(Cover photo credit: Macauley Peterson, Chessbase report)
ENGLISHMEN IN LONDON
After four games in the World Chess Championship 2018, the result remains unchanged. In his second White game, the World Champion employed the English opening. His switch to 1 c4 wasn’t a tribute to the home team, but more probably an attempt to avoid both Queen’s Gambit and the Petroff.
It brought him little benefits as the result was the quickest draw of the match so far. Caruana equalized rather comfortably – for the fourth time in the match, the player with the Black pieces experienced no problems. He did experience problems off-the-board, though.
Round 4 report follows.
IT WAS GONNA LEAK EVENTUALLY
The biggest shock of the day happened long before game 4 even started. At 6 a.m. local time, a video of Caruana preparing for the match was published on the Saint Louis Chess Club Youtube Channel. Apart from him playing basketball and riding in a four-wheeler, there was one huge problem – it also included a shot of computer screen displaying a part of his opening preparation. Vital lines such as „QGD Aronian’s 9 Bd3“ or „Petroff 4 Nc3“ are clearly visible:
There has been a lot of speculation whether this was a stunt to make Magnus chase ghosts, or simply an (un)intentional mistake. Considering that the screen clearly displays the Harrwitz attack line featured in game two and knowing Fabiano’s character, we believe this was a genuine leak.
Indirect evidence was provided by Caruana himself. When confronted with the question about the video at the press conference after the game, he embarrassingly replied he’d rather not comment on it. Magnus, on the other hand, offered a witty reply:
Well, I’ll have a look at the video, then make up my mind. We’ll see then.
(laughter)
I can truthfully say that I haven’t seen the video, but I’m aware of its existence (I don’t think it “is” anymore).
(Olimpiu Urcan tweet with the players’ answers at the press conference)
Actually, Magnus published similar footage before the match. It included a lot of blurring and video editing.
Most probably, Caruana’s video was supposed to undergo the same procedure. Or be published AFTER the match. Alas, as Protest the Hero sing: It was gonna leak eventually.
However, the timing of the leak is rather unfortunate. Even though the video has been removed, the damage has been done. It is hard to assess how significant it is – on one hand, it might display only a fragment of Caruana’s preparation. On the other hand, the Petroff lines are rather significant. It might definitely cost Caruana psychologically and it is a shame someone has decided to taint a well-fought and tense match with off-the-board matters.
With that being said, let’s get back to chess and check how game 4 unfolded.
GAME COURSE
Carlsen decided he has had enough of the Queen’s Gambit and decided to play the English opening. Caruana’s reply 1 …e5 was more or less expected. What wasn’t expected was his 6th move. Instead of the automatic 6… Nb6, he played the sharper 6… Bc5. Commenting for chess24, Alexander Grischuk said he introduced this move to top-level chess, in his game against Eljanov in Geneva Grand Prix 2017. Here is his reasoning:
Basically, I should not get any credit for this move, because it was just the computer showed it. From my very childhood I always had an impression that after 1.c4 e5 Black just should not be any worse, because obviously, White is a tempo up, but e5 is obviously a better move than c4, so at some point I just tried to find a way for Black not to equalize but just to play on even terms with White. I just was putting different positions on the computer, and here after 6.Bg2 it actually showed 6…Bc5 as the best move – giving zeroes, of course, and I was quite happy, looked a bit further at it and still could not find any refutation, and then I played it.
(Source: https://chess24.com/en/read/news/carlsen-caruana-4-prep-lies-and-videotape )
Caruana seemed excellently prepared once again. Despite being confronted with his opponent’s 11 b4 novelty (probably devised over the board), he retreated his bishop to d6 immediately. Both players continued playing logically until move 15 when the critical position of the game arose.
In this position, Carlsen avoided the obvious 15 b5 and preferred the more timid 15 Re1. Although and average „engine commentator“ on the Internet criticized him for this decision, Carlsen later explained he didn’t think he had much in the resulting position after 15… axb5 16 axb5 Bd7 (see the analysis of the game below).
After this, further exchanges followed and another equal endgame was reached. This time, neither side had any chances of pushing and a draw was agreed on move 34 – the fastest draw of the match so far.
The full analysis of the game is given below.
GAME ANALYSIS
THE AFTERMATH
If we judge purely the chess aspect of this game, Caruana is a winner. He was once again well-prepared, he experienced no problems and he diffused his opponent’s White pieces with ease.
On the other hand, Magnus can’t be completely dissatisfied. Despite being confronted with the opponent’s novelty, he played well. He got the chance to obtain some advantage (15 b5 must be critical) and he was never in danger of losing, unlike Caruana in game one.
If we include the non-chess aspect of the game, Carlsen has more reasons to feel satisfied. Even if the leaked variations prove to be insignificant (which is debatable), the whole situation will cause a storm in Caruana’s camp – how could have that happened?
As Kasparov – Karpov 1986/1987 match showed, having inadequate people relations in one’s team has a dreadful impact. Only after Vladimirov left his camp did Kasparov’s play return to normal level.
In any case, one thing is certain – there is a lot of tension and excitement in front of us.