Casablanca Chess R1-3: Carlsen makes a great start
Magnus Carlsen (NOR) made a great start at Casablanca Chess 2024. He scored 2.5/3 in the first three rounds. The world no.1 defeated Vishy Anand, drew with Bassem Amin (EGY) and then won against Hikaru Nakamura (USA). The positions were from Chigorin - Steinitiz, World Championship 1889 in Round 1, Xie Jun - Alisa Galliamova, Women's World Championship 1999 and Karpov - Kasparov, World Championship 1985. Nakamura is at 1.5/3, followed by Bassem and Anand at 1/3 each. Will Carlsen dominate the second half of the tournament too or someone will fight back? Round 4 starts today at 7:15 p.m. local time, 11:45 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes
Anand and Bassem score two draws
The first position of the first round was a game between Mikhail Chigorin and Wilhelm Steinitz from World Championship 1889, Game 5. The game had to be played after 10...Bb6. Let's take a look at the starting position:
Round 1
On the right-hand side, there is a quote: "As time goes by / A fight for love and glory / A case of do or die". The photo above is of Humphrey Bogart. Movie aficionado's will recognize the quote and photo easily. Can you guess which movie is it from? Apart from the hints mentioned above, the other obvious hint is: too easy. The answer is everywhere.
Carlsen - Anand
Here Anand made the mistake of playing 13...Qc5? 14.Rd5+- Qxf2+ 15.Kh1 Qb2 16.Rb1 and the queen is trapped Qxa3 17.Qxa3 Nxc4 18.Qa4 Ne3 19.Rxb6 Nxd5 20.Rxc6 and White won.
The second round position was from a game between Xie Jun and Alisa Galliamova from Women's World Championship 1999, Game 10. The game had to be played after 11...Bb7. Let's take a look at the starting position:
Round 2
Both Bassem-Carlsen and Anand-Nakamura games ended in draws.
In the third round, the position was from a game between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov from World Championship 1985, Game 14. The game had to be played after 11...Be6. Let's take a look at the starting position:
Round 3
Round 3: Nakamura - Carlsen: 0-1
It was Nakamura who made the first inaccuracy when he went 17.Bf3?
White needed to play 17.f3 to drive the knight back. Instead, 17.Bf3? Qd7 18.Rg1 Nh2 19.Bxg5+ f6 20.Be3 Rcg8 21.h5 Nxf3+ 22.Qxf3 Qb5 gave Black an edge.
World no.2 Fabiano Caruana (USA) tweeted on this game
Video Gallery
Replay Round 1-3 games
Schedule
Sunday, May 19
Round 4 at 7:15 pm / Anand vs Carlsen & Amin vs Nakamura
Round 5 at 8:30 pm / Carlsen vs Amin & Nakamura vs Anand
Round 6 at 9:45 pm / Carlsen vs Nakamura & Anand vs Amin
Time control
The time control is 15 minutes with a 10-second increment. No draw offers will be permitted.