Featured image credit: Niki Riga
Not This Time!
In the game eight of the 2016 World Chess Championship Match against Sergey Karjakin, Magnus Carlsen lost in a dramatic fashion. Playing White, he played too riskily, landed in a lost position, swindled his way out of it, avoided a draw and blundered to a loss again.
Two years later, game eight almost proved deadly again. For the first time in the match, a player with the White pieces obtained a substantial advantage out of the opening. Fabiano Caruana had Magnus on ropes, but at the decisive moment he played too timidly and allowed him to escape. Therefore, in contrast to two years ago, the World Champion never had any chances. He was happy to escape with a draw.
Round 8 report follows.
Game Course
For the fourth time, Caruana opened with 1 e4 and Magnus replied with 1 c5. However, in contrast to the previous games, this time there was no Rossolimo. On move 3, Caruana decided to advance his d-pawn and enter the main line of the Sicilian. It got positive reactions of the chess community, particularly from Sopiko Guramishvili:
With 4… Nf6, Carlsen disclosed he has prepared the Sveshnikov for this World Championship match. However, Caruana was once again first to sprung the real surprise. Instead of the main-line 7 Bg5, he employed the rare continuation 7 Nd5!?. He was obviously well prepared and kept blitzing out his moves, including the quiet, but venomous 12 Bd2.
Both sides kept making logical moves up to move 18. After the first big think, Carlsen unleashed the dubious 18…g5?!, probably mixing up his home analysis, as indicated by Anish Giri:
After Caruana played 19 c4 followed by 20 Bc3 (with the inevitable threat of 21 c5!), the champion’s position became critical. Caruana did indeed sacrifice a pawn on the next move. The engines screamed White was close to winning, but it was quite difficult to prove it over the board. Caruana failed to follow the pawn sacrifice up with the strongest continuation (his 24 h3?! was especially meek, but both players were under the impression Black is fine if g4 is allowed).
After the missed chance, Carlsen started finding a strong move. The tension resolved into opposite-color bishop endgame, which quickly led to yet another draw.
Game Analysis
The Aftermath?
An old football rule states that if you miss your chances, a punishment usually follows. This is the second time in three games Caruana has had a serious advantage, yet the result remains unchanged. Together with game 6, game 8 is bound to affect Caruana psychologically.
The mood of the players after the game is best described by the following photo:
With the proximity of tiebreaks, Caruana has more reasons to get worried. With four more games remaining, it is debatable whether the champion will open up like this again. On the other hand, he has managed to outprepare Magnus so far in this match.
Who knows if he will be able to do so again?