Norway with Carlsen

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Bit of a crazy game between Anand and Hammer. Currently at move 19 and the chess engine evaluation is difficult to assess in terms of reliability (it is varying in some strange fashion).

[Roger de Coverly]

Currently at move 19 and the chess engine evaluation is difficult to assess in terms of reliability (it is varying in some strange fashion).

It looks as if allowing the Nxf7 sac was a big mistake, but White needs a series of only moves to make it work.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Currently at move 19 and the chess engine evaluation is difficult to assess in terms of reliability (it is varying in some strange fashion).

It looks as if allowing the Nxf7 sac was a big mistake, but White needs a series of only moves to make it work.

This current move (22) is one of them. Anand needs to find Rd7.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Completely unexpected results yesterday (round eight), leaving things open going into the last round. Carlsen managed to lose another rook endgame. I wonder if Anand will be noting that with interest? And the Streatham and Brixton blog piece is probably being written as I speak...

[Roger de Coverly]

Carlsen managed to lose another rook endgame.

Perhaps he will need to recruit Keith as a second .

Playing through the game, I thought the narrative would have been Carlsen loses a pawn and his opponent converts. The analysis by the online engine suggests otherwise. Carlsen loses a pawn but the ending is only a bit worse. It more or less stays that way until he makes an inaccuracy or two, Kg2 instead of Kf2 on move 64 being the main culprit with the assessment dropping from -0.57 to -2.56.

[Jonathan Bryant]

And the Streatham and Brixton blog piece is probably being written as I speak...

It was very kind of Agent Carlsen to generate some publicity for the blog.

Believe it or not, but some weeks ago I scheduled a post on Carlsen screwing up a basic rook ending for this coming Monday.

Will just have to add a fresh introduction, I think

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Carlsen managed to lose another rook endgame.

Perhaps he will need to recruit Keith as a second .

Playing through the game, I thought the narrative would have been Carlsen loses a pawn and his opponent converts. The analysis by the online engine suggests otherwise. Carlsen loses a pawn but the ending is only a bit worse. It more or less stays that way until he makes an inaccuracy or two, Kg2 instead of Kf2 on move 64 being the main culprit with the assessment dropping from -0.57 to -2.56.

When I last saw the position, before heading out yesterday, the position looked vaguely like the rook endgame Adams won against Fressinet in the last round of the 4NCL. I've not looked at that, but it would be interesting to see how similar or different they are. In all seriousness, if someone was looking for a top GM to help solidify rook endgame play (and I'm not suggesting Carlsen is, but just speaking in general), and you could choose, what are the options? Adams? Nunn? Arkell? Karpov? Pert does an endgame column. There is an endgame column on Chessbase as well (Karsten Mueller). Are there a number of GMs that specialise in deeper-than-normal endgame knowledge?