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!!