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Good day everyone, welcome to the Chessdom live coverage of Biel International. Last year these two players have tied the first place with 5.5/9 and after 2-2 in the tiebreaks, Carlsen won the Armageddon game to claim the trophy. Onischuk, who has just been selected to represent USA at the Chess Olympiad, is very solid player and makes use of all tactical chances. Enjoy the game.
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6!? Possibly a small surprise as Carlsen mostly used Slav defence in fast time controls. The only regular tournament game that I can recall at the moment is against Alexander Grischuk at the Baku Grand Prix.
3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 ( Grischuk used the sharper 6.Ne5)
6... e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.O-O Nbd7 ( Equally popular alternative is 8... O-O and then the following line has been thoroughly researched 9.Qe2 Nbd7 10.e4 Bg6 11.Bd3 Bh5 12.e5 Nd5)
9.Qe2 Bg4!? 9...0-0 or 9...Bg6 would probably transpose to the above-mentioned line.
10.h3 ( Kramnik and Topalov have tested 10.Rd1 Qa5 11.e4)
10... Bxf3 ( Now 10... Bh5 takes away desired square from Black Queen (Qa5-h5) and White can prepare e4. 11.Rd1 O-O 12.e4)
11.Qxf3 O-O 12.Rd1 Now that Nf3 is gone, it is generally a good idea to overprotect d4 because Black is planning c5 or e5. ( On immediate 12.e4 Black can just grab this pawn 12... Nb6 13.Bb3 Qxd4)
12... e5!? More direct than preparatory 12...Rb8 or 12...Qa5. The only way for White to fight for the advantage is 13. d5 Bxc3!? 14. dxc6!? e4...
13.d5 By the way, if you have a Facebook account, search for Chessdom, we would like to have you on friends list :)
13... Bxc3 14.dxc6 e4!? 15.Qe2 Be5 On cxd7 Black will move his Queen and play Rd8. White still has some delay in completing the development and e4 pawn gives more space to Black on the kingside. (15... bxc6 16.bxc3 might be nasty for Black after White Bishops get to use open diagonals.)
16.cxd7 Qe7 The fresh news this week is that Magnus Carlsen will definitely play at the European Club Cup 2008.
17.Ra2!? Interesting solution, after b2-b3, Rook will transfer to d2 and fight for the d-file. Black will play Rd8-d7.
17... Rfd8 18.b3 Rxd7 19.Rxd7 Qxd7 Better take with the Queen without allowing Ba3 or Qg4. Black's only weak spot is f7, and as long as White pieces are held on proper distance, Black is equal.
20.Rd2 Qe7 21.Rd1 h6 22.Qa2!? With idea to play Ba3, and after later b3-b4, White has a prepared battery against f7.
22... Rd8 But after Rd1 was left unprotected, this simple move solves all problems. Black Queen on the 7th rank will protect f7 forever.
23.Rxd8+ Qxd8 24.Qd2!? A draw offer? :)
24... Qe7 Magnus says not yet...
25.Qa5!? Onischuk wants to force Black to move one of the queenside pawns thus creating a possible weakness. But Black can ignore it for a second and counterattack with 25...Qd6!?
25... b6 26.Qd2 a5!? Preparing an outpost on c5. Again, Carlsen is playing very fast. He has 80 minutes left on his clock.
27.Bb2 Bxb2 28.Qxb2 It is still too early to move the Knight, because of sensible pawns on e4 and f7, but Qd6 looks perfectly fine.
28... Kf8!? 29.Qd4 Qc7 Now that Black didn't play Qd6, White got a chance to centralize his Queen. 28...Qd6 29. Qd4 Qxd4 30. exd4 would have been slightly better endgame for Black.
30.Kf1 Ke7 Preparing 31...Qc5, 32. Qxc5 dxc5 with Nf6-e8-d6. But not 31...Qd6 because it loses f7 pawn...
31.Ke2 g5! The move is not that strong as it shows Carlsen's intention to fight for a win. White's pawns structure is still very solid and it's hard to find targets for attack. Black Queen is tied for dark squares because it has to prevent Qe5+.
32.g3 Qc5 It looks like White will have to trade the Queens, otherwise Qf5 is nasty.
33.Qxc5+ bxc5 34.f4!? Good idea to provoke Black into trading his e4 pawn. Isolated e3 would not be of great significance after White King gets some extra squares to operate on. Of course, Black is not forced to take. Perhaps 34. f3 was more to the point?
35.g4 Nd6 36.Bd5 Kf6 (36... f5!? was tempting, but Carlsen probably wants to maneuver for few moves longer before committing to drastic structural changes.)
37.Kf2 Kg6 38.Kg3 f6 This now reminded me of endgame from Saidy-Fischer when Black pretended to be "lazy" and moved his pawns one square at a time. Of course, Onischuk's position is much better then in mentioned game, besides he has good opportunity to push f4-f5 here.
39.Be6 Accompanied with draw offer, which Carlsen accepted. It would be very hard to make progress without taking excessive risks. Thank you everyone for following Chessdom live coverage of Biel International, see you again on Friday, 14:00 CET, for the 5th round.
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