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

[Wayne Komer]

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

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

November 21, 2016

Game Eight

Magnus Carlsen resigns!

When Karjakin played 51..h5 the game was effectively over.

World Championship
New York City
Game 8, Nov. 21, 2016
Carlsen, Magnus - Karjakin, Sergey
D05 Queen's Pawn Game, Rubinstein (Colle-Zukertort) Variation

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Bb2 b6 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.Nbd2 Bb7 10.Qe2 Nbd7 11.c4 dxc4 12.Nxc4 Qe7 13.a3 a5 14.Nd4 Rfd8 15.Rfd1 Rac8 16.Rac1 Nf8 17.Qe1 Ng6 18.Bf1 Ng4 19.Nb5 Bc6 20.a4 Bd5 21.Bd4 Bxc4 22.Rxc4 Bxd4 23.Rdxd4 Rxc4 24.bxc4 Nf6 25.Qd2 Rb8 26.g3 Ne5 27.Bg2 h6 28.f4 Ned7 29.Na7 Qa3 30.Nc6 Rf8 31.h3 Nc5 32.Kh2 Nxa4 33.Rd8 g6 34.Qd4 Kg7 35.c5 Rxd8 36.Nxd8 Nxc5 37.Qd6 Qd3 38.Nxe6+ fxe6 39.Qe7+ Kg8 40.Qxf6 a4 41.e4 Qd7 42.Qxg6+ Qg7 43.Qe8+ Qf8 44.Qc6 Qd8 45.f5 a3 46.fxe6 Kg7 47.e7 Qxe7 48.Qxb6 Nd3 49.Qa5 Qc5 50.Qa6 Ne5 51.Qe6 h5 52.h4 a2 0-1

Position after 51...h5




(Robert Hess):

35. c5? Objectively a really suspect move that turns the position even more into Karjakin's favor. Karjakin goes under a minute on his clock before playing accurately by trading rooks.

37. ... Qd3?? In time trouble, Karjakin errs horribly. Black throws away great chances to win by allowing a beautiful tactic:

(37... Qa4 was the precise move needed to keep the advantage alive.)

51. Qe6??

(51. Qb7+ Nf7 52. Qa6 was necessary, though still not easy for White. Carlsen is hoping that the exposed black king is enough compensation for a draw to be held, but it remains an uphill battle.)

51... h5! The only move that reels in the full point for Karjakin. The black knight and queen do well to limit the white queen's mobility, and now Carlsen does not have a single useful move.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/karj...-new-york-8758
_________

After the game, Carlsen refused to answer questions from Agon reporter Kaja Snare and Norwegian media and immediately went to the press conference area. Because Karjakin gave his customary private interview with Russian television, Carlsen was all alone for almost two minutes.

With the world champion growing visibly uncomfortable, his manager Espen Agdestein asked for the press conference to begin without Karjakin. A few moments later, Carlsen threw up his arms and stood up, exiting back through the private door to the playing area. He did not return.

According to paragraph 6 of the match regulations, he may forfeit five percent of his prize money to Agon and a further five percent to FIDE. The prize fund is $1 million, with 60% going to the winner and 40% to the loser, or 55-45% in case of a playoff.

Online Comment

- Nothing against Karjakin, but how can he have a "customary" post-game interview with the Russian television, when Agon should have the priority to be first for the post game press conference? Once knocked out or beaten, many UFC fighters do not even show up for the press conference, so I can not blame Carlsen that he had enough for the day

- Sergey Karjakin's victory guarantees more interesting games as Magnus Carlsen, feeling the pressure, will pressure Karjakin for six hours or more in each of the remaining games. Karjakin may be the only player who can stand up to Carlsen under such pressure, or he may yet collapse under the attack..

- Spassky and Smyslov may be exceptions, but chessplayers aren't exactly known for their gentlemanly ways.

It may not be a good look, but I don't blame Magnus. He just lost a long, hard battle, one where he believed he had winning chances and blundered. Now his crown is in serious danger. On top of it all Karjakin delays his arrival to the press room to do his (customary) Russian interview. Who wants to sit and wait after all that? The next few games promise to be far more interesting than the first half of the match, with Carlsen in need of at least one win. Awesome.

[Gordon Ritchie]

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

If this is boring, I will take it any day. To his great credit, Magnus tried his damnedest to win from an equal position. This time, the result went against him but in the past I cannot count the number of equal games he has in fact won. Four games to go. This should be great fun.

[John Coleman]

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

The games and the associated broadcast are incredibly boring...

So after seven draws, Magnus presses too hard, and loses. There are only 4 games left in the match, and he has to win one, at least. "Boring" is not the term I would use.

Why don't you take up tiddley winks, there's a really exciting game for you...

[Neil Frarey]

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

Hey Paul, I created this graphic. It might help ... it might not:

Dark Side Of The Pawn
http://societyofchessaficionados.wor...eofthepawn.jpg

Like its inspiration, Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd, its about the duality of life.

[Wayne Komer]

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

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

November 22, 2016

Today is a rest day for the WCC Match.

I am expecting that the Canadian contingent will be reporting on their experiences at the venue in ChessTalk when they get back.

In the meantime, at the EC Forum, Chris Rice described today his experiences. For the full posting see:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic....191847#p191847

Two large extracts:

I was at the venue for game 8 yesterday witnessing the first decisive game of the match so here’s a report on the day.

Getting off at Fulton Street was a great experience. From here you have direct access to the World Trade Centre buildings and the 9/11 Memorial. In addition, the Fulton Centre, which houses the subway, has an enormous mall with great places to eat and an awesome view of the Hudson River. Unfortunately, though that’s not where the venue was. Walking around five minutes to the very end of Fulton Street you find the Fulton Market building propped up against the Brooklyn Bridge. Not so awesome. There was some advertising outside for the chess so you knew you were in the right place even if the entrance wasn’t immediately transparent. Finally after lapping the building and being told to get away from the VIP and Media entrances I made my way in and for my $75 received a wristband.

The organizers had taken over the second floor of the building and partitioned it off using black hoardings with the advertisers logos on them.
...

For $75 I felt I received little value to be honest, it looked like it had been done on the cheap and I had the feeling that whatever money the organizers made from this would not be ploughed back into chess for the likes of the average player. This was no London Classic. The general auditorium only offered low level benches and little wooden chairs, Roger would have hated it!

OK gripe out of the way and on to the chess. Despite what I have said above, if you put 300 chess players together you will get atmosphere and the place certainly was crackling with it. When Carlsen went 3 e3 and into a Colle you would have expected a collective sigh of desperation. However, the Colle is played by millions of club players so the spectators at the venue, most of whom were club players I'm betting, surprisingly got excited as it was an opening they could understand. Suddenly cries of “it’s a Zuke!” went up. Took me a few seconds to realize they were referring to a Colle Zukertort.

Of course, we were helped in our understanding of what was going on by the ever-impressive Judit Polgar. Her view was that this has been a different match since Carlsen messed up in game 4. How different it is I wasn’t sure. Since the match started I feel like I’ve been watching an extended Premier League match between West Brom (Carlsen) and Burnley (Karjakin). Carlsen’s strategy seems to be to eliminate the opening so that he doesn’t get hit by any Russian theoretical bombs and slowly press while Karjakin’s strategy seems to be to keep it airtight at the back. Game 8 seemed to be heading that way but it was clear on move 23 that both players were starting to get short of time and the game was opening up. As the players approached move 40 they started moving quickly and the audience started getting on like it was a boxing match. When Karjakin played …Qa3 there were shouts of “get in there!!! Sergey” but Sergey messed up with …Qd3 and we all thought it was going to be a draw and we’d all be heading off to Shake Shack* for a well-earned burger. But Carlsen played Qc6, a collective gasp from the audience, whispers of “wtf is he doing?” but Judit calmed everyone down, “Magnus loves to play and this shows just how much” but Carlsen ended up going too far and made a fatal error. 0-1

Unbelievable.

Must say I really enjoyed the game and the experience and looking forward to Game 10 on Thanksgiving Day on Thursday.
_______

(Justin Horton) - I'm just jealous. God, imagine being there for that particular game.

_________

* A “culinary” note:

Shake Shack has been inspiring excitement since it opened in New York’s Madison Square Park 11 years ago. Created by revered New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, it has since grown from a humble burger stand into a global chain with 41 U.S. outlets and 29 overseas franchises in cities such as Moscow, Dubai, Istanbul, and London. Fans line up for its signature ShackBurgers (flavor-packed beef patties served on squishy Martin’s potato rolls and wrapped in nostalgia-triggering wax paper), hot dogs (Chicago-style or with beer-marinated shallots and cheese sauce), concretes (frozen custard blended with artisanal local ingredients; each Shack has its own unique creations), and house beer (ShackMeister ale, made by Brooklyn Brewery)

https://www.fastcompany.com/3046753/...ger-revolution

[Wayne Komer]

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

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

November 23, 2016

It looks like FIDE is going to play hardball with this incident:

Magnus Carlsen declined to attend the press conference

Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Magnus Carlsen failed to attend the Round 8 post game press conference. FIDE regulations state that every player must attend the post game press conference, otherwise he will be penalised by a deduction of 10% of his prize money.
Following the conclusion of the Round 8 game, Karjakin appeared in the Mixed Zone to give brief interviews with the three official media partners to the Championship.

The procedure for players granting interviews in the Mixed Zone was agreed with the players and their management teams at the Technical Meeting prior to the start of the Championship. Both players have granted brief interviews with the three media partners in each of the preceding 7 rounds and several times one player was waiting on the stage until the other one finished his obligations.

After round 8, Magnus Carlsen arrived at the Mixed Zone one minute later than Sergey Karjakin and declined to give any interview. He was then offered to wait for a while in the Mixed Zone or on the press conference stage and Magnus decided to wait on the stage. The World Champion decided to leave the Stage 95 seconds later, even though he was informed by the FIDE Press Officer, Anastasiya Karlovich, that Karjakin was about to come to the press conference. The FIDE Press Officer tried to persuade him and his manager to come back to the press conference room, but Magnus Carlsen declined to do so.

FIDE official statement

http://www.fide.com/component/conten...onference.html

[Gordon Ritchie]

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

I do hope this chickenshit nonsense goes no farther. It is simply not appropriate to keep the World Champion waiting on stage while his challenger crows about his win with his home country media. Magnus was not his classy best but after the 8th game disaster it was understandable. Move on.

[Wayne Komer]

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

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

November 23, 2016

I agree with you 100%, Gordon. Who keeps the World Champion waiting while the Challenger is on home town TV? Their joint press conference should be the first one.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

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

Svidler and Gustafsson are simply running out of things to talk about. They're just going on, ranting about random stuff, comic books and movies. I have to give them credit, because there's not much to talk about when the two guys are just grinding drawn endgames.

[Gordon Ritchie]

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

Another draw...But a very exciting game. Just as they approached the 40-move time control, with Carlsen down to one minute, Karjakin took over 20 minutes on the critical move 39.Bxf7+, which the computers calculate is the second best move in the position, with seconds before the flag. While the other move, Qb3, might have given serious winning chances, Karjakin had to settle for a clear but insufficient advantage. In classic match style, he then pushed the World Champion around the board for another 35 moves before conceding the draw. Fascinating.

[Wayne Komer]

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

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

November 23, 2016

Game Nine

World Championship
New York City
Game 9, Nov. 23, 2016
Karjakin, Sergey - Carlsen, Magnus
C78 Ruy Lopez, Archangel Variation

[1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Bb6 10.axb5 axb5 11.Na3 O-O 12.Nxb5 Bg4 13.Bc2 exd4 14.Nbxd4 Nxd4 15.cxd4 Bxf3 16.gxf3 Nh5 17.Kh1 Qf6 18.Be3 c5 19.e5 Qe6 20.exd6 c4 21.b3 cxb3 22.Bxb3 Qxd6 23.Ra6 Rfd8 24.Rg1 Qd7 25.Rg4 Nf6 26.Rh4 Qb5 27.Ra1 g6 28.Rb1 Qd7 29.Qd3 Nd5 30.Rg1 Bc7 31.Bg5 Re8 32.Qc4 Rb5 33.Qc2 Ra8 34.Bc4 Rba5 35.Bd2 Ra4 36.Qd3 Ra1 37.Rxa1 Rxa1+ 38.Kg2 Ne7 39.Bxf7+ Kxf7 40.Qc4+ Kg7 41.d5 Nf5 42.Bc3+ Kf8 43.Bxa1 Nxh4+ 44.Qxh4 Qxd5 45.Qf6+ Qf7 46.Qd4 Ke8 47.Qe4+ Qe7 48.Qd5 Bd8 49.Kf1 Qf7 50.Qe4+ Qe7 51.Be5 Qe6 52.Kg2 Be7 53.Qa8+ Kf7 54.Qh8 h5 55.Qg7+ Ke8 56.Bf4 Qf7 57.Qh8+ Qf8 58.Qd4 Qf5 59.Qc4 Kd7 60.Bd2 Qe6 61.Qa4+ Qc6 62.Qa7+ Qc7 63.Qa2 Qd6 64.Be3 Qe6 65.Qa7+ Ke8 66.Bc5 Bd8 67.h3 Qd5 68.Be3 Be7 69.Qb8+ Kf7 70.Qh8 Qe6 71.Bf4 Qf6 72.Qb8 Qe6 73.Qb7 Kg8 74.Qb5 Bf6 1/2-1/2

Robert Hess at chess.com

38... Ne7 Played with under two minutes left, Carlsen aims to reroute the knight to f5. The knight was hoping to reach this square many moves ago, but there was never time. It may seem that the time is now, but there are tactical issues on the seventh rank.

39. Bxf7+ And Karjakin plays - to my eyes - the incorrect continuation. He finds a way to regain the piece and go up a pawn, but must have underestimated Carlsen's drawing chances.

(39. Qb3 Was the other option that Karjakin was weighing. This variation had to offer better winning chances than the game continuation, which is easy to hold. 39... Nf5 40. Bxf7+ Kg7 (40... Qxf7 41. Qxf7+ Kxf7 42. Rxh7+ Ke6 43. Rxc7 Nh4+ (43... Nxd4 44. Rg7is the main issue here. The bishop gets to c3 and prevents the king from protecting the g-pawn.)

39... Kxf7 40. Qc4+

40... Kg7 The only move that does not lose immediately.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/carl...in-game-9-1492

On-line Comments

(Nigel Short) - You need all the help you can get when one point down, so Magnus has asked an archangel to watch over him

- Caruana is only 15.1 rating point away from Carlsen in the live rating.

- I had the privilege of being there today. Indeed, I thought, as well as others around me, that 39.Qb3 was the most natural move.

- Magnus again has taken more risk. The whole black pawn sacrifice meant that black had to carry compensation through a minefield of possibilities, and lost that compensation very soon after a tiny inaccuracy (...g6 instead of Qd7, allowing Rg4/h4), leaving him with a hard to defend position (you have to find complex moves like ...Bc7 all the way). And before the time control both players missed opportunities, keeping the time trouble zone extremely tense.

Some may focus on the fact now, that Magnus was close to big trouble again. Although that's true, I don't agree with that as main perception. Once more it was Magnus' own choice to risk a tight rope walk. Doing so, immediately after your self-confidence is shaken by weak moves in the game before, and now doing so with black, is extremely courageous from my view.

My impression is that he was quite relaxed while analyzing in the press conference, and seemed to have seen more of the really critical lines than Sergey (for example the whole Qb3 line including the incredible Bg8 and the resulting endgame 2 pawns down). Both hadn't seen the Qf1 resource, and none of them discussed ...Rb4 (instead of ...Ra8 Robert Hess: engine analysis indicates that this is not just another plausible move, but a significantly better one and quite a safe drawing line). After his excellent defensive achievement, acknowledged by Karjakin, and carried throughout time trouble, he will be much more confident than he was before.

No idea if he will win a game of the last three, but now I'm sure he won't crack.

Magnus is back in the game.

- 39.Bxf7+ looks stronger than 39.Qb3

- Maybe another move entirely is best. Carlsen will be frantically analysing his responses to Qb3, and a quiet move may leave him panicking over his final two moves. We've all been there!

(Or Sergey is preparing a double move, first move 39 and then an almost-immediate response on move 40 to see if Magnus can find the right 40th move in his time trouble.)

EDIT: Sergey must be trying to convince himself to play 39.Bxf7+. Nearly out of time.

- Fascinating. Have to say, I was beginning to doubt whether Carlsen would survive in the melee leading up to move 40.

- The engines are struggling to understand the position (move 46). I'll predict a draw.

(Nigel Short) - The most natural move. 41...Nf5 looks like a draw. Some slight difficulties for Black but nothing serious

(Teymur Radjabov) - Black holds after Nf5 now. And it's much easier for the human than g5.
________

I rather think that Anish Giri will be annotating Game 8 for New In Chess after these two tweets:

- A delightful evening ahead: going to sit on the couch and annotate game 8.

- As usual, all my "brilliant" thoughts that don't fit into 140 characters can be found in the next issue of New In Chess.
_________

(Tarjel J. Svensen) - Team Carlsen has confirmed that the 10 % fine for not attending the press conference has been appealed

[Nigel Hanrahan]

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

Another draw...But a very exciting game. Just as they approached the 40-move time control, with Carlsen down to one minute, Karjakin took over 20 minutes on the critical move 39.Bxf7+, which the computers calculate is the second best move in the position, with seconds before the flag. While the other move, Qb3, might have given serious winning chances, Karjakin had to settle for a clear but insufficient advantage. In classic match style, he then pushed the World Champion around the board for another 35 moves before conceding the draw. Fascinating.

I don't read it like you do. This was a bit of bullying by Karjakin to me. "I'm winning and there's nothing you can do about it." Cocky little so-and-so. And good for him. Let's see what Magnus is made of. Either result is good to me but, I must confess, a Russian World Chess Champion is like the Montreal Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup. Or Scuderia Ferrari winning the F1 Ch'ship. All is well in the world.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

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

I don't read it like you do. This was a bit of bullying by Karjakin to me. "I'm winning and there's nothing you can do about it." Cocky little so-and-so. And good for him. Let's see what Magnus is made of. Either result is good to me but, I must confess, a Russian World Chess Champion is like the Montreal Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup. Or Scuderia Ferrari winning the F1 Ch'ship. All is well in the world.

Well, to be fair Magnus is also to blame here because he's among those who started this trend of grinding out drawn endgames.

Some of the games were fine, but they've been playing out these drawn endgames way too much. The commentators look like they badly need a drink or something to remain interested.

[David Bowers]

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

Wonder if the players are both quite amenable to a mere 12 game match? Go down just one game and you are on the ropes. I'm old though and therefore am probably quite in the minority in my chess views. I remember the golden days of chess: full and proper 24 game matches with draw odds to the champ (to prevent matches from slipping into farcical speed chess).

[Mathieu Cloutier]

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

Wonder if the players are both quite amenable to a mere 12 game match? Go down just one game and you are on the ropes. I'm old though and therefore am probably quite in the minority in my chess views. I remember the golden days of chess: full and proper 24 game matches with draw odds to the champ (to prevent matches from slipping into farcical speed chess).

This wouldn't do in our fast paced world. Can't have an event last a whole month or more. Media interest would fade.

But I agree that 12 games is on the short side. 16 games would be fine, IMO.

And for a tiebreak, I would have them play rapid games at 20m + 10s until a winner emerges.