The Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen had to come from behind twice to win the The XXII Ciudad de Leon tournament in Spain. The Norwegian teenager trailed first Wang Yue in the semi final then Vasily Ivanchuk in the final before finally triumphing in an Armageddon game.

Each match consisted of 4 games at 20 minutes plus 10 seconds a move then if required two 5 minute blitz games and an Armageddon game with White having six minutes to Black's five but Black having draw odds.

Results:

Semi finals

Ivanchuk v Morozevich 1-0, draw, draw, draw, Ivanchuk wins 2.5-1.5.

Carlsen v Wang Yue draw, 0-1, 1-0, draw, draw, 1-0, Carlsen wins 3.5-2.5

Final

Carlsen v Ivanchuk draw, draw, 0-1, 1-0, draw, draw, 1-0, Carlsen wins 4-3.

Some of the decisive games were rather attritional but the Wang Yue v Carlsen match was entertaining. First Wang took the lead with some innovative play in the opening but then he fell into an opening trap, that in a bizarre coincidence was also seen in the game Ivanchuk v Anand from the Leon tournament last year. This was pretty sloppy from Wang to put it mildly but he might have been been expecting a different fourth move from Carlsen.

M Carlsen - Wang Yue

XXII Rapid KO Leon (1.3)

Nimzo-Indian Defence

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 c5 6.Nf3 d5 7.0-0 dxc4 8.Bxc4 Nbd 7 9.Qe2 cxd4 10.exd4 b6?!

(11...Nb6 or 11...Bxc3)

11.d5! Nc5?

(11...Bxc3 12.dxe6 Bb4 13.exd7 Qxd7 14.a3 Bd6 15.Rd1 Is unpleasant for Black and Karpov suffered a rare defeat to Portisch at San Antonio 1972]

12.Rd1! Qe8 13.Nb5!

(Winning material)

13...exd5 14.Nc7 Qc6

(14...Qe4 15.Rd4 Qg6 16.Nh4 1-0 Ivanchuk-Anand Leon Rapid 2008 almost exactly a year ago)

15.Nxd5

(Threatening Ne7+ and Nxb4)

15...Nxd5 16.Bxd5 Ba6 17.Qc2 Qg6 18.Qxg6 hxg6 19.Bxa8 Rxa8 20.Bd2

(Exchanging into a trivially won endgame)

20...Bxd2 21.Rxd2 Bb7 22.Rad1 Kf8 23.Ne5 1-0

Wang Yue - M Carlsen

XXII Rapid KO Leon (1.2)

Gruenfeld Defence

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 c5 6.dxc5 Qa5 7.Rc1 Ne4 8.cxd5 Nxc3 9.Qd2 Qxa2 10.Rxc3

(A decent sacrifice that should perhaps be ignored 10.bxc3 Petrosian-Fischer Candidates 1971)

10...Bxc3

(10...0-0!? 11.Bc4 Qa1+ 12.Rc1 Qxb2)

11.Qxc3 f6 12.Nf3 Bd7 13.Be2 Qxd5 14.0-0 Nc6 15.b4 a5 16.b5 Nb4 17.Rd1 Qe4 18.Ne1 Nd5 19.Qd2 e6 20.Nc2 0-0 21.Bd6 Rfd8 22.Nd4

(The passed c pawn is very strong and White is very active)

22...Qh4 23.g3 Qh6 24.Bc4 Re8 25.Nxe6! Bxe6 26.Bxd5 Qg7 27.c6 Rad8 28.Bxe6+ Rxe6 29.c7 Rc8 30.Qd5 Qd7 31.b6 Kf7 32.Qxb7! Rxd6 33.Rxd6 Qxd6 34.Qxc8

(Black has a lot of checks but they will run out)

34...Qd1+ 35.Kg2 Qd5+ 36.f3 Qd2+ 37.Kh3 Qd1 38.Qa6 Qd7+ 39.g4 Qd1 40.Qc4+ Kg7 41.Kg3 Qg1+ 42.Kf4 Qxh2+ 43.Ke4 Qe5+ 44.Kd3 Qd6+ 45.Kc2 1-0

UK Shop - US Shop

• All material © The Week In Chess
• Email Mark Crowther - TWIC
• Email London Chess Centre