Greetings to all chess fans! I watched the Titled Tuesday tournament this week won by the world's best chess player, Magnus Carlsen. He is know to play bizarre openings on online blitz tournaments and he often gets away with it. This shows his confidence in his middle game play and puts psychological pressure on his opponents. In one game, one of his hyper grandmaster (Elo 2700+) opponent resigned on move one after he played 1. h4. Maybe to protest his disrespect or he doesn't want to get humiliated by Magnus.
In the first round of Titled Tuesday, Carlsen got away with the ugly and funnily named Cow's opening. The opening relinquishes all advantages and just plain losing but he managed to pull of a win.
The opening is so bad, Black has to lose tempo just to untangle the position he put himself in. The dark squared Bishop cannot move defending the g7 pawn. His Knights are badly placed and his pawns are not contesting the center.
In the second game, he played a position known as the Hippo. It looks like he plays openings after animals. Another troll opening he often plays is the "Norwegian Rat". Anyway, after the opening, his opponent GM Iniyan from India (Elo 2600+) has better control of the center and more developed pieces while Carlsen's pieces are on waiting mode.
Magnus tried to counter by advancing his pawns on the flank and in this position commentator David Howell sounded off an alarm that what he's doing is dangerous, opening his king side.
Iniyan exploited Carlsen's poor position by a piece sacrifice.
Iniyan sacrificed his Bishop for two pawns and opening up Carlsen's position. He's threatening to capture the e3 pawn and plant a monster Knight on e3.
Iniyan declines capturing the Rook, correctly thinking that the Knight on e3 is stronger. Now he threatens to capture White's Knight on e2 forking the King and Queen. Carlsen is forced to capture but it cemented Black's Knight on e3.
White's King is exposed while Black's pieces are all active. The rook will control the e file and his Knight is supreme on e3.
There are mating nets that cannot be parried. It's almost game over for Magnus.
Carlsen loses his Queen and resigns.
Game link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/160214853605
A true champion doesn't give up. After this loss, Carlsen won eight games and drew one to win the tournament.
Tournament link: https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/titled-tuesday-blitz-december-16-2025-6100509
Playing chess is great for the mind but let's not forget about physical activities. I recently committed to exercise and to keep me motivated, I joined actifit.io