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Welcome to the Chessdom live coverage of the Wolrd Chess Cup. Magnus Carlsen is celebrating 17th birthday, but that won't distract him from his usual aim to win every game. He is black against Lenier Dominguez Perez, Cuban champion and one of the best players in American continent. Lenier was Peter Leko's second during the World Chess Championship in Mexico City and one of his best results was fantastic win at the 2006 Magistral d'Escacs Ciutat de Barcelona ahead of Ivanchuk. Enjoy!
1.e4 e5 No Sveshnikov Sicilian this time
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 Na5 Magnus is choosing classical Chigorin variation. He also played Breyer's 9... Nb8 before.
10.Bc2 d5!? Ultra-modern hybrid of Chigorin variation and Marschall attack, that gained some momentum through this season. Ne5 will be unopposed, but black immediately gets long diagonal for his bishop.
11.d4!? (11.exd5 e4 12.Ng5 Qxd5 13.d4 was tried in a couple of games)
11... dxe4 ( GM Alon Greenfeld played 11... Nxe4 against Ilya Smirin, but lost the game 12.Nxe5 f6 13.Nf3 Nc4 14.Nbd2)
12.Nxe5 c5 13.Bg5 Bb7 14.Nd2 ( Used by Canadian GM Charbonneau in the USCL game against GM Benjamin that was played on the ICC. 14.dxc5 Qc7 15.Bxf6 Rad8 16.Qe2 Bxf6 17.Ng4 Bg5 and Wojtachek beat Volokitin with black pieces)
14... cxd4 15.cxd4 Re8 (15... Qxd4 16.Nxe4 Qxd1 (16... Qxe5 17.Nxf6+ wins Queen) 17.Raxd1 and white is slightly better)
16.Nb3 Finally a move. Dominguez was pondering this for awhile. He gave up on surrounding e4 pawn, and is going to support his own d4 and knight's outpost on e5. (16.Nxe4 Nxe4 17.Bxe7 Qxe7 18.Bxe4 Bxe4 19.Rxe4 f6)
16... Nxb3 (16... Nc4 fighting against Ne5 was also interesting. But Carlsen is playing fast, so this is probably still within his preparation.)
17.Bxb3 17....Bd5 most likely
17... Nd5 Carlsen wants to challenge Bg5 and save his light-squared bishop. Critical continuation here is 18. Qh5 Rf8.
18.Bxe7 Rxe7 Rook looks better here than on f8...
19.Rc1 Instead of pressing on the kingside, Dominguez is trying to take advantage on the open c-file and black's weak c5 square.
19... Nf4!? ( Magnus is always searching for the most complicated solutions. Nf4 looks threatening, but white will probably have small advantage after Qg4. 19... Rc8?! might have been tempting, but 20.Rxc8 Qxc8 21.Rxe4 Nc3 22.Nxf7! and Nd6 discovered check.) (19... Qd6 20.Qh5 Rf8 was safe enough (20... Rd8 21.Rxe4!? f6 22.Rh4))
20.Qg4 Ng6 ( Safer than 20... Nd3 21.Qf5! (21.Nxd3 exd3 22.Rxe7 Qxe7 23.Qf4 idea Rc7 23... Rc8) 21... Nxe5 22.dxe5 but it can still transpose after 20...Ng6 21. Qf5 Nxe5)
21.Qf5 ( Threat is stronger than execution. Magnus now has to take on e5 and hope for the best. 21.Nxf7!? Rxf7 22.Qf5 Nh8! and black is holding)
21... Nxe5 22.dxe5 Qf8 ( Probably leaving e8 square for Ra8. Other option was 22... Qe8)
23.Rc5 Rd8 24.Rec1 Dominguez will fight for the 7th rank (24.Bc2!? switching the target deserved attention, but it's psychologically hard to decide on this, since f7 looks so attractive)
24... Qe8 25.Rc7 h6 always useful move. White can't really take advantage of this tempo loss
26.R1c5 Rxc7 Carlsen is reducing the material down to Queens endgame, where he will have best chances for a draw
27.Rxc7 Bd5 28.Bxd5 Rxd5 29.Rc8 Rd8 30.Rc7 Rd1+ 31.Kh2 Rd5! Excellent. Forcing white to go to Queens endgame or accept the repetition.
32.Rc8 Rd8 33.Rxd8 Qxd8 34.Qxe4 Qd2! Black has solid counterplay and will probably hold a draw
35.Qa8+ Kh7 36.Qe4+ Kg8 37.f4 Qxb2 38.e6 fxe6 39.Qxe6+ Kh7 40. Qa6 Qd4! is immediate draw as white Queen can't protect f4 pawn
40.Qe4+ Kh8 41.Qa8+ Kh7 42.Qxa6 Qd4! 43.Qxb5 Qxf4+ 44.Kg1 Qd4+ 45.Kh2 and the players have agreed on a draw. Well played by both of them, Magnus can relax now and organize a party :) We continue live commentary with Cheparinov-Mamedyarov. See you there.
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