World Chess Championship 2018 – Game 3

Game 3 of the match ends in a draw, with Caruana getting a promising position out of the opening but then ending up worse by the end!

The opening was looking a bit boring even after Carlsen surprised everybody with Qc7. Looks like the strategy of Caruana is just to have a solid position with white without pushing for advantage. I think this shows the respect he has for Carlsen and maybe he is not confident enough to try to play sharper. Carlsen is a better positional player and even today he managed easily to move from clearly worse to slightly better just in a few moves.

Magnus said before the match that he gets bored and frustrated by series of draws. A conservative process by Caruana could create a scarier version of the Karjakin match for Carlsen.

Caruana is well prepared in the opening. Carlsen is a grinder. So Caruana needs to improve on converting the opening edge while Carlsen needs opening improvement!

Here is the Game 3 of World Chess Championship 2018:

Few top players opinions

Vladimir Kramnik, when asked who he is rooting for in “We are professional chess players. We don’t root for anyone. We just follow the match.”

Peter Svidler on if Qc7 surprised Caruana: He would probably scoff at me if he heard me, but I belong to, at least in spirit, the Kramnik school of analysis: ‘you determine the starting position of your analysis & at every turn list all the moves which make some sense & analyze them’

Alexander Grischuk: “A couple of more games like this, and Caruana will revert to Karjakin strategy and play for a draw with both colors.”

Nigel Short: “Not very thrilling” “I thought Fabiano was better earlier on, but maybe it’s not so easy.

Fabiano Caruana: “I think Magnus could’ve tortured me a bit more.”

Magnus Carlsen asked about being uncomfortable in the opening: “I miscalculated the position. I thought what I entered was very close to equalizing. Then I realized I was clearly worse. “It was only when I had forced his pawn on a black square and established it there, I thought I would be able to press him. ”

Magnus Carlsen: “From the start, I thought it was a bit uncomfortable. I just tried to limit his advantage as much as possible. When we reached the endgame, I thought I had equalized. When we reached the endgame, I didn’t really play for a win. I thought it was uncomfortable from the opening and I may have mixed up something. Then I got an advantage in the endgame, I don’t think I had any chances, but I would’ve liked to do something more.”

Magnus Carlsen: “I thought it was uncomfortable from the opening and I may have mixed up something. Then I got an advantage in the endgame, I don’t think I had any chances, but I would’ve liked to do something more.”

On a different note…

During the rest day, the big news was coming from China where Ding Liren lost a game for the first time in 100 games. His record will be very hard to beat with average rating 2700 he has 21 wins and 69 draws!

About the Author

GM Marian Petrov (FIDE 2537)

is an accomplished professional chess coach, theorist, and Bulgarian champion for 2002 and 2017, as well as winner of many open tournaments around the world. Also a FIDE trainer and coach of the team of Wales at the last Olympiad in Baku in 2016. He graduated from the National Sports Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria with a Bachelor’s degree in Chess Pedagogy, a four-year undergraduate program designed to prepare top-level chess trainers.