, and that from one not far from our own!
In the 4th round of the World Cup in Baku, the former world champion lost to the German hopeful, eighteen-year-old Vincent Keymer. In the rematch the following day, he therefore had to win at all costs (true, with the white pieces) to bring the mini-match to a tiebreak. How did the rematch on 10 August 2023 unfold? What does it have in common with a film Oscar and also some kind of plane ticket?
Well, we mean a return plane ticket from Baku to Norway, which Carlsen (according to his own words) would probably have used the very next day to go home, not wanting to 'deal' unnecessarily with journalists, as in his arrogance he would have found it even harder to bear the shift of all attention to his conqueror.
Let us look at the key position in the diagram, where that parallel reality arose, while we, dear readers, got stuck in this one, less fortunate for the German super-grandmaster! But first a short and necessary introduction:
Carlsen,Magnus - Keymer,Vincent Baku 10 August 2023
In a complicated position with slightly better chances for White, the former world champion played after almost 9 minutes (sic) of thinking a gross blunder 16.a3?? Followed by 16...Bxc3 17.Qxc3 (17.Nxc3?? was impossible due to the double attack 17...Qf4+) and now we found ourselves at a crossroads... of realities!
Black, in our reality, exchanged queens after 18 seconds of thinking 17...Qxc3??, and after 18.Nxc3 an approximately equal position arose, but... exactly the kind that the 16th world champion loves, plays virtuously and wins 'against anyone', let’s say, about seven games out of ten (I’m afraid here we could no longer talk about a split of realities...).
For you, dear readers, a test is therefore offered: How did the young German grandmaster continue in that parallel reality? In other words, how else should he have continued on move 17? And can you support your proposed continuation with variations?
Solution, poker face and a film Oscar for Magnus
In the following short video clip we find both the solution to the equation of how Keymer should have continued correctly (thus we would have woken up in a different ‚plane ticket‘ reality), but not only that!
But let us also watch very carefully, for example on a second viewing of the video, only Magnus’s face! His acting performance at the moment when he noticed that by the move 16.a3 he had made a gross blunder is truly Oscar-worthy! You read nothing else on it but slight satisfaction turning into some kind of boredom (leaving the board also belongs to that kind of theatre of ‚nothing is happening‘). The climax is then some kind of 'chewing nothing' at a really critical moment, when Black could have struck with 18...Nxe4, if he had suspected anything and read it in Magnus’s face!
During my long coaching career, I have encountered the problem of how to behave after a serious blunder, when the opponent still 'does not know', many times. I have tried to study some psychological works, and I can reveal one hundred percent effective fact: In critical moments, some chess players cannot mask their emotions, no matter how hard they try! (A partial remedy is to leave the chessboard…)
It is probably a genetically conditioned matter… Well, others do not even try and, disgusted by their own stupidity, would rather immediately knock over the pieces…
