Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian chess superstar who will be challenging Viswanathan Anand for the world title later this year, disappointed his home supporters by failing to win the first ever elite tournament to have been played on Norwegian soil. In spite of defeating 23-year-old Sergei Karjakin in their individual game, 22-year-old Magnus Carlsen stumbled at the final hurdle, much as he did in the London Candidates. This time, though, there was no time left to make up the lost ground. The final scores (out of 9) were as follows: Karjakin 6; Carlsen and Nakamura 51/2; Svidler, Aronian and Anand 5; Wang Hao 41/2; Topalov 4; Radjabov 3 and Hammer 11/2.
I start with Carlsen’s win against Karjakin which shows the force of queen and bishop lined up on the long diagonal against the enemy king.
Karjakin-Carlsen: Norway Masters 2013
42 … c3 A neat deflection since 43 Qxc3 permits carnage to descend from a totally different direction after 43 … Qa2+.
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