Game 8 finally offered excitement for the fans. For the first time, White had better preparation, better position and was almost winning with having more time on the clock than in the start of the game! And then Caruana has shown low confidence. Instead to make 3 good moves, which were looking not so hard to find he started to think a lot on simple moves, and then in a completely open position played h3?
Game 7 was seen as very important as this was the second white game in a row for the World Champion and it was expected he will find a way to have a better position from the opening and push for a win. But Carlsen again makes no progress with white against Caruana. He repeated the line from game 2 and then deviated with Nd2 instead Rd1. But instantly Caruana went Qd8 and just like Rd8 in game 2 again the World Champion was surprised.
The World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, and challenger Fabiano Caruana tied at 3-3 at halftime in the World Championship match in London. The match has started with Caruana playing white. He decided to go for Rossolimo line against Sicilian, something he was consistently repeating in all 3 white games without much success.
Game 6 ended in a DRAW. Carlsen played 1.e4 – Petroff Defense and Fabiano equalized pretty easily. Next, the thriller began. Magnus was playing below his potential, underestimated few moves and got himself into serious trouble. Around move 60 he had to put all his creativity into play and build a fortress saving the day. Although, Fabiano still had winning chances as computer found MATE-IN-30 in one instance. This game proves that even draws can be VERY exciting. Tomorrow is the rest day, the action will resume on Sunday! – Ed.
One of the best ways to improve at chess is by recognizing your own shortcomings and limitations. It is no secret that the analysis of your own games is a great source of improvement, a fountain of chess knowledge. Even though this praxis has been recommended for centuries by every world champion and other notorious players, to this day we can say it is not that popular.
Today finally we had some excitement in the opening after the move 4.b4. Caruana was hoping to surprise his opponent but Carlsen handled the situation very well and after 15 moves we went into the equal endgame. It will be interesting to find out until which move was the home preparation from Caruana. Then after 17. c3 white had some problems and black were pressing for a win. In the end, Caruana played good defense and drew the game.
Game four of the World Chess Championship match in London was drawn after only 34 moves. Magnus Carlsen was angry with allowing his challenger Fabiano Caruana such an easy draw with black. Carlsen switched to the English with white but seemed to be thinking even in a position that Caruana had previously had over the board and never seemed to seriously trouble his opponent.
Fabiano Caruana looking very solid today and neutralized the champ without much trouble. Magnus looking slightly fed up. Once again the home preparation of Caruana with black was better, despite that English opening came as a surprise from Carlsen.
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.
Game 2 of the World Chess Championship Match is over. Everyone expected Carlsen to win after he missed a win in game 1 with Black. However, that’s not what happened. In fact, Fabiano Caruana was able to get an extra pawn in the rook endgame, which still ended in a draw after only 49 moves.
The Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson has made the first move of the match and he played 1.d4…
Caruana was amazed and asked can he take back the move!
It turned out later that this was a joke from the actor. Who would have predicted that the first game in this Match will be in Sicilian defense!?