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White: Kc1, Qd7, Ne4, Rh3; Pawns - a4, b2, b3, f2, g2, and h2. Black: Kf7, Qh7, Be7, Ra8; Pawns - a5, b7, c7, e6, f6, and h6.

White to play. (29. '?')

1.e4 e5; 2.Nf3 Nc6; 3.d4, (The Scotch, see the Opening Explorer.)

Not a surprise, Carlsen (and his mentor - GK); have both used this opening before.

Both sides continue to develop ...

3...exd4; 4.Nxd4 Bc5; 5.Nb3 Bb6; 6.Nc3 Nf6; 7.Qe2!?

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A surprising move. Its one of the lowest rated choices in the "Power-Book" and was probably played just to get his opponent out of book. (Fritz 12's "eval" goes deeply negative after about an hour, about -0.35.)

However, I am sure that Carlsen had deeply analyzed this idea on his own and had confidence in White's position. One of the main advantages of Qe2 is that it allows for sharp play, with Q-side castling.

7...0-0; 8.Bg5!,

I am sure that Carlsen did not waste too much time on Be3, its OK, but not very aggressive.

Black immediately "asks the question" of the White cleric on g5, this might have been forced for Black.

8...h6; 9.Bh4, a5!;

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Black gains space and threatens to "kick" the WN on b3 ... with a gain of time.

10.a4,
White had no choice, 10.0-0-0?!, a4; was too gross to seriously contemplate.

10...Nd4;
This aggressive Knight leap is NOT a waste of time, White is forced to move the Queen. (Also good was 10...d6; with the idea of ...Be6.)

11.Qd3,
Only a beginner would exchange on d4 and force the Black Bishop to the good d4 square.

11...NxN/b3;
Again, this was more or less forced.

[11...c5?; just dropped a Pawn to BxN/f6, Nd5, and NxB/b6 and NxN/d4.]

12.cxb3, Re8;
Black looks to be getting the better game. (All the engines agree on this.)

13.0-0-0,
Carlsen plays to win! (Creating a healthy imbalance is one of the greatest problems of modern Master-level chess.)

[13.Be2, with the idea to castle K-side was still an option for White.]

13...d6;
A wild position.

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Fritz 12 has Black being better by nearly three quarters of a Pawn, while another engine (Crafty) clearly thinks that White is better ... by nearly half a Pawn. (The truth is probably somehwere between these two extremes.)

<<consul: I didn't understand the pun>>

I think Carlsen was still with Kasparov at this point so I wonder how deep the analysis went in this game. It could have been engineered through the beautiful 26.Ne4…if not further. If 26…Qxe4 27.Qxh6+ Qh7 28.Qxf6+ and it's lights out for black.

27…Kg7 is a poor move that allows the powerful pin/attack 28.Qd7. And as so often happens one mistake is followed by another, and 28…Kf7 allows the spectacular 29.Ng5!

I love moves that put a piece in the one spot that seems most guarded by the opponent.

The practically forced sequence, 29…fxg5 30.Rf3+ Kg8 31.Qxe6+ Kh8 32.Rf7 wins white the black queen for rook bishop, but the queen is deep in enemy territory and the black king is completely exposed. After a few more moves black sees the writing on the wall and resigns.

It's hard to say where black went wrong in this game, but after Carlsen cracked the center open with 17.e5 he held the initiative to the end.