In the Netherlands, like almost everywhere else, our national club competition was discontinued, which meant that when (if?) it will be resumed, I will play in the highest league for another year. It’s a doubtful pleasure, because my team has lost all its matches this season.
My club now plays its internal competitions on Lichess. When you sign up there, you must declare that you will not consult an engine, a book or another person. There is nothing on tossing a coin to pick your move, though that is what an opponent of Vlastimil Hort once did in an English Open, to Vlasti’s great consternation.
There was a time when I was addicted to blitz games on the Internet Chess Club. Cigarettes at hand, often a glass of whiskey, or two; chess heaven. Once I played a series of games against an American who was usually more cunning and quick than I was, but this time he lost almost every game. I knew his location and understood that for him it was still morning. I could also see that he had been playing all night. There, but for the grace of God... He was like me, but worse. I haven’t played online for a long time, but I like watching.
Mainly thanks to Magnus Carlsen, we have been served a smorgasbord of top chess recently.
He is doing well. Recently he bought a luxury apartment on the Tjuvholmen peninsula, a part of Oslo. I read that the name means Thieves Island and dates back to the time when it was a rough harbor district. If there are any thieves now, they will be quality thieves who visit the vernissages at the new museum of modern art and receive their guests in The Thief Hotel, which has been called the most luxurious hotel in Norway.
Carlsen has his own garage and can make use of a manned service department in the complex with a conference room, a party room and a fitness center. From his new apartment, he has a view of the hill where apparently he still owns the apartment that he bought in 2015.
But what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, but cannot play chess? I think Carlsen plays online every day. At the beginning of April he played against Alireza Firouzja (16) a series of 194 bullet games, won by Firouzja with 103½ - 90½. Then they met again in the finals of the “Banter blitz” tournament of chess24, a company of which Carlsen is a minor shareholder. That time Firouzja won by 8½-7½. Carlsen spoke about his opponent’s devilish tricks and his own mental demons.
These frivolous matches were only the introduction to the Big Thing, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, also played at the site of chess24. It is still going on while a write this. Eight top players, a prize fund of $250,000 with a first prize of $70,000. With his defeats against Firouzja still in mind, Carlsen said, “I want to crush the guys.” And during the first four rounds, he did.
Everyone at the Magnus Carlsen Invitational is at home. The spectators, of course, but also the players, the commentators, the arbiters and maybe also the technicians. On the screens we catch a glimpse of how the players live. Sometimes we see the little daughters of the moderator Jan Gustafsson or the regular guest-commentator Alexander Grischuk.
Alireza Firouzja and Hikaru Nakamura are sitting in a gaming chair, a piece of furniture I was not familiar with. Ding Liren protects his privacy and has set a black virtual background. Anish Giri has temporarily moved in with his parents in the Dutch town Rijswijk, where three modems provide a good connection.
The Carlsen Invitational started as a round robin where everyone plays seven mini-matches, each consisting of four rapid games. Then the top four will play the semi-finals and then on May 3 there will be the finals.
Giri lost his first four mini-matches and became depressed. But then in the fifth round, Giri scored his first match win (it was 2½-1½), and it was against Carlsen, who had seemed unbeatable. After the match Giri said, “There are a few moments – suppose you are not Kasparov or Fischer or a genius like that, then there are few of these moments in your career that you can always look back on when you are down, and for me this is going to be one of them. When I’m down, I’ll think, remember the time you were down but you managed to beat Magnus in a rapid match.”
The five participants who live in Europe have the advantage that the rounds start at 16.00 CET. The two Americans, Nakamura and Caruana, start in St. Louis at 9.00 in the morning and Ding has to start in Wenzhou at 22.00 hours.
Such inequality is part of the deal in internet competitions, and it’s also quite common that technique occasionally fails. Firouzja, for example, had a winning position against Nakamura in the first of his four rapid games, but just before the end he suddenly wasn’t able to make a move anymore and he overstepped the time. It wasn’t because of his own connection, but because of that of chess24. After an hour of arguing, the game was declared a draw and the disconcerted Firouzja, who had seen his victory stolen, lost the next three games against Nakamura.
Well, that’s internet chess, but it shouldn’t really happen in a top tournament with a big prize fund that is taken quite seriously by everyone involved.
In the game viewer you’ll find a good victory by Carlsen over Caruana, the one game from his match against Firouzja that Firouzja managed to win (a spectacular turn-around) and of course Giri’s victory that he and his Dutch fans will cherish for quite some time.
Click here to view the games with Hans’ comments.