Game 9: Carlsen escapes Sudden Death / Notes by Fabiano Caruana

by ChessBase
11/23/2016 – Another draw, a very tense one, it's 4-5 now. Some spectators expected the game to end in Karjakin's favour, but Carlsen survived a dangerous middlegame to escape into a worse endgame which he could hold. Theme of the fight: The Archangel. A complex struggle in the middlegame climaxed when Karjakin sacrificed a bishop on move 39. Carlsen struggled to stay in the match, trailing by -2 was a real threat. Notes by Fabiano CaruanaNewsblog 2016-11-13.
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World Chess Championship News - 2016-11-23

Game No. 9 - Notes by Fabiano Caruana

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,166,62354%2421---
1.d4947,29855%2434---
1.Nf3281,60256%2441---
1.c4182,10256%2442---
1.g319,70256%2427---
1.b314,26554%2427---
1.f45,89748%2377---
1.Nc33,80151%2384---
1.b41,75648%2380---
1.a31,20654%2404---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d395450%2378---
1.g466446%2360---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c343351%2426---
1.h328056%2418---
1.a411060%2466---
1.f39246%2436---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
Notes by Fabiano Caruana - The game after Carlsen's loss wasn't guaranteed to be exciting, but viewers were in for a surprise. I had expected a fairly tame draw, but instead we were treated to an extremely complex fighting game with an opening not usually seen at the top level. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 The Archangel variation was certainly not expected from most people, and probably not from the Karjakin camp as well. Playing it requires a tremendous amount of knowledge, so it's likely that Carlsen prepared it before the match as a backup to his main defenses. I have some experience playing this as black against Karjakin, as it was my mainstay opening for a time, and we played several interesting games. As an attempt to win, it can work if the opponent is poorly prepared or surprised, but Karjakin proved up to the task. 7.a4 Rb8 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Bb6 10.axb5 axb5 11.Na3 Karjakin decided to go for the main and most principled line, immediately grabbing the b-pawn. It is what he recently played against Svidler and the most forcing variation, so he probably felt playing this way avoided the most amount of risk. 0-0 12.Nxb5 Bg4 13.Bc2 exd4 14.Nbxd4 Nxd4 15.cxd4 Bxf3 16.gxf3 Nh5 17.Kh1 I always felt that this line was one of the most unpleasant for Black to face. White avoids any risk and hopes to prove the advantage of the bishop pair after the center opens up, usually when White sacrifices a pawn with e5 or f4. Meanwhile, Black has to constantly be on the lookout for tactics. Qf6 18.Be3 c5!? Years ago, as Rustam Kasimdzhanov was frying some plantains, he explained to me that this move was the best chance for Black to equalize. After we analyzed it, he tried it against Nakamura in the 2014 Tromso olympiad. Carlsen and his team also must have felt this was the best way for Black to approach the position. 19.e5 Qe6 20.exd6 c4! This unusual move is the point behind 18...c5. Black keeps the center closed, and plans on capturing d6 next and creating mating threats after with ...Bc7. 21.b3 cxb3 21...c3 was how Rustam approached the position, and although it may be playable, he lost the game. Carlsen's choice is perhaps a better way to equalize. 22.d5 Qxd6 23.Ra6 Nf4 24.Ra4 Ng6 25.Qd3 Bc7 26.f4 and Black was outplayed in Nakamura-Kasimdzhanov, Tromso ol 2014 22.Bxb3 Qxd6 23.Ra6 After 23 moves, we have reached a critical position, and one which was certainly analyzed by both players and their teams. Magnus sank into thought here, which perhaps means that he forgot what he had prepared, or that he was deciding between two roughly equivalent options. Rfd8 Another option was to play 23...Qd7 immediately, and considering the Bxf7 tactics which happened later in the game, keeping the rook on f8 for now was worthy of consideration. 24.Rg1 g6 I have a feeling that this would have offered Black better chances for equality. 24.Rg1 Qd7 25.Rg4 I thought that placing the rook on h4 was very strange, but there was no other convenient way of defending the d4-pawn. The next dozen or so moves are very difficult to explain. The position is highly concrete and it's likely both players were creating and reacting to immediate threats; the end result being very computeresque play. The tempting sacrifice 25.Rg5 g6 26.Rxh5 gxh5 seems to lead nowhere. The computer suggestion of 25.Bc4 Bxd4 26.Bg5 would lead to a very drawish ending: Rdc8 27.Ra4 Rc7 28.Bxf7+ Qxf7 29.Rxd4 Rf8 30.Rd8 Rc8 31.Rxc8 Rxc8 , and White's winning chances are minimal 25...Nf6 26.Rh4 Qb5 27.Ra1 g6 This move is generally useful, providing luft for Black's king. 28.Rb1 Qd7 29.Qd3 Nd5 30.Rg1 Now White's plans are clear. Rooks on the open files and a bishop on b3 pave the way for an eventual rook sacrifice on g6, h7 or a bishop sacrifice on f7. The immediate threat is Bg5. Bc7 31.Bg5 Re8 32.Qc4 Rb5! An excellent move, but I'm not sure it was one which was accurately calculated by either player. 32...Nb6?? 33.Qxf7+ Qxf7 34.Bxf7+ Kxf7 35.Rxh7+ shows the tactics available at White's disposal. 33.Qc2 33.Ba4 is of course critical. White seems to win a rook, but Black has a sneaky response: Qf5! 34.Qf1! Interposing with the queen on g2 is the only way to save White. Now Black has only one move to stay in the game: Rb1‼ 34...Qxf3+ 35.Qg2 Qxg2+ 36.Kxg2 wins for White. 35.Qxb1 Qxf3+ 36.Rg2 Nc3 37.Qf1 Nxa4 , and Black has very decent compensation for the exchange in the form of White's discordinated forces and a mighty queen on f3. However, White could still try to regroup and play this for a win, even though a draw is the most likely result. 33...Ra8?! After this, Black again experiences difficulties. 33...Rb4 is the machine recommendation, the point being to keep the rook on the e-file for 34.Bd2 Re2! 34.Bc4 Rba5 35.Bd2 Ra4 36.Qd3 Ra1 37.Rxa1 Rxa1+ 38.Kg2 Ne7? Almost the decisive mistake, but practically this move was difficult to punish. After something like 38...Bd8 39.Re4 Nf6 , Black is still clearly worse, but he has decent chances to hold on due to counterplay against White's king. 39.Bxf7+ Very tempting, but not correct. After this sacrifice everyone in the spectator's lounge got very excited and started predicting a win for Karjakin. However, the whole line becomes very forcing and leads to a drawish position. 39.Qb3! was more critical: Nf5 39...Qf5 40.Re4 Bd6 41.Qb7 just wins material - the knight is trapped. 40.Bxf7+ Kg7 40...Qxf7 41.Qxf7+ Kxf7 42.Rxh7+ Ke6 43.Rxc7 , and this ending is most likely lost or at least very difficult to hold. 41.Rh3 It feels like Black should have counterplay here, but there is no path to create threats to White's king. It turns out Black's king is the terminally weak one. Qe7 42.Bg8 h5 43.d5 , and Bc3 is coming. Of course, this would not guarantee a win, as the position remains very complicated, especially in time trouble, but objectively Karjakin would have good winning chances like this. 39...Kxf7 40.Qc4+ Kg7 41.d5 My first thought during the game was 41.Rxh7+ Kxh7 42.Qf7+ Kh8 43.Bh6 , with mate I thought, but then I saw Qxd4 and the tables are turned. Black wins. 41.Bh6+ Kf6! is surprisingly also bad for White, as the attack leads nowhere. 41...Nf5 Now everything is forced. 41...Be5? 42.Bc3 Qd6 43.Qf4! is a very study-like win, with a double pin on Black's king and queen. 42.Bc3+ Kf8 43.Bxa1 Nxh4+ 44.Qxh4 Qxd5 And here is became clear that Carlsen would not lose the game. White is not winning h7 and his pawn advantage is not enough to cause Black significant problems. Karjakin tried hard to create progress here, but to no avail. 45.Qf6+ Qf7 46.Qd4 Ke8 47.Qe4+ Qe7 48.Qd5 Bd8 49.Kf1 Qf7 50.Qe4+ Qe7 51.Be5 Qe6 52.Kg2 Be7 53.Qa8+ Kf7 54.Qh8 h5 55.Qg7+ Ke8 56.Bf4 Qf7 57.Qh8+ Qf8 58.Qd4 Qf5 59.Qc4 Kd7 60.Bd2 Qe6 61.Qa4+ Qc6 62.Qa7+ Qc7 63.Qa2 Qd6 64.Be3 Qe6 65.Qa7+ Ke8 66.Bc5 Bd8 67.h3 Qd5 68.Be3 Be7 69.Qb8+ Kf7 70.Qh8 Qe6 71.Bf4 Qf6 72.Qb8 Qe6 73.Qb7 Kg8 74.Qb5 Bf6 Finally Karjakin gave up trying to win. Magnus survived a difficult position! If he had lost the match would have been practically decided, but now it is still a wide open contest. Tomorrow Carlsen has a critical game with White to try and win; he hasn't managed to convert his advantages so far in the match, so we'll see if he can pull through in the crucial last games. ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Karjakin,S2772Carlsen,M2853½–½2016C78WCh 20169

Nov. 24, 7.25 Hamburg / Nov. 24, 1.25 am New York: What a fight! Complaining about the many draws misses the point. In game nine the Champion had Black and was close to losing and being down 3.5-5.5 in the match with only three games to go. Not enough drama?

The spectators saw Carlsen in real danger. One of them was Teimur Radjabov:

Of course, Karjakin could have played better in the second half of the game (but for this "Coulda. Shoulda. Woulda" see Yasser Seirawan's notes to game 3) but it's easy to find improvements with an engine running. However, at the board in New York Karjakin was all alone. He was +1 ahead, had a good position, enough time. Combining optimism and caution he reaches for the title that seems to be close and ready to be grabbed. But he is still fighting against the best player on the planet.

1.40 / 7.40 pm: Draw! After more than five and a half hours of play.

1.13 / 7.13 pm: 

1.10 / 7.10 pm: Carlsen succeeded in placing his pieces quite well while Karjakin has not made any progress - a draw seems inevitable.

0.45 / 6.45 pm: Carlsen seems to be relieved, the game could have gone much worse.

0.32 / 6.32 pm: 

0.29 / 6.29 pm: According to Polgar, Magnus has to decide whether to bring his king to the queenside or leave it on the kingside. It's a long way to go, but he should draw it in the end.

0.12 / 6.12 pm: Magnus is a bit lucky that the position holds.

0.12 / 6.12 pm: 

0.02 / 6.02 pm: The 40th move have been reached. Karjakin sacrificed his light squared bishop on f7 but has a strong attack and may win his material back. A huge chance for the challenger to increase the standing on 2-0, but Carlsen may hoild with precise play.

23.52 / 5.52 pm: Karjakin takes his time on this important decision - he goes down to the five minutes mark but still shows no sign of nervousness.

23.50 / 5.50 pm: "In this game Sergey played better than Magnus" (Judit Polgar)

23.45 / 5.45 pm: Body language: Karjakin highly concentrated and bend forward, Carlsen seems to be deeply dissatisfied, almost nauseated with his position. Definitely a big moment in the match!

23.40 / 5.40 pm: 

Karjakin calculating the almost winning continuation 39.Qb3! followed by 40.Bxf7!

23.35 / 5.35 pm: Radjabov already sees it executed:

23.33 / 5.33 pm: After Carlsen's 38...Ne7 L'Ami spots a tactic:

23.31 / 5.31 pm:

Grandmaster Maurice Ashley: "Magnus clearly is the best player in the world but he is not showing it right now"

23.22 / 5.22 pm: Teymur Radjabov ascribes Karjakin decent winning chances

23.16 / 5.16 pm:

Lawrence Trent joined the commentary team: "Sergey knows that a win today is pretty much the end of the match"

23.11 / 5.11 pm: 

23.04 / 5.04 pm: Magnus took more than half of his remaining time to settle on 33...Ra8 - he now has only 13 minutes left.

22.58 / 4.58 pm:

22.48 / 4.48 pm:

Magnus makes a very concentrated impression - he feels the tide may be turned in this important phase of the game.

22.48 / 4.48 pm: "And suddenly Black is very active" - Judit Polgar sees the trend turning in Magnus' direction.

22.38 / 4.38 pm: 

Carlsen's sister makes a confident impression: Magnus will draw today, and have two wins with white then.

22.18 / 4.18 pm: Jonathan Rowson supports L'Ami's conviction.

22.13 / 4.13 pm: Erwin L'Ami sees attacking potential in Karjakin's position.

22.10 / 4.10 pm: After 29 moves Karjakin has more than one hour on the clock, Carlsen nearly 40 minutes. After Monday's epic time trouble, we will have a calmer 4th hour today.

Both players seem calm and relaxed, leaving the board frequently.

22.01 / 4.01 pm: After two hours of play, Judit Polgar starts to be pessimistic about Sergey's chances: "It's not so easy to improve white's position. I think in the last three moves, it went a bit downhill for Sergey"

21.47 / 3.47 pm: In the database we can find an encounter between two strong grandmasters which had the same pawn structure. To find these games, use the function called "Similar Structures" in ChessBase 12, ChessBase 13 or ChessBase 14.

Position after 25.Rb1 in the game Solak-Nikolic, SRB-ch 2014

21.38 / 3.38 pm: Karjakin places his rook on the very awkward square h4. "I don't like the rook on h4 at all" (Judit Polgar)

21.22 / 3.22 pm:

21.15 / 3.15 pm: After 30 minutes Carlsen settles on 23...Rfd8 - the longest period he took in this match so far. 

21.08 / 3.08 pm: 

Carlsen has been thinking for nearly half an hour after Karjakin's 23.Ra6 and still did not come up with a solution.

20.46 / 2.46 pm:

20.35 / 2.35 pm: Judit Polgar is impressed by Carlsen's 20...c4 - "It's an extremly interesting and brave idea"

20.31 / 2.31 pm: As Radjabov, Giri does not believe this concrete line serves as a winning attempt by Carlsen.

20.27 / 2.27 pm:

20.23 / 2.23 pm: Both players seem to be in their preparation, following a game between Nakamura and Kazimdzhanov from the Tromso Olympiad 2014 - there Nakamura followed it up with 20.exd6 and won after 42 moves.

20.19 / 2.19 pm: 

Carlsen goes into thought - trying to remember his preperation.

20.15 / 2.15 pm: Karjakin is familiar with this position as well - he had the position after 18.Be3 in a game against Adams in 2008. In that game, he was confronted with 18...Ra8.

20.12 / 2.12 pm: Both players follow well known paths - white is a pawn up but black has good compensation.

20.09 / 2.09 pm: Carlsen played this variation only four times in his career - the last time was in 2011 against McShane.

20.02 / 2.02 pm: Carlsen surprises with the sharp Archangelsk-System in the Spanish. We'll see how well Karjakin is prepared for this...

19.59 / 1.59 pm: 

Press Conference in New York City - Picture by Maria Emilianova

Karjakin makes a nervous impression (Judit Polgar)

19.52 / 13.52 am: Only some minutes to go until game nine starts. In the 8th game, Carlsen took far too many risks, this strategy bounced back and got him into this unknown situation. In his two matches against Anand, he never never fell behind. Karjakin enjoys the lead - he could switch back to 1.e4 today, as there is no need to be afraid of the rather drawish lines in the Marshall anymore. Or is he going for a win, as this result would be kind of a preliminary decision?

Press Conference in New York City - Picture by Maria Emilianova

18.42 / 12.02 am: 

Press conferences after the game
Winner only25
53%
Loser by choice13
27%
Keeping the status quo9
19%

18.41 / 12.41 am: Seventh Seal in Ninth Game

17.28 / 11.02 am: Official statement by Fide concerning the incidents after game No. 8 - without mentioning a decision about sanctions, but adding the general note "Fide regulations state that every player must attend the post game press conference, otherwise he will be penalised by a deduction of 10% of his prize money. " 

16.24 / 10.02 am: This is one example of how the media reacted in Norway: "King No" is the title of this norwegian magazine. 

13.02 / 7.02 am: ChessBase India has published an insightful Q & A with Viswanathan Anand. 

11.36 / 05.36: "Wild Kid" also liked the annotations by Fabiano Caruana. In the comments to the Newsblog from November 22nd he writes: "A really great set of annotations by Fabiano Caruana. Not only are the lines given really illuminating, but Caruana's insights on the players' psychologies are fascinating. We are so lucky to have someone who, but for the grace of God, could easily be sitting in one of those two chairs, explaining what might be going through the players' minds. Caruana is so friendly, downhome, and accessible that it is easy to forget what a great player he is."

11.15 / 05.15: "Normally, after a lost game, Carlsen comes back twice as strong." Ian Nepomniachtchi while commentating game eight together with Judit Polgar.

11.03 / 05.03: How political is the match? Very, at least according to Barney Henderson from The Telegraph. He sees "A Battle of East vs West" and claims that "the current World Chess Championships in New York is one of the most politically-charged in decades".

10.19 Hamburg / 04.19 New York: A lot of chessplayers liked Fabiano Caruana's analysis of game eight. Some were downright enthusiastic, e.g. SurferII who said in the comments: "Caruana, best chessbase analysis ever". 

World Chess Championship News - 2016-11-22

20.30 Hamburg / 14.30 New York: How many games  do you play a day to practise?.

20.24 Hamburg / 14.24 New York: Here you can see the press conference after game 6.

15.38 / 9.38 am: Norwegian Grandmaster and author Jonathan Tisdall published a noteworthy piece after game eight in mattogpatt.no - food for thought.

13.34 / 7.34 am: According to the Spanish Sports newspaper Marca, Carlsen is threatened to be fined with 60.000 US-Dollars for not attending the press conference after the first decisive game.

 

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