Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin have just begun their $1.1m, 12-game world championship match in New York. A global audience of at least 100,000 will watch the play live and free online, starting at 7pm.
Norway’s Carlsen is already a legend in the same bracket as Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov and is the clear favourite to keep his title. Yet Russia’s Karjakin, born like his opponent in the golden year for elite grandmasters of 1990, is a worthy challenger and is far from out ot it.
Title matches used to be the best of 24 games, with the holder retaining his crown if the series was tied. Now the distance is halved and 6-6 means tie-breaks of rapid, blitz and Armageddon speed chess. This change favours the challenger, who can aim to sneak a lead then in effect park the bus by aiming for careful, risk-free draws. Such a strategy could have occurred in Carlsen’s 2014 match with Vishy Anand if the Indian veteran had noticed a simple tactic which would have given him an overall lead in the sixth game.
Karjakin is the outsider but underdogs have won the title in 1927, 1935, 1961 and 2000. Both players have prepared in Caribbean training camps, where finding surprise opening bombs will have been high on their agenda. Such novelties can be decisive as in 1958, when Mikhail Botvinnik switched from the French 1 e4 e6 to the Caro-Kann 1 e4 c6 against Vasily Smyslov, and most famously in 1972, when Fischer, having used “best by test” 1 e4 all his life, changed to 1 c4 against Boris Spassky.
In summary Carlsen should win if he plays at his peak and avoids accidents. It is in his favour that, if the series goes to 6-6 and tie-breaks, he is also the best speed player in the world. He and Karjakin have met many times previously and the quickest win was by Carlsen in this 2009 World Blitz game where Black pounces on an error to force a win based on forks and overloads.
Sergey Karjakin v Magnus Carlsen
1 e4 c5 2 g3 g6 3 Bg2 Bg7 4 Ne2 d6 5 c3 Nf6 6 d4 O-O 7 O-O Nc6 8 h3 e5 9 Be3 cxd4 10 cxd4 exd4 11 Nxd4 Ne5 12 Nc3 Nc4 13 Bc1 Qb6 14 b3 Nxe4 15 Nxe4 Qxd4 16 Qxd4 Bxd4 17 Rb1 d5 18 Rd1 dxe4 19 Rxd4 Ne5 20 Bh6 Re8 21 Bxe4? Bf5! 22 Kh1 Rad8 23 Ra4 b5 0-1
The European Club Cup, the Champions League for chess, has its closing rounds in Novi Sad, Serbia, this weekend. Russia’s top-seeded Siberia fields the world title candidates Vlad Kramnik, Anish Giri and Alex Grischuk but drew 3-3 with the Azeri champions and dropped behind the No 2 seeds, Alkaloid Skopje. Perhaps significantly for the match in New York, Karjakin’s aide Shak Mamedyarov has been in fine form.
Cheddleton, runners-up in the 4NCL, are the best of seven British Isles teams but after two wins they were outclassed 5.5-0.5 by Alkaloid. Monte Carlo, led by the world champion Hou Yifan, have won every match in the women’s event.
3468 1...Qc8! so that if 2 Qxc8 Rxe4+! and Rxc8. The game went 2 Rh4 Rxe4+! 3 Qxe4 Re8 and Black won with his extra pawns.
