Candidates: Karjakin's last chance
3/24/2018 – In the Candidates Tournament in Berlin, the leader and his closest pursuer played draws in the eleventh round: Fabiano Caruana found precise answers to Vladimir Kramnik's opening ideas, Shakriyar Mamedyarov steered Wesley So towards an early peace. With three rounds to go, Caruana is still half a point ahead of Mamedyarov. Musical chairs in the chasing group. The Chinese Ding Liren was on the verge of a brilliant victory against Alexander Grischuk, but in mutual time pressure, Grischuk managed a miraculous escape. For Ding, his eleventh consecutive draw. | Photo: World Chess
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A late Russian charge?
Will the next challenger of Magnus Carlsen be Fabiano Caruana, Shakriyar Mamedyarov or still with an outside chance Sergey Karjakin, and Alexander Grischuk, who after Friday's play are just a point behind. Any other winner is highly unlikely now. We really have a four-way race with three rounds still to play. Let's start with the standings:
Standings after round eleven
Caruana ½-½ Kramnik
It may not have been a memorable game in its entirety, but Kramnik's creative opening choice with Black will definitely be one of the highlights of the tournament. Caruana was forced to invest 30 minutes for his next three moves to work out how to proceed. You don't see that very often at this level on move five!
The Semi-Slav: A GM guide for the tournament player
The Semi-Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6) can arise via various move orders, has decided World Championships, and is one of Black's most fascinating replies to 1 d4. Magnus Carlsen's second, Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen explains in detail what this opening is all about.
Fabiano Caruana defended his lead in round eleven | Photo: World Chess
So ½-½ Mamedyarov
After drawing with Caruana yesterday, Shakriyar Mamedyarov was still happy with a draw today with Black. After looking at Caruana's game against Kramnik, he had come to the conclusion that his rival would not be able to extend his lead, and he'll have another chance to pull level. In any case, the Azerbaijani's opening choice lead to equality from which it would have been impossible for him to get more than half a point.
Mamedyarov is behind the front-runner, and Aronian will regret not being there too
For So, the tournament was over early, not he can just enjoy playing | Photos: World Chess
The Catalan: A complete repertoire for White!
The Catalan is one of the most solid openings for White. It forms part of the large and strong fianchetto family in which White builds his strategy mainly around the bishop on g2. Grandmaster Victor Bologan covers all of Black’s replies to the Catalan, some of which can even transpose to other openings such as the Tarrasch System and the Queen’s Indian. Suffice it to say that the Catalan rules!
Aronian 0-1 Karjakin
Levon Aronian has clearly not been in his best shape in Berlin. But the story is less clear with Sergey Karjakin: After a bad start to the tournament, the Russian has almost imperceptibly climbed his way back to the top again. He still has a small chance to reach a second match against Magnus Carlsen with a strong finish, but he will certainly need more wins in the next few days — draws will not be enough.
Power Play 24: A repertoire for black against the Catalan
On this DVD Grandmaster Daniel King offers you a repertoire for Black against the Catalan, based around maintaining the rock of a pawn on d5. Keeping central control ultimately gives Black good chances to launch an attack against the enemy king.
After a weak start, Karjakin has not yet given up the fight for another match with Magnus Carlsen | Photo: World Chess
Ding ½-½ Grischuk
This might have been not only the first victory for the Chinese Ding Liren, but also a very impressive one. In hair-raising time scramble there were mistakes on both sides, but overall the two grandmasters produced an absolutely thrilling game, with drama worthy of any sporting endeavour. For purists who care more about correctness, it might not have been great, but at least it gives fans fodder for days worth of enjoyable analysis.
Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.
It was difficult to watch how Ding let a brilliant win slip in horrendous time trouble | Photo: World Chess
Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.
All games of round ten
Round-up show with GM Erwin l'Ami
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
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