CHESS BY VICTOR STRUGO

When did anyone last score three consecutive wins against Magnus Carlsen? Frankly, I doubt it's ever happened before. But in the mini-match final of last month's AI Cup's top division France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won twice on the Black side of the Queen's Gambit Accepted and as White he was presented with an uncharacteristically generous gift point when the former world champ erred twice in the space of 3 moves.

Vachier-Lagrave, M (2727) – Carlsen, M (2839) [Sicilian Kan Variation): 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 a6 5 c4 Nf6 6 Nc3 Qc7 7 a3 b6 8 Bd3 Bb7 (White's c4 and e4 Pawn set-up is the so-called Maroczy Bind, intended to prevent Black's thematic … d5 liberating idea) 9 O-O Bd6 10 f4 Bc5 11 Be3 Nc6 12 Nc2 d6 13 Qd2 O-O 14 Rae1 Ng4 (By pressing White to swop clerics on c5, the d-Pawn dilemma disappears) 15 Bxc5 dxc5 16 e5 Rad8 17 Qe2 Nh6 (Up to here one could believe we are watching a game between two average league players who have studied their openings and have plodded to a perfectly equal position. That the World No 1 would resign in a further dozen moves beggars belief) 18 Rd1 Nd4 19 Nxd4 cxd4 20 Ne4 Nf5 21 Rf3 Bxe4 22 Bxe4 Ne3 (When my old club-mate Lionel Katz established a Knight on the sixth rank he would say it was "like a rusty nail in your knee." MVL clearly agrees that heroic rust-removal measures are necessary to avoid being ground down, so ...) 23 Bxh7+?! (Flashy, but actually unsound. True-grit defence with 23 Rc1 g6 24 Qd3 should hold the game) 23 ... Kxh7 24 Rh3+ Kg8 25 Qh5 f5? (Carlsen's cranial computer didn't bother analysing the difference between pushing one square or two. We shall soon see why) 26 Qh7+ Kf7 27 Rh6 (This move would be pointless with Black's Pawn on f6 as there would be no killer capture on e6 after 27 ... Ke8. White now has a draw after 27 ... Nxd1 28 Qg6+ Kg8 29 Qh7+. Instead, Magnus now self-destructs horrendously) 27 ... Qxc4?? 28 Rf6+ Ke8 29 Qxg7 and Black resigned, faced with 29

... Rxf6 30 exf6 Qc5 31 f7+ (or 29 ... Qc5 30 Rxe6+).

Beyond the satisfaction of out-manoeuvring Magnus in two QGAs, swindling him with an unsound attack must have really tasted like the cherry on the cake!

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