Nanjing R10: Magnus wins with 2900+ performance

Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament

The 2010 Nanjing International tournament took place from October 19th to October 30th in Nanjing, China. It was a ten-round double round-robin event, in which each player faced every other player twice, once with the white pieces, and once with black. Time control: 40 moves in two hours then 20 moves in one hour followed by the rest of the game in 15 minutes with a 30 second increment as of move 61.

Round ten report (final)

Nobel prize winning economist Robert Mundell strikes the gong...

... to start the final round of the Nanjing tournament

Wang Yue (2732) - Topalov,V (2803) [D82]
3rd Pearl Spring Nanjing CHN (10), 30.10.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 c5. A very risky line - the normal continuation would be 5...0-0. 6.dxc5 Qa5 7.Qa4+ Qxa4 8.Nxa4 Bd7 9.Nc3 Ne4 10.Nxd5 Na6 11.f3 Nexc5 12.0-0-0 Rc8. Black has trouble using all his pieces. Preferable was 12...e6 with the idea 13.Nc3 (or 13.Nc7+ Nxc7 14.Bxc7 Rc8 (or 14...b5!? ) ) 13...Bxc3! 14.bxc3 f6!? (to control the dark squares). 13.Bg5 f6 14.Bh4 Kf7 15.Ne2 e6 16.Ndc3 Bh6 17.Bf2 e5 18.Kb1 Rhd8 19.e4 f5 20.Ng3 b6 21.Be2 f4 22.Nf1 Bf8 23.a3 Ne6 24.Nd2 Nac5 25.Nd5 a5 26.b4 axb4 27.axb4 Ba4 28.Rc1 Rb8 29.Rc3 Nd4 30.Bxd4 exd4 31.Ra3

Black is – how shall we put this – completely busted, but he tries a clever little trick: 31...b5 32.bxc5 Bxc5 33.Ra2? Wang needed to play 33.Rb3! Bxb3 34.Nxb3 bxc4 35.Bxc4+–. 33...d3 34.Bxd3 bxc4+ 35.Kc1 cxd3 36.Rxa4 Be3 37.Nxe3 fxe3 38.Nc4. The winning advantage has completely evaporated and now White is fighting to survive. 38...Rdc8 39.Rd1 Rb3

Anand chipped away at Bacrot's position, outplayed him comprehensively and took back the point he had dropped to the Frenchman in round four.

Anand,V (2800) - Bacrot,E (2716) [E59]
3rd Pearl Spring Nanjing CHN (10), 30.10.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 c5 6.Nf3 d5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.a3 Bxc3 9.bxc3 dxc4 10.Bxc4 Qc7 11.h3 e5 12.Ba2 e4 13.Nd2 b6 14.Bb2 Bf5 15.Qe2 Bg6 16.Rfc1 Rad8 17.a4 Bh5 18.Qb5 Rfe8 19.Ba3 g5 20.Nf1 Nd7 21.Ng3 Bg6 22.Rd1 Na5 23.Rd2 h5 24.Rad1 h4 25.dxc5 Nxc5 26.Bxc5 bxc5 27.Nf1 Rb8 28.Rd7 Rxb5 29.Rxc7 Rb2 30.Bd5 Reb8 31.Rxa7 Nb3 32.a5 Bh5 33.Re1 Be2 1-0. [Click to replay]

After deciding the tournament a round before the end (with a 1.5 point lead) Magnus Carlsen did not have the energy or motivation to fight a protracted battle in the last round – is what you would expect to read here. Fiddlesticks! The Norwegian, who until his round seven draw against Vishy Anand (a miracle escape by the World Champion), had won every single one of his white games in Nanjing, this year and the last, slugged it out for 71 moves against Vugar Gashimov, who narrowly escaped becoming the next Carlsen victim. Here for the books are the white game results of the Norwegian in Nanjing.

Carlsen,M (2826) - Gashimov,V (2719) [C49]
3rd Pearl Spring Nanjing CHN (10), 30.10.2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3 Bxc3 7.bxc3 d6 8.Re1 Bd7 9.Rb1 a6 10.Bxc6 Bxc6 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bh4 b6 13.Nd2 g5 14.Bg3 Ne8 15.d4 f6 16.c4 Ng7 17.c3 Qe8 18.f3 Qg6 19.Nf1 g4 20.fxg4 Bxe4 21.Rb2 Rae8 22.Rf2 exd4 23.cxd4 h5 24.gxh5 Nxh5 25.Re3 Bc6 26.Rc3 Re4 27.c5 bxc5 28.dxc5 d5 29.Bxc7 d4 30.Rd3 Rg4

31.Ng3. 31.Qd2!? Rf7 32.Rxd4! looks totally winning. 32...Rxg2+ 33.Rxg2 Bxg2 34.Qxg2 Qxg2+ 35.Kxg2 Rxc7 36.Rc4 and this endgame is easier than the opposite colored bishops Magnus went for and failed to win. 31...Re8 32.Rxd4 Rxd4 33.Qxd4 Nxg3 34.Bxg3 Re1+ 35.Rf1 Rxf1+ 36.Kxf1 Qb1+ 37.Be1 Bb5+ 38.Kf2 Qxa2+ 39.Kg3 Kf7 40.Bc3 Qe6 41.Qf4 Bc6 42.h4 a5 43.Qc7+ Bd7 44.Qf4 a4 45.h5 a3 46.Kh2 a2 47.Qh4 Qe7 48.Qf2 Qe6 49.Qc2 Qf5 50.Qxf5 Bxf5 51.c6 Be4 52.c7 Bf5 53.Kg3 Bc8 54.Kf4 Bb7 55.Ba1 Bc8 56.g3 Bb7 57.g4 Ba6 58.Kg3 Bc8 59.Kh4 Ba6 60.Bb2 Bb7 61.h6 Kg6 62.h7 Kxh7 63.Kh5 Bc8 64.Bxf6 Kg8 65.Ba1 Kf7 66.g5 Ke8 67.g6 Be6 68.g7 Kd7 69.Be5 a1B 70.Bxa1 Kxc7 71.g8Q Bxg8 draw. [Click to replay]

Magnus Carlsen in his final game in Nanjing

Afterwards Magnus, sporting new digs, a new hairstyle and his trademark smile picks
up his 80,000 Euro first place prize

Anand gets 55,000 Euros from Robert Mundell, the man who practically invented the currency

Etienne Bacrot gets 40,000 – a nice boost for the French economy

Vugar Gashimov and Veselin Topalov get 27,500 each

And even the unlucky (especially today) Wang Yue picks up a cool 20,000 Euros

World Champion Anand the Suave speaks to the visitors in Nanjing

... as does Magnus the invincible, who will probably soon receive honorary citizenship

All the organisers and helpers that made this event a memorable one

Pictures by Yu Feng

As you have probably noticed the cross tables generated by ChessBase 11 now give the score, tiebreaks, the performance rating and the number of Elo points gained in this event.

Statistics Of the 30 games played in Nanjing six games = 20% were won by White 18 games = 60% were drawn six games = 20% were won by Black

Schedule and results

Sponsors

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