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Today Carlsen has the opportunity to secure the tournament win a round in advance. His task is far from easy as his opponent is a very talented young Ukrainian who excels in complicated positions with a lot of calculations. In Foros the home players a having very good performance. They were all sharing second place until yesterday, when Volokitin lost to his compatriot Eljanov. Would the home ground help Andrei recover his position in the pursuing group or Magnus will enjoy another prestige tournament title?
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Carlsen often varies his 3rd move: (3.Nc3) or (3.g3) are part of his repertoire as well.
3... d5 During this tournament Volokitin relies on the Queen's Gambit
4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 O-O 7.e3 Ne4 3rd game here he plays the solid but passive Lasker system.
8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Rc1 c6 10.Bd3 Nxc3 11.Rxc3 Nd7 12.Qc2 dxc4 13.Bxc4 Up to now the game van Wely-Volokitin from round 8 is followed.
13... e5 ( Deviating from that lead Black into trouble in the above mentioned example.)
14.Qe4 The blitz tempo slowed down a bit as Carlsen came with a novelty in a well known position on move 14!
14... Re8 15.O-O exd4 16.Qxe7 Rxe7 17.Nxd4 Now Volokitin has to decide how should he proceed. White has slight but long lasting advantage in this ending and we all had the possibilities to see how well plays in such situations the Norwegian. Clock readings: 1.34 1.20
17... g6 This has to be played anyway at some moment - the Black King is well situated on 'g7' - so Volokitin keeps his Knight on 'd7' a bit longer.
18.Rd1 Carlsen's play is characteristic with simple natural moves - the only open file is 'd' and 'd6' may become vulnerable at some point - so 18.Rd1 without spending time.
18... a6 19.f3 Intending to gain some more space by e3-e4.
19... c5 The idea behind 18...a6. Now Carlsen has two possible routes for the Knight - Nd4-e2-f4 or Nd4-c2-e3 /after e3-e4/.
20.Ne2 The weakened 'd5' sqyare can be protected by a Nf6 but then 'c5' pawn is vulnerable and Rd1-d6 may be nasty at some moment, so Black has to play decisively or get into difficulties.
20... b5 21.Bd5 Ra7 22.Nf4 Judging by the speed at which Magnus performs his moves I'd guess it's still his home preparation.
22... Kg7 23.b3 ( Normally one would play 23.e4 but White has something different in mind. ) I'm curious what is he planning in case of (23.b3 b4 24.Rcd3 a5) Time 1.25 1.02
23... b4 Of course! As this is the first time the Norwegian is thinking profoundly over a move, is it possible that he had missed this during the preparation?
24.Rcd3 a5 As there is no more pressure on the 'c' file, Volokitin may attempt to start active counterplay by g6-g5, Nd7-b6 and a5-a4 in order to create a long term weakness on 'b3'.
25.e4 This pawn has to be pushed anyway but it would have been much better to be done so two moves ago instead of the inaccuracy 23.b3.
25... a4 Volokitin is playng the right moves but doing so consumes a lot of time - 1.07 0.35.
26.R3d2 Away from Nd7-e5, may get back to the 'c' file and the vacant square 'd3' may be use for a retreat of Nf4 - the typical Carlsen!
26... axb3 Now there is an alternative capture on 'b3' with the Bishop. That could be evaded: (26... Ne5 followed by axb3) For some time the server providing game translation at ruschess.com is down so the last moves are still unavailable to any relaying sites. I hope that will soon be fixed. Meanwhile you may enjoy the live blog. Ivanchuk won his game against van Wely as Black and seems completely recovered from his 1st round loss against Carlsen.
27.Bxb3 Nb6 Finally, there are some more moves.
28.Rc1 Rec7 29.Rdc2 g5 30.Nd5 Nxd5 31.exd5 Ra5 32.Rc4 Ba6 33.d6 Rd7 34.Rxc5 Rxc5 35.Rxc5 Rxd6 36.Rc7 After a sequence of forced moves Carlsen obtained some edge thanks to the powerful Bb3, but in view of the reduced material on the board, his winning chances are slim.
36... Rf6 37.Kf2 g4 38.Ke3 Bf1 39.Rc2 gxf3 Further simplifying the position.
40.gxf3 Bh3 41.Rc7 Bg2 42.f4 Rf5 43.Rd7 Bc6 44.Rd6 Bh1 This ending is to be expected to to drawn but one never knows what may happen in a game of Carlsen's.
45.Rd4 After trading 'h2' for 'b4' the passed 'a' pawn could cause Black some trouble.
45... Rh5 46.Rd2 Generally in such ending the maximum for White - blunders aside - is to get to a B+R vs. R. As the defense is quite easy - though, to my surprise, many strong players aren't familiar with it - Magnus keeps on board as much material as possible and is trying to reduce opponent's time first.
46... Rh3+ 47.Kd4 Rf3 48.Rd1 Forces the Bishop to cover the 2nd rank in case of Rf3-f2 later, at the same time Bg2-h3 will be additional resourse for Black.
48... Bg2 49.Ke5 With little time left Volokitin has to decide should he go for complications (49.Ke5 f6+) or look for salvation in a Rook ending after the manoeuvre Bg2-h3-e6.
49... Re3+ The second option is preferred. Anyway, both are sufficient to draw, but in time trouble this is the practical decision.
50.Kd6 Time: 0.23 0.09
50... Bh3 51.Kc5 Aimed against Bh3-e6 but permits further simplifications
51... Re2 52.Kxb4 Rxh2 53.a4 Rf2 Without the 'f' pawn there are no winning chances, while 54.Rd4 leaves that Rook too passive.
54.Rd4 h5 (54... Bg2 55.a5 h5 56.a6 h4 57.a7 h3 58.Rd5 was a nice trick)
55.a5 Bf1 With the other games finished, it is certain now that never mind the result of his last two games, Carlsen has already won the tournament.
56.Bc4 Forcing a draw.
56... h4 57.Bxf1 Rxf1 58.f5 h3 59.Rh4 Rh1 Looking for winning chances, Magnus got himself into time trouble: 0.04 0.09.
60.a6 h2 61.a7 Ra1 62.Rxh2 Rxa7 63.Kc5 Even without the 'f5' pawn this ending is easy draw as White Rooks by front checks keeps Black King busy to defend the pawn.
63... Rd7 64.Kc6 Rd3 65.Ra2 Taking aim at 'f7' after Ra2-a7. If 'f5' is captured with Rook then White King manages to get in front of the passed pawn.
65... Kf6 66.Ra7 Rd8 67.Kc5 Rd1 68.Kc4 Rd2 69.Kc5 It is considered that players with 1765 - let aside 2765 - know how to draw this but Volokitin insists on testing Carlsen.
69... Kf5 70.Ra4 Kg5 71.Rb4 f5 Draw agreed. In their fifth encounter Carlsen was once again unable to defeat Volokitin - in fact that was his second draw only. He applied a new opening idea that definitely deserves attention but played a bit carelessly and after a series of accurate moves by the Ukrainian the chances were leveled. Afterwards Magnus got some edge in opponent's time trouble but the game ended logically in a draw after a fierce battle till the very last resource.
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