Hammergate? No, sheer talent

Wonderful to see that Magnus has won again today: it may well mean an incredible finish to this first ever super GM tournament in Norway. After Karjakin's 4/4 start, Magnus has either caught or, or will be half a point behind if Karjakin manages to defeat Nakamura. On this, since my previous post a short while ago, several moves have been played, but it is beyond me whether Karjakin knows how to win: I certainly would have no idea where I playing white. We shall see.

When I left work, I logged onto the Playchess app on my iPhone, to see Magnus's position:

(The screenshot is taken after the game has finished, so ignore times and the 0-1 score: also, on my iPhone, I couldn't see clock times).

How's he going to win this one? I thought, especially given that had, as I logged on, Karjakin just played the stunning 29 Nb3c5!! against Nakamura, and my quick calculation was that black's position was about to collapse, and it was soon to be a 'can he survive question'.

A short while later, Carlsen's position was:

How's he going to win this one? I thought, especially since I was not too sure that his N was better than the bishop, and 1 e3 Qd3 2 Bd3 would protect c2: I then saw a sign of a glimmer, since maybe black could double attack the P on b5, with Rc5 and Nd5-c7 or Ne8-c7; noting the wisdom of Magnus's earlier Kf8, centralising the king in readiness for the endgame.

By this time I had got home, switched to Playchess.com on my PC, so could see the clock times, which is part of the explanation- both players had a couple of minutes for their last half dozen moves- and was startled with how Hammer had played: letting in the Rc2; playing the thrust e4: of course, my assessments so far had been lightning glances.

Then, not too long later, Hammer resigned. Hammergate? Norwaygate?- no, simply Magnus's incredible talent for eking something out of nothing, of relentless pressure. Wonderful to see how he can get a win our of virtually any position.>

I look forward to what the stronger player's commentaries are overnight. Meanwhile, it is now move 59 in Karjakin's game, and I think Nakamura has blundered, and will resign fairly soon. So Sergey will still lead by 1/2 point with not many rounds to go.

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