WORLD CHESS CANDIDATES 2018 BERLIN – ROUND 9

Kramnik’s game today reminded me just a little bit of the entertaining games played by the great Mikhail Tal, the eighth World Champion. Tal was the type of player that would sacrifice an entire rook, simply to create massive complications on the board that more often than not created attacking chances.

To the right of this blog post is a link to Tal’s book on tactics – one of the best I have ever read. Tal splits his chapters into piece or piece and pawn groupings rather than types of tactic. He did this because although all pieces and pawns can (for example) deliver a fork, different piece groupings harmonize differently in the combinations that deliver the tactic. His book taught me to see the pre-tactic patterns.

Back to Tal and Kramnik. Tal famously said, “You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” Today in round 9 of the Candidates Tournament, Kramnik sacrificed a whole Rook for a Tal like forest of complications where the path out was only wide enough for one. Unfortunately it was Karjakin on that path and not Kramnik.

After 9 rounds of play, Kramnik, So and Aronian, the world’s numbers 3, 4 and 5 are tied for last place on just 3.5/9!

Caruana had multiple opportunities to give Ding his first loss of the tournament, but failed to find the crucial killer blow each time. As a result he heads into the third rest day with a slender half point lead over Mamedyarov. Round 10 on Thursday will be very interesting when we see Mamedyarov take on Caruana with the White pieces and a chance to take the outright lead from the American GM.

So vs Grischuk was the first to finish. It was a Berlin Wall defense in the Ruy Lopez and finished in the predictable draw.

The second game of the day Exchange Variation of the Queens Gambit Declined between Karjakin and Kramnik. In a complete WTF moment, out of nowhere Kramnik sacrificed a full Rook for some complications that Karjakin easily navigated as the master of defence. Kramnik stopped the clock while Karjakin was away from the board, had a short post-mortem at the board with Karjakin; but later failed to show up at the press conference – in breach of contract. Kramnik is now on 4 losses and 2 draws from his last 6 games.

Then was Aronian vs Mamedyarov, an Open Catalan. Neither player created any real problems for the other and a truce was declared just after the time control.

The final game was a Bogo-Indian between Caruana and Ding, the only 2 players remaining who are still unbeaten. At times it looked as if Caruana would be the first player to breach Ding’s Great Wall. In the end it was not to be.

Here are the games from round 9:

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

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (9), 20.03.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.Re1 Nd6 6.Nxe5 Be7 7.Bf1 Nxe5 8.Rxe5 0–0 9.d4 Bf6 10.Re1 Re8 C67: Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defence: 4 0–0 Nxe4 

11.Bf4 [11.Rxe8+ Nxe8 12.c3 d5 13.Bf4 c6 14.Nd2 g6 15.Bd3 Ng7 16.h3 Bf5 17.Bxf5 Nxf5 18.Nf3 ½–½ (47) Anand,V (2776)-Grischuk,A (2767) Moscow 2018] 

11...Rxe1 12.Qxe1 Ne8 13.c3 d5 14.Bd3 g6 

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The position is equal. 

15.Qe2N [15.Nd2 Ng7 16.Nf3 Bf5 17.Bxf5 Nxf5 18.Qe2 ½–½ (31) Motylev,A (2658)-Potkin,V (2594) Fufeng 2017] 

15...c6 16.Nd2 Ng7 17.Re1 Bf5 18.Bxf5 Nxf5 19.Nf3 Ng7 20.Be5 Ne6 21.Bxf6 Qxf6 22.Ne5 Re8 23.g3 Ng7 24.Kg2 Re6 25.Qd1 Qe7 26.Nd3 Rxe1 27.Qxe1 Qxe1 28.Nxe1= 

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Endgame KN-KN 

28...Nf5 29.Nd3 Kf8 30.g4 Nd6 31.h4 h6 32.f3 Ke7 33.Kf2 g5 34.hxg5 hxg5  ½–½

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

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (9), 20.03.2018

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 c5 7.Rb1 Be7 D35: Queen's Gambit Declined: Exchange Variation 

8.Nf3 0–0 

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9.h4N [9.Bc4 Nc6 10.0–0 b6 11.d5 Na5 12.Bd3 c4 13.Bc2 exd5 14.exd5 Bg4 15.Re1 ½–½ (23) Svidler,P (2765)-Wang,H (2709) Riadh 2017] 

9...cxd4 10.cxd4 Nc6 11.h5 f5 12.exf5 Qa5+! 13.Bd2 Qxf5 14.Bc3 h6 [14...Qe4+= 15.Be2 b6] 

15.Bd3 Qg4 16.Kf1 e5 

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17.d5! [Of course not 17.Nxe5 Qxd1+ 18.Rxd1 Nxe5²] 

17...e4 18.dxc6 exf3 19.gxf3 

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19...Rxf3? [19...Qxf3± 20.Qxf3 Rxf3] 

20.Be2 [20.cxb7+- is the precise move to win. 20...Rxf2+ 21.Kxf2 Bh4+ 22.Rxh4 Qxh4+ 23.Ke3 Qg5+ 24.Kd4 (24.Kf2 Qc5+ 25.Ke1 Qxc3+ 26.Qd2 Qe5+ 27.Qe2 Qa5+ 28.Kf2 Bxb7+-) 24...Qd8+ 25.Kc4 Bxb7 26.Kb3 (26.Rxb7 Qc8+ 27.Kd4 Qd8+ 28.Ke4 Qh4+ 29.Kd5 Qd8+ 30.Kc5 Qc8+ 31.Kd4 Qxb7±) 26...Bd5+ 27.Kb2] 

20...Rxf2+ 21.Kxf2 Bc5+ 22.Kf1 Qf4+ 23.Bf3 bxc6 

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[23...Be6± 24.Be1 (24.Rxb7 Bc4+ 25.Kg2 Qg5+ 26.Kh3 Be6+ 27.Bg4 Qe3+ 28.Kh2 Qf2+ 29.Kh3 Qe3+ 30.Kh2 Qf2+ 31.Kh3 Qe3+=) 24...Rf8] 

24.Be1! Be6 25.Bh4 Rf8 26.Kg2 

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26...Kh8 [¹26...Bd6 27.Rc1 (27.Bxc6 Rc8±) 27...Bxa2 28.Rxc6 Bb8] 

27.Rc1 [Less strong is 27.Bxc6 Bf2±; ¹27.Bg3 Qg5 28.Re1] 

27...Rf5 28.Rc3 Rd5 29.Bxd5 Bxd5+ 30.Rf3! Qg4+ 31.Bg3 Bd6 32.Rh3 Be7 33.Qe2 Be4 34.Qf2 a5 35.a4 c5 

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36.Rh1 Bf6 37.Re1 Bc6 38.Ree3 c4 39.Qe2 Qxh5 40.Qxc4 Bd7 41.Rd3+- 1–0

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

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (9), 20.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.Qc2 b6 8.Qxc4 Bb7 9.Nc3 c5 10.Rd1 Nbd7 11.Ne5 E03: Open Catalan: 5 Qa4+ Nbd7 6 Qxc4 [11.dxc5 Bxc5 12.b4 Bxf2+ 13.Kxf2 Rc8 14.Qf4 Rxc3 15.Bb2 Rc7 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Rac1 Rxc1 18.Qxc1 Qc8 19.Qxc8 Bxc8 ½–½ (45) Bu,X (2710)-Bacrot,E (2715) Tbilisi 2017] 

11...Bxg2 12.Kxg2 Qc8 13.Nxd7 Qxd7 14.dxc5 Qc6+ 

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15.f3N [15.e4 a6 16.Qe2 Bxc5 17.Bg5 Be7 18.Rac1 Qb7 ½–½ (60) Fridman,D (2607)-Rambaldi,F (2544) Bergamo 2016] 

15...Qxc5 16.Qxc5 Bxc5 17.Bf4 Rfd8 18.e4 Ne8 19.Kf1 Kf8 20.Ke2 Ke7 21.Nb5 Rdc8 22.Rac1 a6 23.Nc3 b5 

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24.a4 Bd6 25.Be3 Rab8 26.axb5 axb5 27.Ba7 Rb7 28.Bd4 Rc4 29.e5 Bc5 30.Nd5+ exd5 31.Bxc5+ Ke6 32.b3 Rxc1 33.Rxc1 Kxe5 34.Kd3 Ke6 35.Bb4 Kd7 

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36.Kd4 Nc7 37.Ba5 Ne6+ 38.Kxd5 Ra7 39.b4 Ra6 40.f4 Rd6+ 41.Ke4 Rd4+= ½–½

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

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (9), 20.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.Bg2 d5 6.Nf3 0–0 7.0–0 c6 8.Qb3 b6 9.Nc3 Ba6 10.cxd5 E11: Bogo-Indian 

10...cxd5 11.Ne5 Bb7 12.Rfc1 Nc6 13.Nxd5 Nxd4 14.Nxe7+ Qxe7 15.Qc4 Bxg2 16.Qxd4 Rfd8 

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17.Qf4N [17.Qb4 Qxb4 18.Bxb4 Bb7 19.Rc7 Ba6 20.Nxf7 Nd5 21.Nxd8 Nxc7 22.Nc6 1/2–1/2 (22) Gleizerov,E (2545) -Farago,I (2515) Oberwart 1996] 

17...Bb7 18.Bb4 Qe8 19.Rc7 Nd5 20.Qxf7+ Qxf7 21.Rxf7 Ba6 22.Ba3 Bxe2 23.Rc1 Bh5 24.Rb7 Be8 25.Kg2 a5 26.h4 Rdb8 27.Rxb8 Rxb8 28.g4 

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28...b5 And now ...b4 would win. 

29.b3 b4 30.Bb2 a4 31.h5 Ra8 32.Kg3 Kf8 33.Nf3 Bd7 34.Rc4 Kg8 35.Ne5 Bb5 36.Rc5 Be8 37.Nc4 Bd7 38.Ne5 Be8! 39.Bd4 Kf8 

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40.f3 Ke7 41.Kh4 Kf8 42.Kg5 h6+ 43.Kh4 Kg8 44.Kg3 Kh7 45.Nd3 Kg8 46.Rc1 axb3 47.axb3 Kh7 48.Nc5 Bf7 49.Re1 Ne7 50.Bb2 Nc6 51.f4 Ra2 52.Nd3 e5! 53.fxe5 Bxb3 

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54.e6 Strongly threatening e7. 

54...Ra7? [54...Ne7= and Black has nothing to worry.] 

55.Nc5!+- Bc4 [55...Ba2 was called for. 56.Rd1 Bc4] 

56.Nd7! 

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56...Bb5 [¹56...Rb7 57.e7 Bf7] 

57.Nf8+? [57.Re3+- is the precise move to win.] 

57...Kg8± 58.Ng6! aiming for e7. 

58...Ne7? [Black should play 58...Ra8² ] 

59.Ra1!+- Nc6 

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intending ...Rxa1. 

60.Rd1! Kh7 61.Rd5 Ba4 62.Kf4? [62.Rd2+- and White stays clearly on top.] 

62...Bc2± 63.Rc5 Ba4 64.g5 hxg5+? [64...Ra8!²] 

65.Rxg5+- Nd8 

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66.Re5? [66.Nf8+!+- Kg8 67.h6] 

66...Be8!= 67.e7  ½–½