Magnus Carlsen Defeats Loek Van Wely

At the young age of 15 GM Magnus Carlsen is continuing to show he's on his way to being one of the greatest players in the world.

Currently ranked 63rd in the world, Carlsen (2646) of Norway, took on the 52nd ranked player in the world, GM Loek van Wely (2655) of the Netherlands, this past week in a match up sponsored by DSB Bank.

The two grandmasters played four games between April 28th and May 1st. The games were played with 2 hours for 40 moves, 1 hour for the next 20 moves, 15 minutes added after move 60 with 30 seconds aded for each move after move 60.

In game one van Wely got a nice victory with white playing the Queen's Indian. In game two Carlsen was on white and struck right back getting a nice victory against van Wely's Sicilian, Paulsen variation.

Games three and four both ended in draws. With a final score of 2.0 - 2.0, both players headed to the tie break. In the tie break the time controls changed drastically making it a blitz play off. The time controls were 5 minutes + 2 seconds a move!

In the first game of the tie break the 15 year old rising star pulled off a beautiful win with black against van Wely's English opening, sacrificing a rook for a flank pawn guarding van Wely's king and a knight. In the endgame van Wely had a pair of rooks compared to Carlsen's rook and knight, however, Carlsen was up two pawns and gained a third one on move 53! On move 54 van Wely sacrificed one of his rooks in order to stop Carlsen's passed c-pawn from queening and advancing his own passed a-pawn to the seventh rank. Unable to stop the pawn from queening Carlsen had to give up his rook, but there were still no worries in his camp. van Wely's rook against the knight and four pawns would be no match as the young master snatched up the final pawn on move 59. van Wely resigned.

The Norwegian prodigy got another win, with white, in game two of the blitz tie breaks. Game three ended in a draw and Magnus cleaned up getting a win with white in the final game. An exciting match indeed.

Turning 16 in November of this year, Carlsen is proving that he can take on some of the best players in the world. In January of 2004 at the young age of 13 Carlsen won the C group of the Corus Chess Tournament and this year Carlsen won the B group of the same tournament. Carlsen was also the youngest player ever to qualify for the candidate matches in the WCC. He's on the rise!

You can follow the young phenom's live action next week on the ICC as he plays in the Bosna Sarajevo 2006 tournament.

Check out these excellent games from the van Wely vs. Carlsen match up.

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Thursday   May 11  12.30 GMT  	Round 1
Friday     May 12  12.30 GMT 	Round 2
Saturday   May 13  12.30 GMT 	Round 3
Sunday     May 14  12.30 GMT 	Round 4
Monday     May 15  12.30 GMT 	Round 5
Tuesday    May 16  Rest Day
Wednesday  May 17  12.30 GMT 	Round 6
Thursday   May 18  12.30 GMT 	Round 7
Friday     May 19  12.30 GMT 	Round 8
Saturday   May 20  12.30 GMT 	Round 9
Sunday     May 21  11.30 GMT 	Round 10
                   16.00 GMT 	Tie breaks

The ICC will be having live relay coverage of the Bosna Sarajevo 2006 tournament taking place May 7th through May 16th, 2006.

The players in this year's event are GM Vladimir Malakhov (RUS 2691), GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM 2695), GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND 2692), GM Arkadij Naiditsch (GER 2664), GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR 2646) and GM Borki Predojevic (BIH 2566).

Be sure to visit the official web site for more details.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.a3 The battle is for the e4 square and this move, attributed to Petrosian prevents Bb4 5...d5 Black claims that a3 is a loss of a tempo in the Queen's Gambit Declined structure he creates but Bb7 is hemmed in. 6.cxd5 exd5 [6...Nxd5 7.e3 Be7 Is a more popular and more active line which can run 8.Bb5+ c6 9.Bd3 0-0 10.e4 Nxc3 11.bxc3 c5] 7.Bf4 Be7 8.e3 0-0 9.Bd3 c5 10.0-0 Nbd7 11.Qc2 Rc8 12.Rad1 White is already a bit better because the Qd8 has no good square and if allowed he will play Bf5 and Ne5 12...g6 [12...Re8 13.Bf5 c4 14.Ne5 g6 15.Bh3 a6 16.f3 And e3-e4 is coming, with a big attack while a3 turns out to usefully contain the Black queenside pawn advance] 13.dxc5 Nxc5 [13...bxc5 14.Bb5! Nb6 15.Bh6 wins the exchange; 13...bxc5 14.Bb5 Qb6 15.Bxd7 Nxd7 16.Nxd5] 14.Bh6 Re8 15.Bb5 Ncd7 16.Qa4 Nc5 17.Qd4 Ncd7 d5 is weak but its not clear how to increase the pressure. Perhaps Rfe1, h3 and Bf4 or Rd2 or transfer the rooks to c1 and d1 18.Bg5 Rc7

[18...a6 19.Bxd7 Nxd7 (19...Qxd7 20.Bxf6) 20.Bxe7 Qxe7 21.Nxd5] 19.e4!? An amazing idea but it had a flaw 19...dxe4 20.Ne5 Black's next few moves are forced 20...Nxe5 [20...Bc5 21.Qxd7 Rxd7 22.Nxd7 wins] 21.Qxe5 Nd7! 22.Qxc7! Qxc7 23.Rxd7 Qe5 [23...Qc8 24.Bxe7] 24.Bf4 This refinement could have lost the game [24.Rxb7 Bxg5 25.Bxe8 Qxe8 26.Rxa7 e3=] 24...Qxf4 25.Rxb7 Bd6 [25...e3!! was winning for Black 26.Bxe8 (26.Nd5 exf2+ 27.Rxf2 Qc1+ 28.Rf1 Qc5+ 29.Kh1 Qxb5; 26.fxe3 Qxe3+ 27.Kh1 Rd8 28.Bc4 Kh8 29.Rxf7 Rf8! 30.Rbxe7 Qc1+) 26...exf2+ 27.Kh1 (27.Rxf2 Qc1+ 28.Rf1 Bc5+ 29.Kh1 Qxf1#) 27...Bd6 28.g3 Qf3#] 26.g3 Qe5 27.Bxe8 Qxe8 28.Re1 f5 29.Rd1 Qc6 30.Rxa7 The rooks control the seventh rank and the d file so Black must be careful 30...e3 [if 30...h5!? 31.Nd5 (31.a4! Idea Nb5 and Rdd7 is strong) 31...Kf8 was a possible defence 32.Nb4 Qc5 33.Rd5 Qc1+ 34.Kg2 f4! 35.Rxd6 f3+ 36.Kh3 Qg5! Stops Rd8 mate and sets up Qg4 mate] 31.fxe3 g5 32.Rd5! f4 33.Rxg5+ Kf8 34.gxf4 Bc5 35.Nd5 Qe6 36.Kf2 h6 37.Rgg7 Qxd5 38.Rgd7

Possibly Black lost on time because he could fight on with 38...Bxe3+ but the white king would eventually find safety[38.Rgd7 Bxe3+ 39.Kxe3 Qc5+ 40.Ke4 Qc4+ 41.Kf5 Qc5+ (41...Qc2+! 42.Kf6 Qc6+) 42.Kg6 Qc6+ 43.Kh7 Qc2+ 44.Kh8 Qxb2+ 45.Rg7]

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