GM Magnus Carlsen vs. Andrew Grojean – Game and Analysis

September 26, 2016

On September 22, I got to live out a dream. I had the opportunity to play the world chess champion, the number one ranked player in the world, and my chess idol, grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.

I’ll be writing about my full experience soon, including a New York movie premiere of Disney’s Queen of Katwe and a cocktail party with Norwegian dignitaries. Until then, I’ve included notation from my game below, with personal commentary so you can see what I was thinking as I played each move.

For those unfamiliar, columns from left to right are “a” through “h,” and rows bottom to top are “1” to “8.” The bottom left square is a1 and the top right square is h8.

As you can tell, I opted for a closed Ruy Lopez opening. Feel free to reach out with any questions or advice on the game!

UPDATE: Here’s my full write-up of the Play Magnus Live Challenge!

[Date "2016.09.22"] [Result "1-0"] [FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"] [White "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Black "Grojean, Andrew"] [Event "Play Magnus Live Challenge 2016"] [Site "New York, NY"] [WhiteElo "2857"] [ECO "C88"]  1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 { I played the Spanish as long as I could and when I got to the point I didn't know the line, I tried to play conservatively protecting my pieces. } 3...a6 4.Ba4 b5 { I played b5 here to kick his bishop away, so he wouldn't take my knight defending e5 } 5.Bb3 Nf6 6.O-O Be7 7.Re1 O-O 8.a4 8...Bb7 { I brought my bishop to b7 thinking it'd protect my rook in case pawn takes, so I could take back without rook takes. } 9. d3 d6 10.Nbd2 Re8 11.Nf1 Nd4 { This move was intended to free up my bishop on b7 a bit, and trade off a piece that could be used in a king-side attack. It probably backfired since it allowed his queen to get to f3 } 12.Nxd4 exd4 13.Ng3 { I played h6 because I didn't want his bishop coming to g5. I know the knight was defended, but my thought was that I may want to move the bishop back to f8 to defend eventually... } 13...h6 { I now know... never let a knight get to f5 in a Ruy Lopez. With the bishop and queen freed up, it was too hard to refute a king-side attack } 14.Nf5 c5 { I recognized his knight on f5 and didn't want it taking d4, so I pushed c5 to defend it } 15.Qf3 Rc8 { I had visions of pushing my c-pawn soon to block off his white diagonal, since only my king was defending f7. I brought my rook to c8 to defend it after exchanging. } 16.axb5 axb5 17.Bxh6 g6 { Instead of taking the bishop, opening the g-file for his queen, I opted to keep it closed and threaten his tricky knight on f5 } 18.Ra7 Rc7 19.Nxe7+ Rcxe7 { I was feeling a bit of time pressure here and blundered, since I captured with my rook and cut off defense of my knight. I think I was thinking that if I was able to double rooks and attack e4 that I could battle for center or have a chance to crush my way to the back rank. Instead, I faced the inevitable. } 20.Qxf6 Rxe4 { I offered Magnus the opportunity to take my queen instead of mate me. Ultimately, he wisely chose to end the game. Had he made an unthinkable blunder, I would have been able to take e1 with my rook and checkmate him. Not many can say they were one move away from checkmating the greatest of all time. } 21.Qg7#  *

2 comments

Elizabeth Grys
September 26, 2016 at 5:26 pm

Thanks for posting this! I was so pissed at whoever was running the tech end of the exhibition. No commentary or info about how you were doing other than random statistic info and sometimes the camera panned over to your board. Bah!

I am definitely nowhere near your level, but one thing I was thinking watching your play: I never ever break my pawns if I get a chance to castle. It always seems like a fantastic defense that almost always requires the loss of an opponent’s piece to break it open. Then again, taking a risk and building a pawn wall can give you really good control of the board.

I don’t know if it was archived on (was it VG TV that hosted the stream?) but I recorded a bit of the stream from my own PC before I had to leave for the day. I’ll throw it on a flash drive and try to remember to bring it to next board game night if you’d like it. 🙂

Andrew Grojean
September 29, 2016 at 2:29 pm

Thanks Beth! Glad you could watch. I agree that’s a solid strategy. 13. h6 was a defensive move to preempt even more attacks on my king-side and a quicker mate. The h-pawn was defended by my g-pawn and it gave my king a flight square in case he attacked me on the back rank. Even when he sacrificed his bishop I declined to capture back because when Magnus presents a sacrifice, he knows what he’s doing 🙂 If I could do it over again, I’d move Bf8 for more defense instead. Appreciate the insight!

Here’s a stream from VG. Let me know if you have a different one! https://www.facebook.com/vgnett/videos/10154630363876995/