World Cup Baku 10 September to 4 October 2015

[LawrenceCooper]

Svidler has won

I'm not sure what to make of that game, it didn't look anything at all for white from the opening but once the position opened up the white pieces seemed to dominate and black's position soon collapsed.

[Matt Mackenzie]

As an article just up on the ChessBase site illustrates, Karjakin has had some escapes against Svidler in the past. Not today, though

[NickFaulks]

I try to avoid looking at computer evaluations during the game, but they can be interesting in the post-mortem. Here, Karjakin seems to have gone from a fairly equal position ( according to Stockfish ) to a completely lost one without making a single move that Stockfish itself didn't like.

[Barry Sandercock]

22..Qe6 was the blunder, which was shown in red by Stockfish.

[LawrenceCooper]

22..Qe6 was the blunder, which was shown in red by Stockfish.

But the position was already very bad by then, as Nick said without anything that untoward having taken place.

[MJMcCready]

Yes strange game, it looked like he was not set up correctly when the position opened up. Qb3 looked strong for white.

[MartinCarpenter]

Imagine something must have slipped in the area of move 13-16. Having(?) to go Rf7 isn't a great sign and the open b file from bxc3 really didn't seem to help. Its a hard game

[MJMcCready]

Of course I can't critique Karjakin's play being a mere club player but the set up he chose of Rf7 and f6 felt artificial and computer-like to me...easy to say such things knowing the result though.

[Roger de Coverly]

Imagine something must have slipped in the area of move 13-16.

Svidler gave some insight into this at the post game interview on chess24. He said that the structure of c5, e5, f6 against d3 and c3 is only going to work if you are sure that d4 isn't possible. He added that he believed Karjakin had miscalculated that d4 just lead to a general liquidation and a level position, rather than as in the game, an advantage to White.

[Mick Norris]

I'm not sure what to make of that game, it didn't look anything at all for white from the opening but once the position opened up the white pieces seemed to dominate and black's position soon collapsed.

Svidler was, as ever, very entertaining in the post mortem with the commentary team, well worth a look - he said that he and Karjakin had explored the opening a few times, and felt that black should play h6 to avoid Bg5 and is then ok

[MJMcCready]

A hammer blow to lose inside 30 moves against 1. Nf3

[JustinHorton]

If we've learned anything from Kramnik it's that White wins if the bishop gets to g2.

[MartinCarpenter]

A tiny bit surprising quite how much detail Svidler gave in the press conference actually.
(Presume some different opening due in game 3!).

[Mick Norris]

A tiny bit surprising quite how much detail Svidler gave in the press conference actually.
(Presume some different opening due in game 3!).

Yes, I was surprised about that - even if there is something different planned for game 3, there are always potential tie breaks to consider - I did get the impression he might try the same opening but a slightly different line next time

[Mick Norris]

Chess Mind game 1 analysis