The second half of the World Chess Championship, got underway in New York City, with game 7 being played on Sunday 20th November. The scores were level at the halfway rest day, with defending Champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway and his challenger, Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, having 3-points each after draws in the opening 6 games.
The chess world waited to see if game 7 would bring a change of pace.
When Karjakin, playing White, opened with 1.d4, this was in itself a little exciting, as he had begun with 1.e4 so far in the match. Infact, apart from Carlsen’s possibly tongue-in-cheek Trompowsky in game 1, all games so far had begun 1.e4. Was Karjakin finally trying something and looking to unleash something on his opponent? Unfortunately not. The opening was rather unconvincing from the challenger, who seemed to be caught off-guard in a Slav Defence, by Carlsen’s 10…Nc6. His 11.Nd2 was not a pretty move, and Black will have been very satisfied with the situation that resulted from it.
Unfortunately for Carlsen, however, his 16…Rc8 was not the best move in the world. It allowed Karjakin to ease his situation with the tactical 17.Nf6+, taking the game along a rather forced sequence, which would gain him a pawn and the better stance. Carlsen’s outlook after this was to hold and this he did without issue. The players made a few uneventful moves until move 30 (the earliest that they are permitted to agree a draw) and then split the point.
This means that all games so far have been drawn and this is bringing some dissent from all quarters. So far, it is a very lack-lustre World Championship indeed, not a great advertisement for chess. Of course, it goes without saying that we can not know the match strategy of the players; however, there are now a mere 5 games left. If the players do not pull their socks up soon, we are facing the prospect of one of the most anticipated World Championships in recent years turning out to be one of the dullest of all time and settled on tiebreaks.
The flip side, is that if they do pull their socks up for even a couple of the remaining games, it can be so thrilling that the draws so far will fade into distant memory.
We will hope that this is the case, when the players sit down for game 8 on Monday. Magnus Carlsen will have the White pieces, and has 3 Whites for the remaining 5 games. He seemed to hint that this could be a turning point after game 7, saying that it was now a 5-game match, and that it was now all about those 5 games. Let us hope that these 5 games bring out the very best in these two fine exponents of our game and that they both very much want to be World Chess Champion!
[Site “New York City”]
[Date “2016.11.20”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Karjakin, Sergey”]
[Black “Carlsen, Magnus”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “A00”]
[PlyCount “66”]
[EventDate “2016.11.20”]
[EventCountry “USA”]{Annotations by John Lee Shaw for www.hotoffthechess.com.} 1. d4 {So, a switch
from 1.e4 to 1.d4 by Karjakin. Does this mean there will be a switch in tempo
and the rumoured ‘Russian Prep’ will be unleashed?} d5 2. c4 c6 {The Slav
Defence.} 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 {Nf3 is more usual here, but this move is perfectly
sound of course.} a6 5. Bd3 {This move is interesting — again, Nf3 is more
normal, and Qc2 is also very common. The fact that Karjakin chooses a rarity
by comparison begs the question as to whether he has something ready and this
did prompt Magnus Carlsen to take a bit of a think.} dxc4 {This natural and
thematic move took Magnus Carlsen 7 minutes to play. This does not necessarily
mean that a player is surprised or ‘out of book’ (a player of Carlsen’s
calibre is unlikely to be out of book, here) but sometimes they just need a
few moments to remember analysis or have several lines to choose from,
depending on mood and situation.} 6. Bxc4 e6 {As a Meran player, …b5 always
looks tempting to me is this situation, but here it is totally out of context.
Black needs to develop. In the Meran, Black has played …Nbd7 and …e6
already and develops the light-squared bishop with tempo on White’s Bc4 after .
..b5, and that is a big difference to this position where he is actually
lagging behind somewhat.} 7. Nf3 c5 {This was played very quickly, Carlsen is
ready for this.} 8. O-O b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. dxc5 Nc6 {Karjakin seemed surprised
by this move and had no doubt expected the more immediate …Bxc5. Carlsen
concentrates on development, there is no rush to recapture the pawn. The
position is about equal, here, and so far not a very complicated or tense
situation. There is an interesting decision for White to make regarding his
Queen, here. If he has ambitions in this game, he will not want the Queen’s
off yet, so what to do? He would like to put her on c2, which is a common
thing in these Slav and semi-Slav openings, but Black has …Nb4 at his
disposal and will soon play …Bxc5 and then …Rc8 and the Queen is a bit
vulnerable. b3 is also not the best of squares. This may explain Karjakin’s
next move.} 11. Nd2 {This may well have been Karjakin’s answer to his Queen
situation, although he is of course also targeting the e4-square. But this is
not a great move, it looks bad, his position looks bad, it is bad. Sometimes
in chess, one has to put certain things aside, bite the bullet and just play
the best move, which may well have been Qc2.} (11. Qc2 {This is a risky move
to play, as I have already said, above, and can only be played if one is
certain that all i’s are dotted and t’s crossed. The c-file is going to become
open and a Black rook will come to c8 and then the Queen is open to
discoveries. More immediately, Black has …Nb4.} Nb4 {Anything else and White
is doing pretty good, with Rd1 being a natural move, staking a claim along the
open d-file very speedily.} 12. Qb3 Bxc5 13. a4 O-O {and White can play axb5
here, with an ok position, or first play Rd1.} (13… bxa4 14. Qxa4+ Bc6 15.
Qa5 Qe7 {A possible continuation, here, would be} 16. Ne5 (16. Na4 {is also
interesting} Bd6 {seems to be the only respectable move} 17. Nd4 {and once
again, Black has to handle himself well, here, but …Be4, …0-0, …Bd7 all
seem viable for equality.}) 16… O-O 17. Rd1 {with approximate equality, but
this requires good handling by Black.})) 11… Bxc5 {Black recaptures the pawn
and is clearly better here, his pieces are placed very well and he has an
active setup.} 12. Nde4 Nxe4 13. Nxe4 Be7 14. b3 {Bd2 was also possible, here.}
Nb4 15. Bf3 O-O {This got Magnus Carlsen some critique, due to the possibility
of …f5 here. Carlsen said that he had not really considered the move,
obviously concentrating on development and keeping things solid.} (15… f5 16.
Ng5 Bxf3 17. Nxf3 Qxd1 18. Rxd1 Bf6 19. Nd4 Bxd4 20. exd4 Kf7 {sees Black as
slightly better, with the c-file and White’s isolated pawn to go at.}) 16. Ba3
Rc8 {? This is a little inaccurate, tactically, due to White’s 16.Ba3. It lets
White improve his position greatly due to the vulnerability of Black’s Bb7.}
17. Nf6+ {! This move was made possible by Karjakin’s 16.Ba3, otherwise it
would not have worked, for reason’s that will soon be shown.} Bxf6 18. Bxb7
Bxa1 19. Bxb4 {Not only was this move possible, but the bishop moving from c1
opened up the 1st rank towards a1. The result is that Black has 3 pieces en
prise.} Bf6 {Carlsen decides to go into an endgame a pawn down — but probably
drawable.} (19… Rb8 20. Bxf8 Qxd1 21. Rxd1 Rxb7 22. Bb4 Bf6 {looks drawn.
White can play on forever, here, but with good defence it should not be
winnable.} 23. Rc1 g5 24. Rc6 Ra7 25. Bc5 Ra8 {and what to do?}) 20. Bxf8 Qxd1
21. Rxd1 Rxf8 22. Bxa6 b4 {putting the pawn on the right coloured square for
his bishop. It is very unlikely that Karjakin can make progress, here, despite
his advantage.} 23. Rc1 {Continuing, but I doubt with much serious aspiration
of winning the game. The players may only agree a draw after move 30.} g6 24.
Rc2 Ra8 25. Bd3 Rd8 26. Be2 Kf8 27. Kf1 Ra8 28. Bc4 Rc8 29. Ke2 Ke7 30. f4 h6
31. Kf3 Rc7 32. g4 g5 33. Ke4 Rc8 {And the players agreed a draw, here. A
rather disappointing game to begin the second half of the World Chess
Championship. The scores are balanced at 3.5-points each after 7 draws.}
1/2-1/2[/pgn]
