Photo credit: Keti Tsatsalashvili for Qatar Masters 2023
Alisher crushes Magnus in just 30 moves!!
THE GAME SPEAKS FOR ITSELFHey there, Allen here! Hope y’all are doing great. Today we are gonna look at the game between Alisher and Magnus Carlsen from Qatar Masters 2023. I write an email chess newsletter on substack asdmagazine.substack.com**. Sign up for free to get posts like these sent to your mail every time I post one. Consider liking this post and subscribe to this chess magazine. Also follow me on twitter Allen were I post the latest chess news. Without further ado, let’s get into the article!
Before we get into the game, I have a few puzzles for you guys. Solve them, leave your answers in the comments section.
Difficulty: Easy
(White to play: Mate-in-2)
Difficulty: Medium
(White to play and draw)
Difficulty: Hard
(White to play: Mate-in-3)
Difficulty: Extremely-difficult
(White to play and win)
Alisher Suleymenov (2512) vs Magnus Carlsen (2839)
Featured is the round 2 game between Alisher Suleymenov and Magnus Carlsen from the 2023 Qatar Masters. Alisher played one of the best-attacking games in his entire career. It could possibly be the game of the year. Surprisingly, the game reached a decisive evaluation after only 18 moves! And just to make things clear, this was a classical game... that’s insane!! And most importantly, this was Magnus’ worst classical loss in 17 years!! I guess that’s one hell of a hype, let’s have a look at the game!
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(Alisher (White) vs Magnus (Black)
1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Nc3 c5 7. e4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Bc5 9. Nf3 Nc6 10. b4 Be7 11. Bb2 Qb8 12. Rd1 O-O 13. Be2 d6 14. O-O Rc8 15. Rfe1 Bf8 16. Bf1 Ne7 17. Nb5 Ne8 18. Ng5 Ng6 19. e5 d5 20. Qb3 Be7 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 22. cxd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 exd5 24. Qxd5+ Kf8 25. Nd4 Nf4 26. Qf3 Kg8 27. Qxf4 Qb7 28. Nf5 b5 29. Bxb5 Bf8 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Nh6 (1-0)
ANALYSIS:
The game was never in Magnus’ favor, Alisher had the advantage from the very start. The d6-pawn was very weak, white coordinated his pieces perfectly to target d6 (Knight on b5 and Rook on d1). By move 18, all of black’s pieces were on 7th and 8th rank. Black’s queen and the rook on a8 never participated in the game. Let me quickly summarize the game:
- White had the space advantage (b4, c4, e4 pawns and centralized knights)
- Every single piece in white’s camp participated in the game.
- Black was too passive, left f7 and h7 unguarded
- Black queen and rook on a8 never involved in the game
The biggest reason why Magnus lost is because, he was wayy behind in development. Just look at the position after move 17. It doesn’t take a genius to know why white is better, look at black pieces, they are sleeping! On the other hand, white has a knight targeting the f7 and h7 pawns, a rook and a knight that pressure the d6 pawn, a bishop that aids the move e5 and a queen that is aiming to crash into h7.
The first 5-6 moves were theory. Carlsen went for hedgehog pawn structure (Exchanging the c-pawn for d-pawn and having pawns on d6 and e6). I think Carlsen’s opening choice was very poor, he wanted something messy and aimed for creating imbalances, but it turned out to be a disaster.
White didn’t do anything special, took space with the move 10. b4, developed his bishop to b2 (staring at the lovely a1-h8 diagonal), developed his a1 rook to the open d-file, reinforced his pieces for e5-pawn break (which induced the d-pawn to move), targeted the d-pawn and when black had his pieces placed in an awkward position, white launched an attack and black was done.
Black lost because of only one reason... he never got to play d5. White did not give him the time and chance. 10..Be7 was a slight inaccuracy because black had a tough time defending the move e5 and had to commit his d-pawn. 10..Bd6 stops e5, also Bc7 or Bb8 followed by d5 is a possibility.
(10..Bd6 was a better option for black)
11..Qb8 (11..Qc7 runs into Nb5) was a necessary move to stop e5. After 13. Be2, white was threatening e5 (if 13..h6, 14. e5 Nxe5, 15. Nxe5 Qxe5, 16. Nd5! and black will either lose his bishop or the queen). Black had no other choice but to play 13..d6. I don’t really understand the point of the move 14..Rc8, because it limits the queen’s movement and black’s rook it’s threatening anything.
(Rook on a8 has no squares, Qc7 runs into Nb5, Ba6 runs into b5...black was too cramped)
After 16. Bf1, black had a chance to play 16..Ne5 threatening c4 and knight on f3. White has to go for Nxe5 or Qb3 (Which allows black to double white’s pawn with Nxf3). If white goes for Nxe5 and doubles black’s pawns, black get his bishops active pressuring the e4-pawn and the a3-f8 diagonal.
(Black had an potion to go for dynamics and activity with 16..Ne5)
After 17. Nb5, Magnus had no other option but to accept getting doubled f-pawns with Ng6. But he went for the passive Ne8. After this, Magnus never really had a chance to get back into the game.
That’s it for today guys, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, like this post and consider subscribing to my chess magazine asdmagazine.substack.com. I will talk about the chess drama going on in my next article. Stay tuned. I will see you in my next article!
Signing off— Allen.
