Quote:
Originally Posted by All-inMcLovin
I would never think Carlsen would play such a poor game as White.
If someone just showed me that game and didn't tell me where it was from or who were the players, no one would be able to convince me that White was played by Carlsen.
Fancy play syndrome much Magnus?
It really was uncharacteristic of Magnus. He probably should have found a better approach to g5 than what he came up with during that 30min think. Once he pressured Topalov into playing a series of inferior moves and he achieved an edge, he gave it all back immediately with e5, a coffee house move playing for tricks.
I really don't like the piece sac, but it did create a lot of activity.
13.dxc5 dxc5
Qxd8 Kxd8
Nxf7+
he should have an easy draw. 2 pawns for the piece, with a perfect pawn structure and black has 4 isolated pawns.
It's clear that isn't a great result with white so he went for more, and he actually achieved more if he would have played the very natural 17. Nxf8. That can't be recaptured because of Bh6 and White is clearly better, but it is trapped after the line:
16. dxc dxc
17. Nxf8 Qh3
18. Qxh3 Bxh3
19. g3
where white is up two pawns but his Knight is trapped. Still black won't be able to capture it for a while and will have to give up at least one pawn in doing so. plus white's pawn structure is intact, he has no real weaknesses, his dark squared bishop naturally develops and it connects his rooks in doing so.
That definitely could have been a position where white slowly outplays black and grinds an edge into a win.
All in all I thought it was a very entertaining first round, both for the casual viewer and for those who have higher and higher understanding. I think that will typically happen the more decisive games you have. I think in a tournament like this where there are no "spots" it could go one of two ways: 1.) ton of draws and +2 is good enough for shared first, 2.) players go deep into their prep and try for any edge they can achieve leading to lots of imbalances, more fight, and more decisive games. The latter clearly better for attracting new chess fans.