Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

+3 or +6 doesn't really matter in that position. Both moves are clearly winning and it's just a matter of taste. No need to overanalyze this.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

.....Qh6+ was a spectacular shot all the same......

Yes.... But did anyone bother to ask Carlsen after the game whether he saw when he played 45.Qxf4 the mate using the Queen sacrifice?

You see, 47.Qxf4 was not the best move at that point in the game. Here's how Stockfish 8 saw it to a search depth of 32 plies:

1 32 +6.64
47.Rc8+ Bd8 48.h6 b5 49.Qb2 gxh6 50.Rh5 Qe7 51.Rxh6 f6 52.Kf1 Kg7 53.Rh3 Qe5 54.Qg2+ Qg5 55.Qxg5+ fxg5 56.Rxd8 Ra6 57.Rb8 Ra1+ 58.Ke2 Ra2+ 59.Kd3 g4 60.Rh4 gxf3 61.Rxf4 Rxh2 62.Rxf3 Rb2 63.Rf5 Rb3+ 64.Kd4 b4 65.Kd5 Rb1 66.Rf3 Rb2 67.Kxd6 Kg6 68.Rg8+ Kh7

2 32 +2.73
47.Qxf4 Qxf4 48.Rxf4 Bf6 49.Rc8+ Kh7 50.Rf5 Bd4 51.Kg3 Bc5 52.Rb8 g6 53.hxg6+ fxg6 54.Rff8 Kg7 55.Rg8+ Kf6 56.Rbf8+ Rf7 57.Kg4 Rxf8 58.Rxf8+ Kg7 59.Rb8 Kf6 60.h4 Bd4 61.Rf8+ Ke7 62.Ra8 Kf6 63.Rc8 Bc5 64.Rf8+ Kg7 65.Rb8 Kf6 66.Rd8 b5 67.Rf8+ Ke6 68.Kg5 d5 69.Rf6+ Ke5 70.Kxg6 dxe4

So this is very important: 47.Rc8+ is way superior to 47.Qxf4..... +6.64 compared to +2.73.

HOWEVER..... is it possible that in playing 47.Qxf4 Carlsen USED PSYCHOLOGY?

Because as you see above, the natural reply for Karjakin would have been to trade off the Queens on f4. Stockfish sees that because Stockfish sees that while 47....Ra2+ followed by 48....Qf2, has mate threats for Black, it leads to the 49.Rc8+ and 50.Qh6+ mating combo for White.

Stockfish sees this, but it was very likely that Karjakin, BECAUSE HE IS DESPERATE TO WIN THIS GAME, would NOT see it and would instead go for the 47....Ra2+ and 48....Qf2 line, seeing all those Black mating threats. And he would lose to the mate that was played.

Did Carlsen anticipate that Karjakin would, in his desperate state to win the game, make this exact fatal error? And did that cause Carlsen to play 47.Qxf4 and lead Karjakin along the path to his doom?

I wish someone had asked Carlsen this after the game. Perhaps the question can still be put to him. It would make 47.Qxf4 a stunning psychological ploy! Sure, Carlsen could have won with 47.Rc8+, but did he DELIBERATELY choose the more psychological (and much quicker) path to victory? Or did Carlsen simply not realize that 47.Rc8+ was a much better move technically.... did he actually make a bad move and extricate himself by finding Qh6+ which was the one saving move?

If he saw it all at 47.Qxf4, then I would call that move one of the most brilliant psychological moves in perhaps decades, even if it wasn't necessary to win. The only move I recall that compares was Anand's ....h6 against Topalov in an early game in their WC match (whatever year that was), which psychologically compelled Topalov to launch a Kingside attack that Anand calculated would fall short and broke that match open for Anand. The situation was similar in that Anand's ....h6, if Topalov did NOT launch the Kingside attack, would have been a pretty lame move and Topalov could have found ways to secure a long term advantage. But Anand made the ....h6 move, psychologically calculating Topalov would not be able to resist the Kingside attack. Anand talked about that after the game.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

I was pretty disappointed in this match. Karjakin never really deserved to win a single game imo and Carlsen could have won as many as six (including TB games).
To me Karjakin's performance is about on par with Kasparov's vs Kramnik back in 2000.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

December 1, 2016

GM Jonathan Tisdall sums up the match in a long article in Matt & Patt (in English)

http://mattogpatt.no/2016/12/01/happy-birthday-magnus/

It contains these provocative paragraphs:

Carlsen was winning every opening battle. Maybe not in the way we used to think of winning the opening, by unveiling some novel path to advantage. But he was never surprised and was generally the one posing questions. The only opening that arguably went wrong was the fateful game 9, but even there Team C steered the opening course, it was just a very poor choice, especially for the match situation. With Team K unable to dictate the battlefields, the path to eventual gradual punishment was short.

Where the million dollar preparation from Team K went remains an enigma. Maybe a whole series of unlucky candidates are going to find this out in March 2018. But Carlsen appeared the better prepared.

One other question occurred to me during all this musing – what will the effect of this match be on future Carlsen challengers? Will they feel encouraged by the apparent tarnishing of the champion’s greatest weapon, or is he just evolving as a player? Magnus often appeared to be playing – differently. He clearly had a policy of aiming for positions of greater complexity often, choosing sharper play – not just when growing frustrated during the match proper, but also at a critical juncture in the second rapid game, when he could have settled for a very comfy and ‘typically Carlsen’ grind. It often appeared that he preferred his chances vs Sergey in messy rather than technical play.

To my mind, Magnus has been very methodically expanding his playing style over the past few years, more and more ready to play theoretical variations, and happier to play sharper and sharper positions. This year, especially in some rapid events, and even more so when angry, he has produced games and performances that remind me of the kind of extra level Fischer achieved over his near peers at the height of his powers, and which I thought signaled a looming quantum leap in strength.
________

To appreciate the whole argument Tisdall makes, see the original article.

Kasparov was short but right in his tweet. Just in one sentence he described what you (or Jonathan Tisdall) just wrote in many paragraphs LOL
"Congratulations to Magnus! His lack of preparation angered the goddess Caissa, but not enough to drive her into the drab Karjakin's arms."

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

December 1, 2016

GM Jonathan Tisdall sums up the match in a long article in Matt & Patt (in English)

http://mattogpatt.no/2016/12/01/happy-birthday-magnus/

It contains these provocative paragraphs:

Carlsen was winning every opening battle. Maybe not in the way we used to think of winning the opening, by unveiling some novel path to advantage. But he was never surprised and was generally the one posing questions. The only opening that arguably went wrong was the fateful game 9, but even there Team C steered the opening course, it was just a very poor choice, especially for the match situation. With Team K unable to dictate the battlefields, the path to eventual gradual punishment was short.

Where the million dollar preparation from Team K went remains an enigma. Maybe a whole series of unlucky candidates are going to find this out in March 2018. But Carlsen appeared the better prepared.

One other question occurred to me during all this musing – what will the effect of this match be on future Carlsen challengers? Will they feel encouraged by the apparent tarnishing of the champion’s greatest weapon, or is he just evolving as a player? Magnus often appeared to be playing – differently. He clearly had a policy of aiming for positions of greater complexity often, choosing sharper play – not just when growing frustrated during the match proper, but also at a critical juncture in the second rapid game, when he could have settled for a very comfy and ‘typically Carlsen’ grind. It often appeared that he preferred his chances vs Sergey in messy rather than technical play.

To my mind, Magnus has been very methodically expanding his playing style over the past few years, more and more ready to play theoretical variations, and happier to play sharper and sharper positions. This year, especially in some rapid events, and even more so when angry, he has produced games and performances that remind me of the kind of extra level Fischer achieved over his near peers at the height of his powers, and which I thought signaled a looming quantum leap in strength.
________

To appreciate the whole argument Tisdall makes, see the original article.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

December 1, 2016

The Morning After

This morning there was a piece in The Guardian by Stephen Moss on the finish of the Match. Among other things it said:

Just after Magnus Carlsen had defeated Sergey Karjakin to retain his world chess championship, at 1am UK time on Thursday morning, I looked at the Guardian home page and was astonished and delighted to see that the liveblog on the world championship was the third-most read item on its website. For a moment chess – ignored, marginalised, even derided by some – finally had its place in the sun.

The four rapidplay tie-breakers which decided the match, after 12 classical games had finished all-square, were one of those rare moments when all the stars aligned, creating a truly memorable event. It was Carlsen’s 26th birthday; rapidplay – where each player has about half an hour for all his moves – is fast enough to be exciting but provides sufficient time for “proper” chess to be played; Karjakin defended doughtily in a terrible position in game two and the Norwegian missed a win; and then, best of all, Carlsen found the most beautiful checkmate in the final game to secure the title.

That coup de grâce contained something that is akin to the holy grail in chess – a queen sacrifice. Except it wasn’t quite a sacrifice because the Russian, realising the game was up, didn’t take it. He resigned instead, shook Carlsen’s hand, and in the press conference that followed said that at 26, he was far from done in his pursuit of the world title.
I tweeted immediately after the game that Carlsen’s beautiful move would be to chess what Ian Botham’s heroics at Headingley in 1981 were to cricket: an indelible memory, something that makes you continue to believe in the sport even in the bad times. Carlsen was already winning the game and only needed to draw to keep his title, having already won game three of the tie-breakers. He could have played safe and ground out a draw. But he looked deeper and found this lovely move, calculating – despite having just two minutes left on his clock – that mate was inevitable. It was bold, brave, brilliant.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/bl...ergey-karjakin

At the press conference after the last game Carlsen said, "I pretty much knew this was going to happen when we made the draw in the 11th game. My strategy was to go for the tiebreak and try my luck there."

"I didn't actually know what my score against him was in rapid," Carlsen replied. "I felt that it was an advantage for me that I didn't have to think as much about game 12 and he did. And I felt my head was working better than it was [before]...Playing four games instead of one seemed like a very good idea. Besides, it was very refreshing to play a bit faster after all these weeks."

Karjakin took the match much longer than GM Viswanathan Anand could. In 2013, Carlsen needed 10 games to wrest the title, then in 2014, he needed 11 games to retain it. Both matches were against the former Indian champion.
Carlsen necessarily called it his toughest world championship test and compared it to the 2013 Candidates' Tournament "where I barely got through."

Yesterday after a mostly equal opener, round two produced a massive opportunity for Carlsen, who could not convert despite several winning moves. Karjakin was universally lauded for defending a worse position for 84 moves, many of them with less than 10 seconds on his clock.

The challenger found a multi-move drawing combination, fantastically sacrificing all three remaining pawns and his rook! Pundits were once again mystified how Carlsen could fail at yet another conversion.

"I would shoot myself in Magnus's place," commentator GM Judit Polgar said.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/carl...mpionship-7236

In Game 3, Karjakin ran his clock below five seconds and then played 38.Rxc7 and resigned.

In Game 4, being behind, Karjakin brought out the Siclian and traded blows with Carlsen but spent precious minutes on his moves and succumbed to the beautiful checkmate mentioned above.

Karjakin said at the press conference that he suffered from the transition to rapid from classical time controls.

Karjakin said he was so immersed in chess that he didn't know many other events from the last three weeks.

"I'm going to ask my wife what actually has happened," he said. Later, he said that fatherly milestones are waiting for him -- his son is currently taking his first steps.

Where do the players go from here? Well, they both plan to play the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Qatar in December. But on a more long-term level, Karjakin said he will fight again for the top honor in chess. Not surprisingly, he plans to accept his invitation to the next Candidates' Tournament.

The tournament structure was also discussed. Agon director Ilya Merenzon shared some impressive statistics: More than 10 million viewers watched the official website (90 percent on smartphones); more than 10,000 watched in person (possibly a record, he's checking on Chennai 2013); and more than 400 accredited media covered the match.
________

Online Comments

- Hats off to Karjakin, he played an amazing match and shows he thoroughly deserved to be the challenger.

- 10 million viewers, is that 1 million viewers and 9 million attempted re connections ?

- It was a great match all in all...very tough for both players and much more tense than the last two WCC matches.

Congrats to Sergey who turned out to be a truly worthy opponent for Magnus in every respect, a very modest and sympathetic person and a graceful loser.

Apparently Agon and Fide with their corrupt club of clowns will run official chess for the coming years, but then again there is no need to support them if you have sites like this one and Jan & Peter commenting on chess24

- Karjakin's impossible defense at Rapid Round #2... Before the world championship, I thought Caruana vs Carlsen would be a better match-up. But after this enormous fight, I KNOW that Karjakin was a very tough candidate, very very tough. He put his all to the fight, and shown one of the best defences I've ever seen. Therefore, I congratulate Sergey for his effort and coming so close to winning the championship

- The best WC ever ending with the best mate ever!

The rapid ending was brilliant and so was Carlsen. Impressive how Karjakin defended against the constantly attacking Carlsen - It looked like a winning strategy for a long time...and in the end the best player won.

- These tiebreaks perfectly showed that this thing shouldn't be allowed in classical chess. One of the players couldn't readjust his way of play and games were very one-sided. And i don't really think that we can blame Karjakin for this too hard - he played 12 classical games on the highest level possible, some of them lasted for many hours. I think that the best format is 16-18 games and the champion holds the title if drawn. If people love rapid/blitz maybe we can see increasing number of blitz/rapid events in the future but where is no necessity in bringing world championship match to it.

- The Classical World Championship match should be 16 games (12 are too short to provide a definitive winner; 24 are too long/expensive for sponsors), with the champion retaining the title in the event of an 8 - 8 result. Rapid and Blitz games (not to mention an Armaggedon game) should have nothing to do with determining the Classical World Champion. Those games belong in tournaments/matches for the World Rapid and World Blitz Championship titles, respectively.

- Sergey will always be remembered. The second game of yesterday will go down in history as THE IMMORTAL DEFENSE.

- "Giving a queen to mate by force is giving mate."

Of course it's a sacrifice, even if it's for mate. You are "giving a queen" is just another way of saying "sacrificing a queen." If Magnus didn't get anything in return, it would be called "blundering the queen."

Anyway, it was a spectacular way to end the match. People will be looking at that move for decades to come. I thought it was a great finale. Kudos to both players for a tense match and an exciting finish.

- In the end the best man won, i was very impressed with both players high class and sportsmanship in the final press conference with Carsen given high praise to Sergey and Karjakin wishing Magnus a happy birthday, it was really so polite and nice, wish it was like this in all sports

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Qh6 by Carlsen might seem simple from the comfort of our seats, with the engine running and all.

But we have to appreciate that it had to be planned well in advance. Because it is, literally, the only winning move. Without it, white is losing.

As Svidler said: in time pressure any GM, even super-GM, would have played something along the lines of 49.Qg3 to defend the possible checkmates. Carlsen had forseen the possibility of Rc8+ and a nice mate. I guess it sort of compensate for the missed wins in game 2 of the tiebreak.

True enough ... I saw a tweet that asked the question: "what is the winning move here for Carlsen?" Knowing that there WAS a single winning move made it easy(easier) to spot. I wasn't following the playoffs at all - in fact, I had to search Twitter to find out Carlsen had retained the title. Qh6+ was a spectacular shot all the same, but as I mentioned elsewhere, I do not like the playoff situation at all and didn't bother to watch. I saw a tweet this morning from Naka saying (essentially) that this WC was the first one since he started playing serious chess that he DID NOT follow glued to the games... Overall, a big let down from my perspective, but it did sort of underscore that Carlsen is damn close to unbeatable at the moment.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Qh6 by Carlsen might seem simple from the comfort of our seats, with the engine running and all.

But we have to appreciate that it had to be planned well in advance. Because it is, literally, the only winning move. Without it, white is losing.

As Svidler said: in time pressure any GM, even super-GM, would have played something along the lines of 49.Qg3 to defend the possible checkmates. Carlsen had forseen the possibility of Rc8+ and a nice mate. I guess it sort of compensate for the missed wins in game 2 of the tiebreak.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Dude! Stub out that reefer! Make yourself a coffee if you're going to stay up this late!

I wrote: "Let the 12th game be the one that decides, and defending champion gets Black in that game."

If we use a 13 games format. The challenger is playing black in game 12 and white in game 13... Just so to keep them alternating colors.

I thought it was obvious.

[Neil Frarey]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Wow! That was thrilling!

Thanks Wayne for bringing the match here to CT :)

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

November 30, 2016

Tiebreaks
Rapid Game Four

World Chess Championship
New York City
Rapid Game 4, Nov. 30, 2016
Carlsen, Magnus - Karjakin, Sergey
B55 Sicilian, Prins Variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 e5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.c4 a5 8.Be3 a4 9.Nc1 O-O 10.Nc3 Qa5 11.Qd2 Na6 12.Be2 Nc5 13.O-O Bd7 14.Rb1 Rfc8 15.b4 axb3 16.axb3 Qd8 17.Nd3 Ne6 18.Nb4 Bc6 19.Rfd1 h5 20.Bf1 h4 21.Qf2 Nd7 22.g3 Ra3 23.Bh3 Rca8 24.Nc2 R3a6 25.Nb4 Ra5 26.Nc2 b6 27.Rd2 Qc7 28.Rbd1 Bf8 29.gxh4 Nf4 30.Bxf4 exf4 31.Bxd7 Qxd7 32.Nb4 Ra3 33.Nxc6 Qxc6 34.Nb5 Rxb3 35.Nd4 Qxc4 36.Nxb3 Qxb3 37.Qe2 Be7 38.Kg2 Qe6 39.h5 Ra3 40.Rd3 Ra2 41.R3d2 Ra3 42.Rd3 Ra7 43.Rd5 Rc7 44.Qd2 Qf6 45.Rf5 Qh4 46.Rc1 Ra7 47.Qxf4 Ra2+ 48.Kh1 Qf2 49.Rc8+ Kh7 50.Qh6+ 1-0

Online Comments

(Pavel Eljanov) - Sergey is fighting like a lion-huge respect towards him. But the question is still open: for what they spent one million for preparation?

(Hikaru Nakamura) - 4 rapid games in 1 day to decide the WCH seems wrong. 2+2 makes a lot more sense if the goal is quality over quantity.

(Sebastien Maze) [after R3] - What an amazing game by Magnus !!!

(Nigel Short) - Out of curiosity, why haven't there been any body searches during games? FIDE seemed to think it was a great idea in Baku

(Paco Vallejo) [after R2] - This is one of the most unexpected saves I have seen in my life. No time . No Position. Unbelievable. UNBELIEVABLE!!!

(Tarjel J. Svensen) - So Carlsen is white and needs a draw. If he loses this game, I will never play a chess game again in my life

- 22. g3?! amazing move

- what on earth? Does Magnus know he�s winning?

- Engine starts to like g3 more and more when reaching deeper evaluation

- I think Sergei has painted himself into a corner with 26�b6

- imagine Giri vs Karjakin in the WCC. First to win 10 games. The match would outlive my great grandson

- Thank you Jan, Peter and Eric for excellent coverage of the match!!

- At move 27 Sergei at 4 mins left! Magnus with 10.

- No draw, no resign, play to the end.

- Rc8+ Kh7 Qh6!!!!

- Now THAT is a beautiful mate!

- Congrats Carlsen!!!

- karjakin showed real class allowing this nice mate to be shown. Classy guy
_________

Magnus Carlsen retains his World Championship. Sergey Karjakin, a worthy challenger, and incredible in defence.

Final Score in the tiebreak Carlsen-Karjakin 3-1

[Gordon Ritchie]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Congratulations to World Champion Magnus Carlsen. From where I sat watching these games, it appeared that Magnus dominated throughout but had unusual difficulty putting Sergey away and, when he overpressed, actually lost a game. In the tie-breaks, again, Sergey was defending in the last three games and, given the rapid time controls, was not able to hold out. A great match.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

What a grand finale LOL

Congrats and Happy Birthday Magnus :)

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

November 30, 2016

Tiebreaks
Rapid Game Three

World Chess, with Peter Doggers and Judit Polgar, is going strong as is chess24 with Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafsson. Chessbomb went down and is now up again. The explanation online was this:

ChessBomb: Apologies for the downtime everyone. There is an ongoing DDoS against us, but it was not the reason. Our database master overloaded the network bandwidth on its host, and we had to move it to a more powerful server.

World Chess Championship
New York City
Rapid Game 3, Nov. 30, 2016
Karjakin, Sergey – Carlsen, Magnus
C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a3 O-O 9.Nc3 Na5 10.Ba2 Be6 11.b4 Nc6 12.Nd5 Nd4 13.Ng5 Bxd5 14.exd5 Nd7 15.Ne4 f5 16.Nd2 f4 17.c3 Nf5 18.Ne4 Qe8 19.Bb3 Qg6 20.f3 Bh4 21.a4 Nf6 22.Qe2 a5 23.axb5 axb4 24.Bd2 bxc3 25.Bxc3 Ne3 26.Rfc1 Rxa1 27.Rxa1 Qe8 28.Bc4 Kh8 29.Nxf6 Bxf6 30.Ra3 e4 31.dxe4 Bxc3 32.Rxc3 Qe5 33.Rc1 Ra8 34.h3 h6 35.Kh2 Qd4 36.Qe1 Qb2 37.Bf1 Ra2 38.Rxc7 Ra1 0-1

Online Comments

(Jan Gustaffson) – People like when at tense positions in the game that I start talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Sergey looks calm and very very focussed.
- Never play f3, Sergey should learn this Ben Finegold rule
- Big black clouds over the white king
- Man, the Chessbomb server was overloaded. Every nerd in the universe has gathered here
- if Carlsen loses this match, rapid game 2 will haunt him for ages
- Yes but Karjakin was playing on reflex that ENTIRE endgame.
- at move 24 Magnus is ahead on the clock 15 minutes to 5 minutes for Sergey
- Later, I hope to see a grandmaster’s deep analysis of that last game. That was wild! And I must admit the endgame was way beyond my chess comprehension.
- This reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Homer would win after his opponents were exhausted from punching him, and at the end he gave them one punch to win the match
- Sergey is maybe a little like Grischuk: 1. get in time trouble 2. play strong moves

Sergey Karjakin blunders with 38. Rxc7 and resigns the game. Magnus must draw the last game to win the match.
Game 4 to follow.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

Games of the Carlsen-Karjakin W.C.C. Match

November 30, 2016

Tiebreaks

All sorts of difficulty getting on the chess24.com site for the first game. Also ChessTalk down supposedly due to unpaid bills. Something always seems to happen for the first game.

World Chess Championship
New York City
Tiebreaks
Rapid Game 1, Nov. 30, 2016
Karjakin, Sergey – Carlsen, Magnus
C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a3 O-O 9.Nc3 Nb8 10.Ne2 c5 11.Ng3 Nc6 12.c3 Rb8 13.h3 a5 14.a4 b4 15.Re1 Be6 16.Bc4 h6 17.Be3 Qc8 18.Qe2 Rd8 19.Bxe6 fxe6 20.d4 bxc3 21.bxc3 cxd4 22.cxd4 exd4 23.Nxd4 Nxd4 24.Bxd4 Rb4 25.Rec1 Qd7 26.Bc3 Rxa4 27.Bxa5 Rxa1 28.Rxa1 Ra8 29.Bc3 Rxa1+ 30.Bxa1 Qc6 31.Kh2 Kf7 32.Bb2 Qc5 33.f4 Bd8 34.e5 dxe5 35.Bxe5 Bb6 36.Qd1 Qd5 37.Qxd5 1/2-1/2

First game is drawn and there will be three more rapid. If the match is tied then, there will be five double round blitz to follow unless someone wins in the meantime.

Having trouble connecting to ChessBomb too - for third rapid.

Bob A