yet. (Compare with Agdestein)
Norway Chess 2014 Classic
Round Four
June 7, 2014
Karjakin, Sergey-Grischuk, Alexander
D85 Grunfeld, Exchange Variation 7.Be3
(Colin Crouch) - It is too late to write much about the Caruana – Giri game, which is unfortunate, as we are talking about two potential world champions of the future, both capable of giving Carlsen a run for his money.
Caruana seemed to be able to keep a slight edge throughout the main part before the time control. Nothing winning, but giving Giri something to think about.
Caruana seemed to handle the time shortage well, using less than a minute for each move. It was however Giri, with a few minutes to spare, who made the first clear mishandling of the position. Sometimes it is easier, in a slightly better position, to find reasonable moves very quickly, and more difficult to find good moves in worse positions with extra time.
Giri lost a lot of control from about move 30 onwards, but on move 39, Caruana made a premature pawn break in the centre, when he could have pressed his opponent a little harder with the queen, on the queenside, but aiming on the a3 to f8 diagonal. Then, after the time control, Caruana could on move 41 have tried the same queen idea, Qb4, keeping a reasonably substantial but lesser edge. Play soon fizzled out to equality, and a draw.
I would like to look at this game at some stage at a later stage. After all, we are dealing with two of the three players slightly younger than Carlsen, who could have good chances of playing in a successful championship match. Carlsen of course will want to prevent this!
Norway Chess 2014 Classic
Round Four
June 7, 2014
Caruana,Fabiano – Giri, Anish
A29 English, Bremen
Nigel Short and Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam are the commentators, as usual.
There are some technical difficulties for the first couple of hours. When I looked in at the first the guys were interviewing Ola-Conny and Morgan, who appeared to have no English, only Swedish.
I thought they might be members of a pop band but they are documentary makers. Some of the adventures they have been involved in are bungee jumping, ormtjusning, an elephant safari, sumo wrestling and now a world chess tournament!
Yesterday’s quiz – The contestants and some staff are provided with thirteen mini-Coopers for their transportation. How many of the participants have driver’s licenses?
It turns out that Dirk and Nigel were not sure themselves and so asked the players. Four have driver’s licenses – Agdestein, Grischuk, Karjakin and Topalov. The rest do not.
Nigel: This is because chess players cannot drive. They cannot tie their shoe-laces nor their ties.
Nigel: Actually, when I was driving Sergey Karjakin we were almost killed by a woman who had veered off the road! It wasn’t my fault.
DJtG: The answers went from 0 to 10. The winner is Eduardo Moura, from Athens, Greece. He wins a one-year subscription to NIC.
Today’s quiz: World Champions often move in higher circles. Which of the following celebrities did Magnus Carlsen not meet in the past year?
Bill Gates, Mick Jagger, Cristiano Ronaldo or Mark Zuckerberg.
_________
There is a question as to whether Aronian will become another Ivanchuk, who can beat anyone on a given day. This leads Dirk Jan to an anecdote about Linares. He covered the Linares tournaments for years and remembers them all. For Nigel, they are like the James Bond movies – all the same!
DJtG: At Linares 1991, all sorts of things had gone wrong for Ivanchuk and his flight was delayed. He finally stumbled into the hotel at five in the morning. Before going up to his room, he asked, “Who am I playing in the first round?” and Dirk Jan said, “Kasparov”. And he won the game and won the tournament.
DJtG wrote a book called Linares! A Journey into the Heart of Chess in which he says this:
Ivanchuk’s victories have earned him an unbelievable popularity with the Linarese, People greet him everywhere with a brief and warm “Ivanchuk!” The warmth they feel at his unaffected behavior outweighs their admiration for the distant Kasparov. Ivanchuk doesn’t push his way haughtily through the crowd of noisy children thronging at the bottom of the hotel stairs every day begging the players for a signature in their programme booklets. He always stops to sign a few. In the of his third tournament victory, he invited these young admirers to join him in eating the cake that the restaurant kitchen had prepared for him.
Anyway, DJtG continues telling his story to Nigel:
I was standing outside the hotel talking with Kasparov and two kids come and ask for the autographs. Now Garry knows that he already has given them 6 or 7 already and says with temper, “Not now”.
So what did these kids do? They stepped back and started chanting, “I-Van-Chuk” and Garry got even angrier.
________
Unhappily, economic considerations put an end to the Linares tournaments in 2010.
The game Svidler-Karjakin was a dead draw.
The game Carlsen-Aronian is posted earlier in this thread. It looked like Carlsen was going to lose, then Aronian made a few weak moves and Carlsen ended up winning.
Giri-Topalov. There must have been something in the water. Topalov had a good game until about move 30. Then 31…Kh8 and Giri had a win.
Grischuk-Agdestein – Simen always seemed to have a good position and many were hoping that both he and Magnus would win, with a one-two punch for the Norwegian contenders. But Grischuk was able to scrape out a draw. Still, in this company, five draws is not a bad result.
Kramnik-Caruana – This game was heading for a draw. There was a sequence which Fabiano had calculated ending in 50…Kf8. When he got to the end of it, he played 50…Ke8, saw what he had done, made a few more moves and resigned. Perhaps there were memories of what happened against the same opponent at Dortmund 2013, when he blundered in the seventh hour from an equal position and lost. Hopefully he can bounce back from this defeat.
Norway Chess 2014 Classic
June 8, 2013
Round Five
Giri, Anish-Topalov, Veselin
B67 Sicilian, Rauzer
No sound or video from the official site. Switched over to chess24 where Jan Gustafsson and Lawrence Trent are the commentators. They talk about the Game of Thrones, Flight of the Conchords, LeBron James and the football professionalism of Simen Agdestein and a little chess.
The latter continues to be one of the stories of the tournament, not yet having lost a game. He is 47 years old, became a grandmaster in 1985 and was ranked 16th in the world at his best.
Nigel said yesterday that when Agdestein was playing, he was rather lazy in his preparation, preferring to do all his work at the board. You can only go so far with this approach. In fact, see comments about his game with Caruana and tiredness, below.
In this round Topalov and Kramnik meet. In an interview yesterday with TV2 there was this exchange with Kramnik:
Int: With the toiletgate incident in mind how is your relationship with Topalov?
Kram: Not great, I have to admit (smiles). I don’t really see much potential of it getting better, but it’s ok, we can still play chess.
Int: Do you want to make peace with him?
Kram: Hmmmmm, no! (laughs)
Int: Will you shake his hand tomorrow?
Kram: I don’t think so.
Int: Why not?
Kram: Well, I just don’t respect him as a person. I respect him as a chess player very much but I think his behaviour there was really awful and totally unsporting and since he never apologised for it it’s a matter of principle. I’m not going to shake his hand.
Int: How is it sitting across a chessboard for hours on end with a man you don’t respect?
Kram: It’s ok (smiles), it’s business – nothing personal. In many areas you have to deal with people who you don’t respect. Of course he’s a strong opponent, so I don’t care. I just play a game against him and when I play chess anyway it’s never personal for me. Once it starts it’s just a game of chess so for me it doesn’t matter if I play against a friend or against somebody I don’t like. It’s the same for me.
The players did not shake hands this morning.
___________
After almost three hours the official site is working again. So we switch back to Nigel and Dirk Jan again.
Karjakin-Carlsen went hell bent for leather to an ending and a draw. Grischuk-Svidler was also a draw.
Aronian and Giri come in for the press conference and talk about their draw.
Levon said that after yesterday’s loss he relaxed by listening to The Elevens and was all right when he came in today.
________
The quiz from last round: World Champions often move in higher circles. Which of the following celebrities did Magnus Carlsen not meet in the past year: Bill Gates, Mick Jagger, Cristiano Ronaldo or Mark Zuckerberg?
The answer is Mick Jagger and the winner is John Elvesjo from Stockholm, Sweden
Today’s Quiz – The former World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, is one of four Russians with Grischuk, Karjakin, Svidler playing in this tournament.
How many times did these four grandmasters combined, win the Russian Championship? Kramnik, Grischuk, Karjakin, Svidler?
Agdestein seemed to have the advantage after his unusual opening. Caruana fought back and after 23 moves the commentators are talking of his winning the game. But it does go to a draw.
In the press conference Caruana is asked by Nigel:
NS – Was 6..Qb6 calculated or a bluff?
Caruana: It was a blunder
Simen, who is very athletic keeps saying how tired he is from calculating variations. Fabiano, who Nigel pointed out yesterday, does not look robust, said he wasn’t at all tired from calculating – he was just disgusted with his position. He was just dreaming of a draw.
In any case, he gets the draw and is a joint leader.
Norway Chess 2014 Classic
Round Six
June 9, 2014
Agdestein, Simen-Caruana, Fabiano
A41 Queen’s Pawn
It looks like Topalov has a win after 27 moves against Kramnik. But he has messed things up before this with a win virtually in the bag. This would be his first win in Norway.
Topalov does win, in 44 moves. The players have two television interviews to give before they come to the press conference. Dirk Jan doesn’t think they will come in together.
In fact, Topalov comes in to talk. Kramnik has left the building. The situation in the tournament was such that a draw was good for Kramnik but he pressed. He was trying to create complications.
The interviewers and interviewee are rather light-hearted in their talk. I feel sorry for Kramnik but I guess he is off at the hotel. He shouldn’t consider a single defeat as the final defeat because there are still three rounds to go.
Norway Chess 2014
Round Six
June 9, 2014
Topalov, Veselin-Kramnik, Vladimir
E21 Nimzo-Indian, Three Knight’s Variation
This is a bizarre tournament. All the players are having troubles. The best performer is Agdestein with by far the lowest rating and if he had taken full advantage of his opportunities he would be plus 2 and leading the tournament! (although he is tied for 4th a half point back at even score).
Nigel Short and Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam are in the commentating chairs as usual.
Yesterday’s Quiz – Four participants from Russia in this tournament. How many times did these four grandmasters combined, win the Russian Championship? Kramnik, Grischuk, Karjakin and Svidler.
Answer -Svidler – 7 times, Grischuk 1 time, Kramnik and Karjakin have never won it. Therefore, eight times combined. The winner is Roberto Gabriel Alvarez from Argentina.
Today’s question is difficult.
Of course all the participants in Norway Chess have the title of International Grandmaster. But which of them is also an honorary professor?
As was mentioned yesterday, Kramnik was not happy after losing to Topalov. He walked out to his car and drove away – no interview.
Topalov was gleeful at the press conference and there are some tweets from his manager, Silvio Danailov showing the game score and computer evaluation and the standings at the end of the day.
The majority of viewers thought that Vladimir should have attended the press conference.
Some were more tolerant: On Kramnik-Topalov - everything already has been said a hundred times, by themselves and others. A press conference with the two of them would be as interesting as mud wrestling. Okay with me if you want that, but I won't be watching (well, I won't tell anyone if I do...).
- Whilst I sympathise with Kramnik (rather than Topalov) over the whole WC match debacle and subsequent behaviour, I agree that he should be mature and professional enough to attend a press conference, rather than behaving like a child. One observation I would like to make is that following the death of Vugar Gashimov, one thing that I was particularly moved by was the testimonies by people who knew him regarding his kind and generous character and, in particular, his ability to smile graciously in defeat and willingness to sit and discuss the games with his opponent. I think that there are many people, myself included, who could do better to follow the example of Vugar in this instance.
- Norwegian VGTV actually had a white pigeon in a cage ready for the post game discussion, planning to somehow forge (or rather force) a peace treaty between Topalov and Kramnik by having them release it.
Kind of bizarre.
- I’m quite sure Topa would have not come to the press conference if he lost.
_________
Svidler-Agdestein is the first game to finish. A draw. Seven draws against the best players in the world now.
A Norwegian viewer writes: I am not that surprised. His talent is at the same level as his opponents, and his motivation for having an "Indian Summer" is very high. He has hired a second and worked hard before and during the tournament. His playing style is very demanding, and without this level of inspiration his play is mediocre (2550-2600). His current 2628 rating is actually a sign of rising ambitions. Now he is getting increasingly tired, and to keep the 50% score to the end would be an amazing achievement.
Svidler: "If Simen had converted all his positions, he would be the leader of the tournament."
Tweet - Agdestein's second Romanov: "Simen sleeps, I work. We don't actually meet each other."
_________
We are into a very boring part of the day. The time control is passed and nothing much is happening in the games.
To stir the blood and generate some excitement, Nigel brings out his guitar and plays a Dutch tune (Venus) with Dirk Jan saying the words. This lasts about two minutes and then it is back to analysis.
A chap from Mongolia emails asking why Anand is not participating. The guys say that he had prior commitments and probably does not want to meet Carlsen until the World Championship match.
Nigel says that he has been to Mongolia. “Lots of good players in Mongolia. Lots of minerals in Mongolia. I’ve actually been to a copper mine in Erdenet.”
Erdenet, with a population of 75,000 is the second-largest city in Mongolia, after Ulaanbaatar.
They talk again about Caruana not looking very robust, even though he works out regularly. Dirk Jan notes that Karpov at the end of one match with Korchnoi weighed only 45 kg.
______
The subject of Bobby Fischer comes up. Dirk Jan met him in 1992.
DJtG: The recent book on Fischer (by DeLucia) has some of the negotiations about getting Fischer to play again. Discussions would start as to how he would be addressed. He would write down “The Real World Champion”, “The One and Only World Champion”, “The Genuine World Champion”. Very difficult to take seriously.
Nigel: Me insisting that you address me today as Dr. Nigel. You think this is a bad sign?
DJtG: The beginning…
Nigel: I’m on a slippery slope.
They still pay tribute to Fischer and his games and say they actually are defending him against criticism. Pal Benko said that he saw slight signs of mental illness in Fischer in Curacao in 1962 and in an argument about sharing a second, Pal hit Bobby. He said that he regretted hitting a mentally ill boy for the rest of his life.
______
Carlsen-Grischuk is a draw in 74 moves. Magnus says that with everyone so close in the standings that things are still going his way for the final.
After almost six hours play Giri-Karjakin, Caruana-Topalov and Kramnik-Aronian are still going on. The positions are level.
Joke – Nigel: I won’t look at Anish Giri’s game right now – I’ll do so in about two hours!
And the guys order steak for their late evening meal.
DJtG: Anish Giri’s first title was Under 12 Champion of Russia. He speaks English, Dutch, Russian, some Nepalese.
Nigel: I am going up to Pulpit Rock tomorrow (rest day) and take a “selfie”. Pulpit Rock, is a steep and massive cliff 604 metres (1982 feet) above Lysefjorden.
One has the image of Nigel leaning back over the precipice to snap his picture and …
_______
Caruana-Topalov ends in a draw. Fabiano thought at one time he was completely lost (move 23?).
Kramnik and Aronian come in and discuss their draw. Is there a possibility that we will have 10 people sharing first to tenth places at the end of the tourney?
_______
We have been following the games today in real time. As I write this seven hours have elapsed. Giri-Karjakin is at move 91 and Houdini 3 evaluates the position as 1.99 for White. But, the position is blockaded and chess engines are not very good evaluating blockades. It is conceivable that Karjakin may hold. Dirk Jan and Nigel want to go out for their steak dinner. The technical staff would like to finish their day too.
The decision is to wind up the commentary and leave the cameras on so the viewers can still follow the game.
Later: Karajakin wins the game. Unbelievable!
Norway Chess 2014 Classic
Round Seven
June 10, 2014
Giri, Anish-Karjakin, Sergey
A35 English, Symmetrical, Four Knight’s System
(ChessBase - A brutal game. The players shuffled for what seem like forever before Giri made any sort of progress in a close English position. Karjakin lost the exchange at some point but his position seemed to be a fortress. Giri sacrificed a pawn to open lines for his queen, but Black became too active just in time and forced a perpetual. On move 131, however, the Dutch player simply blundered a powerful move that landed him in a mating net and he was forced to resign.)
Levon Aronian – Fabiano Caruana
Sergey Karjakin – Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Grischuk – Anish Giri
Peter Svidler – Magnus Carlsen
Simen Agdestein – Veselin Topalov
Round 9, Friday, June 13
Magnus Carlsen – Simen Agdestein
Anish Giri – Peter Svidler
Vladimir Kramnik – Alexander Grischuk
Fabiano Caruana – Sergey Karjakin
Veselin Topalov – Levon Aronian
It looks like Carlsen has the easiest final schedule.
_________
If there is a tie at the top, the regulations state:
- Money prizes will be shared among the players with the same sum of points. This does not apply for the first prize. - In case of shared first place, there will be a blitz match to decide the winner.
If two players share first place, there will be a 2 game match with the same time control as in the blitz tournament: 4 min plus 2 sec increment for each move. If this match ends in a tie, there will be an Armageddon game where white has 5 min plus 2 sec increments and black has 4 min plus 2 sec increment with draw odds. If more than two players share first place, there will be a double round robin with the same tiebreak rules as the opening blitz tournament.
The remaining players in this blitz tournament will share their money prizes.
___________
The full prize fund for the tournament doesn’t appear to have been published. First is 100,000 euro, which is something over $147,000 CA. Last year the total prize money was 275,500 euro.
It looks like Carlsen has the easiest final schedule.
He hasn't stood out from the field in the same way Anand did in the Candidates event. Let's see if the suggestions of the wording that he's playing the weakest players in the final 2 rounds makes a difference.
An utter disaster for Peter Svidler after the opening. About to win the game, Black sacrifices his rook with 24…Rfxf4 for quick mate, something goes wrong and he blows most of his advantage. What a turnaround!
Norway Chess Classic 2014
Round Eight
June 12, 2014
Svidler, Peter-Carlsen, Magnus
A27 English, Three Knights System
Peter was embarrassed at the way he played in the opening. He had no sensible ideas and was lost by move 20. He said that the position was just winning for Magnus.
Magnus said when you screw up like this, you should have no aspirations for first place.
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