Chess

[Federberg]

Feels like Magnus is taking some risks here

 

[DarthFed]

Weird after that pawn sacrifice Karjakin played a pretty conservative Bd5. Qh6 or Rh8 and black has some attack.

 

[DarthFed]

Kg3 looks almost forced here for white

 

[DarthFed]

And shows what I know, Magnus gives the pawn back with e6. Not sure the point behind it.

 

[Federberg]

I'm really confused by their play in this one. Looks a near certain draw. Heavy pieces off the board and there's no way Magnus's passer can queen

 

[DarthFed]

It's officially a draw. Felt like Karjakin had chances in that game if he wanted to be aggressive.

 

[DarthFed]

After 24 moves it is just Q+R+B for both sides but it's still pretty dynamic. White's doubled pawns is an obvious weakness but black's king could be open for business if Carlsen isn't careful.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Looks pretty draw-ish right now.

 

[DarthFed]

And within minutes of typing that the rooks are off the board. Looks headed for another draw now

 

[DarthFed]

Black still has to be careful though.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Draw agreed. Pretty early too. Sergey just isn't pressing enough with white. Not sure if he's just hoping to catch Magnus pretty late in the match and get the one win that'll seal it all, but that's a risky strategy against a better player. I wish he'd be more ambitious.

 

[DarthFed]

Pretty disappointing. I feel like he had some chances to be aggressive without taking too many risks the past couple games and he passed them up to force an easy draw.

With that said it is now a 6 game match, the problem for Sergey if it is 12 draws is that he would still be a heavy underdog in the rapid/blitz tiebreaker as Magnus is the best in those time controls too. It might be nerve-racking for Magnus if it gets there but he'd still probably walk away with the title.

 

[DarthFed]

Another quick draw. Just saw the final position but haven't played through it yet.

It's of note that Karjakin was white again, since Carlsen was white first they give sergey 2 straight whites in the middle of the match. So Carlsen has 3 White games including the last one.

 

[Federberg]

Looked fairly tame to me. I only started watching just before the queen exchange. These guys are beating the enthusiasm out of me!

 

[DarthFed]

Played over it now and yes, very tame game. It looks like Karjakin seems content just drawing game after game maybe hoping to reach tiebreakers. As mentioned before the tiebreaker won't be in his favor at all but at the same time we are talking about a small series of rapid games to decide the world championship. Anything can happen there. Certainly his chances seemed way worse in a 12 game classical match than they would in a 4 game rapid match.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I actually think Magnus will win one of his games with white and that will be that for Sergey. Karjakin isn't playing good enough and you have to think Magnus will play extremely well at some point in this match.

 

[DarthFed]

Very even position after 18 moves. Karjakin has done well in the openings in the last few games now.

 

[DarthFed]

Yet again he trades a bishop for a knight. I think white is slightly better now. I'm not sure the point behind 19. Bc6 either.

 

[DarthFed]

Wow, Carlsen recaptures the rook on c4 with his pawn. That weakens his queenside quite a bit on first appearance.

 

[Federberg]

I must confess I just don't get Magnus's play in this match. Many times he's played moves that compromise his structure. It seems so unlike him. Feels like he's forcing it