Tibor Karolyi - Endgame Virtuoso Magnus Carlsen: His Extraordinary Skills Uncovered and Explained

Endgame Virtuoso Magnus CarlsenTibor KarolyiEndgame Virtuoso Magnus Carlsen His Extraordinary Skills Uncovered and Explained New In Chess 2018 2018 New In Chess Published by New In Chess, Alkmaar, The Netherlands www.newinchess.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. Cover design: Volken Beck Supervision: Peter Boel Proofreading: Sandra Keetman Editing and typesetting: Ian Kingston Production: Anton Schermer Have you found any errors in this book? Please send your remarks to and implement them in a possible next edition. ISBN: 978-90-5691-776-0 ContentsExplanation of symbolsThe chessboard with its coordinates:

	White to move
	Black to move
King
Queen
Rook
Bishop
Knight
	White stands slightly better
	Black stands slightly better
	White stands better
	Black stands better
+	White has a decisive advantage
+	Black has a decisive advantage
=	balanced position
!	good move
!!	excellent move
?	bad move
??	blunder
!?	interesting move
?!	dubious move
N	novelty

Preface In 2014 I was lucky enough to be a second of Joshua Altman at the Reykjavik Open. I saw Henrik Carlsen (Magnus father) playing in the event, so I asked if I could interview him. At the end of a very pleasant conversation, I gave him my Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov book as a present.

I signed the book and wrote that very few players in the history of chess had a chance of reaching the great Soviet World Champions level of endgame play. Under my signature I expressed my hope that Magnus would reach that level, and I wished him good luck. However, in no way did I think that in a few years time I would write a book on Magnus endgame play. Magnus Carlsen is only in the middle of his career, but has already achieved so much. He has already become one of the games all-time greats. He has achieved more than most World Champions by obtaining the highest title and defending it two times.

He is the world number one on the FIDE rating list. Although his edge against his rivals is currently not that big, his previous lead over the world number two was one of the biggest ever. Carlsens extremely successful endgame play has been one of the key reasons for his success. But that is not the only reason why it is worth looking in great detail at his endgame play. I think the Norwegian grandmaster is the first World Champion who has never played an adjourned game or if he has, it was at the very beginning of his career. Unlike older players, Carlsen did not acquire his endgame skill by analysing adjourned positions during nights with little sleep.

On the other hand, he was able to learn a lot from endgame tablebases, so he surely knows many more six-piece positions than earlier champions. A couple of great players have hailed him as the reincarnation of Karpov, and it is hard to argue with them, as they have actually played both Karpov and Carlsen. However, from my perspective, having written three books on Karpov and having already looked into Carlsens endgames, I could see clear differences. When I worked in Singapore and told people that their country is similar to Malaysia, they were surprised. But while somebody like me who came from afar could see the similarities, those who live close to one another see the differences. Of course, I believe that both Karpov and Carlsen are phenomenal in endgames, but I also think they are both lucky to have had their career when they did.

What do I mean by that? Karpov was not physically strong, and sometimes in his career he ran out of energy. I think having an adjournment after 5 hours served his interests; also, he had world-class grandmaster helpers. On the other hand, Carlsen plays a lot of sports and is, just like Fischer and Kasparov were, very healthy and physically strong. Therefore he can keep his concentration level longer than others, and wins some games by outlasting his opponents. Beliavsky said that Karpov and Carlsen are the only two players whose level of play does not decrease as the game goes on, but goes up. I am sure that Beliavsky is right, but I think Karpov would not have been able to keep his level up for another 2-3 hours after the first 40 moves.

Carlsen can, as he has proved on many occasions. Being allowed an adjournment would have helped Carlsens opponents to hold slightly worse positions a few times. I believe that Carlsen would be better able to adjust to the old system than Karpov would have been to the new one. As a side note, Carlsens attitude reminds me very much of Beliavskys, more than any other former great player. Neither of them cares much about what type of position they get it can be tactical, complicated-positional, or an equal ending they both want to fight. When I started to work on Carlsens endgames, studying the comments of various grandmasters in New In Chess magazine and ChessBase Megabase as well as in a number of books on Carlsen (listed in the Bibliography in the back of the book), and adding my own analyses, I was surprised to find that Magnus plays them quite differently from Karpov.

The Russian World Champion rarely had to save difficult endgames; Carlsen has surely saved many more of those than Karpov. On the other hand, the Russian made fewer mistakes, but I think that is mainly because he had the chance to analyse the positions at home. Karpov caught the opponents king more often, while Carlsen more often seems to take advantage of the very subtle choice between knight and bishop. Karpov liked to base his game plan on his exceptional endgame skill from the start of his career, while Carlsen only became an endgame monster in the middle of his teenage years. Why devote a book to Carlsens endgames when he is still very far from finishing his career? Because he has already produced so many fantastic endgames, and studying them will bring a lot of pleasure and instruction to many chess fans. I will review his best endgames in chronological order, so we can see how Carlsen developed his skill.

For many years, Karpov and Kasparov were the very best players in the world, and I followed their games like everybody else. But it was only when I started writing books on their play and continuously worked on their masterpieces that I was able to more fully appreciate their tools and specialities. I am sure that focusing on Carlsens endgame play will, in the same way, help us to discover new aspects of his endgame artistry. Given the fact that I coach junior players, I am particularly devoted to investigating and analysing what makes junior players develop rapidly and to scrutinising the early years of great players. Therefore, in the chapter on the early years I will make some remarks on Carlsens general play alongside my main focus, which is his endgame play. Simen Agdesteins excellent book on Carlsen,

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