Carlsen-Caruana World Championship 2018

**Nigel Hanrahan** · Saturday, 18th August, 2018, 05:11 PM

FIDE: "For the first time in decades, the World Chess crown may return to America in 2018 after Brooklyn-born Caruana won the Candidates Tournament ..."

Wikipedia notes that Caruana's family moved to Brooklyn when he was around 4 years old; he was born in Miami, Florida.

**Wayne Komer** · 2018-09-20T00:24:51

Carlsen-Caruana World Championship 2018

September 19, 2018

Carlsen – Caruana Lifetime Statistics

Tarjei J. Svensen - 54 days until Carlsen - Caruana begins in London. Here's a thread with some stats:

SCORES:

Classical: 33 (+10 =18 -5)

Blitz: 14 (+10 =1 -3)

Rapid: 5 (+2 =1 -2)

TOTAL: +22 =20 -10

https://chess24.com/en/read/news/car...g-the-pressure

**Wayne Komer** · Friday, 21st September, 2018, 09:14 PM

Carlsen – Caruana World Championship 2018

September 21, 2018

World Chess Championship 2018 live with a Neural Network

The World Chess Championship 2018 is the first in history that will have live analysis by a Neural Network. Carlsen – Caruana is going to be commented by Lc0 (aka Leela Chess Zero), the neural network project based on ideas of Alpha Zero by Google DeepMind.

The Lc0 Neural Network analysis of the World Chess Championship 2018 match, the most important chess event of the year, is now possible thanks to the work of a multitude of volunteers around the globe and the tests conducted during the regular season of the Top Chess Engine Championship

When will the Carlsen – Caruana match start?

Carlsen – Caruana 2018 match will be played will be played in London, at The College in Holborn, between 9 and 28 November 2018. Game 1 of Carlsen – Caruana will take place on November 9th at 15:00 CET

Where to watch the World Championship 2018 live with Leela?

The top chess event of the year calls for a top notch website to follow it. For the occasion the TCEC admins have created a special design with all options that one can desire – a customizable board with night and day modes, a variety of boards and pieces style to choose from, evaluation graphs of the current Carlsen – Caruana live position, a sneak peek into Leela’s Neural Network thinking process, and a customizable chat. The broadcast will be available at this address

http://tcec.chessdom.com/live.php

and you can take a look at the live broadcast elements at the beta website

http://tcecbeta.club

A Twitch Chess video channel will also be available, as embed in the webpage or as standalone commentary here, where a Grandmaster will also provide his thoughts and analysis in a live video.

https://www.twitch.tv/tcec_chess_tv

What will be the hardware used?

Leela Chess Zero (aka Lc0) will analyze live positions with multiple Tesla V100 GPUs on Google infrastructure, currently the fastest-performing hardware compatible with a chess neural network.

On this ultra-strong hardware platform Leela’s analysis is expected to be in the 3500 Elo range, comparable to the strongest chess program/hardware combination ever created. Leela Chess Zero will have an interesting contribution compared to the standard chess engines – being a Neural Network, it possesses natural intuition and ability to consider the positional flow of the game and will be specifically useful with its potent positional analysis.

How much does it cost to watch?

As every event organized by Chessdom.com and TCEC, the World Chess Championship 2018 live broadcast with Leela analysis will be free to watch. The broadcast is powered by donations and the voluntary work of the TCEC staff. If you would like to help the Leela project to run on maximum GPU power, enhance further the user experience, or support the project, feel free to pass by the donation and support page of TCEC

http://www.chessdom.com/world-chess-...eural-network/

_________

To see two recent games by Lc0 check out entry #173 at

https://forum.chesstalk.com/forum/ch...-events/page12

**Wayne Komer** · Saturday, 20th October, 2018, 11:54 PM

Carlsen-Caruana World Championship 2018

October 20, 2018

Fabiano Caruana lines up a thunderbolt against the Thor of chess, Magnus Carlsen

Dominic Lawson

The Sunday Times

October 21, 2018

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/n...lsen-k7k66275q

An excerpt:

“Two months ago the two played each other in a tournament in St Louis, Missouri, where Caruana has lived since returning to the US in 2015. Carlsen worked up what seemed a winning attack and, aware that those watching were rooting for the local boy, put his finger to his lips in the shushing gesture that footballers — Carlsen is an avid football fan — use to quieten a hostile crowd.

Caruana, unaware of the gesture, found a series of brilliant defensive moves, forcing Carlsen to concede the draw. When told afterwards what Carlsen had done, Caruana commented laconically: “He thought he was winning. He wasn’t.”

When I spoke about this with Caruana’s British manager, Mehreen Malik, she observed that although the two had met on 56 occasions (the Norwegian leads by 23 wins to 11, with 22 draws), “between Fabi and Magnus there is no relationship whatever. Nothing. They are not enemies. But that thing Magnus did in St Louis won’t have gone down well.”

Malik continued: “Fabi’s total focus blows my mind. He’s utterly disciplined and dedicated. Not an ounce of effort can be wasted.” Including, she added ruefully, on his promotional work. “It’s so difficult to get him to do that. Post on Instagram even once a week? No chance. And he’s not interested in being a celebrity, or the world knowing more about him.””

**Wayne Komer** · Saturday, 27th October, 2018, 12:48 PM

Carlsen – Caruana World Championship 2018

October 27, 2018

From FIDE World Chess:

The World Chess Championship, London, 9-28 November, 2018

Starting Times

3:00 PM London

10:00 AM New York

4:00 PM Berlin, Paris and Oslo

6:00 PM Moscow

Choosing a starting time for the rounds of the World Chess Championship is always hard, but this time we were in luck!

Players have to eat before the round. Or exercise. Or sleep-in. At the same time, the starting time has to work for spectators in Europe. Or in the US. Or in Russia.

For the 2018 World Chess Championship, the starting time is perfect: 3PM UK time. If you are in New York, you'll be able to catch the first move on your smartphone in the morning (10AM) and check-in to see the result after lunch.

If you are in Oslo, tune in at 4PM local time to see Magnus and make sure to turn on NRK in the evening -- this is when the main action will take place.

Spectators all over the world will watch the live Match, and the timing could not be better!

https://worldchess.com/tournament/11...airing?event=5

Schedule

Thu Nov 8 Opening Ceremony

Fri Nov 9 Round One

Sat Nov 10 Round Two

Sun Nov 11 Rest Day

Mon Nov 12 Round Three

Tue Nov 13 Round Four

Wed Nov 14 Rest Day

Thu Nov 15 Round Five

Fri Nov 16 Round Six

Sat Nov 17 Rest Day

Sun Nov 18 Round Seven

Mon Nov 19 Round Eight

Tue Nov 20 Rest Day

Wed Nov 21 Round Nine

Thu Nov 22 Round Ten

Fri Nov 23 Rest Day

Sat Nov 24 Round Eleven

Sun Nov 25 Rest Day

Mon Nov 26 Round Twelve

Tue Nov 27 Tie-breaks, Awards Ceremony

Wed Nov 28 Tie-breaks, Awards Ceremony

**Wayne Komer** · Wednesday, 7th November, 2018, 02:55 AM

Carlsen – Caruana World Championship 2018

November 7, 2018

Broadcasts

Chess24 announcement:

Grischuk & Giri join our Carlsen-Caruana show

The Carlsen-Caruana World Championship match starts this Friday in London, and we’re thrilled to announce the most star power we’ve ever assembled for a broadcast. Peter Svidler will again be anchoring our show from Hamburg, where he’ll be joined by Sopiko Guramishvili, while 3-time World Blitz Champion Alexander Grischuk will be phoning in from Moscow and also play Banter Blitz against chess24 Premium members after the games are over. To boost the average rating even more, world no. 5 Anish Giri will take over from his better half Sopiko for the last four games and potential tiebreaks.

It all kicks off at 15:00 in “The College”, London (07:00 San Francisco, 10:00 New York, 16:00 Madrid, 18:00 Moscow, 20:30 Mumbai, 23:00 Beijing, 02:00 Sydney) this Friday, 9th November.

Worldchess.com:

Judit Polgar to be Main Commentator for the Match

Following the official World Chess Championship Broadcast live will be as interesting as it can get: Judit Polgar, the strongest female chess player in the world and one of the nicest people in general, will be the main commentator for the Match!

Judit will comment on the games directly from the studio in the venue and will be supported by additional team of commentators and guests.

https://worldchess.com/news/72

**Wayne Komer** · Friday, 9th November, 2018, 09:51 PM

Carlsen – Caruana World Championship 2018

November 9, 2018

Round One

Round 1, Nov.9
Caruana, Fabiano – Carlsen, Magnus
B31 Sicilian, Nimzowitch-Rossolimo Attack

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bg7 6.h3 Nf6 7.Nc3 Nd7 8.Be3 e5 9.O-O b6 10.Nh2 Nf8 11.f4 exf4 12.Rxf4 Be6 13.Rf2 h6 14.Qd2 g5 15.Raf1 Qd6 16.Ng4 O-O-O 17.Nf6 Nd7 18.Nh5 Be5 19.g4 f6 20.b3 Bf7 21.Nd1 Nf8 22.Nxf6 Ne6 23.Nh5 Bxh5 24.gxh5 Nf4 25.Bxf4 gxf4 26.Rg2 Rhg8 27.Qe2 Rxg2+ 28.Qxg2 Qe6 29.Nf2 Rg8 30.Ng4 Qe8 31.Qf3 Qxh5 32.Kf2 Bc7 33.Ke2 Qg5 34.Nh2 h5 35.Rf2 Qg1 36.Nf1 h4 37.Kd2 Kb7 38.c3 Be5 39.Kc2 Qg7 40.Nh2 Bxc3 41.Qxf4 Bd4 42.Qf7+ Ka6 43.Qxg7 Rxg7 44.Re2 Rg3 45.Ng4 Rxh3 46.e5 Rf3 47.e6 Rf8 48.e7 Re8 49.Nh6 h3 50.Nf5 Bf6 51.a3 b5 52.b4 cxb4 53.axb4 Bxe7 54.Nxe7 h2 55.Rxh2 Rxe7 56.Rh6 Kb6 57.Kc3 Rd7 58.Rg6 Kc7 59.Rh6 Rd6 60.Rh8 Rg6 61.Ra8 Kb7 62.Rh8 Rg5 63.Rh7+ Kb6 64.Rh6 Rg1 65.Kc2 Rf1 66.Rg6 Rh1 67.Rf6 Rh8 68.Kc3 Ra8 69.d4 Rd8 70.Rh6 Rd7 71.Rg6 Kc7 72.Rg5 Rd6 73.Rg8 Rh6 74.Ra8 Rh3+ 75.Kc2 Ra3 76.Kb2 Ra4 77.Kc3 a6 78.Rh8 Ra3+ 79.Kb2 Rg3 80.Kc2 Rg5 81.Rh6 Rd5 82.Kc3 Rd6 83.Rh8 Rg6 84.Kc2 Kb7 85.Kc3 Rg3+ 86.Kc2 Rg1 87.Rh5 Rg2+ 88.Kc3 Rg3+ 89.Kc2 Rg4 90.Kc3 Kb6 91.Rh6 Rg5 92.Rf6 Rh5 93.Rg6 Rh3+ 94.Kc2 Rh5 95.Kc3 Rd5 96.Rh6 Kc7 97.Rh7+ Rd7 98.Rh5 Rd6 99.Rh8 Rg6 100.Rf8 Rg3+ 101.Kc2 Ra3 102.Rf7+ Kd6 103.Ra7 Kd5 104.Kb2 Rd3 105.Rxa6 Rxd4 106.Kb3 Re4 107.Kc3 Rc4+ 108.Kb3 Kd4 109.Rb6 Kd3 110.Ra6 Rc2 111.Rb6 Rc3+ 112.Kb2 Rc4 113.Kb3 Kd4 114.Ra6 Kd5 115.Ra8 1/2-1/2

Position after 33.Ke2

Position after 37.Kd2

Position after 86.Kc2

(Mike Klein at chess.com) - The 115 moves was 10 short of breaking the record for longest in title history (1978 Karpov-Korchnoi, game five, still stands).

Chat Room Kibitzers

- People seemed to think that 33...Qe5 won, but nobody analyzed it, or found lines, they just believed it because engine said -2.9, or something like that.

- 38 ... Rg3! Would’ve won

saccing the rook for the queenside pawns

39. Kxg3 - hxg3 and the qeen moves to a1 and picks up a2 and b3 and a7 runs down

- carlsen didnt seem too depressed after today in the press-zone, but judging from the headshaking and angry looks during the game, he definitely let it get to him

- Well, at least he got it together for the press.

- No rating change today. Not even 0.1.

- He could have killed the game from move 34. But Carlsen let it slip.

**Hans Jung** · Saturday, 10th November, 2018, 09:21 AM

Is Magnus a better actor than we know? Could he be secretly toying with Fabiano. Magnus I think would have normally won such a position.

**Wayne Komer** · Saturday, 10th November, 2018, 07:24 PM

Carlsen – Caruana World Championship 2018

November 10, 2018

Round Two

From Mike Klein at:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/worl...ening-surprise

In round two, Carlsen labored out of the opening after 10...Rd8. He spent about 17 minutes on his response, despite being aware of the position one ply previously, correctly citing the 1978 title match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

In fact in Baguio City the two players reached the position after White's 10th move three times, with Karpov always black. The champ played 10...Be7 twice and drew, but once played 10...Re8 with a fantastic knight sac that wasn't merely Tal-like. It was from the actual Mikhail Tal (Karpov's second)!

Carlsen said he saw a "very clear parallel" between his situation and Korchnoi's shock, despite the end result going Korchnoi's way on that day. In fact, the generational difference worried him even more, explaining that his predicament could be even more dire since the weaponry was surely made partly of computer silicon and not just human ingenuity.

Despite all of that, Korchnoi did survive on that 21st match game and even won. The position after White's 10th is still theoretically relevant today.

Rd 2, Nov. 10
Carlsen, Magnus – Caruana, Fabiano
D37 QGD, Hastings variation, main line

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 O-O 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Qc2 Nc6 9.a3 Qa5 10.Rd1 Rd8 11.Be2 Ne4 12.O-O Nxc3 13.bxc3 h6 14.a4 Ne7 15.Ne5 Bd6 16.cxd5 Nxd5 17.Bf3 Nxf4 18.exf4 Bxe5 19.Rxd8+ Qxd8 20.fxe5 Qc7 21.Rb1 Rb8 22.Qd3 Bd7 23.a5 Bc6 24.Qd6 Qxd6 25.exd6 Bxf3 26.gxf3 Kf8 27.c4 Ke8 28.a6 b6 29.c5 Kd7 30.cxb6 axb6 31.a7 Ra8 32.Rxb6 Rxa7 33.Kg2 e5 34.Rb4 f5 35.Rb6 Ke6 36.d7+ Kxd7 37.Rb5 Ke6 38.Rb6+ Kf7 39.Rb5 Kf6 40.Rb6+ Kg5 41.Rb5 Kf4 42.Rb4+ e4 43.fxe4 fxe4 44.h3 Ra5 45.Rb7 Rg5+ 46.Kf1 Rg6 47.Rb4 Rg5 48.Rb7 Rg6 49.Rb4 1/2-1/2

Position after 10…Rd8 What to play?

Position after 16…Nxd5 Would you play Nxf7 here?

Chessbomb kibitzers

- Interesting line here by stockfish after 17.Nxf7 -

17. Nxf7 Kxf7 18. Bh5+ Kg8 19. Bxd6 Rxd6 20. e4 Nf4 21. Rxd6 Qxh5 22. Rd8+ Kf7 23. Qd1 Qxd1 24. Rfxd1 e5 25. R1d2 Ng6 26. f3 Ne7 27. Rh8 Ng6 28. Rhd8

In case of a 6-6 tie the winner will be decided by a tiebreak of two rapid games 25+10 followed by two 5+3 games. If still a tie up to four more mini-matches will be played followed by an Armageddon.

Other

Heine Nielsen after 14 moves: "Today Magnus was surprised in the opening. Yesterday it was a success for Magnus, today it was a success for Caruana. But Magnus won't have any problems. Looks pretty equal and drawish."

The most interesting moment of game 2 for me was Carlsen's chance for 17 Nxf7. Both the commentators that I watched and this analysis largely ignored it. Caruana might well have "had several moves at his disposal", but what were they?

Today Carlsen wasn't prepared for Caruana's variation of the QGD. He spent an excessive amount of time on the opening & by move 15 Caruana had a 40 min. time advantage. It's nice to see the tables turned....

boring...bring Tal back

Oh, how the tables have turned... at least both sides now have a feel for their opponent. It’s going to be an awesome match.

Mike Klein - Confirmed: Regular ticket holders today at #carlsencaruana only get 30 minutes of viewing of the actual game.

Tickets cost £70.

John Saunders- I’d advise against visiting. It’s chronically overcrowded and there isn’t even room to swing Charlie the chess cat. It’s a gloomy, depressing building, like a pre-war school #CarlsenCaruana

_____________

Agon/Merenzon have the worst marketing I can imagine.

Because of the limited space in the present building (even though they could have rented a hundred other venues), the printed ticket states that you can watch the game only for a 30-minute window!

Better to watch the televised program

**Wayne Komer** · Tuesday, 13th November, 2018, 01:45 AM

Carlsen – Caruana World Championship 2018

November 12, 2018

Round Three

Macauley Peterson at chessbase:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/world-...ip-2018-game-3

A finely balanced draw

In advance of Game 3, a thunderstorm moved through central London, dumping rain and making quite a racket. But the weather proved not to presage any evident storms on the board.

Caruana showed he wasn’t averse to going for 1.e4 again and Carlsen was equally principled in following the script of Game 1 as well, by playing 1…c5 and 2.Nc6 inviting a repeat of the Rossolimo: 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bg7.

But unlike in the first match game, and the predecessor game between the two players from 2015, Fabiano opted to hold back his h3 pawn on his sixth move and instead castled 6.O-O. Magnus quickly played 6...Qc7, a rare sideline not seen before at the GM level.

__________

For a while, the game looked to be heading for a relatively early draw, but in the endgame, it was Black who could press a bit, as Caruana explained:

“I thought this ending would be equal when I went into it but then I couldn’t really see what to do and I realised I kind of have to sit and wait. I mean it’s very very drawish, it should be a draw in many ways.”

No draws were offered, but the players shook hands after 49 moves and about four hours of play.

Round 3 Nov. 12
Caruana, Fabiano – Carlsen, Magnus
B31 Sicilian, Nimzowitsch-Rossolimo Attack

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bg7 6.O-O Qc7 7.Re1 e5 8.a3 Nf6 9.b4 O-O 10.Nbd2 Bg4 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Nxf3 cxb4 13.axb4 a5 14.bxa5 Rxa5 15.Bd2 Raa8 16.Qb1 Nd7 17.Qb4 Rfe8 18.Bc3 b5 19.Rxa8 Rxa8 20.Ra1 Rxa1+ 21.Bxa1 Qa7 22.Bc3 Qa2 23.Qb2 Qxb2 24.Bxb2 f6 25.Kf1 Kf7 26.Ke2 Nc5 27.Bc3 Ne6 28.g3 Bf8 29.Nd2 Ng5 30.h4 Ne6 31.Nb3 h5 32.Bd2 Bd6 33.c3 c5 34.Be3 Ke7 35.Kd1 Kd7 36.Kc2 f5 37.Kd1 fxe4 38.dxe4 c4 39.Nd2 Nc5 40.Bxc5 Bxc5 41.Ke2 Kc6 42.Nf1 b4 43.cxb4 Bxb4 44.Ne3 Kc5 45.f4 exf4 46.gxf4 Ba5 47.f5 gxf5 48.Nxc4 Kxc4 49.exf5 1/2-1/2

Final position

Chat Room Comments

- Jan's girlfriend was just live on Norwegian TV from London, confirmed that Jan is not part of Team Carlsen but sitting at home watching their daughter.

- I can't believe what Fabi just did when he gave up his knight??! Why not e-f5 or N*f5??

- giving up the knight forces a draw

- I'm out. Really enjoyed the broadcast. Great job Peter/Sopiko/Alex!

- I don't mind Fabiano taking minimal risks, but I really dislike the formation he's using as White.
If he were getting a little something, that would be one thing, but he's had the worst of it in both Whites. If he's going to play the Rossolimo, he should keep the Bishop and play a formation with Bb5, Ba4, c3, d3, Bc2

- The Rossolimo isn't bad, but I don't like this setup . The doubled pawns and open file seem good for Black. Fabiano beat Gelfand with this line, but Gelfand played crazy.

__________

Another unique marketing idea from World Chess:

We are so happy to present sound dimension of chess: Chess notes - a tool developed by Pentagram and World Chess to offer chess fans a way to HEAR the game: a sequence of sounds with sound for each move unique as it's affected by previous moves.

**Wayne Komer** · Tuesday, 13th November, 2018, 12:28 PM

Carlsen – Caruana World Championship 2018

November 13, 2018

Round Four

On the EC Forum, Mike Gunn wrote about his visit to the Match:

Here are a few comments based on my visit yesterday: the venue is called (confusingly) on the ticket: "the College, Southampton Row". You can find no such building on google maps, but the ticket does give a more complete address: 12-42, Southampton Row, WC18 4AP and specify the entrance is in Theobalds Road. When you get there it says "LCC Central School of Arts" (or similar) over the door. Apparently it later housed the Central St Martins Art College which has now moved elsewhere. Inside the building resembles (in age and general condition) the Bishopsgate Institute which used to house the Metropolitan Chess Club/ the Metropolitan Congress. With this extra information you can locate it on google maps as "Old Central St Martins Building".

As has already been reported the rooms available (auditorium and commentary) are generally too small and the basic furniture for those two rooms is hollow wooden boxes/ forms for sitting on. As I got there at 2.15pm I was given a timed ticket from 3.00pm to 3.30pm for the auditorium but we got about 10 minutes extra. I spent most of the rest of the game duration in the commentary room where there were some extra folding chairs with back supports at the rear. In between the more general interest stuff Judit Polgar's analysis/ commentary was excellent.

Despite the limitations I enjoyed the experience and was considering going back until I saw the cheapest tickets left are priced at £70 (I paid £45 for yesterday). I didn't recognise many chessplayers from the London area although I did spot Malcolm Pein conducting a small party of attendees on the other side of the auditorium. There are about 30 security people/ attendants whose main function is to stop you wandering into VIP areas/ parts of the building which are not in use. When we went into the auditorium we were instructed to put our mobile phones into small plastic bags (Sainsbury sandwich bags) which seemed rather pointless as we were not party to any information not being broadcast live on the internet and the players in their glass box couldn't see us. We were instructed not to take photos but several people ignored that and took pictures on their ipads/ ipad clones. The whole place was packed with spectators and felt like it was bursting at the seams.

https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic...224001#p224001

**Egidijus Zeromskis** · Tuesday, 13th November, 2018, 02:36 PM

Originally posted by Wayne Komer View Post

As has already been reported the rooms available (auditorium and commentary) are generally too small and the basic furniture for those two rooms is hollow wooden boxes/ forms for sitting on. As I got there at 2.15pm I was given a timed ticket from 3.00pm to 3.30pm for the auditorium but we got about 10 minutes extra.

That seems is better than Golden State Warriors tickets for $100 just to be in the building without a chance to see a playing area LOL

**Hugh Brodie** · Tuesday, 13th November, 2018, 03:12 PM

I think I paid $20 for a tournament pass at the Montreal 1979 tournament. (free if I wanted to do a demo board - but my working hours didn't permit that)

**Victor Plotkin** · Tuesday, 13th November, 2018, 03:38 PM

So boring... Even more boring than Carlsen-Karjakin 2 years ago. Women Championship is much more interesting.