The Norwegian 18-year-old chess phenomenom Magnus Carlsen, now ranked as the world no 2, is currently playing the Tal Memorial in Moscow. Carlsen is the top seed, but it is Vladimir Kramnik who has shown the best chess in the first six rounds.

Magnus Carlsen recently had a fantastic performance in Nanjing (more on this here). As a result of his performance in China, Carlsen shot up to second place in the world rankings, and became only the fifth player to achieve a rating of 2800. The first four are some of the biggest stars the game has ever seen: Russians Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, the Indian chess king Vishy Anand (the reigning world champion) and Veselin Topalov, the former world champion from Bulgaria.

 At his best in Moscow: Vladimir Kramnik (Photo: Commons/Georgios1972)

As yet all of these have scored many more tournament wins than ”Magnificent Magnus”, but it is clear that Magnus deserves his place in the 2800-club. Perhaps he will even surpass them all in a few years’ time? Time will show.

In Nanjing, Magnus won six games and drew four. Things have not been as smooth in Moscow. In the first round he had to fight his way to a draw against Kramnik. Magnus had the advantage of the white pieces, but Kramnik nevertheless grabbed the initiative after just a few moves. Here is the game, with annotations by IM Torstein Bae.

Magnus Carlsen – Vladimir Kramnik
Tal Memorial 2009, round 1

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 The classical variation of the Nimzo-Indian defence. White hopes to win the bishop pair without taking on a doubled pawn on c3/c4. There are several alternatives to Qc2; in round 2 (vs Morozevich) Magnus played 4.f3. 4...0–0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 d5 7.cxd5

 

7...Ne4! Perhaps Magnus did not expect this move, which seems to be very strong. By inserting Ne4 before he recaptures on d5, Kramnik avoids an unpleasant pin with Bc1-g5. 8.Qc2 exd5 9.Bf4 Nc6 10.e3 Re8 11.Nf3 g5!

 

As White has the bishop pair, Black has to take advantage of his lead in development. 12.Bg3 g4! 13.Ne5 Nxe5 14.Bxe5 c5 15.Bd3 Bf5 16.Qe2 f6 17.Bxe4 Bxe4 18.Bg3 Qa5+ 19.Qd2 Qxd2+ 20.Kxd2

 

Black can win a pawn by cxd4 followed by Bxg2, but then White would exchange the rooks on the open files, and because of the opposite coloured bishops, White would be able to draw. Instead of this, Kramnik plays for a win with even material. A great decision by a great player.  20...c4! 21.f3 gxf3 22.gxf3 Bg6 23.h4 Bh5 24.Ke2 Re6 25.Be1 Kf7 26.Kf2 Rae8 27.Bd2 Rb6 28.Bc3 Rb3 29.a4 b6 30.Rhe1 Bg6 31.e4 dxe4 32.d5 a6 33.fxe4 Bxe4 34.d6 f5 35.Rg1 Ke6 36.Rg7 Kxd6 37.Rxh7 Bd3 38.Kf3 Re4 39.h5 Rh4 40.Rg1 Be4+ 41.Ke3 Rh3+ 42.Kf4 Rf3+ 43.Kg5 b5 44.axb5 axb5 45.Kf6

 

45...Rbxc3 Kramnik tries to win by sacrifing one of his rooks, but Magnus defends well. 46.bxc3 Rxc3 47.Rg8 Rh3 48.Rc8 c3 49.Rhc7 c2 50.Kg5 Rh2 51.Rc3 Ke6 52.Re8+ Kf7 53.Rb8 Rg2+ 54.Kf4 Ke6 55.Re8+ Kd7 56.Rb8 Ke6 57.Re8+ Kf6 58.Rf8+ Ke6 In this position the players agreed to a draw.

 
The final position

After six rounds Kramnik is in the lead with 4,5 points, whereas Magnus has only managed six draws (3 points). In between these two giants are Vishy Anand (4 points) and Boris Gelfand and Vasily Ivanchuk (both 3,5 points).

You can read more on the Tal Memorial at Chessbase and Bergensjakk.no (the latter is in Norwegian). The games are transmitted live with GM commentary at Chessdom.