Magnus Carlsen – Blindfold Simultaneous / Annotation

by National Life Master Loal Davis

 

 On May 29th Magnus Carlsen gave a three board simultaneous blindfold exhibition.  A video of same can be observed at the link below from the chessbase website.  Carlsen played White winning on all three boards; one by mate, one by resignation, and the last on time.  It’s a fine video that has been edited for ease in following the games, especially for a chess player.  The first game to finish was the checkmate and the game annotations are given below.

 

Blindfold Simultaneous – Board Three – 2015-05-29

1. c4

The English; on the board one Magnus played his King Pawn (e4) and on board two he played his Queen Pawn (d4).

e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 f5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. e3 Bc5

Nope – This Bishop is just asking to get smacked in the face.

6. Nge2

Magnus prepares to do just that.

O-O 7. d4 exd4 8. exd4 Bb4 9. O-O Bxc3 10. Nxc3 d6 11. Re1 Re8 12. Bg5 h6

13. Bxf6 gxf6

If Black tries to recapture on f6 with the Queen

(13… Rxe1+ 14. Qxe1 Qxf6 15. Qe8+ Kh7 (15… Qf8 16. Bd5+) 16. Bxc6 bxc6 17. Qxc6 Rb8 18. Qxc7 is a route.

14. Qh5

Carlsen stated that Black was flat busted here.

Be6 15. Qg6+ Kf8 16. Qxh6+ Kf7 17. d5 Rh8

It’s mate in three regardless of what Black plays.

18. dxe6+ Ke7

(18… Kg8 19. Qg6+ Kf8 20. Qf7#) (18… Ke8 19. Qxh8+ Ke7 20. Nd5#)

19. Nd5+

With this Magnus stated that it was mate next move.

Ke8 20. Qxh8#

This was the first game to finish.

1-0

 http://en.chessbase.com/post/carlsen-blitzes-blindfold-clock-simul