INSANE START
After long two years, the author of the blog has the opportunity to go back where it all started – write posts about Magnus Carlsen defending his World Championship Match. The long-anticipated Carlsen – Caruana clash has started and it has already exceeded our expectations. The very first game was a full-blooded struggle with dramatic mistakes in which Magnus Carlsen displayed that Black is still okay.
Game 1 story follows.
GAME COURSE
In the very first round, Caruana decided to stick to his most favorite move – 1. e4. Instead of 1….e5, which has been Magnus’ main reply in World Championship matches (if we disregard game 1 of the 2013 World Championship Match where he played 1…c6), 1…c5 appeared on the board. Magnus Carlsen decided to follow in the footsteps of his great predecessors Kasparov and Fischer and employ the Sicilian in the World Championship match.
Although playing rare lines in the first games is not new from him (Caro-Kann against Anand, Trompowsky against Karjakin), his choice seemed to rattle Caruana a bit. Especially after he decided to play the 4..dxc6 in the Rossolimo, a continuation that was popular a decade ago and which faded in the recent years.
But the real surprise arrived on move 9 when Carlsen deviated from Kasparov’s (!) game against Svidler and employed the rate 9…b6. It would appear Caruana was already out of preparation since he started consuming large chunks of time. Nevertheless, Carlsen simply kept outplaying him. With the brilliant play, he quickly built up a large advantage.
Then, in the critical moment of the game, he decided to take advantage of Caruana’s lack of time and sharpen the game further with an inspiring pawn sacrifice. It is doubtful whether the sacrifice was fully correct, but Caruana was unable to deal with its implication and landed into a lost position.
However, similarly as in the other games the players played in 2018 (games we analyzed in the preview of the match), Carlsen was unable to finish his opponent off. From moves 34-40 he missed several direct wins. He allowed Caruana to stabilize and to obtain inferior, but defensible endgame just as the players reached the time control.
After the time control has been reached, Caruana played very precisely and had no problems in drawing the game. Carlsen, on the other hand, tried his best and the game was 115 moves long. Unfortunately for the reigning world champion, the position was too drawish.
GAME ANALYSIS
AFTERMATH
This was one of the craziest starts of World Chess Championship match, ever. Games like this one are like diamonds in a sea of rubbish.
There are two important things to take away from this. First, Carlsen surprised Caruana, played superbly first part of the game and had multiple winning moves. Second, Carlsen could not finish the job and Caruana defended well in the weaker position.
What effects will these things have on the players it’s hard to say, but what is certain is that Carlsen’s mental strength will be on a test. He had identical problems in the match against Karjakin. Caruana can be happy that he saved the game but his fears have become a reality. Carlsen is unpredictable and he can sometimes play more creatively and powerfully than any other human.
Feature image credit: Mike Klein/Chess.com