Taking place from 9-28 November at The College in Holborn, London, the world’s most esteemed chess tournament consists of a 12-game Match, avidly followed and analysed by a global audience of hundreds of millions of chess fans, which will see current World Chess Champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, defend his title against US challenger, Fabiano Caruana. Caruana is 26 years old and is the first American to challenge for the undisputed World Championship since Bobby Fischer in 1972. He qualified back in March by winning the Berlin Candidates.
At the press conference when asked if he thinks chess is experiencing a modern revival US challenger Fabiano Caruana said, ”Chess has unquestionably become a lot cooler. There are lots of people in the celebrity and music world who are interested in chess so I definitely think its gaining more exposure and making it more accessible to a wider audience” .
When asked if he stills consider himself an underdog the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen said, “It’s been a while since I’ve considered myself an underdog. To be honest if you’ve been the number one player for the past 7 years and consider yourself an underdog you have problems in your psyche.” When questioned about female support for the match Carlsen said “I don’t think so. Women hate me. I repel them!”. About his opponent: “In long endgames, I still think I have an advantage against Caruana. He can work on it, but I don’t think he can equalise my edge in only a few months”
This year, the leading partners supporting the Championship Match 2018 included: PhosAgro, a leading chemical company as the Official Strategic Partner, Kaspersky Lab as World Chess and FIDE’s Official Cybersecurity Partner, PRYTEK as Technology Transfer Partner, S.T. Dupont as Official Writing Instrument, Isklar as the official mineral water of the Championship Match, Unibet as the Official Betting Partner and Beluga as the Official VIP Partner.
The best-of-12 game match has a prize fund of a million euros, with 60 percent for the winner. Each win is worth a point and each draw a half point. The first player to reach 6.5 points is declared the winner. (If the match should be tied after 12 games, the players will proceed to a series of tie-breakers and the winner of the match would receive 55 percent of the prize fund.)
Game 1
Against 1 e4 by Caruana, who had White, Carlsen chose the Sicilian Defense, perhaps the most double-edged reply..
After Carlsen played 2… Nc6, perhaps indicating perhaps that he wanted to enter the Sveshnikov Variation, Caruana countered with 3 Bb5 — the Rossolimo Variation, which Anand used against Boris Gelfand during their 2012 title match. Caruana’s opening choice was possibly meant to avoid the maze of complications of the Sveshnikov, but it backfired as Carlsen gradually took control.
As the first time-control approached on Move 40, Caruana’s time was dwindling rapidly and his position was under pressure as Carlsen managed to open up the file in front of Caruana’s king. Caruana decided that his best chance lay in a flight of his king to the other side of the board, but, according to the various computer engines analyzing the position, that was a mistake. In the endgame, his queenside pawns, supported by his dark-square bishop, would have been dangerous, if not lethal. The computers evaluated Carlsen having a strategic advantage of the equivalent of about two pawns – more than enough to be decisive at this level of competition.
But Carlsen did not see the strategy and continued to concentrate on the kingside. On his 40th move, he made a fateful decision – he exchanged his dangerous passed f pawn for Caruana’s c pawn. Though Carlsen retained an advantage, it was now minimal. It was one of the longest games in World Championship history, eclipsed by one of 124 moves in 1978 between Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, and another of 122 moves between Carlsen and Anand in 2014.
Game 2
The opening in Game 2 was a Queen’s Gambit Declined, with Carlsen choosing to play 5 Bf4. It is an opening that he has used before and with great success, so it could not have been a surprise to Caruana. Indeed, with 6 … c5, Caruana attacked Carlsen’s center. This is a known and sharp line , but Caruana proved better prepared with Carlsen consuming much time in solving new problems. Caruana soon established an edge by breaking up Carlsen’s queen side pawns.
A series of exchanges followed that saddled Carlsen with broken pawns on the kingside and a far advanced, but weak d pawn that would inevitably fall. But the reduced material, and Carlsen’s lead in development, allowed him to avoid real trouble. Though Caruana had an extra pawn, he agreed to a draw after 49 moves.
Carlsen at the press conference: “I am not happy about this, but it’s better than losing”
During the post-game press conference, Magnus talked about how he “went on full grovel”, but he was also able to see the bright side of the situation and summed up his feelings this way: “I was surprised in the opening…I miscalculated something. Then I had to beg for a draw, but that went without problems”.
Game 3
The American challenger opened with 1 e4. As he had in Game 1, Magnus Carlsen, the World Champion from Norway, replied with the Sicilian Defense (1 … c5) and Caruana again replied with the Rossolimo Variation (3 Bb5). The players repeated the same first five moves before Carlsen deviated first by moving his queen instead of his king knight.
The change was subtle and did not result in any major shift in the dynamic balance of the position. Indeed, unlike in the first game, when Caruana got into trouble, in this game he was never in any real danger. But neither was Carlsen. As the game proceeded and pieces and pawns were gradually exchanged, chances remained equal as neither player made any mistake.
In the end, Caruana sacrificed his remaining piece, a knight, to eliminate the last pawn that Carlsen had any chance to promote to a queen. With no winning chances for either side, the players agreed to a draw after 49 moves.
Caruna: “I thought this ending would be equal when I went into it but then I couldn’t really see what to do and I realised I kind of have to sit and wait. I mean it’s very very drawish, it should be a draw in many ways.”
Game 4
By Move 20, the queens, both sets of knights and the light-squared bishops had all been exchanged and though there was some imbalance in the pawn structure, neither player had particularly good prospects for a breakthrough. They agreed to a draw soon after.
Game 5
The game began once again with the Rossolimo Variation of the Sicilian Defence. This time play transitioned to the little-used Gurgenidze variation, which was prepared by Caruana before this match began, forcing Carlsen to spend a lot of time thinking early on. It was not until 13. …Qa5 that Caruana began to seriously think about his next move.Although Caruana had caught Carlsen in his preparation, Carlsen navigated the complications accurately, and emerged not only unscathed, but with a slightly superior position.Nonetheless, Caruana was able to defend without many problems, and the players agreed to a draw after the 34th move.
Game 6
In Game 6, Caruana chose the Petroff Defense. The game continued down an obscure branch of the Petroff that Carlsen had doubtless studied carefully. Caruana demonstrated he also was well prepared as he navigated some of the intricacies with no problem.
After 15 moves, the position was symmetrical and the game seemed headed for a draw, which also was no surprise, as the Petroff has long had a reputation of being drawish. The game continued, however, partly because there is a rule in the match that games must be at least 30 moves, and also because neither player had any interest in agreeing to an early peace. On Move 22, Carlsen made what turned out to be a small, but subtle error by positioning his light-squared bishop on a file that could be opened. Caruana was able to gain time to develop his rooks by attacking the bishop and that allowed him to take over the initiative.
Carlsen was in no immediate danger, but Caruana had nagging pressure against White’s position. By Move 34, the players had reached an endgame in which each had his bishop pair and a knight and a set of six pawns.
Just after the first time control at Move 40, Carlsen made another small error and was forced to trade one of his remaining pieces for three of Caruana’s pawns. Nominally, that is about an even trade, but, at the tail end of the sequence, Caruana was able to win another of Carlsen’s pawns.
Carlsen was clearly in trouble, but Caruana only had two pawns left and if Carlsen could trade them, the game would be a draw. The exchange of one pawn was impossible to prevent, but Carlsen could not easily get to the second. Computer evaluations showed a clear edge for Caruana.
Game 7
Caruana’s reply, 10 … Qd8, was not the best, and Carlsen soon had a slight edge. But it was no more than that and, as the game progressed, Caruana was never in any danger.
After a wholesale exchange of pieces from moves 18 to 25, chances were equal. Though the game continued until Move 40, a draw already seemed like a foregone result.
Game 8
Carlsen’s 8… Nb8 is odd-looking, but it is also considered the best move because the more “normal” 8… Ne7 can land Black in some hot water after 9 c3.
Carlsen might have been in real trouble if Caruana had not played 24 h3. Instead, 24 Nc4, continuing to build pressure on Carlsen’s center, would have given White a clear edge. Caruana’s error gave Carlsen just enough time to shore up his defenses. Though the game continued until Move 38 before the players agreed to a draw, most of the drama was already gone.
Game 9
In Game 9, Carlsen, 27 and from Norway, had White and, as he had in Game 4, he began with the English opening (1 c4). Caruana, 26, from the United States, replied with the same system that he had used in the earlier game and the players followed the same path until Carlsen varied with 9 Bg5. The move did not change the evaluation of the position much and by Move 16, Caruana was already trying to repeat the position to force a draw by playing Bd5 and Be4 to continually attack Carlsen’s queen. Naturally, Carlsen avoided that by playing 17 Qd1. Caruana immediately exchanged his light-squared bishop for Carlsen’s knight with 17… Bf3. That turned out to be a small error as, after a further series of exchanges, Black had a broken, and therefore slightly worse pawn structure. That was not a serious problem for Caruana, however, and after more trades, the players wound up in an endgame in which chances were roughly equal.
Game 10
As in Game 8, Caruana went into the Open Sicilian and Carlsen responded with the Sveshnikov.
The game was identical through Move 11. Caruana then varied with 12 b4, launching an attack on the queenside. Carlsen responded energetically and by Move 20, his initiative on the kingside offered him equal chances. Three moves later, however, Carlsen made a small error with 23 … Qg5. If Caruana had replied 24 Qd4, it would have forced Carlsen to defend his e pawn, slowing his attack. Instead, Caruana erred with 24 g3, creating severe light-squared weaknesses in his kingside. With time growing short as the players approached the first time control at Move 40, the pace of the game picked up. Light-squared bishops were exchanged, slightly easing Caruana’s defensive task, but Carlsen retained a formidable pawn center, which counter balanced a strong White passed pawn on the queen side.
The position remained dynamically balanced until just after the first time control, when Carlsen made another small error with 45… Kd4. That miscalculation allowed Caruana to win a pawn, but it also led to simplification of the position. In the end, Caruana had no chance to win and the players agreed to a draw.
Game 11
On Move 4, Carlsen varied from the earlier game with the standard retreat, 4 Nf3. The game then followed a well-known and heavily analyzed line. Caruana had little trouble equalizing and, after queens were traded on Move 13, he faced only incidental problems. Carlsen tried to shake things up with 15 Nh4 and 16 Ng6, but after a series of exchanges from Moves 17 to 25, there were only bishops of opposite color and symmetrical pawn structures left. Though Caruana later blundered a pawn, it made absolutely no difference – Carlsen no longer had any reasonable winning chances.
Game 12
Garry Kasparov on Twitter: In light of this shocking draw offer from Magnus in a superior position with more time, I reconsider my evaluation of him being the favorite in rapids. Tiebreaks require tremendous nerves and he seems to be losing his.
V. Kramnik in Chessbase:
“I understand that he was happy with a draw before the game. That’s normal. But when you’ve got a position that’s one-sided…it was practically winning — how can you not try to grab this chance? All of a sudden you’ve got a great chance, you have to go for it. Even if you’re happy for a draw you’ve got to play for a win if the position allows it.
There was no risk. If you don’t want to take the slightest risk, you shouldn’t play because you can always blunder a piece, but if you don’t make any bad blunder there was no risk at all. And a blunder you can make anywhere — in rapid chess for example.
Even the final position if you just play until the time control, humanly it looks extremely unpleasant for white. Even the final move 31…Ra8 is the worst time to offer a draw because White has a very difficult decision to make right now and he was already short of time. The decisions are quite difficult for White because Black has a clear plan, as I understand, he wants to play Ra6, Rfa8 and then probably a3, b3, Rb6 and tactics will come. So White has to really think what he should do and he has little time on the clock and a lot of tactical motifs are possible. He can go at some point Qa3 but then some Rb8 and b5 can be coming — b5 a very serious issue as well. In the worst case, White manages everything and he just builds a fortress. OK, a fortress draw.
Maybe it’s too strong to say a “nervous breakdown” but he just couldn’t hold the pressure of the game. In this particular position, you just cannot do it as a practical player…In my opinion, even in the last position, the chances of him winning are quite high. I cannot imagine him doing this a few years ago.”
Four games with 25 minutes per side plus a 10-second increment were to be played, with blitz mini-matches and Armageddon to follow in case of a tie.
Game 13 Tie-break 1
Game 14 Tie-break 2
In yet another 7. Nd5 Sveshnikov, the players followed game 12 for 11 moves, when Carlsen deviated and put his queen on b8. The Norwegian player didn’t follow up strongly though, and the experts in the press room gave Caruana good chances to level the score around move 18.
The move 21. c5, however, was too rushed. Where running with the c-pawn had been so strong in the eighth match game, here Caruana should have waited. The pawn became weak, his kingside was full of holes, and in no time everything collapsed. Caruana had to resign before move 30.
Game 15 Tie-break 3
Playing 1. e4, Carlsen steered Caruana’s Sicilian into a Maroczy Bind type of position, with Black having an active king’s bishop compared to a regular hedgehog.
Carlsen traded that bishop and continued playing healthy moves, but Caruana managed to keep some play in the position. However, after a sudden, tactical phase an equal endgame with QB-vs-QN appeared. Carlsen kept playing well, and Caruana had to over-press to keep chances.
Carlsen: ” I feel that game one was very critical for the match. It was very tense and it was the breakthrough for me. And then in the second game, I wasn’t too sure about my position, but after I won the first one I felt very calm. So for me the first game was the key.
Thanks to my opponent for a great fight. He showed himself to be an extremely strong player, versatile and very, very tough to beat. Obviously I am very happy with the way the match ended but I don’t think we’ve seen the last from Fabiano in this particular context.”
Caruana: “Of course I’m very disappointed, I’ve always considered the main goal was not to play a world championship match but to actually become a world champion. I have some regrets about the classical portion but I don’t think I can really be upset about it, I maybe missed two good chances and Magnus also had two—one completely winning position. So I can’t really say that I missed more chances overall. It came down to today. I was hoping to play my best chess today but I didn’t come close to that. I think the results show that he is the strongest player in the world…and he is the World Champion, so it’s quite fitting”
President of FIDE, Arkadiy Dvorkovich: “Magnus and Fabiano are both exceptionally talented players, and I congratulate them both on their achievements.”
CEO of World Chess, Ilya Merenzon: “This year’s World Chess Championship has been the most popular yet, with a global audience of millions. We wanted to make the 2018 World Chess Championships the world’s most interesting event in chess history, and we didn’t disappoint. The world has closely watched both Magnus and Fabiano make each and every move, and they should extremely proud of their accomplishments.”
CEO of Kaspersky Lab, Eugene Kaspersky: “As always, the World Chess Championship has been a big intellectual pleasure to watch. I’m happy that this strategic, even mathematical sport is evolving and becoming more open to a bigger, younger audience thanks to connectivity and modern technology. Though I regret greatly not being able to be in London to shake the champion’s hand, I hereby congratulate Magnus for his well-deserved victory.”
Deputy Chairman of the Board of PhosAgro, an International-Class Master of Sports and Honoured Coach of Russia, Andrey Guryev: “Despite the record number of draws, it was one of the most interesting matches in chess history between two young talented grandmasters”.
L. Barden in the Guardian: As Carlsen admitted after the match, his opening preparation more than once turned out to be poor, highlighted by his two white games against the Petroff Defence 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6, which was clearly going to be Caruana’s main king pawn reply and was even confirmed by the video leak of the American’s planned repertoire. Carlsen’s long standing chief aide, Peter Heine Nielsen, may have some awkward questions to answer.
Carlsen still won, and his four world championship career victories have been surpassed only by Emanuel Lasker and Botvinnik. Yet in the unofficial contest of legends, where chess players rank the all-time greats, his performance is slipping. Five years ago, when Carlsen became champion for the first time against Vishy Anand in Chennai, it seemed that with youth on his side he could achieve a higher place on the pantheon than Garry Kasparov or Fischer.
Rustam Kasimdzhanov in Chessbase:
CB: How long did you prepare for the match?
RK: Since the Candidates Tournament, we have always been travelling, playing in tournaments or being in training camp. Sometimes we trained in remote places. We worked in the Hamptons near New York and then we spent some time at the farm of Rex Sinquefield which is right in a forest. Maybe I have been at home for seven days since the Candidates.
In the regular games Carlsen and Caruana were equals but in the tiebreak Caruana just went down. What happened?
He just had a bad day. During the match, I did not think that we would definitely lose the tiebreak. After all, before the tiebreak Fabiano had an even score against Magnus in rapid. But on that day things just did not go well for Fabiano.
CB: Do you still feel a huge disappointment?
RK: Yes. Some people came to me to congratulate for the good work. I don’t know why. After all, our work as seconds usually remains invisible. I have already worked as a second a couple of times, including World Championship matches. It may sound a bit immodest but until now I have won all the World Championship matches in which I was a second. The feeling of defeat is new for me.
CB: Will Caruana be a challenger again?
RK: Why not? He is young, he is in good shape, he can still improve. But of course nothing is for granted: you never know what will happen at a Candidates Tournament. Suddenly one of the other players is on a roll, winning one game after the next, and then he will become challenger. A lot of the top players are capable of that.
| Rating | Match games | Tiebreak games | Points | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |||
 Magnus Carlsen (NOR) |
2835 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 (3) |
 Fabiano Caruana (USA) |
2832 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 (0) |