Baku Final: Svidler versus Karjakin!

World Cup 10th September – 5th October Baku, Azerbaijan

Watch it live on Playchess!

World Cup Final: Svidler versus Karjakin!

After making his 51st move, when Anish Giri offered a draw to Peter Svidler, the Russian heaved a sigh of relief. He had not only made it to the last round of the World Cup 2015 but also booked a seat in the Candidates 2016. Sergey Karjakin’s entry to the finals was much more dramatic, as he used his amazing presence of mind to claim a three-fold repetition in a position that was most probably lost against Pavel Eljanov. Both players confessed that they had achieved their aim of playing in the World Cup by qualifying for the Candidates. While Peter and Sergey must be content with their performance, with nothing to lose, both must be aiming for greater glory – World Cup 2015 champion. The winner takes home US $120,000 and the runner-up US $80,000. The finals will be a four game classical match. In case of a tie, we will witness the same format of tie-breaks as we have been seeing throughout this event. So let’s have a look at what we can expect in this finale.

This is the third consecutive time that we have an all-Russian final in World Cup. In 2011 it was Svidler vs Grischuk and in 2013 it was Kramnik against Andreikin.

Track record of Svidler vs Karjakin

• Total number of games played against each other: 43
• 27 classical games: five wins for Karjakin, two wins for Svidler, and 20 draws
• Four rapid games: two wins for Karjakin, one win for Svidler and one draw
• 12 blitz games: four wins for Svidler, three for Karjakin and five draws

As we have four long time control games for the finals of the World Cup 2015, let’s focus on their previous classical battles. Karjakin has a clear edge over Svidler with five wins to two. But the interesting point to note here is that while both of them have two wins each with the white pieces, Karjakin has three wins with black while Svidler has none!

Karjakin the brilliant defender

One of the recurring themes in the battles between Svidler and Karjakin is how the former builds brilliant sacrificial attacks and how the latter defends with great tenacity and resourcefulness. More often than not Svidler is unable to take the attack to its logical conclusion and Karjakin escapes. One of the prime examples is their most recent battle from the Russian Superfinals which happened just 40 odd days ago.

Here is one more example of how an excellent attacking position was ruined by Svidler, with some insightful analysis by Evgeny Postny.

But sometimes it so turns out that the sacrifice is objectively unsound. Many players might fumble in the complications and give you good practical chances, but not Karjakin. He has excellent nerves. In this 2008 game against Svidler from Sochi Grand Prix, Svidler goes for a dubious sacrifice. Karjakin had to defend with great accuracy but he did so right until the end. The initiative was quenched and all that Svidler could do was to throw in the towel.

If Karjakin is an excellent defender, Svidler is not far behind. Here is one of his nice saves from the Tal Memorial 2011.

Sergey Karjakin – Peter Svidler, Tal Memorial 2011

Black to play. How should Black defend?

Opening ceremony: little did they know at this point that they would be soon be facing each other in the finals

Svidler the opening expert

When it comes to the first phase of the game Svidler has a definite edge over Karjakin. Before we discuss the specific openings of both the players let me show you a position that occurred in the 2014 Candidates which shows how deep a thinker Peter really is.

Peter Svidler – Sergey Karjakin, Candidates 2014

It’s Sergey’s (Black’s) turn to play. 5…c5 or 5…0-0 – what would you choose?

Svidler as White

Svidler has the white pieces in games one and three. It seems highly unlikely that he will go for 1.e4. The reason is that out of six classical games, in five of them Karjakin has gone for the Berlin Variation in the Ruy Lopez with 3…Nf6. Svidler has always declined the invitation to enter the Berlin endgame and has played either 4.d3 or 4.Nc3. Karjakin equalized in all the games without any difficulties. Hence in their last four classical encounters Svidler began with 1.Nf3. There are high chances that Svidler would start the finals with either 1.Nf3 or 1.c4. Against 1.d4 Karjakin has quite a rigid repertoire with the Nimzo Indian/Queen’s Indian. It could be possible that Svidler might try to find some new ideas in those systems. If Peter is able to get a lead in the first two games then we could expect 1.e4 from him in the third encounter, just like he did against Giri in the semifinals when he was leading the match. For a solid game Peter goes 1.e4 while for a creative and unconventional one he begins with 1.Nf3 or 1.c4.

Peter is quite unpredictable when he has the white pieces

Karjakin as White

Karjakin is a principled player when it comes to his openings. Out of his eleven white games against Svidler he chose 1.e4 in nine of them and 1.d4 in the remaining two. It could be safe to assume that Karjakin would not want to try out Svidler’s preparation in the Grunfeld. Besides, in this tournament he played 1.e4 in four out of the six classical games. When he played 1.d4 against Mamedyarov and 1.c4 against Eljanov, both the games ended in a draw within 15 moves. Karjakin might not want to risk that in the finals. That leaves 1.e4 on the table. Svidler has two main openings against that - 1….e5 and 1…c5. It seems that Peter is much more comfortable playing 1…e5 than get into the complications of the Taimanov or Paulsen. He has also preferred 1…e5 to Sicilian in this World Cup. One position that the two of them have reached on six out of seven occasions is the following:

Svidler (Black) has opted for two moves in the above position - 7…0-0 and 7…d6

If Svidler plays 7…0-0, Karjakin doesn’t like to allow the Marshall, and has always preferred 8.a4. The tabiya after 8…b4 9.d4 d6 10.dxe5 dxe5 is something that we might witness in this match.

There are two main moves for White in this position. One is to take the queen on d8, which has not scored so well. The other one which Karjakin has preferred is 11.Nbd2. The main idea is to get the queen to e2, knight to c4, or bishop to c4 and knight to b3, and push the pawn to a5. The interesting point is that apart from Karjakin playing this against Svidler, Dominguez beat Peter in this line with white in May 2015. Wei Yi tried to repeat the Cuban’s success in July 2015, but was given a positional endgame lesson by the Russian. It will be interesting to see if Karjakin has any new ideas up his sleeve over here.

There are also chances of Svidler trying his idea in the 7…d6 variation which brought him the very important victory against Anish Giri.

This variation with …exd4 followed by …Nd7, …Na5, …c5, …Bf6 is hardly played, but Svidler seems to have made a deep study of it. He has used it against three strong players: Motylev, Yu Yangyi and Anish Giri and scored 2.0/3. Maybe we can call this the Svidler Variation!

Classical versus concrete approach

Great players like Svidler and Karjakin are well rounded in their play. It is difficult to categorize them as a positional player or a tactical one because a 2750+ player is usually good at everything. Yet there are some traits which are more visible than the others. Svidler’s approach to the game is tending more towards a classical style of thinking than a concrete one. From his commentary we understand that many times he has things to say like these pieces should be kept on the board or if we removed everything then the a5 pawn would be weak or this sacrifice has to work. This is not to say that he doesn’t calculate well, but he usually calculates after choosing the candidate moves based on his understanding and likes in the position. On the other hand, Karjakin is a product of the modern computer era: he doesn’t really have any prejudices and tries to calculate in the most concrete and objective manner as possible. That is one of the reasons why he is such a good defender. Thus, in this finals we can see this difference in approach.

World Cup title

Svidler was the World Cup winner in the year 2011, while Karjakin has not achieved this distinction. Naturally Sergey would be hungrier for this victory than Peter.

Svidler beat Grischuk in the World Cup 2011 final with a score of 2.5-1.5.
In their encounter only the first game was decisive followed by three draws.

Rapid and blitz

If the match does go to the rapid and blitz tiebreaks, everything seems to be quite well matched. Even in terms of their previous scores against each other, they are pretty much neck and neck. In this event Karjakin has impressed everyone with his tenacity, especially the comeback in his match against Pavel Eljanov being 1-0 down in the rapids. I would say that Karjakin has an edge over Svidler if the games did go into the tiebreaks.

With or without the suit, Karjakin is a tremendous blitz and rapid player

Final Predictions

It goes without saying that the finals are going to be close. Both the players have overcome stiff opposition to reach this last hurdle. In the 27 classical games that they have played in the past only two of them have lasted for less than 25 moves. This means we are surely going to see some fighting chess. Svidler has the edge when it comes to the openings. He is unpredictable with the white pieces and would have new ideas up his sleeve. Karjakin on the other hand has his own favourite systems which he has deep knowledge in. Age is also a factor in this contest. Svidler is 39 years old while Karjakin is 25. These 14 years will definitely count in this grueling event which has been going on since the last 20 days now. Taking in to consideration all the factors mentioned in this article we could come to the conclusion that the match will be close, but Karjakin seems to be the mild favourite.

On a parting note we would like to treat our readers to a hardly-known video of Peter Svidler. After his match against Anish Giri ended, Peter came to commentary room and spoke with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam. In this interview he revealed how he once had a net session when he was in Gibraltar in 2009. There is no doubt about Svidler’s love and knowledge for the game of cricket, but with regards to his technique… we will let the readers decide!

Final results

Photos and information from the official website and their Facebook page

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.