How does @MagnusCarlsen prepare openings ?
We know Magnus Carlsen won the World Rapid and the World Blitz tournament at the end of 2023. The double 1st place is a repeat from last year in 2022 for him
photo credits www.fide.com Lennart Ootes
Lets see how he won the rapid : 10 points out of 13 rounds. They played 15 minutes + 10 second increments
and how did Magnus play round by round ? you can see each world rapid game starting with White against Petrov and finishing with White against Praagnanadhaa
I have analyzed all games but here I will highlight the key moments and openings behind Magnus success in a few instances. The post would be insanely long to cover each game and all the opening variations, chessable may be a better venue for it !
With White, Magnus favored 1.e4 playing the Ruy Lopez
Of course Carlsen also faced the Sicilian Defense and the Modern Defense
and with Black Magnus got the following position twice against 1.d4 (Queen's Gambit Declined)
He also played the Sicilian Defense with Black
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lets look at the Black Games where his prep and opening worked great, I would say better than 1.e4 with White.
Game against Magsoodloo (Iran), Queen's Gambit Declined 4..Be7
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. a3 Nc6 9. Qc2 Re8 10. Rd1
.
In this opening Magnus Carlsen had played with Black against Anand in the classical world championship 2014 (Sochi Russia) with 10 Bg5 Be7 11 Rd1 Qa5 with the game ending up in a draw.
But in the present game, the iranian player tried 10 Rd1 first, not 10 Bg5. Magnus unleashed 10..e5 11Bg5 d4 quickly and here White has a choice with 12 Bxf6 which can be answered by 12..gf6 or continue like in the game with 12 Nd5
as you can see White ended up with the king stuck in the center with
with the moves 21 Kf1 f4! Magnus Carlsen had the advantage and many moves later won a rook vs knight endgame. All endgames played by Magnus were fascinating but this post is about his opening choices and variations he used to win !
But in a earlier round, Magnus played a different variation on move 4 of the Queen's Gambit
4..c6 is a flexible option.
after a few moves, they reached the following :
Clearly white (Khismatullin, Denis who is Nepo second ) is threatening Nc7+ but Magnus had prepared Bb4+ the only move Black has
and later on, Black had equalized and Magnus amazing technique in the endgame did the rest.
Here's the opening position later on, symmetrical pawn structure and similar piece activity, the position at that moment is equal.
The position remained symmetrical for a very long time, all the way to the end. but 1 detail made the difference
as you can see mirror pieces and pawn structure but with the move ..Nf6! Black wins the h pawn and with an extra passed pawn the endgame became winning for Black.
________________________________________________________________________________________
But Magnus also showed excellent prep in the Sicilian Defense with Black when facing 1.e4
Can you guess what he played with Black here ? Position given as a quiz, you can guess the move on the board or press ? for the answer
Black to play
Here's the game with full annotations
.
.
______________________________________________________________________________
