Invisibility to Invincibility

Magnus Carlsen – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
5th Grand Chess Tour; 2nd stage; Zagreb, July 7, 2019
Grünfeld Defence D85

16th World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen handily won his sixth classical super-tournament in a row and broke all records, so from now on, only he himself will be able to outdo himself. 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. e4 Nxc3 7. bxc3 c5 8. Be3 Qa5 9. Qd2 Nc6 10. Rb1 cxd4 11. cxd4 0-0 12. Qxa5 Nxa5 13. Bd3 Bg4 14. 0-0 Bxf3?! This is probably the beginning of all Black’s troubles, as is tellingly shown by a somewhat similar game: 14. ... Rfd8 15. d5 Bxf3 16. gxf3 e6 17. Bg5 f6 18. Bd2 b6 19. Bxa5 bxa5 20. Bc4 Rac8 21. Ba6 Rc7 22. dxe6 Bh6 23. Bb7 Rd3 24. Bd5 Kf8 25. Rb8+ Ke7 26. Rfb1 Rd2 27. R1b7 Rdc2 28. Rh8 Rxb7 29. Rxh7+ Kd6 30. Rxb7 Rc7 31. Rb8 Bg5 32. Rd8+ Ke5 33. Rg8 f5 34. Rxg6 Bh4 35. Rh6 Rg7+ 36. Kf1 Bg5 37. Rh5 1 : 0 Ragger – Sutovsky, 31st European Chess Club Cup, Skopje 2015. In his need for theoretically sounder models, Black also tried 14. ... b6 15. Rfc1 Rfd8 16. d5 e6 17. Bf4 exd5 18. exd5 Rac8 19. d6 Bf8 20. Rxc8 Bxc8 21. Rd1 Nb7 22. Bc4 Kg7 23. Ng5 Nxd6 24. Ne4 Nb7 25. Be5+ Kh6 26. Bf4+ Kg7 27. Be5+ Kg8 28. Nf6+ Kh8 29. Ne8+ Kg8 30. Nf6+ Kh8 31. Ne8+ Kg8 32. Nf6+ Kh8 33. Ne8+ Kg8 34. Nf6+ ½ : ½ Wiedenkeller – Domínguez Pérez, 31st European Chess Club Cup, Skopje 2015. 15. gxf3 e6 16. Rfd1 Rfd8 17. Bf1 b6 18. Ba6 Rd6 19. Rbc1 Rad8 20. Bg5 f6 21. Be3 h6 22. Bb5 f5

23. d5! Carlsen makes his final breakthrough in a well calculated sequence. 23. ... g5 24. Bd2 fxe4 25. fxe4 a6 26. Ba4. 26. Bxa6? exd5 27. Bb4 allows Black to reply with 27. ... Rc6 still making defence possible. 26. ... exd5 27. Bb4 Re6 28. Rxd5 Rxd5 29. exd5 Re4 30. Rc8+ Kf7 31. a3 Be5 32. Be8+ Kg7 33. d6 Rd4. 33. ... Nb7 34. d7 Bf6 (34. ... Rd4 transposes into the game) 35. Bf8+! also ends in a triumph of White. 34. d7 Nb7 35. Be7 Re4 36. Rc6 Bd4 37. Rc7! 1 : 0.

Magnus Carlsen just thinking out loud. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour.