Cover photo credit: Facundo Arrizabalaga
The Hunter Becomes The Prey
Outplaying opponents from equal positions and grinding them down in endgames are hallmarks of Magnus Carlsen playing style. These traits brought him a number of victories in super tournaments. They even served him faithfully in the previous World Championship Matches. Ordinary players often can’t withstand Magnus’ tremendous pressure.
Fabiano Caruana is not an ordinary player, though. In the game six of the World Chess Championship, he managed to turn the tables and give Magnus a taste of his own medicine. After altering the struggle with the sharp 21… c5, he started outplaying the champion convincingly.
Magnus found himself on the receiving end of it all. After sacrificing a piece for two pawns, he was on the verge of losing. Fortunately for him, Caruana was unable to find a study-like win on move 68. His stubborn defence resulted in an unbreachable fortress and with enormous effort, he managed to salvage half a point.
Round 6 report follows.
Game Course
After trying both 1 d4 in the game two, and 1 c4 in the game four without particular success, in his third White game Carlsen played the third most common move – 1 e4. Caruana expectedly replied with his beloved Petroff. On move 4, Magnus uncorked a weird looking 4 Nd3 retreat. Very soon, the queens were exchanged and a symmetrical position, similar to French Exchange and Berlin Ruy Lopez positions, arose on the board.
Until move 21 both sides kept shuffling their pieces, but then Caruana decided to „strike while the iron is hot“ and alter the structure with 21…c5. Magnus probably couldn’t believe he could ever be in danger and refused several simplifying options which would result in an immediate draw. He was playing fire with fire and Caruana kept posing him small, but concrete problems.
On move 44 he decided to sacrifice a piece for three pawns (with Black getting one back immediately). It was still good enough for a draw, but the resulting endgame was extremely complicated. Caruana kept playing for a win and on move 67 his effort was rewarded as Carlsen made an erroneous king move – 67 Kg6??. Caruana could have exploited it with the study-like 68… Bh4!! and 71 … Ng1!!.
However, it was almost impossible for a human to see all the nuances. Even Carlsen’s reaction at the post-game conference proved he didn’t see these ideas at all. That he didn’t believe he was losing. Caruana was apparently of the same opinion, as he went for a continuation that left him with zero hope of success. In the end, Carlsen’s fortress couldn’t be breached and the tough battle ended in a draw.
Game Analysis
The Aftermath?
Both sides have the reasons for satisfaction and worry. Carlsen can be satisfied with the final result of the game, but not with his treatment of the White pieces. He was once again unable to pose Caruana any problems. Moreover, the game proved his usual approach of playing quiet and equal positions might prove problematic. That Caruana’s mastery of queenless middlegames/endgames is not inferior.
Caruana, on the other hand, can be satisfied with the game course – he played strongly and outplayed the World Champion. However, he did miss a win, although I don’t believe he will reproach himself for that, considering the continuation was far from trivial. The fact that half of the match has passed and that tiebreaks are approaching should worry him more. As the readers might remember, according to our predictions his chances in speed chess are rather slim.
But we are perhaps getting ahead of ourselves – six classical games are yet to be played.