An excellent tournament turned into a brilliant tournament for Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who today beat Magnus Carlsen for the first time in a decade and won the Biel Chess Festival with a round to spare.
For the last time Mamedyarov beat Carlsen in a classical game, we have to go all the way back to the Baku FIDE Grand Prix tournament in 2008, won by Carlsen, Wang Yue and the late Vugar Gashimov.
Ever since, Mamedyarov was Carlsen's “client” (or “bunny”, as GM Ian Rogers called it!), like Hikaru Nakamura was too, for several years. But things have changed.
Rogers was discussing it with GM Danny King in the live broadcast of the ninth round. Their explanation was that, whereas Carlsen's openings were never his strongest suit, his talent and hard work at the board made him a dominating player anyway.
But in recent years, many of his colleagues have adapted in areas where Carlsen used to excel. Now, “the technique[s] of others have improved to cope with the Carlsen pressure,” as Rogers put it.
As a result, Carlsen isn't winning tournaments with high margins anymore, and he also doesn't win as many tournaments anymore. After today, Biel is out of reach as well.
"Magnus played very risky. He wanted to win, and he didn’t want a draw," said Mamedyarov. He admitted that Black was (more than) fine out of the opening, thanks to the excellent 8...d5. After that, White would really like to have his pawn on e2, instead of e3. "I think White has to look for equality there," said Carlsen.
Black could have played it safe with 14...Ne5, but also after 14...Nb4 he was still solid. Asked where things went wrong, Carlsen started with: "First of all I would like to congratulate Shakhriyar on a wonderful tournament victory."
Then he explained: "It’s only later that a combination of many, many oversights on my part and very precise play on his part that he managed to get something. Nevertheless, I thought I had drawing chances right at the end but I just made two blunders in a row and that was it."