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Hikaru Nakamura vs Magnus Carlsen
St. Louis Rapid & Blitz (2020) (rapid), lichess.org INT, rd 1, Sep-15
Caro-Kann Defense: Advance. Tal Variation (B12)  ·  0-1

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
0-1

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Sep-17-20  beenthere240: Carlsen is a magician in these games.
Sep-17-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  chancho: That final shot was worthy of a Boss...
Sep-17-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  Yuridmi: How does he do it? Carlsen wins a pawn, and then two more without even a snarl from senior GM opponent. Not a sniff of counterplay from the White army.
Sep-18-20  EdwinKorir: A Carlsen masterpiece
Sep-19-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: 28...R-c3 ends white's counter play. The white Queen has to leave the f file, all threats are gone and black cleans up with his extra pawn and control of the queenside. More great chess.

If only we could have a match Carlsen v. Kasparov, both age 25!

Sep-25-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: <If only we could have a match Carlsen v. Kasparov, both age 25!>

that's like an imaginary CG video match between Bruce Lee and Jet Li at the same ages.

The greats of today stand on the shoulders of the greats of yesterday.

Carlsen has studied all of Kaspy's games, and gleaned from them, but Kaspy had no such opportunity. Would Carlsen be Carlsen without Kaspy, Anand, and all the other recent greats? It's just hypothetical speculation. It's like comparing Morphy and Carlsen. Put them both in the same era with the same exposure and what would you have? Comparing raw "talent" without the acquired experience and theoretical understanding is kind of meaningless. Maybe if the same persons were reversed in time, they would both be lesser than they are in their own time. It's futile conjecture.

Sep-26-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: < 17.Qb1? Be7 18.b4 > seems like a pointless pawn sac both tactically and positionally. I don't get it. Giving black a C passer without concrete compensation seems a bit risky to me, especially against such a solid player like Carlsen.

17.bxc4 Bxc5 looks pretty equal and unclear.

Well, I loaded the position into Stockfish 11 and it appears I was not completely correct. Here is a sample line:

48/80 18:22 1,910,818k 1,734k +0.31 18.b4 Be7 19.Bxe7 Nxe7 20.Ng5 g6 21.Ng3 Rad8 22.Rxd8 Rxd8 23.Nxh5 Qa3 24.Nf6+ Kf8 25.h5 gxh5 26.Nxf7 Kxf7 27.Qh7+ Kf8 28.Qh6+ Kf7 29.Qxh5+ Kg7 30.Qh7+ Kf8 31.Qh6+ Kf7 32.Ne4 Qd3 33.Qf6+ Ke8 34.Nc5 Nd7 35.Qh8+ Kf7 36.Qxd8 Nxc5 37.Qxd3 Nxd3 38.Rxc4 b5 39.Rc7 a6 40.a3 Nxe5 41.Ra7 Nc4 42.Rxa6 Nd5 43.a4 bxa4 44.Rxa4 Nd6 45.Kh2 Nc3 46.Ra1 Nd5

..but as can be seen, Stockfish played the immediate trade on e7 and won the h5 pawn, and eventually picked up the C pawn, BUT this is engine analysis, not human. That is not to say a super GM can't figure this out, but it is certainly above my paygrade. And it seems at rapid time control it eluded Naka. I stick to my pragmatic opinion from earlier

Oct-06-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  al wazir: 32. Qf3 Qxc1 33. Nxf7 Qf4+ 34. Qxf4 Nxf4 35. Nh6+ (35. Rxf4 Rxf7 36. Rc4) Kh7 36. Rxc2 Kxh6 37. Kxf4 leaves white only a ♙ down.

Better than a piece, but still a loss.

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