WORLD CHESS CANDIDATES 2018 BERLIN – ROUND 5

After just a half an hour after the start of the round Nigel Short had already made his predictions via Twitter: Aronian would beat Grischuk and the other three games would be draws.

Well, the former World Championship challenger managed a 75% success rate on his predictions. It would have been 100% were it not for all Aronian’s missed opportunities.

The good news for Aronian, however, is that in spite of the missed opportunities his winning position did not end in the same way as Kramnik in round four.

Caruana vs Karjakin was the first to finish. It was a Queens Gambit declined where my pc evaluated the position as 0.00 even for almost all of the 31 move draw.

The second game of the day was the Open Catalan between Ding and Mamedyarov. Similar to the Caruana vs Karjakin encounter this, too, barely made it beyond 30 moves.

Then was Aronian vs Grischuk, a Benoni. Evaluations showed Aronian as clearly winning till he played 24.Rd1 instead of 24.0-0-0 allowing Grischuk to counter with Ng5. At this point Svidler commented, “Apparently it’s equal, but it’s the kind of equal when you just laugh at the evaluation and continue playing…” He was referring of course to the mind boggling complications that needed to be solved at the board. After even more missed chances the game was drawn in 40 moves.

The final game was the dull, lifeless affair between So and Kramnik. It started out as a Queens Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch and hardly developed a pulse through the close to 60 moves. As a result of the tense Aronian vs Grischuk encounter this game went largely unnoticed for most of the day.

Here are the games from round 5:

Caruana,Fabiano (2784) - Karjakin,Sergey (2763)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (5), 15.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Qb3 c6 7.0–0 dxc4 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Nbd2 The position is equal. D30: Queen's Gambit Declined: Systems without Nc3 [10.Bg5 Nbd7 11.Nbd2 c5 12.Bxf6 gxf6 13.Rac1 Qb6 14.dxc5 Nxc5 15.Nb3 Be4 16.Qc3 Nxb3 17.Qxb3 Rac8 18.Nh4 Bg6 1/2–1/2 (27) Vitiugov,N (2722)-Riazantsev,A (2650) St Petersburg 2017] 

10...c5 11.dxc5 Na6 12.Nb3 Be4 13.Qc3 Rc8 

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14.Be3N [14.Qd4 Nxc5 15.Be3 Qxd4 16.Bxd4 Rfd8 17.Bxc5 Bxc5 1/2–1/2 (40) Narkun,M (2183)-Nicolenco,S (2126) LSS email 2010] 

14...Nd5 15.Qd2 Bxf3 16.Bxf3 Nxe3 17.Qxe3 

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Hoping for Bb7. 

17...Nxc5 18.Nxc5 Bxc5 19.Qb3 Qb6 20.e3 Be7 21.Rfd1 Rc7 22.Rac1 Rfc8 23.Rxc7 Rxc7 24.Kg2 g6 25.Rd2 Kg7 26.Rc2 Rxc2 [26...b4 is interesting. 27.Rxc7 Qxc7 28.Qa4 a5 29.b3 h5] 

27.Qxc2 Qc5 28.Qxc5 Bxc5 29.b3 f5 30.a4 bxa4 31.bxa4  ½–½

Ding,Liren (2769) - Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar (2809)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (5), 15.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bf4 Bd6 11.Bg5 Nbd7 12.Nc3 h6 

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The position is equal. E05: Open Catalan: 5 Nf3 Be7 

13.Bc1N [13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.Nd2 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 a5 16.Rfd1 c6 17.Nde4 Nxe4 18.Nxe4 Bb4 19.Nc5 Qd5+ 20.Qxd5 exd5 0–1 (96) Banusz,T (2613)-Harikrishna,P (2752) Monzon 2016] 

13...a5 14.b3 Qe7 15.Bb2 Rfd8 16.Rac1 Ba3 17.Bxa3 Qxa3 18.Nb5 Qe7 19.Qc2 Bxf3 20.Bxf3 c6 21.Nc3 Nb6 22.e3 e5 

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23.dxe5 Qxe5 24.Rfd1 g6 25.Rd2 Rd7 26.Rxd7 Nbxd7 27.Rd1 h5 28.Rd4 Nc5 29.h4 Kg7 30.Kg2 Ne6 31.Rd1 ½–½

Aronian,Levon (2794) - Grischuk,Alexander (2767)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (5), 15.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 c5 4.d5 d6 5.e4 e6 6.Nc3 exd5 7.cxd5 Bg7 8.Nge2 A65: Modern Benoni: 6 e4 

8...Nbd7 9.Ng3 h5 10.Be2 Nh7 

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11.Bf4N [11.Be3 ] 

11...Qe7 12.Qd2 With the idea Nb5. 

12...h4 13.Nf1 g5 14.Be3 Ne5 15.g3 Bd7 16.gxh4 gxh4 [16...g4= keeps the balance. 17.f4 Nf3+ 18.Bxf3 gxf3] 

17.Rg1± f5 [17...Rg8²] 

18.f4+- Ng4 

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19.e5! dxe5 20.d6 Qe6 White must now prevent ...exf4. 

21.Nb5 Rc8? [21...0–0 22.Nc7 Qf6] 

22.Nc7+ Rxc7 23.dxc7 exf4 

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24.Rd1? [24.Bxf4 Bd4²; White has to play 24.0–0–0+- ] 

24...Ng5!= Hoping for ...Bd4. [24...fxe3? 25.Nxe3! Nhf6 26.Qd6–+] 

25.c8Q+ Bxc8 26.Qd8+ Kf7 

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27.Qc7+ [27.Qxg5= fxe3 28.Bxg4 fxg4 29.Nxe3] 

27...Kg8? [27...Qe7³ keeps the upper hand. 28.Bc4+ Kf6 29.Qxe7+ (29.Qxf4 Nh3³) 29...Kxe7 30.Bxc5+ Ke8] 

28.Rd6+- Qf7 

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29.Qd8+? [29.Qxc8++- Kh7 30.Qxc5] 

29...Qf8= aiming for ...Qxd8. 

30.Bxf4 Ne6ƒ Black is more active. 

31.Bc4 Qxd8 32.Rxd8+ Kh7 33.Rxh8+! Bxh8 34.Bd6 Ng5 And now ...Nf3+ would win. 

35.Rg2! Ne4 36.Bb8 Bd4 37.h3 Ne5 38.Bd5 Nd3+ 39.Ke2 Nc1+ 

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[39...Nxb2!? 40.Ne3 Nc3+ 41.Kd2 Nxd5 42.Nxd5 Bd7µ] 

40.Kd1 The position is equal. 

40...Nd3 41.Nd2 Nf6 42.Bf3  ½–½

So,Wesley (2799) - Kramnik,Vladimir (2800)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (5), 15.03.2018

1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 c5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 cxd4 8.cxd4 Bb4+ 9.Bd2 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 0–0 11.Bc4 Nd7 12.0–0 b6 13.Rad1 Bb7 14.Rfe1 Rc8 D41: Queen's Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch with 5 cxd5 

15.Bb3 Re8 16.h3 [16.Re3 Nf6 17.Qd3 b5 18.d5 exd5 19.e5 Ne4 20.Qxb5 Qb6 21.Qxb6 axb6 22.h4 1/2–1/2 (35) So,W (2788)-Dominguez Perez,L (2739) Saint Louis 2017] 

16...Nf6 17.Qf4 

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17...Nh5N [17...Qc7 18.Qh4 h6 19.Re3 b5 20.Ne5 a5 21.a4 bxa4 22.Bxa4 1/2–1/2 (49) Epishin,V (2574)-Del Rio de Angelis,S (2489) Calvia 2005] 

18.Qe5 Nf6 19.Qf4 Nh5 20.Qh2 h6 21.d5 exd5 22.exd5 Rxe1+ 23.Nxe1 Qf6 24.Nd3! Ba6 

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...Bxd3 is the strong threat. 

25.Qe5 Bxd3 26.Qxh5 Bc2 27.Rc1 Bf5 

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28.Rxc8+ [28.Rc6 is more complex. 28...Qa1+ 29.Kh2 Qe5+ 30.g3 Rd8 31.h4] 

28...Bxc8 The position is equal. 

29.d6 g5 30.Qd1 Bd7 31.Qd5 Kg7 32.Qb7 Qa1+ 33.Kh2 Qe5+ 34.Kg1 Qxd6 35.Qxa7 h5 36.Qb7 h4 37.Qf3 Qe7 38.Qc3+ f6 39.Qc4 Qe8 40.Qb4 b5 41.a3 Qe5 42.Bd1 Bc6 43.Bf3 Be8 44.Kf1 Bf7 45.Be2 Be8 

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White should prevent .. .Qa1+. 

46.Bf3 f5 47.Kg1 Bf7 48.Qd2 Kg6 49.Qc1 Be6 50.Qc6 Kf6 51.Qe8 

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Threatens to win with Qh8+. 

51...Qa1+ 52.Kh2 Black must now prevent Qh8+. 

52...Qxa3 53.Qd8+ Qe7 54.Qh8+ Qg7 55.Qd8+ Kg6 56.Qe8+ Qf7 57.Qxb5 Qc7+  ½–½