Chess: Carlsen wins in Casablanca as new variant tests historic skills

The innovative Casablanca variant, where today’s best players tested their skills on historic games from the past, sparked some surprise results on its debut in Morocco last weekend. The event had four participants, each representing a continent: the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen (Europe), the former world champion Vishy Anand (Asia), the world No 3, Hikaru Nakamura (America), and Egypt’s top grandmaster, Bassim Amin (Africa).

Four positions were chosen by experts, two by the audience. Carlsen is well versed in chess history, and correctly identified the Wilhelm Steinitz v Mikhail Chigorin match of 1889, the only world title series featuring the lively Evans Gambit, as well as Gary Kasparov v Anatoly Karpov games from their 1985 and 1987 matches. That knowledge helped Carlsen defeat Anand in the miniature below.

Carlsen provided his own interpretation of two classics by Kasparov, who along with Bobby Fischer is the Norwegian’s rival as the all-time No 1. In the 1985 Kasparov v Karpov game, Carlsen captured a bishop on e7 with his king, rather than Kasparov’s automatic Qxe7.

One strategic concept developed in grandmaster chess this century is that more positions than previously are considered safe for leaving the king in the centre, with options for very late or even no castling.

The 1987 position was from the 24th and final world championship game in Seville, where Kasparov, after blundering to defeat in game 23, had to win on demand in game 24. He later described it as his “chess Everest”, and approached it by deliberately trying to copy Karpov’s own strategic style. Here is that game, with Kasparov’s commentary.

Carlsen “climbed Everest” by his individual route, continually switching play between the flanks and the centre. The game is impressive, but it was against the tailender Amin, who missed a drawing chance when 41 Rf1+? (41 Rf2+!) could have been met by 42...Rh8!.

Carlsen defeated each opponent by 1.5-0.5 and won the event with 4.5/6, ahead of Nakamura 3.5, Anand 3, and Amin 1. The 33-year-old has been in fine form in recent months, and this was his eighth victory in his last nine major tournaments.

On Monday Carlsen plays at Stavanger in his first classical event for six months. The No 1’s rivals in the six-player double-rounder include Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, and most significantly Ding Liren, as China’s reigning world champion makes a fresh attempt to revive his career after poor or indifferent results allegedly caused by long Covid.

The first selected position from Chigorin v Steinitz was a disaster for Anand, who got his queen trapped and was in effect lost in 10 moves.

Magnus Carlsen v Vishy Anand, Casablanca 2024 (Evans Gambit)

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4 Bxb4 5 c3 Ba5 6 0-0 Qf6 7 d4 Nge7 8 Bg5 Qd6 9 Qb3 0-0 10 Rd1 Bb6

11 Na3! Carlsen’s choice, and already more testing than the 11 dxe5 of Tchigorin v Steinitz, Havana 1889.

11…Na5 12 Qa4 Nec6 13 dxe5 Qc5?? Anand reacts badly to the novel position. Instead Steinitz’s plan of 13...Qg6! 14 Bf4 Nxc4 is equal.

14 Rd5! Trapping the queen.

14…Qxf2+ 15 Kh1 Qb2 16 Rb1 A well-known scenario where the black queen, deep in the white camp, cannot escape. If now 16…Qf2 17 Rf1 Qb2 18 Rb5!

16…Qxa3 17 Qxa3 Nxc4 18 Qa4 Ne3 19 Rxb6 Nxd5 20 Rxc6! 1-0 After 20...dxc6 21 exd5 cxd5 22 Be7! White is a knight up with all Black’s remaining pieces passive.

Anand’s disaster had echoes of a quarter of a century ago, when in the early years of the Indian star’s career, he lost a game in six moves.

In the final position of Zapata v Anand, 6…d5 loses Black’s knight to 7 d3, while 6…Qe7? loses to 7 Nd5 Qe6? 8 Nxc7+ forking king and queen. The explanation for this fiasco was that Anand had seen a 20-move draw starting with the five moves to 5…Bf5 published in Chess Informant, which omitted to state that the halved result had been prearranged.

Chess and Casablanca already have a connection through the chess scenes in Humphrey Bogart’s famous 1943 film of the same name. Bogart had a lifelong interest in chess, and according to this link was a parks hustler before his acting career took off. He was Master of Ceremonies at the Hollywood 1945 tournament, a glittering event where movie stars mixed with top grandmasters like Samuel Reshevsky and Reuben Fine.

The $52,000 Sharjah Open, which finished on Wednesday, was the strongest open of the year so far, with almost all the competitors rated above 2500. Shreyas Royal, 15, bidding for his third and final GM norm, was seeded 88th out of 88, met GMs in every round, and reached 3.5/6 by excellent play before fading in the final three rounds. His 4/9 total had a tournament performance rating of 2593, just short of the 2600 needed.

Royal’s quest for the elusive third norm continues. Next week he is scheduled to travel to Przeworsk, Poland, for another attempt, this time in a 10-player round robin.

Related: Chess: England seniors score triple European gold and eye world titles

Results from Sharjah were a striking example of how the international tournament scene is increasingly a preserve of young talents. Of the 35 players with plus scores (5/9 or better) only two were aged over 30 – Sam Shankland, the 2018 US champion, who finished third, and the United Arab Emirates’ top player, Salem Saleh, who scored in style in this week’s puzzle.

Shankland won a key game in round seven against Hans Niemann, who was then the joint leader. The decisive action was in a pawn endgame, where Niemann’s 32 h4?? was a losing blunder instead of 32 Kh4! drawing, and he was then defeated in round eight as well.

The surprise Sharjah winner on tie-break was Bardiya Daneshvar. He is aged 17 and is Iran’s No 4, but was the 50th seed and is as yet little known internationally. Russia’s Volodar Murzin, also 17, finished second. Murzin is already well known, and this was his best result yet, including a penultimate round win which was caught on video.

Murzin performed much better at Sharjah than the established Russian stars Vladislav Artemiev and Andrey Esipenko. Another new potential heir to the departed Soviet chess empire is the 13-year-old Ivan Zamlyanskii, who became Russia’s youngest ever grandmaster by achieving his fourth (!) GM norm at Sharjah with two rounds to spare.

3921: The game ended 1...Qxh5+! 2 Qxh5 Ra1+ 3 Bc1 Rxc1+! and White resigned in the face of 4 Kxc1 Bf4+ 5 Kd1 c2+ 6 Ke1 c1=Q+ 7 Qd1 Qe3+ 8 Qe2 Qxe2 mate. 1…Ra1+ could also be played first.