By A.E. Boy Espejo Jr.
GMs Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura defeated their respective opponents in Round 2 on April 20 to move up in the leadership ladder of the ongoing Magnus Carlsen Invitational being played on the chess24.com server.
Carlsen squeaked past Aliresa Firouzja, 2½-1½ and Nakamura bumped Anish Giri with a similar score. The win gave Carlsen five points and the temporary lead, while Nakamura ascended to temporary second with four points – pending the outcome of the Round 2 matches between Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Maxim Vachier-Lagrave and Liren Ding vs Fabiano Caruana which is being played as we write this. Vachier-Lagrave, Ding and Caruana have 3 points each, but this will surely change after their Round 2 matches.
The top four finishers in this preliminary phase of the Invitational will advance to a knockout tournament where the eventual champion gets the $70,000 prize purse, or P3,564,750.00 in Philippine currency at the current exchange rate. Nepomniachtchi is scoreless so far after bowing his Round 1 game to Caruana.
Carlsen, M (2863)-Firouzja, A (2728) [D38]
chess24.com (2.1) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bf4 Nc6 7.Rc1 Ne4 8.Nd2 g5 9.Be3 Nxc3 10.bxc3 Ba3 11.Rb1 f5 12.g3 0-0 13.Qb3 Be7 14.f4 Na5 15.Qc2 c6 16.Bg2 Bd6 17.c4 gxf4 18.gxf4 Be6 19.cxd5 cxd5 20.0-0 Kh8 21.Nf3 Nc4 22.Qd3 b6 23.Kh1 Qe7 24.Ne5 Bxe5 25.fxe5 Rg8 26.Bf4 Rg6 27.Bh3 Rf8 28.Rf3 Qh4 29.Rbf1 Qh5 30.Bc1 Rfg8 31.Bxf5 Rg2 32.Bh3 Rxe2 33.Qxe2 Bxh3 34.Rg1 1-0
Nakamura, H (2736)-Giri, A (2764) [E60]
chess24.com (2.1) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.e3 0-0 5.Be2 c5 6.d5 d6 7.0-0 e6 8.Nc3 exd5 9.cxd5 Bg4 10.Nd2 Bxe2 11.Qxe2 Na6 12.Rd1 Re8 13.Nc4 Ne4 14.Nxe4 Rxe4 15.a4 Nc7 16.Bd2 Qd7 17.Qd3 f5 18.Bc3 Rd8 19.f3 Ree8 20.Be1 Qe7 21.Bg3 Bf6 22.Rac1 b6 23.Be1 Bg5 24.Bd2 Bf6 25.b4 Qd7 26.b5 Qf7 27.Be1 Qe7 28.Rb1 f4 29.e4 Bd4+ 30.Kh1 Rb8 31.Bc3 Bxc3 32.Qxc3 Qf8 33.a5 bxa5 34.Qxa5 Rb7 35.e5 dxe5 36.d6 Na8 37.Nxe5 Nb6 38.d7 Rd8 39.Rd2 Qf5 40.Re1 Kg7 41.Qc3 Qxd7 42.Nxd7+ 1-0
Firouzja, A (2728)-Carlsen, M (2863) [B30]
chess24.com (2.2) 2020
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.d3 Qc7 6.Qe2 e5 7.Nbd2 Ne7 8.Nc4 Ng6 9.h4 h5 10.g3 d6 11.Bd2 f6 12.Ne3 Be7 13.Ng1 Bd8 14.Qf3 Nf8 15.Ne2 Ne6 16.Qg2 a5 17.a4 Nd4 18.f4 Be6 19.b3 Qd7 20.f5 Bf7 21.Nc1 d5 22.0-0 c4 23.bxc4 dxc4 24.dxc4 Bb6 25.Rb1 Qa7 26.Kh2 Rd8 27.Rb2 0-0 28.g4 Ne2 29.Qxe2 Rxd2 30.Qxd2 Bxe3 31.Qe2 Qd4 32.Nd3 Qxe4 33.Re1 Bf4+ 34.Kh3 Qxc4 35.gxh5 Bh6 36.Rb7 Qxa4 37.Rg1 Rd8 38.Rg3 Qa1 39.Nf2 Rd2 40.Rb8+ Kh7 41.Qg4 Qf1+ 42.Rg2 Qxg2+ 43.Kxg2 1-0
Carlsen, M (2863)-Firouzja, A (2728) [D38]
chess24.com (2.3) 2020
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bf4 0-0 7.e3 Bf5 8.Qb3 Nc6 9.Nh4 Be6 10.Bd3 a5 11.0-0 Nh5 12.Bg3 Nxg3 13.hxg3 Be7 14.Nf3 Nb4 15.Be2 c5 16.a3 c4 17.Qd1 Na6 18.b3 Nc7 19.bxc4 dxc4 20.a4 Bb4 21.Qc2 Bxc3 22.Qxc3 Nd5 23.Qa3 Rc8 24.Rfc1 Nb4 25.Rc3 Nd5 26.Rcc1 Nb4 27.Ne5 c3 28.Nd3 Qb6 29.Rab1 Bf5 30.Rb3 Bxd3 31.Bxd3 c2 32.Rxc2 Rxc2 33.Bxc2 Qc6 34.Bf5 Qd5 35.Bg4 Nc2 36.Qb2 Nb4 37.Rc3 b6 38.Be2 Qf5 39.Rc1 g6 40.Bb5 Rc8 41.Rxc8+ Qxc8 42.Qd2 Qf5 43.f3 Qg5 44.Kf2 Nd5 45.Qd3 h5 46.e4 Nb4 47.Qe3 Qf6 48.Qc3 Kh7 49.f4 Qe6 50.Qc4 Qxe4 51.Qxf7+ Kh6 52.Qf6 Kh7 53.Qe5 Qc2+ 54.Kg1 Qd2 55.Kh2 Nc2 56.Qe7+ Kh6 57.Qf8+ Kh7 58.Bc4 1-0
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.f5!, waiting. Black’s futile options are: 1…g4 2.Bc6#; 1…Qg4 2.Re3#; 1…Sxf5 2.Qxf5#; 1…Kg4, g1=Q/R/B/S 2.Qe4#; 1…Sb3/d3/a2/e2 2.Q(x)e2#./PN
