MAGNUS~1.1

Magnus Carlsen arrives to the game before his opponent. Wow! Now that's a surprise. Well, that also goes to show how much this game means to Magnus. It was the rest day yesterday and now round number nine Magnus versus Fabiano Caruana. They both have an amazing rivalry brewing up always. Since 2018 when they played the world championship match and Magnus has always considered Fabi to be a very very close rival in strength and this is going to be a very important clash for Magnus. He has had not the best of events one can say. Not just on the board but also mentally. He's been talking about not ever playing the classical chess. Lack of motivation but today he looks sharp. Today he looks fresh and in spite of all of this you can see Magnus is right there at second position just half a point behind Fabi which also goes to show that sometimes Magnus having an off time is still a great tournament for many others. Magnus shakes hands with the guest there and he's played the move d4 and Magnus isn't taking that pawn back, is he? Maybe he's just going to go ahead with that move. Adjusts all his pieces, looks up at the screen. Fabiano is fully focused here and Magnus takes the pawn back. So no d4 perhaps and shake and d4. Okay, Magnus plays one d4. Fabi responds back with d5. This is the tough part of the game for Magnus because this is something that he has spent hours and hours and countless hours trying to grind and find new ideas in the most solid setups. And here he is faced once again with the eternal question of how to get an advantage against the Queen's Gambit declined. He goes for the Catalan here with g3 and this is one of the reasons why Magnus loves freestyle chess. He doesn't have to think about how to play this opening phase of the game but here he is facing Fabi. He needs to think about it seriously. Bishop g2 and Catalan is something that Magnus loves playing. It's something that he has excelled at. In fact, his world championship match with Nepo was something where he really used it beautifully. Castles and now white also castles. So we are playing the absolute main line of the Catalan. You can go closed Catalan with c6 or open Catalan with dxc4. Let's see what Fabi decides to do here. He takes dxc4. He takes the pawn and now Magnus can go Qc2. Yes, he does Qc2 here. He wants to take the pawn and now there is the sharp line with b5 but the main move is a6. And the point being that Qc4, there is b5. a4 is also one of the main lines here but Magnus goes for Rd1. This is not as popular, hardly played but there's one player who plays it often and that is Daniel Dubow. He's played it a lot of times and he's done it successfully. He basically provokes his opponent to take the center here with b5. Magnus goes and attacks the rook here on a8 but in return, he gets this lead in development. The center control is very important. Nd5, by the way, the knight jumps into the center and Magnus plays this very important b3 move. You are giving up the pawn. Like you are saying, I don't want to recover the pawn. I'm just giving it back. But I will have pressure along the c-file on these squares and I will have pressure along the a-file on these squares. a takes b3 taken back and now the bishop comes out to b7. You can see here, this is lined up. For the time being, black seems to have no problem with development because knight can come to d7, c5 but there are some specific issues. For example, like bishop a3, by the way, goes bishop d6. Just to show you, like if you go knight d7, already something like bishop takes, takes, bishop takes on d5 and you already have c7 pawn hanging. So, there are these little things. So, bishop d6 makes a lot of sense. Knight d3 played by Magnus. He is trying to put his knight on the c5 square. And the knight comes to d7, controlling this square on c5. And what will Magnus do next is the question, will he push e4? Yes, he pushes his pawn in the center. And if, by the way, knight f6 now. There is e5 which is super strong in the center. He takes on a3. Bishop takes a3. And now, rook takes on a3 is taken. A good move. And by the way, the knight is attacked here. The knight comes back to f6. And you play your knight to d2, defending the e4 square. Yes, he brings his knight into d2. So, black has an extra pawn. White would like to clamp down the position with b4 just as I said it. Fabi goes a5, stopping b4. And you can see Magnus now doesn't have too much out of the opening. Fabi has played this really well. But Magnus is putting pressure. If he manages to win this pawn, he would be clearly better. Because then he would have control along the c5. And so, for Caruana, it makes a lot of sense what he does here. Giving up the pawn with c5. A fantastic move. Just sacrificing the pawn. And now, there are no more weaknesses on the c5. But Magnus has recovered back his pawn. That's a nice thing for Magnus. But on the other hand, now, queen c7. Black is breathing, you know. Black is breathing in this position. He plays pawn to b4. And an important moment in the game. Should Fabi get his own passer with a4, giving Magnus a protected passer? He decides against it. He's like, I don't want it. I want to take on b4 here. And Magnus chops off the rook. Fabi takes it back with his rook. And if rook takes rook, just bishop takes. And it's around even, the position. It goes rook c1, defending the pawn on c5. Next, you want to take on b4. So, rook c8 played. And if you play knight takes b4, then queen takes c5. You're losing the pawn. So, queen b2, an important move here. He wants to take the b4 pawn with the queen. h6 played by Fabi. He's like, let's first get that backrank issue out while we are at it. Queen takes b4. And somewhere, I think, there could have been this idea of blockading with knight b8, knight c6. But now, with bishop c6, he's defended the pawn on b5. The queen goes back to b2. White would like to play knight to b3 to d4 perhaps at some point. I don't know how white is going to put pressure. Maybe knight b4 is what he wants next. Yeah, that seems like the plan. Rook a8. Caruana gets his rook here. These are the kinds of positions Magnus loves to grind. He has extra time on the clock. He starts moving quickly. He puts some pressure. He has some threats like takes and e5, attacking the queen. Caruana has to remain very careful here. He plays his knight to e5. And he is looking at the d3 square. The knight does control it. The question is, can we go f4? Yes, Magnus plays f4. And he's playing it very, very freely here. And maybe Fabi can go back. But he decides to give up material. He decides to give up some material. And this is actually interesting. Magnus says, I'm taking here. Knight takes c4. Pawn takes. And now taking back with the rook would kind of protect this pawn. But maybe there is rook a4 pinning this way. So first Magnus takes the bishop. Queen takes. And now rook takes c4. And let's have an assessment of this position after rook takes c4. I'm pretty sure Magnus is going to chop off that pawn. Yes, he takes it. Now the assessment of this position is that the pawn on c5 is extra. And white can play h3, king h2. But rook c8. Perhaps not the best move. The better choice was to keep the rook active along the a-file. Now Magnus goes e5 opening up his bishop. The extra pawn. Okay, it is not counting that much yet. Because you have it firmly blockaded. But then Magnus can open another front like he does here, f5. And of course, you can't take here because queen d4. And you're losing a piece here after rook. Here just rook c2, rook d2. Game over. So f5. Fabi goes queen a6. He attacks the rook. And he also takes control of the a-file. Magnus takes his rook. Brings it back to c1. Playing it very calmly here. Magnus being super careful. He knows that this is an amazing position right now that he has in the penultimate round. Where he can actually beat Fabi and get into the sole lead. Queen a7. So he takes now on e6. Of course, threatening ef7. So pawn takes pawn back. Now the c5 pawn is hanging. Rook takes c5. So bishop takes knight taken first by Magnus. Very interesting decision. He takes back with the pawn. And now just queen d4. Yeah, puts his queen on d4. Attacks the pawn on d5 next. He goes queen d7. Defending the pawn. Also keeping an eye here. Keeping an eye on this flank. King comes up to g2. Okay, the position is only slightly better for white. Because for white to push his pawns not so easy. And any kind of bold decision would lose a pawn. And then go into a rook endgame which is drawish. But look at how Magnus plays. First h4. Gaining space on the king side. King h8 played. But if there's one man who can actually kind of make opponent's life completely miserable here. It's Magnus. These are the kind of moves that are difficult to meet. Rook c2. He knows it. Like he's not thinking about winning or something. He's just improving his position. But Fabi has all the experience on his side. Instead of doing something he's like I have a fortress here. I'm just going to keep moving my king. Magnus you tell me what you want to do. Look at this. King h8. And that's where for Magnus it will be very tough to beat Fabi just like that. If it was some inexperienced player they might have lashed out something. Let the pawn advance in the center. But with Fabi he's like let's keep moving the king. And Magnus goes up. Again king g8. And through all of this of course time becomes a crucial factor. Magnus down to 22 minutes. Fabi has 16 minutes on the clock. And now maybe if king h8 I don't know how he would have broken through. But Fabi makes a change in plan which is queen e6. Nothing spoiled as such. Rook d8. But why did he change his setup is the big question to me. Like it was all going okay. But maybe Fabi thought this is even a more sturdy setup where I defend. I attack this pawn and I defend against c6. Now he goes queen c6. So he's just going to swivel around c6 and e6 with his queen. Magnus goes rook d1. This waiting game is insane. It's very very difficult. And Fabi now starts to create his own threats with queen e2 check picking up this pawn. Magnus goes rook e1 stopping this but also threatening e6. So Fabi blocks it. And time 14 minutes for Fabi. 15 for Magnus. Rook b1. Now he's looking to enter via b6. And again Magnus is making some progress. It happens all the time in Magnus's games. Something magical happens and he starts making progress. Now you can't enter because of check. And there could be a perpetual potential perpetual. So rook b2 stopping queen c2 from entering here. And Fabi blunders with 4 minutes on the clock. Queen h5. He had to go back and wait. Because if rook b6 there was queen f5 and he could have had perpetual here. But after queen h5 the position is lost because of c6. Very strong move and Magnus finds it. c6 on the board. And suddenly it's winning. Because threat is c7 rook b8. King h7 played. Let's go c7. c7 oh my god. c7 rook c8 is a draw. So e6. Again Magnus finds the best move. These two pawns are just too strong. Queen g6 attacking the pawn on e6. Do we simply defend it with rook e2? It seems like a good idea. Do we push c7? Also seems like a great idea. He goes rook e2 defends the pawn. And all of a sudden both these pawns too difficult to hold. Rook c8 e7. He goes rook a8 trying to create play here. But don't we just simply go e7 here? Or should we pick up this pawn? He takes on d5. That's a good move by Magnus. And he's threatening queen e4 to trade. Oh rook played to a3 attacking g3 pawn. Maybe you defend it with queen e5. But there's this beautiful move. Queen e4 pinning the queen. And yes black can win a pawn. But I'll simply go just king h2 and there are no more checks. Rook g2 is met with queen g2. And once the queens are traded, this pawn is simply queening here. And it's game over. Magnus Carlsen is winning here. And you can see he's looking up at the screen and looking at others games. Fabiano resigns. Magnus scores a very very crucial win in this tournament. He now takes sole lead with 15 points. Meanwhile Gukesh won. Which means Gukesh is on 14 and a half. Hikaru won in Armageddon. So he's on 13. Karuana on 12 and a half. Anything can happen here. And some bit of postgame analysis between Fabi and Magnus. But not much here. Magnus, very very important win for him. He might as well win the Norway Chess 2025 here.