The World Chess Championship, between defending Champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway and his challenger, Sergey Karjakin of Russia, stands balanced at three-points each after the opening six games. The match is taking place in New York City, and so far has not reached its potential. Champion, Carlsen, is known to be one of the sharpest and aggressive players in the game and this coupled with the rumour of a preparation-rich Karjakin, promised great things with regard to attacking chess.
Unfortunately, promises are not always realised and the match-up has barely sizzled, let alone reached boiling point.
In game 6, (if one can call it a ‘game’, I think ‘series of moves’ would be more accurate), Karjakin, played White. He chose the Ruy Lopez, which is not really surprising as it is one of his main openings and he has played it already in this match. However, what is surprising is that he allowed Carlsen to play the Marshall Attack, sacrificing a pawn for piece activity. From here, the game spontaneously combusted and burned itself out within a few moves to where the potential was gone and there was very little left in the position. Draws may not be agreed by the players until move 30 has been reached, and they made a few more exchanges and harmless excursions before splitting the point after 32 moves. There is very little to say about the game to be honest, nothing was threatened or attempted.
I find it a very poor showing for a World Championship.
So, the match is split evenly at 3-points each at the halfway stage. The players have Saturday as a rest day, and will hopefully come out rejuvenated for game seven. With a match that has as much potential as this one, it would be a crime for things to not kick off and show the world what an incredibly exciting game chess is, especially with two of its leading exponents going head-to-head.
Play continues on Sunday 20th November and sees Sergey Karjakin have his second White game on the spin. Let’s hope for a different approach from him than in game 6!
[Site “New York USA”]
[Date “2016.11.18”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Karjakin, Sergey”]
[Black “Carlsen, Magnus”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “C88”]
[WhiteElo “2772”]
[BlackElo “2853”]
[PlyCount “64”]
[EventDate “2016.11.11”]{Annotations by John Lee Shaw for www.hotoffthechess.com.} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3
Nc6 3. Bb5 {Once again a Ruy Lopez.} a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3
O-O 8. h3 Bb7 9. d3 d5 {The Marhshall Attack, Black sacrifices a pawn for
activity. This can lead to very sharp positions, though it can also lead to an
implosion of tension and mass liquidation, resulting in a draw. And that is
what happens in this game.} 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nxe5 {There is nothing better
than to accept the gambitted pawn, even though it will lead to Black obtaining
stonking activity and usually claiming the bishop pair.} Nd4 12. Nc3 Nb4 13.
Bf4 Nxb3 14. axb3 c5 {This is a novelty, …f6, …Bd6, …Nd5 and …Qd4
have all been seen before. Carlsen has come out prepared. As alluded to by
Mark Crowther on The Week In Chess, this could have been a banker on his part,
to deal with Karjakin having double White games in games 6 and 7. One has to
wonder why Karjakin has allowed this, and not tried to do more with his double
whites.} 15. Ne4 f6 16. Nf3 f5 17. Neg5 Bxg5 18. Nxg5 h6 19. Ne6 {This is very
deceptive looking, at first glance it looks like White is doing rather well,
but Black has everything in hand, here.} Qd5 {Using the threat of mate in
order to save the rook. There is absolute equality here, and unfortunately the
game is heading nowhere.} 20. f3 Rfe8 21. Re5 Qd6 22. c3 Rxe6 23. Rxe6 Qxe6 24.
cxb4 cxb4 25. Rc1 Rc8 {…g5 was also possible, but was no better.} 26. Rxc8+
Qxc8 27. Qe1 Qd7 {All very natural moves and the game is pretty much dead with
neither player having any weaknesses that can be attacked.} 28. Kh2 a5 29. Qe3
Bd5 30. Qb6 Bxb3 31. Qxa5 Qxd3 32. Qxb4 Be6 {And the players agreed a draw,
here, a very disappointing showing for a World Chess Championship one would
have to say.} 1/2-1/2[/pgn]
