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All five games were drawn again today. I don't think we, as spectators, should be overly concerned with that. The games were fairly interesting, and it's only a matter of time before the scoreboard lights up with victories.
Magnus Carlsen keeps on experimenting with various g7-g6 openings. There may be two reasons for that. One is to make a push toward sharpening his play with Black, and the other is to force his opponent in the upcoming World Championship match, Fabiano Caruana, to study additional openings in his preparation.
The Pirc Defense Magnus tried today against Rauf Mamedov worked out well enough to equalize easily, but there wasn't enough left in the position for Carlsen to make his trademark push for a win.
The Modern Pirc is actually a mixture of the Caro-Kann and the Pirc. In many lines Black combines the ideas of the classical Pirc in which the fianchettoed bishop is important with the Caro-Kann idea to fight for the center with c6-d5.
This is just a minor setback for Magnus Carlsen, but it continues the disturbing pattern of shedding rating points which has lately been plaguing his play in classical tournaments. Trying new things with Black is admirable, but Magnus has to expect more of the same solid play from his opposition. It is tough to be a World Champion when every next opponent brings his “A” game to the table.
Even this pleading expression could not bring the world champion a solution to the "draw problem" | Photo: Shamkirchess.az
The two of the recent contenders on the Candidates Tournament, Shakhriar Mamedyarov and Sergey Karjakin, faced each other again today. Shakh uncorked a new idea in a beaten-up line of the Qc2 Nimzo, but he met with an unrelenting will of Sergey to stay solid and play for equality.
In the wake of the Candidates, Karjakin made a statement about his future plans of rising up in the rating list to qualify for next event. I guess, not losing games remains his top priority.
Meet the Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2
Rustam Kasimdzhanov, the FIDE World Champion in 2004, has been extremely successful with the Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2 with White and with Black. In over 4 hours of video, Rustam Kasimdzhanov explains all the important ideas, strategies and tricks helped by sample games in which the white side is represented, e.g., by Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Ivanchuk as well as the author himself.
Karjakin's opponents have a common problem: he's a brilliant defender and tough to beat | Photo: Shamkirchess.az
One guy he couldn't care less for ratings and invitations is Veselin Topalov. Veselin seems to thrive in the low-pressure environment of just a “nice tournament”, and he's not afraid of going for a win, no matter White or Black. Today he played a beautiful game against Ding Liren, all until a strange miss right at the finish line.
The Slav and Semi-Slav revisited
For Shirov the Slav and the Semi-Slav form one huge and common opening. Of course it is a mighty opening complex and the DVD cannot give a complete picture of it, but in the areas he chooses to highlight our author is an absolute expert and capable of giving the deepest possible insights into the secrets of this extremely solid opening.
Topalov is still an international star | Photo: Shamkirchess.az
Giri-Radjabov and Navara-Wojtaszek were less eventful. The players with the white pieces gave more than a token effort, but it wasn't enough to get much going.
Anish Giri and Teimour Radjabov
Just one Elo point separates the Polish and Czech grandmasters | Photo: Shamkirchess.az
