[Sport] Chess: Wesley So uses repertoire to extend Magnus Carlsen's barren streak.

[S9OUL.]

Wesley So, the US champion, who won the online Skilling Open in November to spoil Magnus Carlsen’s 30th birthday, achieved a double against the out of form world champion in last weekend’s Opera Euro Rapid.

The 27-year-old from Minnetonka, Minnesota, was helped by his publicly available Lifetime Repertoire when defeating the Norwegian 2-2, 2.5-1.5 in the two-set final, and the score understated the ex-Filipino’s superiority. So also won their individual game in the 16-player preliminaries and agreed a draw in a winning position in the fourth game of the second set in order to clinch the match.

The encounter was not straightforward for either player. In game two of the first set, So obtained a winning position but forgot his own analysis, exchanged queens at the wrong moment and lost. Carlsen could have tied the match in the second set, but failed to visualise a simple winning tactic shown in this week’s puzzle.

Carlsen’s initial approach was surprisingly casual, despite an obvious warning in their all-play-all game in which So began 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+, then used his repertoire until move 18 before Carlsen varied.

The No 1 failed to prepare for So’s repertoire before the final, and was lucky to escape with 1-1 scoreline in his two black games, and 2-2 overall. Only that evening was his chief aide, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, put to work.

So’s course, published by Chessable, is too advanced for novices, requires hard work from its readers, and is aimed at strong amateurs, experts and ambitious talents, who play at a level where detailed preparation is most effective. It doesn’t come cheap, with a basic price of £30 for Part 1, covering 1 e4 e5 plus some half-open defences. Part 2, analysing the Sicilian, French and Caro-Kann defences, will appear later this year.

It incorporates advanced learning techniques, with detailed videos an optional extra. Whether it takes off in a competitive market remains to be seen, but few if any rival chess instructional materials can boast that they helped their author defeat the world champion.

This weekend features the first online Fide World Corporate Championship, an event which has attracted a huge entry of 284 teams, many of them famous names, from 78 countries. Considering that less than three years ago Fide was widely regarded as a pariah due to its eccentric president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, this impressive response counts as a major achievement by the current president, Arkady Dvorkovich.

Carlsen himself is taking part in the team of Kindred, the Norwegian betting company. Although leading UK companies are mainly absent, there is English interest. Alex Holowczak is chief arbiter, another step forward for the Birmingham 31-year-old who is the rising star of chess referees and is well on course to officiate at the over-the board Olympiad and the individual world championship some time in future.

Considering the online events of recent months, So clearly ranks ahead of Carlsen, but the individual world championship is decided across the board, not on the internet. The US grandmaster is not among the eight players who will resume the Covid-interrupted candidates tournament at Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 19 April after it was halted in spring 2020.

Fabiano Caruana, Carlsen’s US challenger in 2018, is on 3.5/7, a 50% score, in the candidates but his chances will jump if he wins in round eight against the leader, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, whose online performances have been mixed and include a huge negative moment when he lost a rook endgame like a novice.

Vachier-Lagrave v Teimour Radjabov, Opera Euro Rapid third place play-off reached WK g3, WR g4 v BK g6, BR g5, BP f6. It is all about keeping the opposition, denying the rival king an entry route. 1 Kf3 draws trivially, but France’s No 1 chose 1 Rxg5+?? Kxg5! 2 Kf3 Kf5 3 Kf2 Kf4 0-1 since the BK reaches the standard win in front of the pawn.