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FEN: 8\/P4pkp\/2Rp2p1\/8\/8\/7P\/1r3rP1\/R5K1 w – – 0 34<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a position from the Tata Steel blitz tournament last month in Kolkata, India, featuring Carlsen as White and Levon Aronian (a former 2800 player himself) as Black. First thing to realize: It\u2019s a speed game. So you don\u2019t get a lot of time to think about this position. Pieces are flying. Your flag is hanging. In five seconds, what is your evaluation? What would you play?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you said any other move than 34. a8Q, I don\u2019t believe\nyou. But then the game is a draw after 34. \u2026 Rxg2+ 35. Kf1 Rbf2+ 36. Ke1 Re2+\n37. Kd1 Rd2+. In your five seconds of analysis, you might have thought that 38.\nKc1 gets you out of the checks. But actually, it gets you out of the frying pan\nand into the fire, because 38. \u2026 Rdf2! sets up two different mate threats that\ncannot both be defended by White\u2019s queen. 39. Qa4?? would lose to 39. \u2026 Rf1+\n40. Qd1 Rxd1+ 41. Kxd1 Rg1+, picking up the rook with an x-ray attack. And 39.\nKb1 Rb2+ 40. Kc1 Rdf2 would be a draw by repetition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if you\u2019re Magnus, you have actually been aiming<\/em> for this position for the last\nfour moves, and you calmly play <\/p>\n\n\n\n 34. Rc2!! \u2026<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is my nominee for Sickest Move of the Year. Once you see it, I grant you, the move makes perfect sense. It\u2019s a clearance sacrifice, opening the long diagonal so that after 34. \u2026 Rbxc2 35. a8Q defends the g-pawn. But just the appearance of the move itself, the rook brazenly stepping between Black\u2019s doubled rooks on the seventh with nothing to defend it, is so crazy that I just love it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you add this to the fact that the move also stops \u2026\nRxg2+ (just for one move, but that\u2019s enough), and Magnus had to find it in a\nfew seconds, and that he also had to realize that there was no other way to win\n(i.e., 34. a8Q right away doesn\u2019t work), you have the Sickest Move of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s one more thing I need to say about this position, which leads me to my next post. The game did in fact continue <\/p>\n\n\n\n 34. \u2026 Rbxc2 35. a8Q \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, White has queened his pawn and avoided perpetual check, but this position is still far from being a routine win. Black has a rook and two pawns for a queen. It\u2019s true that the d6 pawn is weak and will probably fall, but Black should be able to charge a price for that pawn: White will have to trade a pair of rooks, and then we\u2019ll be down to Q+2P versus R+3P, with all the pawns on the same side of the board. In such a position it seems as if Black would have very good chances to draw by setting up a fortress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, what I described is exactly what happened: <\/p>\n\n\n\n 35. \u2026 h5 36. Qe4! Rce2 37. Qd4+ Rf6 38. Rf1 Re5! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aronian avoids 38. \u2026 Ree6? 39. Rxf6 Rxf6 40. h4, zugzwang.\nThis illustrates a point I\u2019ll come back to next time: Black generally wants to\navoid getting his rook(s) pinned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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