WC Match 2016 - New York 10-30 November

[Christopher Kreuzer]

OK, maybe the critical moves are after move 40 as well.

EDIT: Or maybe before. 38...Ne7 may be a blunder (visually, it looks horrible, I don't understand Carlsen playing that move at all). Karjakin has plenty of time to work out the best continuation of 39.Qb3.

[LawrenceCooper]

OK, maybe the critical moves are after move 40 as well.

After 38..Ne7 though the white advantage could be getting serious.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

39.Bxf7+ looks stronger than 39.Qb3.

[MartinCarpenter]

39.Bxf7+ looks stronger than 39.Qb3.

Svidler has called that super human though The follow ups aren't natural.

The idea of Ne7 was to go to f5 which is a nice spot of course, but allowing all these tactics vs f7 is deeply odd - avoiding them is specifically why the knight had been hanging out on d5 for all those moves!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Maybe another move entirely is best. Carlsen will be frantically analysing his responses to Qb3, and a quiet move may leave him panicking over his final two moves. We've all been there!

(Or Sergey is preparing a double move, first move 39 and then an almost-immediate response on move 40 to see if Magnus can find the right 40th move in his time trouble.)

EDIT: Sergey must be trying to convince himself to play 39.Bxf7+. Nearly out of time.

[MartinCarpenter]

Sergey is, it seems, superhuman Astonishing nerves to do something like this given the match position.

[LawrenceCooper]

Sergey is, it seems, superhuman Astonishing nerves to do something like this given the match position.

Magnus no doubt relieved that this is move 41 so he can try and work out how to save himself.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Sergey is, it seems, superhuman Astonishing nerves to do something like this given the match position.

Magnus no doubt relieved that this is move 41 so he can try and work out how to save himself.

Still not easy, even with an extra 50 minutes. He might get into time trouble again even if he finds the best move here. The online engines saying 41...g5 or 41...Nf5. Everything else seems to lose (e.g. 41...Be5 42.Bc3 Qd6 43.Qf4!).

EDIT: to be fair, if Carlsen finds 41...g5 and Karjakin fails to find the best lines, then Carlsen may even manage to win from here.

[Roger Lancaster]

Fascinating. Have to say, I was beginning to doubt whether Carlsen would survive in the melee leading up to move 40.

[Roger de Coverly]

EDIT: to be fair, if Carlsen finds 41...g5 and Karjakin fails to find the best lines, then Carlsen may even manage to win from here.

Move 44 and it's Queen and Bishop each with Karjakin having 2 f pawns and an h pawn against Carlsen's g and h pawns. The stockfish at chessbomb seems to thing there's a line where White can force an exchange of queens on e4. If that is possible, that's good winning chances I would have thought.

[Roger de Coverly]

Not good for black methinks.

Its shocking i should have this much opening knowledge and such a low OTB grade.

It's not so much being able to work through the tactics, although that helps, as being able to evaluate the position reliably and find decent moves when it all calms down. There are an increasing number of variations where entering an ending a pawn down is completely OK if you are happy with a draw. This line may be one of them, not that it makes enormous sense to bail out to such an ending when one down in a match.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The engines are struggling to understand the position (move 46). I'll predict a draw.

[MartinCarpenter]

You've got Svidler in your corner, which must be comforting

The really odd computer thing was the online Stockfish non trivially preferring the ending after 41...g5 to this ending, when this one does just look easier for black.

[Roger Lancaster]

If the queens come off then, as long as black can get his king to e6 in time, which he can in most positions, it seems to me there will be no way for White to break the blockade. So I presume Karjakin has to keep the queens on the board.

[Roger Lancaster]

But not here where Bf6 exchanges queens in a way Black doesn't want!!!