Carlsen Vs Caruana Game 2 , 2018

White: Carlsen Vs Black: Caruana,  Game drawn , 49 moves.

Game 2 turned out to be much less dramatic than Game 1 but it had some interesting points. Caruana surprised with his choice of defence when he opted for 6.-- c5. He surprised again by playing something that's generally considered unplayable on move 10.

 Diagram after 10 Rd1

Instead of the comparatively staid 10 Rd1, White can mix things up even more by castling queenside with 10 O-O-O, leading to violent attacks and counter-attacks. That queenside castling looks, and is, highly dangerous because both sides will launch pawn storms. Plus, the centre is likely to open up, which means rapid piece transfers from one flank to another are very possible.

After 10. Rd1, black needs to open up the c8 bishop. That leads to jockeying for -- e5.  This line is famous, or notorious, for the stem game, Game 21,  in the Karpov Korchnoi match of 1978. That tactical genius, Mikhail Tal, found a vicious piece sacrifice while working on Karpov's team . Korchnoi refused to take the piece and finally won a crazy, complex fight. The sacrifice is  now generally considered sound but not a winning option.  

That went 10. Rd1 Re8 11. Nd2 e5 12. Bg5 Nd4!!?  13. Qb1 Bf5 14. Bd3 e4 ? when 15. Bf1! probably wins outright. Korchnoi  played 15. Bc2 Nxc2 16. Qxc2 Qa6 17. Bxf6 Qxf6 18. Nb3 Bd6 19. Rxd5 (1-0, 60 moves).  Subsequently black has tried 14.-- Bxd3 15. Qxd3 Ne4!? which is supposedly balanced. There's plenty of not-so-hidden insanity in that position.

Carlsen played a very non-committal response, 11. Be2  to Caruana's "novelty" 10. Rd8. This is not really a novelty - it used to be written off as a bad move but it's been played before, and white is supposed to get an edge with 11. Nd2.  Nigel Short said he always thought Rd8 was just unplayable and he's a long-term connoisseur of this line, which he played in his Candidates match against Speelmann back in the 80s. What idea did Caruana have?

That Kt d2 regroup is the normal move, against the normal 10. -- Re8 - and Re8 is supposedly better than Rd8 because it supports the push e5.  Incidentally, black would be happy if white was provoked into playing (for example ) 11. b4? Nxb4 12. axb4 Bxb4 13. Rc1 Ne4 which has been known to happen in amateur games.  11 Nd2 sets up threats of Nb3 and of b4 perhaps.

Anyway, Carlsen chose to grovel as he called it with Be2. Presumably the Don has found an idea that works against 11. Nd2 in the Rd8 line. We'll probably get to see it, since white can't really avoid these QGD variations, if he's going to play Bf4 instead of Bg5.  But Carlsen will go back and his team will take a long, hard look at this position before he plays Nd2.

Ducking a battle meant Carlsen was now on his own and he took a lot of time. He must have found a line that Caruana had studied since the challenger reeled off his moves almost without pausing for thought. 

Diagram After 16. -- Nxd5

On  move 17, we came to another major cross-road. Carlsen had already spent an hour, while Caruana had spent just 5 minutes. White can try 17. Nxf7!? Kxf7 18. Bxd6 Rxd6 19. Bh5+ Kg8 20. e4 when black can stabilise with 20.-- Bd7 21. exd5 Qxa4 . Or he can try the very unclear 20.-- Nf4 21. Rxd6 Qxh5 22. Rd8+ Kf7 23. Rfd1 e5! - here black will forget about his Ra8 and let it go in many lines playing things like 24. Qb3+ Be6! 25. Qxb7+ Kg6 and try to deliver mate with the formidable combination of B+N +Q against an undefended kingside. The engines say it's equal.

Magnus pulled the emergency brake as Hammer put it by playing 17. Bf3 instead. After that, it's a question of bailing out to a drawn rook ending, which he duly accomplished without much fuss. Maybe black can keep something with 22.-- b6 . In the final position, white just plays Ra4-b4, a4, etc. unless black plays Kf3 when he checks with Ra3+. If black tries to penetrate with Ra6/b6 - a1, white puts his king on g2, and Ra7, f7, e7, etc. to hold the draw. 

Verdict: Moral victory for Caruana, drawing easily with black. But this line is very likely to come up again. Carlsen will repeat 1 d4, and he's likely to face 6--c5. A repeat could be a serious test of the line and we'll learn about Caruana's idea (or ideas). 

Carlsen Vs Caruana London Game 1

Title Match  2018

Game #1

There are lucky escapes, and there are incredibly, mindbogglingly, superlatively  fortunate escapes. Fabiano Caruana had one of the latter in the first game. By move 30, it was obvious that black had a serious edge, with the bishop pair, and excellent chances of exploiting an exposed king. By move 35, black was totally winning.

The machines indicated that there were multiple ways to take the full point. What's more, the advantage was stable. It wasn't one of those dynamic situations where a tactical shot arises suddenly out of the blue and disappears equally quickly if it's not exploited.  

Black held all the trumps. He could push and probe, until he found a way to slide in, via the weak long dark diagonal (a1-h8), or via the g-file. Every black piece was poised for an assault with the Bishop unchallengeable on the diagonal, the Rook positioned perfectly on the g-file, and the Queen ready to switch between g-file and the diagonal, as any opportunity arose.   

White was defending from move to move, trying to counter specific threats. Eventually, if black played normally, white would be too stretched to defend the weak pawns on h3,a2, c2, and protect his king, which was a big, fat target in mid-board. It was an objectively lost position and to add to his woes, Fabiano was down to less than a minute on the clock. Carlsen had 20-odd minutes and he had conducted the game impeccably to create those winning chances.

But somehow the world champion failed to put it away. Somewhere on the road to the time control, Carlsen blew his chances. They reached move 40, with black still holding an edge but the win had evaporated.  Caruana gratefully forced an exchange of queens and then defended perfectly for the next 70-odd moves to split the point.

 This epic could help define the match. We learnt several things. One is that Carlsen retains the ability to almost effortlessly create winning chances from roughly equal positions. Another is that Carlsen continues to be plagued by nerves when it comes to converting. For some reason, and nerves is pretty much the best explanation one can find for this, his pluperfect technique has disappeared in the last year or two. This was the second time in the recent past (Altibox being the first)  that Caruana escaped with a draw, after conceding a stable advantage to the Norwegian.

On his part, Fabiano displayed ice-cold pragmatism, strong nerves and the ability to keep defending without committing any outright blunders in an inferior position. He also showed perfect technique, once he saw the road to a draw and it really wasn't quite as easy as it looked.  

But Caruana needs to be very worried about his opening repertoire if he's going to concede equality so very early with white. He also needs to be concerned about being outplayed so comprehensively in a quiet position, which both know very well.

Caruana's choice of 1.e4 was no surprise really since he's a king pawn player by preference. Carlsen's Sicilian was mildly surprising, and must have been prepared for this match. Caruana picked a Rossolimo with BB5 rather than heading for an open scrap with d4. He's played this quite often,. including against Carlsen so again, no surprise.

Sicilian Rossolimos are quiet lines that supposedly give white a small, stable advantage, while blunting black's chances of creating sharp, messy counterplay.  But by move 12 or so, this position looked potentially advantageous for black!

(diagram)  After move 10.

In this position, black has the bishop pair and a grip on d4. He also has a clear plan if white does nothing. Black will look for Ne6-d4 , double major pieces (Qd6/ Rd8) on the d-file,  and start pushing pawns on the queenside. An exchange on d4 will leave black with straightforward play. He would capture with either cd4 or Rxd4 depending on circumstances and continue pushing queenside pawns. If white tries to evict the Kt with Ne2/ c3, the weak d3 pawn will come under pressure.

So white decides to lash out with f4, following up with g4, trying to raise hell on the kingside before he's smothered on the queenside. Carlsen responded beautifully. He castled queenside and pushed g5 and then sacrificed his f-pawn to open the kingside. This cool, active defence from black leads to a situation where white has weaknesses in front of his king. He's forced to evacuate with Kg1-f2-e2.

After 33--- Qg5!, it's just lost. The h-pawn push will force the Kt to a passive position, unblocking the g-file and then, it's party time.

Diagram, after move 33- Qg5

Now, Black has chances of penetrating along the 1-h8 diagonal - if Qb2 comes in for instance, the king position will fall apart. He also has chances of suddenly getting Rg3, with rampant passed pawns and a squash. Or, Rg1 may come, with an attack on the back two ranks. Plus, black can start pushing his queenside pawns to blast the queenside open. White has nothing to compensate for all of this, and he had less than a minute on the clock by now.

On the next four/five moves, Carlsen missed literally a half-dozen wins, maybe more. One or more of these attacking themes was always working. He had 36.-- Qg7 (threat Qb2); he had 38. -- Rg3!  39. Nxg3 hxg3 40. Rg2 Qa1!;  he had 39. --b5! with b4 to come; he had 40-- Qg1 (repeating) 41. Nf1 b5! or even 40.--Qg3!?.   

But Carlsen seemed unwilling to calculate, or commit to a final assault, while Caruana was just surviving on 30 second increment/ move. Carlsen finally released the pressure on move 40, when he took Bxc3? 

Diagram after 41. -- Bd4

On move 42 , Caruana exchanged queens and then proceeded to play perfectly to hold an ending where Carlsen kept trying until move 115. White's defensive idea of e5-e6-e7 push, combined with Kt swinging to f5 and the b4 break, requires both good calculation and technical understanding. The rook ending is ultimately trivially drawn even though black keeps an extra pawn.

So it's even-steven and back to the drawing board for both players, I guess. Caruana has to shore up his opening preparation and his middlegame transition plans. Carlsen has to overcome whatever psychological blocks prevented him from finishing off a game where he achieved such an overwhelming advantage. Which is easier?