Bengaluru: Magnus Carlsen rarely plays classical tournaments these days. When he does, the rest of the field is left to contest for second place. The 35-year-old five-time world champion and world no 1, who long walked away from the world title and has seen the rise of a wave of young, super strong players, last played the TePe Sigeman tournament in Malmo, Sweden as a 13-year-old in 2004. He returned to it two decades later and walked away with a tournament win on Thursday.
His face-off against fourteen-year-old Turkish phenom Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus was billed as a clash of generations.
Erdogmus recently crushed 51-year-old Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov 5-1 and became the youngest player to breach the 2700-Elo mark and is ranked inside the top 30.
At the end of five hours, the teen, overcome with emotion, came away with a loss and an endgame masterclass. The queens were off by move six and they reached time control with the evaluation at 0.00. The position may have been equal, but with Carlsen at the other end, an almighty endgame grind was never off the table. It’s where he thrives. Soon enough, Erdogmus was down to under a minute on the clock when he blundered and pushed his Black King to the e7 square on move 50. Carlsen was now winning. The teen shook his head in disbelief. Carlsen played one precise move after another to put the finishing touches on a win and catch up with India’s Arjun Erigaisi in the standings.
Arjun, who came into the final round as the tournament’s sole leader, played a wild game against Andy Woodward and managed to escape with a draw from a losing position. It came down to a two-game Blitz playoff (3 minutes + 2-second increment) between Arjun and Carlsen.
In the first blitz game, Magnus had the bishop pair and was slightly better. With seconds counting down, Arjun blundered and trapped his knight, handing the world No 1 the win with the Black pieces. Arjun won the second game on demand with Black – opting for the Pirc Defense, not going for any trades and getting under Carlsen’s skin on time. In the sudden death that followed, Carlsen prevailed and Arjun had to be content with second place.
In the end, it was Magnus Carlsen doing just Carlsen things – making a surprise appearance at a tournament after over 20 years and showing why he’s still the guy to beat.
