Linares 09 r9: Three Fizzles and a Fight

Magnus Carlsen wanted to bounce back after his painful loss in a drawn endgame to Aronian in the previous round. That he had black didn't matter considering that he has the Dragon Sicilian in his repertoire. Dominguez has already shown himself both game for tackling the shiniest of the Dragon's scales and vulnerable to being outplayed and, unusual for him, outprepared. He had the worse of things with white against Radjabov's Dragon back in round five and he must have had flashbacks today. Carlsen went for the 10..Rb8 "Chinese Dragon" line Radjabov used against him in their spectacular Bilbao game last year, a win for the Norwegian with white. Dominguez played the most consequent move, 12.Bh6, and they banged out theoretical moves until Carlsen dropped the fascinating 17..Rb6 on the board. As with just about anything these days, this piece of Petrosianesque prophylaxis has been played before, though by an amateur in an open event. Regardless of its pedigree it was clearly part of Carlsen's prep and it put Dominguez in the tank for a long time. The lift keeps an eye on the d6 pawn in many lines involving the push ..e5, a key idea that takes squares away from the white pieces.

[According to GM Golubev in the comments, "17...Rb6 is actually the main line of the Chinese Dragon Chapter in the "Opening for White According to Anand Vol. 11" book." Not sure what Anand has to do with it, but okay then! Do you think Carlsen actually reads chess books though?]

The white "Plan A" of pushing the h-pawn and mating comes up short in those lines, so Dominguez tried to play more subtly. After getting in ..e5 Black continued with a pretty rook reload to the c-file and it was clear White had to shift to defense, never a good omen in a sharp Sicilian. Dominguez was down below a minute a move as the complications started with 27..d3! and even the world blitz champion wasn't up to the task. The white back rank is a disaster waiting to happen and it didn't have long to wait. Going into full grovel mode with 29.Qd2 would have given White some defensive chances down a pawn. His 29.d4? got into deep trouble. 30.Re1 allows 30..Rxb3! The kibitzers watching their computers were cheering for a quick end with the remarkably slow coup 31..Rf2!! Had Carlsen played that, with limited time on his clock and a relatively simple solid plus alternative, he would have deserved to have more than his jacket searched! The silicon point is 32.Re1 Rxb2! 33.Kxb2 Rc2+ 34.Ka1 Qc6! (The only move that doesn't lose for Black, winning immediately thanks to the dual threats of ..Qc3+ and ..Rxa2+. Few humans would take the risk of missing something in that line with a good alternative available.) Though it was probably too late to save the game Dominguez played the rest of the complications with great accuracy, limiting the tangible damage to a pawn. But he erred with 39.Qc4+ and was forced into a very awkward pin that left him close to zugzwang. The Cuban decided to see if Carlsen would blunder in a totally dominating position out of frustration and played on to the bitter end with scant stalemate prayers. Carlsen took his time, eschewing the pretty 50..Qd4! but netting the full point and returning to a plus score a few prosaic moves later. Fear the Dragon!

GM Larry Christiansen and I were lucky that game packed several suitcases full of action and violence because the other three round nine games made Kung-Fu Panda look like a Quentin Tarantino movie. Wang Yue-Grischuk and Aronian-Anand were G-rated start to very early finish. Radjabov rolled out his Schliemann Ruy Lopez against Ivanchuk and we figured we were in for some action there. But after a promising start Ivanchuk rejected what looked like a very good line with 11.a4 a6 12.Bc4 and White has a serious pull. Instead the Ukrainian humbly castled and didn't have much to do against Black's structural weaknesses. He spent a long time in the opening so he must have seen something we missed. Either that or something that wasn't there, as can happen sometimes. We had a brief thrill when Larry tried to mate White with the amazing 26..Nf5!? 27.Qd3 Nxh4?! but there's a defense with 28.gxh4 Rg6+ 29.Kh2 Rf4 30.Qh3. One of the few days in Linares this year where we didn't get full value on just about every board. It happens.

Grischuk continues to lead by a full point on +3 ahead of Carlsen, Ivanchuk, and Aronian. Anand is on even and the trailing trio on -2. Round 10: Radjabov-Aronian, Anand-Dominguez, Carlsen-Wang Yue, Grischuk-Ivanchuk. Back on with GM Christiansen Monday unless the snow blocks up the intertubes. Official site. ICC Chess.FM.