There are comparisons to be made between tennis and chess. Player X (aka White) serves. Player Y (Black) responds. The advantage of playing White in chess and serving in tennis are similar. Losing your serve is nearly as bad for a tennis player as losing with White is for a chess player. But some champions have made a speciality of winning with the black pieces — Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov spring to mind. Magnus Carlsen does not readily fit into this category, but his increasingly dramatic victories with Black are becoming more common.
This week, three Carlsen Black wins, out of five, from a recent elite event. The demolition of Anish Giri is particularly spectacular.
Giri-Carlsen: Grand Chess Tour, Croatia 2019
A highly unbalanced position. Carlsen has had to move his king early on but the white king is more vulnerable.
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