Carlsen, Caruana play out third straight stalemate
NEW DELHI: Norway’s champion Magnus Carlsen and his US challenger Fabiano Caruana drew the third game of their world chess championship match in London on Monday, once again splitting the point to be tied 1.5-1.5 in the 12-game contest.
Caruana, playing with white pieces, missed a chance to take advantage after the 15th move and was then left to battle for a 49-move draw after over four hours as Carlsen could not force a win with black. However, the three-time champion has an advantage as he will play with white five times in the next nine games.
Caruana, like in the first game, opened with the king pawn and Carlsen opted for the more enterprising Rossolimo variation of the Sicilian Defence. An expert joked after the game that Carlsen had played four draws in a row – he attended Sunday’s goalless draw between Chelsea and Everton on the rest day.
“I just made one really, really bad move. It was just a blackout,” Caruana said. Experts pointed out that the challenger got the sequence of his three moves, starting with the 15th, wrong to cede the advantage to black. Carlsen admitted: “(I thought) white’s going to have all the fun…i thought I was in for a long day. Obviously a few moves later, I was much happier.” However, Carlsen hasn’t been able to force victory, having failed to cash in on Caruana’s blunder in the first game with white pieces.
There was some flutter after Carlsen, with Caruana away from the table, adjusted his knight on the board. Many observers pointed out in the social media the rule which states a player must move if he touches a piece. Carlsen dismissed it as a non-issue and chief arbiter Stephane Escafre clarified the player had alerted he was going to adjust the knight.
Caruana though was irked after compatriot Hikaru Nakamura, playing in the Tata Steel chess tournament in Kolkata, backed Carlsen to triumph if the Match was tied after the 12 classical games and went into rapid and blitz games. “Historically it would be little bit off if Magnus doesn’t win,” Nakamura said after winning the rapid event.
Caruna expressed surprise. “Hikaru has his own opinions. I wasn’t really expecting that. But he can say what he wants.”