Casablanca Variant: Magnus Carlsen beats Vishwanathan Anand in 10 moves

The Players and the Stage

When Magnus Carlsen sits across the board from Viswanathan Anand, the chess world always stops to watch. Their rivalry spans more than a decade. Anand, the reigning giant of the early 2000s, and Carlsen, the prodigy who dethroned him in the 2013 World Championship. Both legends face each other off once more; however, in Casablanca 2024, the setting was much different than the high-stakes World Championship, because of two distinct things: no deep home preparation and no 25-move memorized computer lines. Instead, both were dropped into a historical middlegame, tasked to improvise like the champions of old.

The position? From Steinitz–Chigorin, 1889, in the Evans Gambit. White to move on move 11.

This wasn’t just a game. It was a test of pure understanding.

The Opening Twist

Carlsen, with White, faced a crossroads. In the original Steinitz–Chigorin game, Steinitz played 11.dxe5, but Magnus decided otherwise.

11.Na3!? – An inspired novelty. Instead of grabbing material, Carlsen calmly develops, eyeing the c4-square and keeping the tension alive.

From a grandmaster’s eye, this was a signal: Carlsen wanted a rich, imbalanced fight, avoiding the “natural” capture that Anand might have expected.

The Moves That Shook the Board

Anand, perhaps a touch too eager to punish White’s knight excursion, advanced aggressively. That was his first slip. Carlsen’s position grew sharper with every tempo.

12.Nb5! – The knight lunges forward, creating dual threats: hitting d6 and preparing to harass Black’s queen.

13.Re1! – Quiet but deadly. Carlsen centralizes his rook, hinting at tactics involving pins and back-rank motifs.

14.Qb3! – Suddenly, the queen joins the attack, and Anand’s pieces feel clumsy, almost overextended.

At this point, any seasoned GM watching knew Anand was skating on thin ice. His queen wandered too far afield, looking for counterplay but finding only traps.

And then the hammer blow came.

15.Ba3!! – The bishop crashes onto the long diagonal. Black’s queen is suddenly short of squares, caught in a vice of knights, rook, and bishop coordination.

Incredibly, just ten moves from the starting position, Anand’s queen was stranded, his defenses collapsing. Resignation was inevitable.

Impact and Legacy

From a purely technical standpoint, this wasn’t just Carlsen winning quickly, it was Carlsen demonstrating the essence of his style:

Flexibility (11.Na3, avoiding theory).

Speed of coordination (Re1, Qb3, Ba3).

Killer instinct - once he smelled blood, the game was over in a flash.

For Anand, it was a painful reminder that in such formats, even the most experienced legends can stumble if they rely on “normal” replies.

For the chess world, this game was a perfect advertisement for the Casablanca Variant. It showed that history and creativity could collide to produce a fresh, breathtaking spectacle, one where the world’s best had to rely on intuition rather than memorization.

Carlsen’s 10-move destruction instantly became the signature moment of the event, a miniature destined to be replayed in books, videos, and lectures as the embodiment of improvisational brilliance.

The Match