2018 World Chess Championship

**Hitai de Bodemloze** · November 09, 2018, 09:05 AM

Another year, another championship! Is anyone else tuning in today? Any predictions? I imagine it will be a tight series again, but Carlsen should see it out before the tie-breaks; he has a good record against Caruana this year.

Sicilian on board in game one! Madness

Edit: game one is done! Seven hours and over one hundred moves! My Friday went by in the blink of an eye! It was an interesting defence out of the Sicilian, which I don't think we've seen in any of the past four World Championships. Carlsen definitely had the upper hand in the mid-game (approaching a +2 advantage at times!), but a series of inaccuracies just before the first time control killed his lead. This was quite surprising, as it was Caruana that was under the serious time pressure (being down to about 25 minutes after the first 15 moves!). I actually thought Caruana would lose - or at least blunder - on time, but he managed to make the right moves all the way to the end. However, it was really Carlsen who threw the game, missing the killer blow in the half dozen moves before time control. However, he stuck at it, even when it looked like a dead draw position. There were definitely times when I thought he would do a 'classic Carlsen' and draw blood from the stone; managing to breathe life into a dead position, as he is so infamous at doing. He came close, even as we passed move 100, but Caruana always managed to find that one move to keep him alive. A draw was eventually and somewhat unfortunately agreed. Carlsen really dominated the match with the black pieces, and should really have won, but he just didn't make the killer move to end it. Hopefully tomorrow's game will be just as exciting!!

**Sir Adrian** · November 10, 2018, 04:03 AM

That was the longest chess game i have ever seen

**Hitai de Bodemloze** · November 10, 2018, 12:31 PM

I don't know, we often get a couple of 7+ hour games every World Championship. Surprising it was in game one though; the first game is usually a quick draw as they feel each other out. Carlsen came in guns blazing though.

Game two wasn't nearly as exciting, alas. Quite a drab game which ended in a draw shortly after time control - around 3 hours overall. Caruana was in prep for at least the first 15 moves, but it didn't really pay off for him. There were a few interesting points in the middle game where Carlsen could've sacked a knight, but he didn't go down that route. Black had pressure early, but he parried it rather safely and it was a bit of a snoozefest from there. Rest day tomorrow, before the action resumes on Monday. I have work to do next week sadly, so not sure when I will be able to catch the next live game - probably next weekend.

**Trobalov** · November 29, 2018, 06:33 AM

So Magnus even if he was not as convincing, cruised into the tiebreaks! Fabionly had one big chance to score a game so we can safely conclude he was not deserving to beat Magnus.

I was always a strong supporter of the concept that the challenger has to prove his superiority over the classical portion. Therefore we could have 2 alternatives one of which was already applied in Kasparov Karpov 1985 match:

1) 24 games and 12-12 Champion retains the title.
2) tiebreaks are played beforehand to determine who is benefited by the 6-6 or 12-12 scenarios. That way I can assure you the match would be very different approach by both players.

**Hitai de Bodemloze** · November 29, 2018, 07:52 AM

I was rather surprised Magnus didn't clinch it in the classical games; there were definitely three games where he had a significant advantage. I think Caruana only had one dominant game (I forget which), but he missed a mate in 30 or something (which admittedly must be pretty hard to see!). But yeah, the timebreaks were so one sided! Can understand now why Magnus offered that early draw in game 12. I felt a little bad for Caruana once we got to the rapids, he was completely outclassed, but I'm still glad Carlsen won - he's for sure the strongest player at the moment.

We had an interesting variety of openings though, which took me by surprise. I'm so used to seeing the Berlin in these World Championships, that to see Sicilians and the English (one of my favourite openings) was a breath of fresh air. Most of this was by Carlsen though; Caruana seemed to stick with the same opening every time he had white, and it never really worked out in his favour. For most of the match he looked like he was more well prepared than Carlsen, but he was never able to convert that prep work into results. I would have preferred to see him be a little more daring with some more esoteric lines, at least in the opening stages of the match. That's how Carlsen has been caught about before in championships; I remember Anand absolutely crushing him one game in 2014 with a very niche, theoretical line out of the QGD. Caruana could have done with a similar ace up his sleeve.

**Trobalov** · November 29, 2018, 08:54 AM

As Magnus admitted, the difference is so little in their classical portion that it is normal we saw so many draws. The quality of the games was really high as average. Very few mistakes and indeed many new opening Ideas.

I liked Svenshnikov rebirth and also Nd5 against it on Caruana's part. The asymmetrical pawn structures that arose were extremely educating for all. Magnus failed to push as white but he was focused enough not to overdo it (like he did with Karjakin) so he was never in danger apart from a single game as you mentioned already.

I would have loved to see main theoretical lines but of course, this is not what Magnus is known for excelling for, also risking to get caught in some amazing homework. He is deserving Champion pragmatic and making use of all the given advantages and his alien intuition.