Wesley So vs Magnus Carlsen, Slav Defense, Exchange Variation D10
2018 Altibox Norway, Round 6, 06/03/18
Wesley So chose a fairly uncommon way to fight Magnus Carlsen; the exchange Slav (taking on d5 immediately). Since it’s a highly theoretical line nonetheless, they played 10 moves of theory, but Wesley went for an aggressive temporary pawn sacrifice straight out of the opening and got a slightly better position.
His pieces were superior and his king safer, but nothing was over yet. At that point Magnus played a very bad move which made the position losing. He underdeveloped his bishop, locked his rook out of the game and gave Wesley So a free hand in the center. So got a monster bishop on d6, put his pieces on optimal squares, eventually won a pawn and then the game.
Standings after round 6:
Magnus Carlsen 3.5/6
Wesley So 3/5
Levon Aronian 3/6
Viswanathan Anand 3/6
Hikaru Nakamura 3/6
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2.5/6
Sergey Karjakin 2.5/5
Fabiano Caruana 2.5/5
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2.5/6
Ding Liren 1.5/3
Game moves:
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Bf4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nf3 a6 7.Rc1
Bf5 8.e3 Rc8 9.Be2 e6 10.O-O Nd7 11.Na4 Be7 12.h3 O-O 13.a3
Na5 14.Nc5 Nc4 15.b4 Nxc5 16.dxc5 Nxa3 17.Nd4 Be4 18.f3 Bg6
19.Qb3 Nc4 20.Bxc4 dxc4 21.Qxc4 Qe8 22.Bg3 e5 23.Nb3 Bd8
24.Qd5 Qb5 25.Bxe5 Be7 26.Qd2 Rfd8 27.Bd6 Bf6 28.e4 h6 29.Nd4
Bxd4+ 30.Qxd4 Re8 31.Rfe1 Kh7 32.g4 f6 33.f4 Qc6 34.f5 Bf7
35.h4 Ra8 36.Rc2 a5 37.g5 Bh5 38.g6+ Kh8 39.b5 Qxb5 40.Rb2 Qc6
41.Rb6 Qc8 42.Qd5 a4 43.Rxb7 Rg8 44.c6 1-0