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Magnus Carlsen – 卜祥志 (Bǔ Xiángzhì)
King Salman World Rapid Chess Championship; ar-Riyāḍ (Riyadh), December 26, 2017
English Opening A28

Today Carlsen has lost his first-round game, probably because he didn’t want to come after Morphy, who notoriously was a bad starter. 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. e3 Nc6 4. a3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Qc2 Be7 7. Nf3 0-0 8. b4 Nxc3 9. dxc3 Qd6 10. Bd3. Or 10. Bb2 Bg4 11. Be2 f5 12. b5 Bxf3 13. gxf3(!) Nd8 14. c4 (Koneru – Kosteniuk, Women’s Grand Prix, fifth stage, Lopota 2014) and now 14. ... f4(!) should give Black reasonable counter-chances. 10. ... f5 11. e4 f4 12. h3 a5 13. Bb2 Bf6 14. Rd1 Qe7 15. 0-0 Be6 16. Qe2 Qf7 17. Rd2 g5! Chinese Grandmaster makes a facsimile of what brought him good luck in Carlsen – 卜祥志 (Bǔ Xiángzhì), 7th Chess World Cup, Tbilisi 2017, match game 1. 18. b5 Ne7 19. c4 Ng6 20. Nh2 Rad8 21. Rfd1 Qe7 22. Qh5 Rd7 23. Ng4 Rfd8 24. Nh6+ Kh8 25. Nf5 Qc5 26. Qe2 Nh4 27. Nxh4 gxh4 28. Qh5 Rg8 29. Bf1 Rdg7 30. Kh1 Qe7 31. Qf3. 31. Bxe5 f3! doesn’t inspire too much confidence. 31. ... Rg5 32. a4 Bf7 33. Rd7 Qe6 34. Qe2?? A terrific blunder which allows Black to deliver his mating attack. Stockfish gives 34. Qa3 Bh5 35. f3 Rg3 36. R7d3 when, in comparison with the game, Black could not have closed matters by 36. ... Qb6 (due to 37. c5). 34. ... Bh5 35. f3

35. ... Rg3! Threatening both ... Bh5xf3 (36. R1d3 Bxf3!−+) and ... Qe6-b6 (36. R7d3 Qb6!−+). 36. Kh2 Qb6! With the deadly threat of 37. ... Rxh3+! 38. Kxh3 Qg1 followed by a very quick mate. 37. c5 Qxc5 38. Kh1 0 : 1. White’s time expired just before getting mated: 38. ... Rxh3+ 39. gxh3 Qg1 mate. After this “advertising” defeat, Carlsen recovered quite well, still retaining his chances of becoming World Rapid Chess Champion. So what? Just pay attention to Georg.