Carlsen still world champ

Game 1 Karjakin v Carlsen 1/2 37 moves Ruy Lopez 6.d3

Game 2 Carlsen v Karjakin 1/2 84 moves Italian Game

Game 3 Karjakin v Carlsen 0-1 38 moves Ruy Lopez 6.d3

Game 4 Carlsen v Karjakin 1- 0 50 moves Sicilian Maroczy Bind Magnus Carlsen wins 3.0-1.0 Time Control: 25 minutes for the entire game with 10 seconds added after every move.

After the world championship match b etween Magnus Carlsen (Norway 2853) and Sergey Karjakin (Russia 2772) ended in a 6.0-6.0 tie the FIDE regulations required a playoff. The rules were:

A four- game rapid match with 25 minutes for the entire game and 10 seconds added after every move.

If the scores are still level after the four games, then we enter the blitz tie breaks. After a new drawing of colors a match of two games shall be played with a time control of five minutes each plus three seconds increment. In case of a level score, another two- game match will be played. If there is still no winner after five such matches (total 10 games) then they will go into sudden death.

In sudden death, the player who wins the drawing of lots will be the one to choose his color. The player with the white pieces shall receive five minutes, the player with the black pieces shall receive four minutes. There will be no time increment for the first 60 moves after which they will start adding 3 seconds per move. In exchange for the 1-minute deficit the Black player gets draw odds, meaning that in case of a draw Black wins.

The defending champion from Norway Magnus Carlsen was held to a draw in the first two games of the rapid but broke through with a fine win in game 3. Needing only a draw in game 4 to clinch the title Magnus did not freeze and instead continued playing enterprisingly. He got a good position out of the opening and put on the pressure which forced Karjakin to eat up his time. Finally, with seconds to go for Karjakin and two minutes for himself he came through with a beautiful sacrifice to force mate.

Carlsen avoids the complexities of the Najdorf and goes for the Maroczy Bind ( you know, pawns on e4 and c4 to get a grip on the d5 square). It makes sense too — White gets a strong center while Black has to find the correct timing for pawn breaks on either b5, d5 or f5. Especially now with the 25-minute time control Black may eat up too much time calculating the tactics.

GM Robert Hess, annotating the game for Chess.com, pointed out that there is a nice trap here: 6... a5 7. c4? (correct is 7.Bb5+ Nc6 8.Nc3) 7...Nxe4! 8. fxe4 Qh4+ 9. Kd2 a4 and the knight is trapped. Of course, it is too much to expect that the defending world chess champion would fall into such a trap.

Karjakin was not managing his time well. Carlsen has just used up 1 minute foro his first 11 moves while Karjakin has consumed 6 — and we are not out of the opening yet! Black still has not managed to get anything going.

Typical for Maroczy Bind positions. White will put a knight on d5.

The plan is to follow this up with ... h5– h4 and Nf6– h5 and then one of the knights to f4. Threatening b3–b4–b5 and the black bishop on c6 has nowhere to go.

Carlsen has still over 10 minutes left while Karjakin is down to two, and he still has nothing going on.

Every blitz player knows that when it comes to panic time the knights are better than bishops — they have more swindling chances.

The computer engines all expected White to just keep cool and defend the b3–pawn with Rb2, but Magnus has a different idea.

After the exchanges Carlsen had 3 minutes left on his clock and Karjakin around 30 seconds. White is the exchange up but I’m sure Black intentionally went in for this to crease what Bobby Fischer calls a “dynamic imbalance.” Take note that if White is not careful Black has ...d4–d5 followed by ...Bc5. Taking command of the c-file.

Magnus Carlsen had around 2 minutes left on his clock while Karjakin still has 24 seconds. The official match commentators from Chess 24 were GMs Jan Gustafsson and Peter Svidler. After 46...Ra7 Gustafsson saw the final mating sequence and demonstrated it on the board, punctuating it with “Wow!”

Svidler said: “very pretty, but unlikely to happen. You don’t play Rc8+.”

I guess he meant that in the world championship with both players in time trouble you don’t go all out like that when there is a very simple way to exchange queens off the board and retain a winning position. Obviously, in case of a tiny mistake Karjakin may even get to mate white. Anyway, the ending unfolded quickly.

The final moves were played instantly.

Not 49... Bf8 when there is rather an obvious forced mate with 50.Rxf8+ Kxf8 (50...Kh7 we have the same combination as in the actual game) 51.Rxf7+ Ke8 52.Rf8+ Kd7 53.Qf7+ Kc6 54.Rc8+ Kb5 55.Qc4+ Ka5 56.Ra8#

But now, looking at the position on the board, it appears that Black has mating threats which seem unstoppable. However…