It was the toughest challenge Magnus Carlsen faced as World Champion. He was up against an adversary, only a few months his senior, otherwise no less talented and as ambitious as he. As the course of the Match showed Sergey Karjakin was a worthy rival. When he gained a brief lead after the 8th game, the chess world was abuzz with excitement and anticipation. Perhaps there was going to be a new world champion after all. That was not to be. Magnus leveled scores in the 10th and asserted himself with two wins in the tie-breaker, retaining his title.
This issue of ChessBase Magazine has all the games with video broadcasts by Danny King. What is more, there is an impressive lineup of annotators, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and David Navara. Veterans, John Nunn and Yasser Seirawan bring up the rear with illuminating commentary. Most of the material here first appeared in the world championship reports on ChessBase. However, it’s good to have it all in one place. Here I would single out the final phase of the third game that was spontaneously commented on by Caruana, Anand, Nakamura and Topalov while they were watching the match.

Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin during their fight for the highest title
Yasser Seirawan has collated their observations in his annotations to game three of the match, a game that Magnus deserved to win and Sergey to draw! One position that had both the spectators and experts bemused in this game arose after 24 moves.
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 Nd6 6.Nxe5 Be7 7.Bf1 Nxe5 8.Rxe5 0-0 9.d4 Bf6 10.Re2 b6 11.Re1 Re8 12.Bf4 Rxe1 13.Qxe1 Qe7 14.Nc3 Bb7 15.Qxe7 Bxe7 16.a4 a6 17.g3 g5 18.Bxd6 Bxd6 19.Bg2 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 f5 21.Nd5 Kf7 22.Ne3 Kf6 23.Nc4 Bf8 24.Re1 Rd8 25.f4 gxf4 26.gxf4 26...b5 27.axb5 axb5 28.Ne3 c6 29.Kf3 Ra8 30.Rg1 Ra2 31.b3 c5 32.Rg8 Kf7 33.Rg2 cxd4 34.Nxf5 d3 35.cxd3 Ra1 36.Nd4 b4 37.Rg5 Rb1 38.Rf5+ Ke8 39.Rb5 Rf1+ 40.Ke4 Re1+ 41.Kf5 Rd1 42.Re5+ Kf7 43.Rd5 Rxd3 44.Rxd7+ Ke8 45.Rd5 Rh3 46.Re5+ Kf7 47.Re2 Bg7 48.Nc6 Rh5+ 49.Kg4 Rc5 50.Nd8+ Kg6 51.Ne6 h5+ 52.Kf3 Rc3+ 53.Ke4 Bf6 54.Re3 h4 55.h3 Rc1 56.Nf8+ Kf7 57.Nd7 Ke6 58.Nb6 Rd1 59.f5+ Kf7 60.Nc4 Rd4+ 61.Kf3 Bg5 62.Re4 Rd3+ 63.Kg4 Rg3+ 64.Kh5 Be7 65.Ne5+ Kf6 66.Ng4+ Kf7 67.Re6 Rxh3 68.Ne5+ Kg7 69.Rxe7+ Kf6 70.Nc6 Kxf5 71.Na5 Rh1 72.Rb7 72.Rf7+! Ke6 73.Rf2 h3 74.Kh4 Ra1 75.Nb7 Ra3 76.Rd2! 76.Nc5+ Kd6 77.Ne4+ Ke5 78.Re2 Kd4= 76...Ke5 76...Rxb3?? 77.Nc5++- 77.Nc5 h2 78.Rxh2 Kd5 79.Rc2+- 72...Ra1 73.Rb5+ Kf4 74.Rxb4+ 74.Kxh4?? Rh1# 74...Kg3 75.Rg4+ Kf2 76.Nc4 h3 77.Rh4 Kg3 78.Rg4+ Kf2 ½–½ - Start an analysis engine:
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Carlsen,M | 2853 | Karjakin,S | 2772 | ½–½ | 2016 | C67 | World-ch | 3 |
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This issue also includes games from other events like Saint Louis Showdown, London Chess Classic, Russian and European Cup Final. It’s also good to see games from the World Rapid Championship (won by Ivanchuk on tie-break ahead of Grischuk and Carlsen). I did miss the games from the World Blitz Championship, though. Here Karjakin had the satisfaction of beating Magnus in their individual encounter and becoming the champion:
This brings me to other sections of the Magazine. There are 11 opening surveys ranging from the Caro-Kann to the Queen’s Gambit. For reasons of space I shall skip a detailed discussion here. Apart from these surveys, there are regular exercises in opening traps, middle game tactics and endgame technique. Here I shall make a special mention of Mihail Marin’s feature on defence and counterattack. As is known, Marin is a connoisseur of chess classics. Here he has illustrations right from Capablanca and Alekhine to Karpov and Korchnoi. The following encounter was annotated by late Paul Keres way back in Chess Life & Review (September, 1974). So I was particularly interested to know what Marin has had to say about the game.
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25...Nf6! 25...Kg7? 26.f4‼ Qxf4 26...gxf4 27.dxe6! 27.Qh2!? Rh8 28.Ng2 28.Rhf1!? 28...e5 29.Nh4± 27...fxe6 28.Nf5+ exf5 29.gxf5 Qc6 30.Qe7+ Kh8 31.Qg5+- 27.dxe6 Qe4+ 27...Nf6 28.Nf5++- 28.Ka1+- 26.Rxh6 Kg7 27.Rhh1 27.Rdh1 Rh8 28.Rxh8 Rxh8 29.Rxh8 Kxh8 30.dxe6 fxe6 27...Rad8 28.dxe6 fxe6 29.Nc2 Qf4! 30.f3 Kf7 31.a3 e5 ½–½ - Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Spassky,B | 2650 | Karpov,A | 2700 | ½–½ | 1974 | | Candidates' Match | |
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Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov during their Candidates’ Match 1974
In all there are 2723 OTB games of which 127 are annotated. Apart from the ones mentioned at the outset, commentators include Adrian Mikhalchishin, Krisztian Szabo and Romain Edouard among others. This time I missed Telechess section. Hopefully, the grandmasters would be back next time to present games from correspondence chess.