WORLD CHESS CANDIDATES 2018 BERLIN – ROUND 2

Yesterday I reported on the noise and lack of water in the toilets that marked day one of the FIDE World Chess Candidates 2018. Let’s take a moment to see how things have improved by the morning of day two.

Starting with the official website… Results / Pairings – not available; List of players – not available; Reports – not available; Photos – not available; Ticket Sales to attend games – AVAILABLE. If you buy a ticket, you will read on the face of your ticket that spectators must be at the venue well ahead of 13:30 so that all members of the audience can be seated well ahead of the start of the round. This request is completely understandable. What is unusual is that when the entire audience arrives in time, but are locked out of the venue, standing around in the cold and damp – because the doors don’t open till after 14:00.

Remember that press conference on Friday where FIDE stated that there would be 30 million people watching the official live stream over the internet. Well the data from day 1 shows that only 300 people watched on the official live stream on FaceBook. At least they got the “3” right. By comparison, the ChessbrahTV stream got 4200 while chess24com got 7000 viewers on YouTube.

The best insight came from Mamedyarov. From his position, seated at the board, he could see the spectator TV screen where Judit Polgar was showing (with computer analysis) how to play his opponent’s position on the board.

As regards the games themselves, the first game to finish was the draw between Mamedyarov and  Aronian out of a Classical Nimzo Indian.

Then came the closed Ruy Lopez between Grischuk and So. It looks like the American stumbled into a line of Grischuk’s home preparation because as early as 19. Rc1! Black was looking worse at the board. So’s only chance was that the Russian would blunder in time pressure. However, when the 40 move time control was reached, it was all over. It will be near impossible for So to claw back from a 0/2 start to this tournament.

The third game of the day was an Open Catalan between Ding and Caruana. White missed the interesting looking Rd3 right on the time control that may have posed some challenges for the American GM with a clock to consider besides the board. A mere six moves later was the handshake. The young Chinese GM is holding well in his first Candidates.

The final game of the day to finish was the Berlin Wall game between Kramnik and Karjakin. Just about the only notable fact about the game was that Kramnik was on the White side of the Berlin for a change. The result was the predictable draw even though it took them longer than any of the other games.

Here are the games from round 2:

Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar (2809) - Aronian,Levon (2794)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (2), 11.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0–0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 d5 7.Bg5 h6 E36: Nimzo-Indian: Classical: 4...d5 5 a3 

8.Bxf6 Qxf6 9.Nf3 c6 The position is equal. 

10.g3N 

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[10.e3 Nd7 11.Be2 dxc4 12.Qxc4 e5 13.0–0 exd4 14.Qxd4 Qxd4 15.Nxd4 ½–½ (65) Yu,Y (2751)-Ding,L (2777) Riadh 2017] 

10...Nd7 11.Bh3 b6 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.Qc6 Rb8 14.0–0 Rd8 15.Rfc1 Ba6 16.Bf1 Bc4 17.Qa4 a5 18.b3 b5 19.Qxa5 Bxb3 20.Rc7 Bc4 21.Qa7 Ra8 22.Qb7 Rab8 23.Qa7! 

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23...Ra8 24.Qb7 Rab8  ½–½

Grischuk,Alexander (2767) - So,Wesley (2799)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (2), 11.03.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0–0 9.h3 C84: Closed Ruy Lopez: Unusual White 6th moves [9.Re1 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.Nbd2 Re8 12.Nf1 Nc6 13.Ne3 Bf8 14.a4 b4 15.Nd5 h6 16.a5 Nxd5 17.exd5 Nxa5 18.Ba4 Re7 19.Nd2 Rb8 20.c4 Nb7 21.Ne4 f5 22.Ng3 1–0 (43) Carlsen,M (2837)-Ding,L (2774) Saint Louis 2017] 

9...Bb7 10.Nbd2 Re8 11.Ng5 Rf8! 12.Re1 d5N 

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[12...h6 13.Ngf3 Re8 14.Nf1 Bf8 15.Ng3 g6 16.Nh4 d5 17.exd5 Na5 18.d6 Qxd6 19.Nxg6 Nxb3 20.Qxb3 Bd5 21.c4 fxg6 22.cxd5 Qxd5 1–0 (64) Vu,P (2090)-Nguyen,V (2195) Hue 2012] 

13.exd5 Nxd5 14.Ndf3 Qd7 15.d4 [Don't play 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.Rxe5 f6=] 

15...exd4 16.cxd4 h6 17.Ne4 Rfe8 18.Bd2 Nf6 19.Rc1 Nxe4 20.Rxe4 Bf6 

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21.Rg4! Kh8 

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22.Rc5! Rad8? [Don't go for 22...Bxd4? 23.Nxd4 Nxd4 24.Be3+-; 22...Ne7±] 

23.Qc1 Nxd4 24.Nxd4 [Worse is 24.Rxd4 Bxd4 25.Rxc7 25...Bxb2!=] 

24...Re4 [Reject 24...Bxd4 25.Bxh6! Kg8 26.Rcg5] 

25.Rxc7 

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[Weaker is 25.Rxe4 Bxe4 26.Nf3 (26.Rxc7 Qxd4 27.Bc3 Qb6±) 26...Bxf3±] 

25...Qxd4 26.Be3 [And not 26.Rxb7 Rxg4 27.Rxf7 Qxd2=] 

26...Rxg4 27.hxg4 Qe4 28.f3 Qb4 29.Rxb7 Bxb2 30.Qf1 

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[Not 30.Qxb2 Qe1+ 31.Kh2 Qh4+ 32.Kg1 Qe1+ 33.Kh2 Qh4+ 34.Kg1 Qe1+=] 

30...f6 31.Qf2 Be5 32.f4 Bd6 33.g5 Qe4 34.Qf3 Qb1+ 35.Qf1 Qe4 36.Qf3 Qb1+ 37.Kf2 Bb4 38.Qe2 Qe4 39.Qf3? [39.Rf7+-] 

39...Qb1 40.Kg3 fxg5 41.Kh2 Qf5 42.Rf7 Qg6 43.fxg5 Bd6+ 

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[¹43...hxg5 44.Qh3+ Qh7 45.Qxh7+ Kxh7 46.Bxg5 Rd6] 

44.Kh3+- 1–0

Ding,Liren (2769) - Caruana,Fabiano (2784)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (2), 11.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.Qc2 b6 E05: Open Catalan: 5 Nf3 Be7 

8.Ne5 Qxd4 9.Bxa8 Qxe5 10.Bf3 Nd5 11.Qxc4 Ba6 12.Qb3N 

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[12.Qa4 c5 13.Re1 b5 14.Qe4 Nc6 15.Nc3 ½–½ (37) Aronian,L (2799)-Hou,Y (2652) Tbilisi 2017] 

12...Nc6 13.Qa4 Bb7 

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[13...Na5=] 

14.Nc3! Nd4 15.Bxd5! exd5 16.Bf4 Qf6! 17.Rad1 

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[Much worse is 17.Qxa7 Qc6³] 

17...c5 18.Be3 [Don't go for 18.Qxa7? Qc6µ] 

18...Nf3+ 19.exf3 d4 20.f4 dxc3 21.bxc3 Bf3 22.Rd3 Bc6 23.Qb3 

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[Avoid the trap 23.Qxa7? Qf5–+] 

23...Qf5 [Better is 23...Be4= 24.Rd7 Ra8] 

24.c4! Be4 25.Rd2 Qh5 26.f3! Bxf3 27.f5 [27.Bd4²] 

27...Bc6 28.Qd1 Qh3 29.Rff2 h6 30.Qf1 Qg4 31.Rf4 Qg5 32.Rd3 Qf6 33.Bd2 Ba8 34.h4 Qc6 35.Kh2 Bd6 36.Rf2 Be5 37.Bc3 Bxc3 38.Rxc3 Re8 39.f6 g6 

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[39...Re4!= remains equal.] 

40.Rcc2 [White should try 40.Rd3!± ] 

40...Re4 41.Rfe2 Qe6 

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[41...Qd6= 42.Rxe4 Bxe4] 

42.Rxe4 [42.Qe1!±] 

42...Bxe4 43.Rf2 Bf5 44.Qc1 Kh7 45.Qc3 h5 46.a3= ½–½

Kramnik,Vladimir (2800) - Karjakin,Sergey (2763)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (2), 11.03.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.h3 Ke8 10.Nc3 h5 

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 C67: Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defence: 4 0–0 Nxe4 

11.Bf4 Be7 12.Rad1 Be6 13.Ng5 Rh6 14.Rfe1 Bb4 15.a3 Bxc3 16.bxc3 Ne7 17.Nf3 

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17...Rh8N 18.Bg5 c5 19.Nd2 Kf8 20.Nf1 Nf5 21.g3 Ne7 22.Kg2 Nd5 23.c4 Nb6 24.Ne3 Nxc4 25.Nxc4 Bxc4 26.g4 hxg4 27.hxg4 Bb5 28.Kg3 Re8 29.f4 b6 30.f5 

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White has compensation. 

30...Ba4 31.Rc1 Kg8 32.c4 Bc6 33.Rcd1 Ba4 34.Rc1 Bc6 35.Bh4 Ba4 36.Rc3 Bc6 37.Rce3 Rh6 38.Bg5 Rh7 39.R3e2 Ba4 40.Re3 Rh8 41.Bh4 Rh6 42.e6 fxe6 43.g5 Rh8 44.Rxe6 Rf8 45.R6e5 Bc2 46.f6 gxf6 47.gxf6 

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Intending Rg5+ and mate. 

47...Rh7 48.Rg5+ Kh8 49.Re7 Rg8 50.Rxh7+ 

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[50.f7 NOTEXT 50...Rf8 51.Re2 Bd3 52.Rd2 Bb1 53.Rb2] 

50...Kxh7 51.Rxg8 Kxg8 52.Kf2 Bb3 

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Threatens to win with ...Kf7. 

53.Bg3 Bxc4 54.Bxc7 Bd5 55.Bb8  ½–½