Chess: How does White win?

NORWAY'S Magnus Carlsen has reclaimed the world No 1 spot on the daily live ratings. In his first-half performance at the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania, he again overtook India's world champion Vishy Anand, who for now is ranked top on the official bimonthly Fide rankings.

Not only that, but he seems well on his way to establishing commercial viability for chess superstars. The 20-year-old Carlsen is the main face in an advertising campaign for G-Star, a Dutch clothing designer and producer. And many in Glasgow have seen Carlsen's image adorning not only the Argyll Street G-Star shop, but also bus stops in the city.

With all the modelling side attractions going on, Garry Kasparov has grumbled that Carlsen lacks a strong offboard chess ethic. Though a year of hard work and opening preparation with Kasparov did help to catapult Carlsen to the top of the chess heap, he ended the collaboration because he found Kasparov too intense. "I felt like every day I had to build up energy to be able to face him," said the young star during a recent in-depth interview for the New Yorker magazine.

Carlsen demonstrates yet again what it takes to have the highest rating in the world with a convincing positional squeeze of a win in just 31 moves over local star Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. The game looked like it was heading for a draw, but Carlsen turned the screws just at the right time with a cunning pawn sacrifice to seal the deal. In the final position, if 31...exd5 32 Rh8+ Kc7 33 Rxc8+ Kxc8 34 f4 and Nxg6 wins.

M Carlsen - LD Nisipeanu

5th Kings Tournament, (5)

Queen's Gambit Accepted

1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 e3 Nf6 4 Bxc4 e6 5 Nf3 c5 6 0–0 a6 7 dxc5 Bxc5 8 Qxd8+ Kxd8 9 Be2 Ke7 10 Nbd2 Bd7 11 Nb3 Bd6 12 Na5 Ra7 13 Nc4 Bb5 14 b3 Rd8 15 Bb2 Bxc4 16 Bxc4 Nc6 17 Rfd1 Raa8 18 h3 g6 19 g4 h6 20 Bf1 Rac8 21 Rac1 Nd5 22 h4 Ke8 23 g5 hxg5 24 hxg5 Be7 25 Kg2 Nb6 26 Bd3! Nb4 27 Be4 Nxa2 28 Rxd8+ Kxd8 29 Rh1 Nd5 30 Ne5 f5 31 Bxd5 1–0