11/19/2016 – Game No. 6, draw No. 6 - Tiger Hillarp Persson, who has spent his entire life as a chess player trying to find asymmetry where he can find it, is our man to annotate this technical issue. Read about his preferences on books for dungeon situations and follow his notes until a state of zero entropy is unavoidable. Check out our newsblog with game annotations.
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World Chess Championship News - 2016-11-19
Game No. 6 - Notes by Tiger Hillarp Persson:
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Notes by Tiger Hillarp Persson -1.e4e5I spent my entire life as a chess
player, trying to find assymetry where I can find it. Magnus and Sergey
operate from a more elevated view-point than mine, and although they both
occasionaly flirt with assymmetry, I do not get the feeling that they believe
it merits a proper relationship.2.Nf3Nc63.Bb5In a sense the Ruy Lopez
is a little more ambitious than the G-whatever Piano (In Swedish we call it
"the Italian", so I'm excused for not acing the spelling bee). If we continue
down the rabbit hole with3.Bc4Bc54.0-0Nf65.d30-0, there is a big
difference between... this position, compared to the more easily spelled
sibling; that Black has still not moved the pawns on the queenside. This
difference means that Black has fewer weaknesses to take care of and it could
turn out to be the whole difference between a win and a big advantage (for
White) later in the game.3...a6I believe it was Julian Hodgson who said
that the only problem with 1.e4, compared to 1.d4, is that the e4-pawn is
hanging. After3...Nf64.0-0Nxe4we reach one such position, the Berlin
Defence. (The Petroff is another)5.Re1Nd66.Nxe5Be77.Bf1Nxe58.Rxe50-0was seen in game three of the match. Black argues that a reasonably
symmetrical position makes White's extra tempo less important. Time has told
it is a decent argument.4.Ba4Nf65.0-0Be76.Re16.d3b57.Bb3d68.a3was played in the second game of the match. The main difference here is
that Black can play d6 before 0-0 with having to fear a rapid c3/d4, which
would lead to the one of the old main lines.8.a4is also played
frequently, but afterBd7has been doing quite well lately.6...b57.Bb30-0It sounds ridiculous to call such a move "critical", but in a sense it is.
The reason is that7...d68.c30-09.h3leads to a one of the biggest
theoretical tablelands in chess, whereas the game move avoids that altogether
by meeting 8.c3 with 8...d5. In days of old, this line, the "Marshall Attack",
led to sluggerfest bonanzas, but in the age of engine-guided preparations it
has a tendency to end in draws. This explains why a defensively minded wielder
of the dark forces is naturally drawn to the Marshall Attack.8.h3The consequences of Karjakin's last move is that White is forced to play this
move, unless he is happy to enter the "old" lines after 8...d6 9.c3.8.a4AfterBb79.d3Re89...d6is more
popular.10.Nc3Nd411.axb5Nxb312.cxb3axb513.Rxa8Bxa814.Nxb5d5
, Black equalized with ease, in Dominguez Perez,L (2730)-Carlsen,M (2850)
World Rapid 2015.8.c3d59.exd5Nxd510.Nxe5Nxe511.Rxe5c6is the
starting position of the above mentioned Marshall Attack. I'm too old to try
to get familiar with it. Perhaps I would, if jailed by nazis and left with
only a monograph (written by Peter Svidler) to fend for my sanity, eventually
be able to say something sensible about this position. And although the
likelyhood of this scenario has increased lately, I'm afraid that you'll have
to wait until some time next year, at least. (Seeing the draw looming twenty
moves ahead, you'll have to excuse me for trying to pump up the drama a bit.)8...Bb7The most natural move if Black wants to avoid9.d39.c3?!d5!is nice
for Black. It is not recommended to play10.exd5Nxd511.Nxe5?11.d411...Nxe512.Rxe5Nf4, when catastrophy strikes the white camp. Reading
about the unredeemed expectations of some kibitzers, I get the feeling that
they expect something like this, and nothing less. Sorry guys. You should
stick with risk.9...d5!?This Marshall Attack-inspired gambit can hardly
have come as a surprise for Karjakin, partly because it is a main line and
partly because it is played to draw. Especially the latter reason should have
appealed to Magnus after yesterdays rather wobbly performance.In a rapid
game against Zhigalko last year, Magnus played9...d610.a3Nb811.Nbd2Nbd712.Nf1Re813.Ng3Bf814.Ng5d515.exd5Nc516.c4and had to fight
to equalize.10.exd5Nxd511.Nxe5None of the players has room to
deviate. Here11.a4Nd4!equalizes immediately.11...Nd4!Compared
to the Marshall Attack, Black doesn't have as much of an attack here. The
compensation is a more positional character. While the bishop on b7 roams
freely, Black's queenside pawns doesn't have to worry about a2-a4 (since Nxb3
would completely ruin White's pawn structure) and c7-c5 will take a lot of
space. From a White perspective, the c2-pawn has to be taken care of and the
knight on e5 turns out to be in a rather awkward position...12.Nc3Nb4
An instructive illustration of my last comment about the knight on e5:12...Nxb313.axb3Nb414.Bd2f6!15.Ng4f5!The pawn is accelerated forward
as it attacks the knight.16.Ne5Bd617.Na2Bxe518.Rxe5Nc619.Re1f420.Bc3?!Black also has a strong attack after20.f3Nd421.Rf1Rf620...f321.Re4a5!?22.b4and now, instead ofaxb4which was unclear, in
Timofeev,A (2658)-Sokolov,I (2655) Sarajevo 2007, Black should have played22...Ne7!, with a very strong attack.13.Bf4Perhaps there is
nothing better here, but this move doesn't feel right to me. Why? There is
something about putting the bishop in the line of fire (g5/Nd5) and striving
to tuck it in on h2, that rings false. I'd prefer to put it on c3. On the
other hand the bishop is not obstructing the queen and could come to e5. After
weighing the pros and cons, I must disagree with my first instinct. It does
indeed make sense.I'd probably spend some time on13.Bd2according to
the principle "less is more" (and "don't put the bishop on square where it is
likely to be attacked").13.Ne4has been played a number of times and the
lines afterNxb314.axb3Qd515.Nf3f5seem to hold no danger to Black.13...Nxb314.axb3c515.Ne4Karjakin is trying to prove that the inclusion
of Bf4 and c5 somehow favours White.f6!According to the reports I read,
Carlsen continued to blitz out the moves even now, so it's pretty clear that
this was all part of his preparations.16.Nf3f5!A recurring idea
leaving White with little choice.17.Neg5!17.Ng3Bxf3!and it
becomes obvious why the attack on the c2-pawn is a problem for White:18.gxf318.Qxf3Nxc2-+18...Bf617.Ned2is the most ambitious move,
since it keeps some pieces on the board. AfterBf618.Be5Re819.Rc1h620.Re2What else?Bxe521.Nxe5Nd5White cannot let the knight land on f4 and22.g3f4gives Black a nasty initiative. So, it seems that the most
ambitious move was less than good.17...Bxg518.Nxg5h6!19.Ne6Qd520.f3Rfe8The last five moves have basically been forced, but now White has two
alternatives; one human and one non human.21.Re521.Nc7Qd4+22.Kh1Rxe1+23.Qxe1Qxf424.Nxa8Nxc2looks like absolute disaster for White from afar,
but in fact White can get a draw in more than one way. One pretty line is25.Qe8+Kh726.Nb6‼Nxa127.Nd7and Black has no defence against the Nf8/
Nd7-pendulum.21...Qd622.c3The challenger goes for the draw in the most
solid manner.The more complicated22.Re2also ends up in equlity afterQd723.Nc723.Nxc5?Qd4+23...Rxe224.Qxe2Rc825.Re1Qd4+26.Qe3Nxc227.Qxd4Nxd428.Re7Alas, how forced!Nc629.Rd7Rd830.Rxd8+Nxd831.Bd6Kf732.Bxc5Ne633.Nxe6Kxe6is a most drawish draw.22...Rxe623.Rxe6Qxe624.cxb4cxb4If White was allowed to play d4, Be5 and then put
the queen or rook in such a place from where it would keep an eye on g7; then
White would be better.25.Rc1Rc8But Carlsen will not let White have three
moves for free.26.Rxc8+Qxc827.Qe1Qd728.Kh2a529.Qe3Bd530.Qb6Bxb331.Qxa5Qxd332.Qxb4Be6Next Black will put the queen on d7 and the
position will reach a state of zero entropy. So, draw agreed.½–½
21:40 / 3:40 pm: The game ended in a draw. After three fascinating games in rounds three, four and five the players didn't excite the audience today. Tomorrow is a rest day, so Sergey has enough time to prepare something against Carlsen's ...d5!
For political nerds I guess Tigers comment would be easier to swallow if instead of Nazis prison we have a prison in a communist state. But I guess you then would believe Tiger to be politically right wing.
However, one could argue that Tiger would choose this every day of the week rather than to watch the Swedish television. I guess he has no TV and therefore have the honor of being harassed by the Swedish authorities trying to enforce the state fee for being an owner of a TV set. That fee only the Socialdemokrats (Labour party;I Think Magnus is a member of that political party) could come up with they even have it in the UK. But now pls forget my comments and go back to this intresting full of action chess match...
lajosarpad 11/20/2016 10:42
@FOffermann
Fernando, my comment was not directed against Tiger Hillarp Persson. It was directed against specific comments, the most important of them is the nazi thing. The nazis were defeated in WWII and though there are some people now who think like them, they are a dwarf minority. The other Rightists however, in many cases are labeled with the term nazi by propagandists who still seem to be fighting WWII. I will not enter into the details of why someone who thinks in nations is not necessarily a socialist and therefore not necessarily a nazi, as it would be unelegant from my part to start debates on political phylosophy here, however, political propaganda is not elegant in chess comments. This is what I was pointing to and I maintain my point of view. If Chessbase is ok with an author writing comments which perfectly fit into this phenomenon, then I will have to acknowledge that. However, I certainly hoped that such a great news site like Chessbase would at least try not to be politically biased and if it cannot avoid bias, at least avoid offending comments.
Pionki 11/20/2016 08:12
Karjakin has a huge advantage. They are playing on the same level. (Don't tell me about the Elo mathematics.) However, Karjakin is in good spirits, whereas Carlsen is annoyed, upset and disappointed. The Russians may finally get the title back.
Karbuncle 11/20/2016 06:24
@ turok, it's "couldn't care less". Saying "could care less" means you actually care somewhat, whereas "couldn't care less" means you don't care at all.
kyi 11/20/2016 04:51
I believe 12 games for the world championship chess is too little since a lot of people have great interest in chess. I think 24 games chess is more appropriate and it can be played 2 games a day, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Since there are only two people playing chess, scheduling of 2 games a day will not be difficult and if the first game in the morning drags on, the second game in the afternoon can be delayed. I am not sure people would like to reintroduce Bobby Fischer's draws does not count and only wins count method. The games can drag on for months in Kasparov-Karpov world championship match. I believe Karpov was winning and would likely win if the games continued but it was postponed and Karpov lost it.
Mithrull 11/20/2016 01:41
*YAWN*
turok 11/20/2016 12:28
I could care less about his Nazi comments etc I just do not like his analysis as it is something to be desired.
bobmutch 11/19/2016 11:47
I really enjoyed the notes by Tiger on the game.
nicolachess 11/19/2016 08:05
Why can't we see the World Championship live on the site ? Why need us pay for it ? It was free before.
bbrodinsky 11/19/2016 05:19
I give Persson a break on misspellings and political comments because he wrote the best book ever on the Modern Defense! Anyway, the rest of his comments are very informative and easy to understand, so let's let 'em slide, guys. Also, I'm in a good chess mood because I was lucky enough to go to game 3 and enjoy the endgame complications up close and personal!
Augusta2022 11/19/2016 04:31
I think you guys are way to sensitive. Tiger always writes with alot of wit and humour. Ofcourse he knows how the Italian is written, he's just writes that way. I don't know Tiger personally but I've met him a few times and he does not strike me as a person who would write about his political views and tell others what to think. He is simply writing with alot of with, sarcasm and humour. I really appreciated his annotations because they were fun indeed!
flachspieler 11/19/2016 03:38
Hello FOffermann,
thanks for the detailed explanation. Thinking again about the reactions on Persson's game analysis, it seems to me that the term "Nazi" is a red flag for many people (not only here). Of course I know that he did not want to put Peter Swidler and the Nazis in one pot - but having both names in one sentence is already "more than enough" for sensible souls.
---
By the way: I like Hillarp Persson's large horizon. For instance, in August he participated in the European Go Congress (in St. Petersburg) and played impressive exhibition matches both in Chess and Go.
FOffermann 11/19/2016 03:27
Flachspieler, I'm Editor-in-Chief of ChessBase News and I speak for the editorial staff. We'd like to ask you to be polite and respectful in your comments because we prefer an elaborate way of discussing on our site.
flachspieler 11/19/2016 03:26
Of course we are living in a pluralistic society, and everybody has the right for his own opinion. Nevertheless, for me one game commented in this style is enough for the event. Please, give me others commentators for the forthcoming games!
---
@Foffermann: Who are you ...?
EDIT: I just learned that Fernando Offermann is the new director of "ChessBase.com News". I did not know that when I wrote my original comment an hour ago.
portici 11/19/2016 03:19
I agree with FOffermann. Unless a contributor is too absurd (which is not so in the case of Hillarp Persson), let's take it easy and enjoy the reading, and be grateful to the contributor. The contributor is not debted to us.
vinniethepooh 11/19/2016 02:15
its really unfortunate that we have so less annotated games this championship. the sochi one had so many!
FOffermann 11/19/2016 01:55
We are happy to have Tiger Hillarp Persson's comments and we think it's fully acceptable to write like this, because it reflects his own personal view on things. Our authos kept clear of explicit attacks and all the criticism so far is based on interpretation turned into attacks against the results of the interpretations. For us, it's all about chess and we support our author to tell us how he is seeing the game. He didn't attack anybody and he made a joke about the Giuoco Piano, which might or might not be seen with a humorous viewpoint. Not everyone likes everybodys text, that's what publishing with names is all about, but we strongly support the idea of a pluralistic system in publishing. The more we are going to publish texts of prominent and elaborated authors, the more reaction there will be. As experience shows, the audience which is happy with the result seldom remarks this via comments, but the ones who are unhappy with it complain more often.
We are interested in your reactions, we like to know your point of view and we support lively discussions on our site - this is a great way to do it via the Internet, but please do not incriminate our author for crimes he has not committed and please be fair in your comments.
handikap 11/19/2016 12:45
lajosarpad You got the point! Kudos for that polite reply to that ignorant in-game commentary!
I managed to refrain myself from making a comment on that because I knew, that I can not be that moderate!
I still can not believe that I would ever read something like that in an ongoing world chess championship game commentary!
lajosarpad 11/19/2016 12:27
"[...] is the starting position of the above mentioned Marshal Attack. I'm too old to get familiar with it. Perhaps I would, if jailed by nazis and left with only a monograph (written by Peter Svidler) to fend for my own sanity, eventually be able to say something sensible about this position. And although the likelyhood of this scenario has increased lately, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until some time next year, at least. (Seeing the draw looming twenty moves ahead, you'll have to excuse me for trying to pump up the drama a bit.)"
You could pump up the drama without mirroring your highly political frustration possibly coming from Donald Trump's election victory, possibly coming from the Right getting closer to power in Europe. A Leftist can feel frustrated about that, no doubt and I, for one can understand you with enough empathy, but please, do not offend your readers who might be Trump voters or European Rightists. They are decent people as well, who were as frustrated as you are now when the Maoist Barroso became a powerful figure in the European Parliament. You could not hear about Gulags, KGB and stuff like that when that happened for several reasons. One of those reasons was that there are either no Rightist commenters, or, if there are, they were elegant-enough to not project their political frustration into chess comments. But more importantly because we, chess enthusiasts would like not to read political propaganda from chess comments at all. I, for one am tolerant with political propaganda in chess comments, but if there is any, I would expect it to be witty and not offensive to anyone. This comment sees nazis somewhere, either in the U.S.A. or in Europe, which are voters like you and me. This is offensive to them and I believe you will be elegant and apologize more seriously than in your comment, where the apology was meant to be "funny" and "whitty".
lajosarpad 11/19/2016 12:09
"In a sense the Ruy Lopez is a little more ambitious than the G-whatever Piano (In Swedish we call it "The Italian", so I'm excused for not acing the spelling bee)."
What kind of commentary is that? Proudly ignorant of the name of an opening? Come on, it is not so hard, Google is your best friend.
MichelDeNostredameDeEchecs 11/19/2016 11:56
Before talking chess, let's start by spell "asymmetry" right, shall we? I understand typos of sorts. I do them as does everyone else, but get the crucial word - as it seems to be - wrong twice in the opening statement, it's a bit embarrassing.
flachspieler 11/19/2016 10:21
Hmm. Does Hillarp Persson want to be funny with his comment relating the opening and Svidlers nice book to Nazis and Stefan Zweig's "Schachnovelle"? Then he might take a more current example: WikiLeaks boss Assange, sitting in a London embassy for years already to avoid being extradited to Sweden - and reading chess books not to get crazy.
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