Chess

[Federberg]

Surely this isn't survivable now?

Broken are you watching this in Lebanon right now?

 

[DarthFed]

I must say karjakin has done well to make this difficult. Not so straightforward to win this.

 

[DarthFed]

F4?? Is he seeing something im badly missing? I think white draws this now.

 

[DarthFed]

Dead draw, Magnus has to be kicking himself. Yesterday was all around good play and great effort from Karjakin to get the draw. Today was much more in his control, after 25 moves black was way better

 

[brokenshoelace]

Surely this isn't survivable now?

Broken are you watching this in Lebanon right now?

Yup. Can't believe Magnus failed to convert. I actually think he'll be more upset with this than yesterday's draw. I thought it was a poorly played game from Sergey all around, which should make this an even more bitter pill to swallow for Carlsen. I thought Bxc4 was a pretty poor move and Karjakin couldn't recover from there, so I'm amazed Magnus let him off the hook.

 

[DarthFed]

^ Yeah it was actually Bxc4 that was really bad, I wasn't able to follow move by move after Bxh6 but just looking at the board after move 25 it was ugly for Karjakin. Sergey has to feel good/fortunate that the match is still even and though Carlsen has to be disappointed the last two games were draws it is clear he's been the better player so far and Karjakin is living dangerously. Basically I don't think Carlsen is going to be affected by missing a win today but now it is an 8 game match and the closer it gets to the end the more it becomes "anything can happen"

 

[brokenshoelace]

The long term problem for Karjakin in this match is his style. He's not tactically sharp enough to get into a super complex position and get an advantage (as evidenced yesterday), and he's not better than Magnus at getting small advantages and converting in some more "boring" positions (though nobody is).

But I agree with Twisted, if Magnus doesn't get an early win, anything can happen. But if he does, I think the match is over.

 

[Federberg]

Yes I agree as well. Although I'm perhaps not as confident that these failures to convert don't matter. Magnus is just one blunder away from causing major problems for himself. I do think that if he wins one game though, then this thing is over. Sergey hasn't shown any ability to create advantages for himself. I'm at a loss to understand why Magnus is doing a Svidler right now. His move f4 yesterday really confused me. I thought that Bd5 was a classic Magnus move, restricting the knight and virtually guaranteeing no counterplay. It's weird, he seems to be more focussed on ensuring that Sergey can't win than actually winning the darned thing. I've had a bad year with Brexit and Trump, I don't need another major freaking disappointment!

 

[DarthFed]

^ I'd be happy if Karjakin wins. It'd be an enormous upset, nothing against Carlsen but it'd be pretty cool. Karjakin isn't aggressive enough to really take the game to Carlsen. For someone to really have a decent chance vs. Magnus in a match they have to be very good positionally but also have great attacking/tactical capabilities. That's why the time machine where Kasparov can play Carlsen would've been incredible. Magnus basically is Karpov 2.0 or close to it. And a big part of the reason Kasparov beat Karpov in matches is that he was able to draw a high % of games played on Karpov's terms and obviously in a decent amount of open positions he was able to beat Karpov with his incredible attacking abilities. I think whoever dethrones Carlsen will end up being of a similar mold.

I think the only player that could challenge him right now is Caruana (and he would've still been a heavy underdog) but his problem is that he is inconsistent. Karjakin may be more consistent but he's not a threat to blow Carlsen off the board.

 

[Federberg]

Yes agreed. We'll have to wait for Wei Yi. He looks like he has the right stuff

 

[Federberg]

The variation in openings continue. I'm trying to recall if the last time we've see as much variation in openings is Fischer - Spassky

 

[brokenshoelace]

A giuoco piano by Magnus. Interesting. Weird that Sergey is already thinking after the exchange on d4. Might not be a good sign as far as opening prep goes.

 

[Federberg]

I must say I've been impressed with how Magnus has been able to impose his own prep on Sergey

 

[DarthFed]

Playing for a sharp game makes sense for Carlsen based on what we were thinking before as far as Karjakin not being too dangerous in these types of positions.

It's kind of funny, I've played this position a bunch as white in blitz games and Ng5 is the automatic blitz game move but actually being able to spend time looking at the position I think Nc5 might be better, get the knight to d3 and e5.

 

[DarthFed]

Facing two bishops with an isolated d pawn and all I like white here. Black way behind in development

 

[DarthFed]

Interesting that Magnus went for Ne5 so early. That passed pawn is not much of a threat and that opens white's position up quite a bit on the queenside

 

[Federberg]

Really prefer blacks position. Magnus has to do so many things right. Blacks pawn chain looks lethal in the endgame

 

[DarthFed]

Looks pretty drawish now after Karjakin took the knight on c5. Still a bunch more moves until #40 so there could be time pressure leading to some inaccuracies. But that's about the only way this becomes a win on either side.

 

[Federberg]

Yup starting to deaden. This is by far a better position for black that some of the last few games. Can't see Sergey slipping up. But it's a bit weird, he seems to have absolutely no ambition at all in this match

 

[DarthFed]

Taking the knight in each of the last two games was kind of a cop-out but today it wasn't a huge mistake like the previous game. It just led to what looks like an easy draw. As black he will definitely take that given that the match is still tied.