A quick break from the Crowthorne vaults to show a nice finish by world champion Magnus Carlsen which was played on Tuesday. In the following position, Black has a nice combination which either wins a ton of material, or forces mate. Can you spot the continuation? Have a go, and click the “?” or one of the buttons below the board to check your answer.

Black to play and win:

  [Event "Chess24 Banter Blitz Cup"]  [Site "chess24.com INT"]  [Date "2020.4.7"]  [White "Sjugirov, Sanan"]  [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]  [SetUp "1"]  [FEN "b3rk2/2p2N2/1b6/1p1pN2n/3PPn1q/1BP4P/1P1Q1PP1/4R1K1 b - - 0 23"]   Rxe5{!} 24.dxe5 ( {On} 24.Nxe5 {comes} Qg5{! Now white can EITHER defend against Qxg2 mate OR against Nxh3+ winning the queen, but not both. The attempt}  25.Ng6+ Kg7 26.Nxf4 Nxf4 {doesn't change anything. After the game move dxe5 the g1-a7 diagonal is opened, pinning white's f-pawn.}  ) Qg3 {and mate on g2 is unavoidable so white resigned.} 0-1  

This game was played in the Banter Blitz Cup, an online blitz tournament run by the chess24 website. Each player had 3 minutes per game, and this game was game 8 of a match where Magnus beat his 2675 rated opponent 9-0!

On seeing that his opponent had allowed 23 …Rxe5 (by playing 23 d4) Carlsen commented “This one is really nice”.