WORLD CHESS CANDIDATES 2018 BERLIN – ROUND 3

There can only be one word to describe round 3 at the Candidates – WOW! Kramnik’s win with Black out of the Berlin is an absolute gem.

At the same time FIDE still has not yet redeemed their reputation from the first few rounds. Here are a couple of classics. FIDE’s media arm Agon, who own the official broadcast rights to the tournament, famously sued most of the chess streaming websites for showing games from the Carlsen / Karjakin match in New York live with their own commentary. Now Agon are redirecting their users to those same sites because their own live feed isn’t working.

When FIDE tweeted about the schedule of play for round 3 they referred to the players as couples, rather than pairings.

It seems as if FIDE vastly underestimates the ability of chess players and fans to count. A tweet was published boasting about 10.000 chess fans simultaneously logged in to watch the official live coverage on YouTube. This while YouTube indicated 662 viewers tuned in to watch.

For spectators tickets vary in price between 22€ and 114€. There is no spectator seating on the main (second floor) viewing platform and the advertised “Chess Café” for refreshments consists of two vending machines.

Next was a story about the title sponsor of the FIDE GP in 2013, Greek-Russian businessman Ivan Savvidis. He apparently invaded a football pitch with a gun, flanked by body guards, because he was unhappy with a referee decision.  

As regards the games themselves, the first game to finish was the draw between So and Ding out of a Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack.

Next to finish was the Berlin Wall game between Aronian and Kramnik. Take the time to play through the game below – even if it is the only game that you look at. While 7. … Rg8 has been debated a number of times in Correspondence games, finding 19. … Rxg5! And 24. … Bd5! at the board were stunning to watch. Such a pity that Kramnik referred to Rg8 as a novelty that he invented when the move has clearly been played before.

The third game of the day was an Italian Game between Karjakin and Grischuk that too ended in a draw. During the press conference Grischuk referred to Kramnik’s win as: “One of the greatest games I have seen.” There are some commentators that have already referred to this as game of the year 2018.

The final game of the day to finish was Sicilian Najdorf between Caruana and Mamedyarov. Caruana built up a pressing advantage on the board at the expense of his clock. With 10 moves till the time control White was down to just three minutes against Mamedyarov’s almost half an hour. Black’s clear goal was to defend while complicating the position for the American GM in the hope that an error under time pressure would give some degree of hope. In the end that is exactly what happened, but play continued for almost an hour beyond the time control before te draw was agreed.

Here are the games from round 3:

So,Wesley (2799) - Ding,Liren (2769)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (3), 12.03.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.Re1 Bd6 13.d3 Bf5 14.Qf3 Qh4 C89: Closed Ruy Lopez: Marshall Attack 

15.g3 Qh3 16.Be3 Bxd3 17.Nd2 Qf5 18.Bd4 Rfd8 [18...Rfe8 19.a4 h6 20.Qxf5 Bxf5 21.Nf3 Be6 22.Be5 ½–½ (30) Caruana,F (2811)-Svidler,P (2768) Wijk aan Zee 2018] 

19.a4 h6 

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20.h4N [20.Kg2 Bf8 21.Re5 Qxf3+ 22.Kxf3 ½–½ (48) Alekseenko,K (2609)-Matlakov,M (2709) Moscow 2018] 

20...Rac8 21.axb5 axb5 22.Bxd5 cxd5 23.Qxf5 Bxf5 24.Ra5 b4 25.Rxd5 Be6 26.Ra5 bxc3 27.Bxc3 Rb8 

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28.Nf1 Bb4 29.Raa1 Bc5 30.Ne3 Rd3 31.Red1 Rbd8 32.Rxd3 Rxd3 33.Rd1 Rxd1+ 

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34.Nxd1 Bb3 35.Ne3 Bxe3 36.fxe3 Kf8² 37.Kf2 ½–½

Aronian,Levon (2794) - Kramnik,Vladimir (2800)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (3), 12.03.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.0–0 C65: Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defence (3...Nf6), unusual lines and 4 0–0 Bc5 [6.Nbd2 Bg4 7.h3 Bh5 8.Nf1 Nd7 9.Ng3 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 g6 11.Be3 Qe7 12.0–0 Bd6 13.a4 c5 14.c3 0–0–0 15.Rfb1 Kb8 16.a5 a6 17.Nf1 Qe6 18.Qd1 f5 19.f3 Be7 20.Qa4 Nf6 ½–½ (20) Jakovenko,D (2710)-Almasi,Z (2707) Germany 2018] 

6...Qe7 7.h3  [7.Nbd2=] 7...Rg8 8.Kh1 Nh5N 

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[8...h6 9.Nbd2 g5 10.Nc4 Bd6 11.d4 Nxe4 12.dxe5 Bc5 13.Qe2 f5 0–1 (56) Kazoks,A (2345)-Calio,M (2334) ICCF email 2015] 

9.c3 [9.Nc3=] 

9...g5! 10.Nxe5 

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10...g4! 11.d4 

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11...Bd6! 12.g3! Bxe5 13.dxe5 Qxe5 14.Qd4 Qe7 15.h4 

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15...c5! 16.Qc4 Be6 17.Qb5+ c6 18.Qa4? 

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[18.Qd3µ was the only defense.] 

18...f5 19.Bg5 Rxg5 20.hxg5 f4 21.Qd1 

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[¹21.Kg1 fxg3 22.Qc2] 

21...Rd8 22.Qc1 fxg3 23.Na3 Rd3 24.Rd1 Bd5 

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25.f3 gxf3 26.exd5 Qe2 27.Re1 g2+ 0–1

Karjakin,Sergey (2763) - Grischuk,Alexander (2767)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (3), 12.03.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.Nc3 h6 6.h3 d6 7.Na4 Bb6 C50: Hungarian Defence and Giuoco Pianissimo 

8.a3 Ne7 9.b4N 

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[9.Nxb6 axb6 10.0–0 0–0 11.Nh4 g5 12.Qf3 Kg7 13.Nf5+ Bxf5 14.exf5 Qd7 15.g4 Qc6 16.Qg3 Ned5 17.Bxd5 Nxd5 18.Qf3 f6 0–1 (40) Neiksans,A (2503)-Ivanchuk,V (2764) Warsaw 2010] 

9...Ng6 10.0–0 0–0 11.c3 c6 12.Nxb6 axb6 13.Bb3 Re8 

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14.Re1 Be6 15.Bc2 d5 16.exd5 Nxd5 17.Bd2 Bf5 18.d4 Bxc2 

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19.Qxc2 exd4 20.Rxe8+ Qxe8 21.Nxd4 b5 22.a4 bxa4 23.Rxa4 

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23...Rxa4 24.Qxa4 Ngf4 25.Qd1 Qe4 26.Qf1 Ne6 27.f3 Qg6 

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28.Nxe6 Qxe6 29.Qd3 b5 30.c4 bxc4= ½–½

Caruana,Fabiano (2784) - Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar (2809)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (3), 12.03.2018

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Be3 Be7 9.Qd2 Nbd7 10.g4 0–0 11.g5 Nh5 12.0–0–0 b5 13.Nd5 Bxd5 B90: Sicilian Najdorf: Unusual White 6th moves, 6 Be3 Ng4 and 6 Be3 e5 

14.exd5 f6 15.gxf6 Bxf6 16.Kb1 Nf4 17.Rg1 Kh8 18.Bd3 Bg5 19.Na5 Bh6 20.Nc6N 

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[20.Be4 Qh4 21.Nb7 0–1 (57) Karg,H (2183)-Kuosa,N (2568) ICCF email 2009] 

20...Qh4 21.Qb4ƒ White is pushing. 

21...Rf6 22.a4 Qxh2 [22...Qh5³ stays ahead.] 

23.Be4± Qe2 24.Bxf4! Bxf4 25.Qa5! Nc5 

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[25...Be3!² 26.Rge1 Qf2] 

26.Qc7! Bh6 27.Nd8 Nxe4 28.fxe4 Rf8 

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[28...Qxe4?! 29.Rdf1=; 28...bxa4 29.Rd3³] 

29.Nf7+ 

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[29.Rde1+- Qh5 30.Rh1] 

29...Rxf7! 30.Qxf7 Rc8 31.Rc1! Qxe4 

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32.Rgf1! Threatening mate with Qf8+! 

32...Bf4 

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33.Rg1! Bh6 

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34.Rgf1 [White should play 34.Rg3!± ] 

34...Rg8 [34...Bf4!=] 

35.Rcd1² bxa4 

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[But not 35...Qxa4?! 36.Qe7±] 

36.Qe7! Qg6! 37.Rf8 Bg5 

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The position is equal. 

38.Rxg8+ Kxg8= Endgame KQR-KQB 

39.Qd7 h5 40.Rg1 e4 41.Qxa4 e3 42.Qxa6 Qf5 43.Qa8+ 

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[Much weaker is 43.Qxd6 e2³] 

43...Kh7 aiming for ...e2. 

44.Qe8 Bf4 45.Qe6 g6 46.Rf1 

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And now b4 would win. 

46...Kg7 47.Qxf5 gxf5 48.c4 

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Hoping for Kc2. [Not 48.Rxf4? e2–+] 

48...Bg3! 49.Rg1 h4 [49...f4!? 50.Kc2™ e2=]  ½–½