Magnus Carlsen lived upto his aura, winning the Grand Slam to order. In a key ninth round encounter, he scored his second win against leader, Vassily Ivanchuk, to catch up with the Ukrainian GM. Under normal scoring, Carlsen (+3.-1, =6) would have won outright but he and Ivanchuk (+4,-3,=3) were tied under soccer scoring. Carlsen mopped up by winning the tiebreak blitz 1.5-0.5. If Ivanchuk had won the blitz, it would have highlighted a weakness of soccer scoring.
Another weird situation resulted because Hikaru Nakamura thought he had completed the timecontrol and went off for coffee, while playing Vallejo. The American GM had good winning chances. He had miscounted, and lost on time. If Naka (+2,-2,=6) had won that game, he would have tied Carlsen and Ivanchuk.
Nakamura, Anand and Aronian tied for 3-5, with 12 points each (all had +2,-2,=6). It was a lacklustre result from the world champion, who lost a spectacular 24-move miniature to Aronian and only beat the last placed Vallejo (10 points, +3,-6,=1).
Carlsen recently indicated he might play the 2012 Candidates because he likes the format of an eight player double round robin tournament and prefers it to match formats. Carlsen would make it into the cycle on rating alone, so there's no problem about his entry. This is great news assuming that he doesn't change his mind.
The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Carlsen Vs Ivanchuk, Grand Slam 2011) , is from the key ninth round game. How does white exploit the build-up on the kingside? Carlsen played 17.Rxd7! The engines suggest the inhumanly subtle 17. Rd4 with the idea of Bc1-Rh4. It's unlikely that Carlsen or any other human GM would consider this method. Especially since the brutal text cannot be countered by 17.--Nxd7 18. Bxh7 Kh8 19. Bg6, when white wins easily.
Ivanchuk defended with 17.-- Kh8 18.Re7 Nd5 19.Bg4?! Now the engines are correct in saying 19. Re5! Nxf4 20. gxf4 Rae8 21. Rxe8 Rxe8 22. f3 was a killer. The white attack cannot be held then.
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As things stood, black had a glimmer of hope after 19.-- Qg6 20.Nf7+ Kg8 21.Bf5 Qxf5! 22.Qxf5 Nxe7. The defensive queen sac gives Black more than enough material but his pieces are tangled. In practice, the position was winning after 23.Nh6+! gxh6 24.Qg4+ Ng6 25.Bxh6 Rf7 26.Rd1 Re8 27.h4 Nc5 28.h5 Bc8 29.Qxc4 Ne5 30.Qh4 Nc6 The engines suggest 30. - Ne6 31. f4 Nd7 might maintain a fortress though it looks dire.
Now white wins a piece with 31.Rd5 Ne6 32.Qc4 Ncd8 33.Qg4+ Ng7 34.Qxc8 (1-0). Black couldn't defend with 33.-- Kh8 34. Bd2 Nb7 35. Bc3+ Ng7 36. Qg5 etc. when it's slaughter on the long diagonal.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player