Carlsen vs Caruana: the missed win in game 6

by Johannes Fischer
12/19/2018 – 12 games, 12 draws - there was not a single win in the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. However, the players more than once came close. In game 1 Carlsen missed the win, in game 6 Caruana could have won - in a very complicated and difficult endgame. Karsten Müller took a closer look and shows how Caruana missed a big chance. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky (Agon)
Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.

A missed chance in a complicated endgame

Game six of the match, in which Caruana had Black, started with an unusual opening but quickly turned into an equal position in which both players did not seem to have much to play for.

However, Caruana gradually outplayed Carlsen from this seemingly harmless position and to avoid worse Carlsen eventually decided to give a piece for two pawns and put his hope on building a fortress in the endgame. A fortress which Caruana after more than five hours of play and with limited time on the clock could not crack. 

However, the Norwegian supercomputer Sesse soon claimed that Black had a forced mate. But as strong as computers are they still struggle with fortresses and zugzwang. Endgame expert Karsten Müller analysed this complicated endgame from a human perspective and shows the way Black could have won.

 
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Endgames can be amazingly deep. In the 6th game of the World Championship match Caruana missed the win, but it was too deep and paradoxical for humans and even several computer engines have problems to find it:
68...Nf3? This misses the moment as White's king does not have to protect the pawn f5 now. After 68...Bh4! White will fall into zugzwang sooner or later and lose one of the pawns f5 or h5, is forced to play h6 or mated. For example: 69.Bd5 69.Kh6 Nxf5+ 70.Kg6 Ne7+ 71.Kh6 Bg5+ 72.Kh7 f5-+ 69.h6 Nc6 70.h7 Ne5+ 71.Kh6 Bg5+ 72.Kh5 Kg7 73.Bg8 Kh8-+ Very originell! Zugzwang is the sharpest endgame weapon! 69.Be6 Ne2 70.Kh7 Nf4 71.h6 Bg5 72.Bc4 Ng2 73.Be2 Ne3 74.Bd3 Kf7 75.Be4 Ng4-+ 69.Kh7 Nxf5-+ 69...Ne2 70.Bf3 After 70.Kh7 the following sample line shows a mating final in the h8 corner: Bg5 71.Bf3 Ng3 72.Bg4 72.Kg6 Kg8 73.Bd1 Kh8 74.Bf3 Nf1 75.Bg2 Ne3 76.Be4 Nc4 77.h6 Ne5+ 78.Kh5 Kh7-+ 72...Kf7 73.Kh8 Be3 74.Kh7 Bc5 75.Kh8 Bf8 76.Kh7 Ne4 77.h6 Ng5+ 78.Kh8 Bxh6 79.Bh5+ Kf8 80.Bg6 Bg7# 70...Ng1‼ 71.Bg4 An unbelievable self-domination of Black's knight. White can not exploit it due to zugzwang. 71.Bd5 Bg5 72.h6 Ne2 73.Kh7 Nf4 74.Bc4 Ng2 75.Be2 Ne3 76.Kg6 76.Bd3 Ng4-+ 76...Kg8 77.h7+ Kh8 78.Bf3 Nc4 79.Bd5 Ne5+ 80.Kh5 Kxh7 81.Bg8+ Kg7-+ Black just does not take the desperado bishop and will win the pawn f5 first and the game later. 71...Kg8 72.Kh6 72.h6 Bg5 73.h7+ Kh8 zugzwang 74.Bd1 Nh3-+ 72...Bg3 Now Black's bishop outfoxes White as White's king can only oscillate between g6 and h6, while the bishop can triangulate: 73.Kg6 Be5 74.Kh6 Bf4+ 75.Kg6 Bg5 zugzwang 76.h6 Kh8 zugzwang 77.h7 Bh4 78.Kh5 Be1 79.Kg6 Bc3 80.Kh6 Bd2+ 81.Kg6 Bg5-+ Deadly zugzwang. 69.Kh7 Ne5 69...Nh4 70.Bd3 Ng2 71.Be2 Nf4 72.Bd1 Nd5 73.Bc2 Ne7 74.Be4 Kf7 75.Bc2= 70.Bb3 Ng4 71.Bc4 Ne3 72.Bd3 Ng4 73.Bc4 Nh6 74.Kg6 Ke7 75.Bb3 Kd6 76.Bc2 Ke5 77.Bd3 Kf4 78.Bc2 Ng4 79.Bb3 Ne3 80.h6 Bxh6 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2835Caruana,F2832½–½2018World Chess Championship 20186

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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chesspasky chesspasky 12/21/2018 05:14
carlsen is just still the better player
fons3 fons3 12/20/2018 03:28
@ ArcyKen: Indeed.

Caruana had an impossible to find win for one single move.

Magnus had an easily winning position for about ten moves in a row.
Also Magnus would probably have won the last (classical) game if he had bothered to try.
bbrodinsky bbrodinsky 12/20/2018 02:54
If people expected Caruana to find a move like Ng1 then they better lower their expectations. It's a move which moves a knight to the corner of the board, away from the action, and it allows white to imprison it with the bishop. Had Caruana made that move, metal detectors might have gone off, I would definitely search him.
ArcyKen ArcyKen 12/19/2018 09:16
If someone missed a win it is clearly Carlsen in game 1 : the move Rg3! is obvious and crushing.
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