FIDE Candidates Tournament 2018
Berlin, Germany
March 10-28, 2018
Standings (12 of 14)
1-2. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2763, Fabiano Caruana USA 2784, 7.0/12
3-5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2809, Ding Liren CHN 2769, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2767, 6.5/12
6. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2800, 5.5/12
7. Wesley So USA 2799, 5.0/12
8. Levon Aronian ARM 2794, 4.0/12
Average Rating: 2786 Category 22
Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves followed by 15 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.
Both of the front-runners Fabiano Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost in the 11th round and suddenly it is a wide-open race with two rounds to go. Any of the top 5 players have chances to win and earn a ticket to challenge the world champion Magnus Carlsen for the world championship title this November. Even Vladimir Kramnik at no. 6 still has mathematical chances to win.
At this stage it is timely to review the tie-break rules. There is no immediate playoff. First you apply the tie-breaks and if the players remained tied (which, given the circumstances, looks unlikely) then we get rapid and blitz tie-breaks.
Tie-break Rules. In the event of a tie, the following tie breaks are used, in order:
Results in the games between the tied players. This is favorable to Karjakin — in case Caruana and Karjakin finish in a tie the world championship slot goes to Karjakin as he defeated Fabi 1.5-0.5 in their individual match.
The most number of wins. Also favorable to Karjakin – he has four against the American GM’s three.
Sonneborn–Berger score. This score is calculated by adding the sum of the conventional scores of the players he has defeated to half the sum of the conventional scores of those he has drawn against. Also favorable to Karjakin.
Do you get the drift? For Caruana to win he has to score more points than Karjakin in the final two rounds. Who are the front-runners’ remaining opponents?
Karjakin — Wesley So (W), Ding Liren (B) (read: Wesley So in round 13 has White and Ding Liren in round 14 has Black)
Caruana — Levon Aronian (B), Alexander Grischuk (W) Mamedyarov — Alexander Grischuk (B), Vladimir Kramnik (W)
Ding Liren — Vladimir Kramnik (B), Sergey Karjakin (W) Grischuk — Mamedyarov (W), Fabiano Caruana (B)
It appears that Karjakin’s game with Wesley So will determine if he qualifies or not for the London World Chess Championship.
By the way, this confirms my earlier observation that Karjakin’s strength is that he is a strong finisher — in the 2014 Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates tournament he was in last place after the first half (2.5/7) but concluded with 5.0/7 to finish in second place a point behind Anand. Karjakin might even have caught up with Anand if he had managed to win their 13th round encounter where he had winning chances but ultimately drew.
In the 2016 Moscow Candidates after 11 rounds the standings were: Caruana and Anand 6.5 points, Karjakin 6.0 points. Everyone was discussing whether Caruana or Anand would win it but it was Karjakin who overtook them both with a whirlwind 2.5/3 finish including a brilliant victory over Caruana in the last round.
Here in Berlin Karjakin started the event with losses in rounds 1 and 4 to finish at the bottom of the field after round 6. There followed wins in rounds 7, 9, 11 and 12 and he is now tied for first with better tie-breaks against long time leader Fabiano Caruana. Here is Karjakin’s impressive take-down of Caruana in the 12th round here in Berlin.
Karjakin, Sergey (2763) — Caruana, Fabiano (2784) [C42]
FIDE Candidates 2018 Berlin GER (12), 24.03.2018
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3
This move against the Petroff should not be a surprise as Karjakin has already played it several times.
5…Nxc3 6.dxc3 Nc6 7.Be3
White’s plan is simple and straightforward — he will follow-up with Qd2, and then castle long. On the other hand Black can also copy his moves and go Be7, Be6, Qd7 and then castle kingside or queenside.
7…Be7 8.Qd2 Be6 9.0–0–0
White can try to disrupt Black’s bishops with 9.Ng5 but after 9…Bxg5 10.Bxg5 Qd7 11.0–0–0 f6 12.Be3 0–0–0 White has nothing. Smirnov,P (2624)-Carlsen,M (2548) Warsaw 2005 1/2 27.
9…Qd7 10.a3
The main line here is 10.Kb1 waiting for Black to decide on whether to castle long or short. Now, 10…0–0–0 would be a mistake because of 11.Nd4! when 11…Nxd4 12.Qxd4 wins a pawn for White (both a7 and g7 pawns are attacked). However, Black can play simply 10…a6 getting the a7–pawn out of harm’s way as well as preventing Bb5. After this Black has no weaknesses and maybe White still has the initiative but it should not amount to much.
10…h6 11.Nd4 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 Rg8
This is of course much safer than 12…0–0 as White will immediately play Rg1 and g2–g4 to assault black’s king right away.
13.Be2 c5
This is the move that the chess engines suggest but Karjakin expressed some doubts as to its correctness and suggested 13…Qa4.
14.Be3 d5 15.f4 0–0–0 16.Bf3 Bg4 <D>
[With the benefit of hindsight Caruana suggested that better would have been 16…f5 17.Qf2 Qc7 18.Rd3 Rd7 19.Rhd1 Rgd8 20.h3. But what is wrong with the text?
POSITION AFTER 16…BG4
17.Bxd5!
A very strong exchange sacrifice. Comments from GMs include:
Karjakin: “I think this is very interesting at least from a practical point of view.”
Caruana: “Yeah, I should not have allowed this. It becomes very difficult to play.”
Fedoseev: The result of the exchange sacrifice is a position where the bishop on d5 becomes a kind of ‘Eye of Sauron’ which holds down and hypnotizes the Black forces.”
17…Bxd1 18.Rxd1 Qc7 19.c4
This is a true sacrifice with no immediate way for White to recover his material. For the exchange the first player has a pawn and the bishop pair. He should also try to advance his kingside pawns and create threats on that side of the board.
19…Rge8 20.Qf2 b6 21.g4 Bf6 22.Kb1 Rd7
[22…Qe7 was better trying to make something of the e-file. After 23.Bc1 Qe2 24.Qg1 Bd4 it looks like Black has equalized]
23.Rd3 g5 24.Ka2!
Karjakin is just slowly improving the position of his pieces.
24…Ree7 25.Qf3 Kd8 26.Bd2 Kc8 27.Qf1!
I was watching this game online and the computer engines were suggesting 27.Qf1 followed by Rh3. Some players remarked that it is a very strong move but a “computer move,” not something humans would play. But after long thought Karjakin executed the move. Karjakin: “I was very proud of this idea.”
27…Rd6
Caruana decides to give up a pawn to activate his queen.
28.fxg5 Bxg5 29.Bxg5 hxg5 30.Qf5+ Rdd7 31.Qxg5 Qe5
[31…Qxh2 does not work because of 32.Qg8+ Kc7 (32…Rd8 33.Be6+!) 33.Qa8! with strong mate threats]
32.Qh6 Kd8 33.g5 Qd6 34.Qh8+ Re8 35.Qh4 Qg6 36.Qg4
White’s threat is 37.Qxd7+ Kxd7 38.Bxf7+
36…Re5 37.h4
[37.Qxd7+ no longer works because 37…Kxd7 38.Bxf7+ Qxd3 the black rook is no longer on e8 for White’s bishop to capture]
37…Ke7 38.Rd2 b5
Desperation.
39.Bxf7! Qf5 40.Rxd7+ Kxd7
After 40…Qxd7 41.Qxd7+ Kxd7 42.g6 is the same as in the game
41.Qxf5+ Rxf5 42.g6 Ke7 43.cxb5 Rh5 44.c4 Rxh4 45.a4 Rg4 46.a5 Kd6 47.a6
With the idea 48.b6.
47…Kc7 48.Kb3 1–0
Black resigned. The Black king is stuck in the queenside and so White’s king can just stroll over the other side of the board to escort home his g6–pawn.
By the time you read these lines the 13th (penultimate) round would have been concluded. You still have time though to watch the final round, which is tonight. I suggest you go to either www.chessbase.com or www.chess24.com and look for the “live events” tab. Games usually start at 10:00 p.m. Manila time but this is the last round and they usually start it earlier to give allowance for the closing ceremonies. You should log in as early as 7:00 p.m. to check if play has started.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant, he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
