Polish'd Off in Poland

John B. Henderson • May 22, 2023

The chess circus now moves to Warsaw with the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland now underway, with all eyes focused on the wildcard invite for the world No 1 and now ex-world champion, Magnus Carlsen - but things didn’t exactly go to script for the Norwegian on his return to the elite circle since abdicating his crown.

There was no media hoopla with the prospects of an early showdown with Ding Liren, as the new classical world champion, citing fatigue, very wisely pulled out of the second leg of the St Louis-organised $1.4m 2023 Grand Chess Tour last week, following his disastrous showing in Bucharest that came hard on the heels of his bruising title encounter in Astana.

Despite abdicating the game's main crown, Carlsen, who is still the world champion in both rapid and blitz, was nevertheless the big favourite to win in Poland - and a more free-style and free-spirited Carlsen attempted to be a crowd-pleaser with his opening round encounter against Radoslaw Wojtaszek, as he played the Polish against the Polish No.2, only to see it spectacularly backfire as he was duly polished off much to the pleasure of the very patriotic Polish crowd!

Carlsen now joins Boris Spassky in being the only two world champions to have adopted the suspect Polish Defence with 1.d4 b5!?! at the top level. Needing a do-or-die win against Tigran Petrosian during their 1966 World Championship Match, Spassky attempted to surprise the defending champion with the Polish, only to see it similarly backfire as Carlsen did, as an unfazed Petrosian easily beat the unsuccessful title challenger to retain his crown.

Spassky then made an unsuccessful attempt to revive the opening 24 years later, only this time to see the four-time US champion, Yasser Seirawan also inflict an equally excruciating miniature win over the ex-world champion - a fact that wouldn’t have been lost on the Grand Chess Tour lead commentator, who no doubt was quick to recall and regale the online masses with yet another entertaining anecdote!

While Spassky only had himself to blame for adopting the Polish Defence, Carlsen was quick to throw his coach, Peter Heine Neilsen under the bus during his presser for the unwise decision to play the crowd-pleasing opening. “It was something Peter suggested a couple of days ago and I was like, sure, so when you make such an opening choice that obviously increases the variance quite a bit, and against an unprepared opponent I don’t think it’s that bad, but unfortunately I didn’t remember what I was supposed to do, and then my position was pretty bad early on. I suspect I had some chances to come back a little bit after that, but it was always difficult, and he deserved the win. Polish in Poland didn’t work!”

And that fateful opening game loss from Carlsen proved to be the pre-cursor to an off-kilter comeback performance for the Norwegian, as it was followed by a series of five draws, and he now finds himself well off the pace set by front-runners Wesley So and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who lead the field by one point going into Tuesday's third and final day of the rapid section.

Standings:

1-2. W. So (USA), J. Duda (Poland) 9/12; 3. L. Aronian (USA) 8; 4. M Vachier-Lagrave (France) 7; 5-6. R. Rapport (Romania), R. Wojtaszek (Poland) 6; 7. M. Carlsen (Norway) 5; 8. B. Deac (Romania) 4; 9-10. A. Giri (Netherlands), K. Shevchenko (Romania) 3.

GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek - GM Magnus Carlsen

Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland, (1)

 A40: Polish Defence

1.d4 b5!?! 2.e4 Bb7 3.Bd3 Tigran Petrosian preferred the slower 3.f3 against Boris Spassky in their 1966 World Championship Match - but 3.Bd3 is the best and most logical move. I suspect Petrosian played 3.f3 just to avoid Spassky's prep; which worked well, as the defending champion went on to record a crushing win. 3...Nf6 4.Nd2 c5 5.c3 cxd4 Twenty-four years later against Yasser Seirawan, Spassky opted for the more "conventional" Polish set-up with e6 and a6 that, due to missing a key tactic, ended in the four-time US champion recording a nice little miniature over the ex-world champion. 6.cxd4 e6 7.Ngf3 Nc6 8.O-O a6 We've transposed into a sort of Sicilian Defence - but the crucial difference is that White has total control of the centre with his pawns on d4 and e4. 9.Re1 Be7 10.d5!

Finely timed by Wojtaszek, who blows the game open early doors to cause maximum concern for the Black king as it gets marooned in the middle of the board; and from here in, it's all downhill for Carlsen. 10...exd5 No better was 10...Nb4 11.Bb1 etc. 11.e5 Nh5?! It's starting to get desperate already for Carlsen - so desperate that the engine even opts for the humiliating retreat of 11...Ng8 rather than throwing the knight on the rim. 12.Nb3 g6 13.Bh6!

Carlsen now has a huge problem with the safety of his king - and with it, just how to connect his rooks. 13...Rg8 14.Be3 Ng7 15.Nc5 Qc7?! Carlsen really had to bite the bullet here with 15...Bxc5 16.Bxc5 Ne6 17.Bd6 h5 and figure out how best to hold on from here. 16.Rc1 Ne6 17.Nxb7 Qxb7 18.Bf1 Bb4 19.Re2 Ne7 20.Rec2 Nf5 21.Bg5!

After this move, Carlsen was probably beginning to regret playing to the home crowd with the Polish, as the Pole polishes him off in Poland! 21...Be7 22.Bf6 Nfg7 It is never a good sign when you "fianchetto: the knight. Black could try the alternative of 22...Bxf6 23.exf6 Nd6 but after 24.Bd3 there's just no way for Black to co-ordinate his pieces, and White will soon be playing Qd2-b4 or h6 to exploite the dark-square weakness. 23.Qd3 Bxf6 24.exf6 Nh5 25.Qc3! Rd8 Carlsen's position is so critical he's on the morphine drip here - so bad that even the engine offers up the truly desperate try of 25...d4 26.Nxd4 b4 27.Qe3 Nxf6 but after the simple 28.Qe5 Ke7 (No better is 28...Ng4 29.Qd6 with a crushing attack.) 29.Rc7! White is coming over the top with his brutal winning attack. 26.a3?! A tepid move that almost lets Carlsen off the hook - the cold killer to find was 26.Qe5! forcing Black into 26...d6 27.Qe3 Nxf6 If not this, then Rc7-e7+ and Qh6+ is crushing. 28.Nd4 Ng4 29.Qe2 Ne5 30.Nxe6 fxe6 31.f4! with a winning attack. 26...Qb8 27.g3 g5?! This puts Carlsen back on the "hook" - better first was 27...Qd6 with the threat of ...d4 and ...Nxf6 which diverts White's focus, as he'll need to play 28.Rd1. 28.Re1! g4 Threatening 29.Qc5! - and now there's no time for 28...Qd6 with 29.Nd4 swinging the knight into f5 followed by Qb4 crushing. 29.Nd4 Rg5 30.Bd3 Re5 The killing move is going to be a Qb4 hit - so much so that the engine suggests the desperate 30...b4 pawn sacrifice just to avoid this.

31.Nf5?! Too hasty from Wojtaszek. The subtle move to find was the engine-recommended 31.Rce2! that just leaves Black in dire straits - and in no good way with Mark Knopfler licking the riffs on lead guitar! 31...Rxe1+? In time trouble due to his early opening troubles, Carlsen missed the crucial move 31...d4! that seems to hold, as 32.Qb4 Rxe1+ 33.Qxe1 Nxf6 34.Re2 Nd5! and Black now has a very playable game, as 35.Nxd4 Ne7! and, with f5 covered, Black has complete equality. 32.Qxe1 Nxf6 (see diagram) 33.Qb4! The unexpected mating threat on e7 totally discombobulates Carlsen - and this time it proves fatal for the ex-world champion. 33...d6 34.Qc3! Nd7 35.Qh8+ Ndf8 36.Qf6 Ng6 There's no defence now. If 36...Qb7 37.a4! and White is either taking twice on b4 or playing Bxa6!, as the chronically over-worked queen can't defend the mate on e7. 37.Re2 Qc7 38.Ng7+ 1-0

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