WORLD CHESS CANDIDATES 2018 BERLIN – ROUND 13

Kramnik has certainly been the most entertaining aspect of the Berlin Candidates tournament. He certainly has taken the “wild” part of his wild card entry to heart. He has been unleashing missile strikes all tournament long with scant regard of whether he is anywhere near the strike zone. Today it was 19… f5!

Heading into the final round Caruana faces a must win game against Grischuk with Black. If he only manages a draw, then a victory by either Karjakin or Mamedyarov will be enough to win. If Mamedyarov and Karjakin tie for first, Mamedyarov will have the better tie break.

So vs Karjakin was the first to finish. It was a Classical Nimzo-Indian. Now that Karjakin had the tie break lead in the tournament, he was more than happy to take an early draw with Black. Will that choice come back to bite him?

The second game of the day was a Fianchetto Grünfeld between Mamedyarov and Grischuk. It was all looking even until Grischuk blundered badly in time trouble. The win takes Mamedyarov up to equal score with Karjakin.

Then was Caruana vs Aronian, a Closed Ruy Lopez: Anti-Marshall Systems. Caruana applied constant pressure throughout and was rewarded not only with the win, but once again the lead in the tournament. The American GM is now half a point clear of Karjakin and Mamedyarov with one round to play.

The final game was an English Opening between Ding and Kramnik. First Ding missed Kramnik’s cheap trap and got into a completely lost position. Then Kramnik blundered into a threefold repetition from a completely won position.

Here are the games from round 13:

So,Wesley (2799) - Karjakin,Sergey (2763)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (13), 26.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 Ne4 7.Qc2 c5 8.dxc5 Nc6 9.Nf3 Qa5+ 10.Bd2 E37: Nimzo-Indian: Classical: 4...d5 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 Qxc3 Ne4 

10...Qxc5 11.e3 Nxd2 12.Nxd2 dxc4 

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13.b4N [13.Bxc4 0–0 14.b4 Qe7 15.Bd3 h6 16.Qc3 a6 17.0–0 Bd7 ½–½ (26) Giri,A (2784)-Adams,M (2737) London 2015] 13...Qf5 The position is equal. 

14.Qxf5 exf5 15.Bxc4 Ke7 16.Nf3 Be6 17.Bxe6 fxe6 18.Ke2 Rhc8 19.Rhc1 Nd8 20.Ne5 Nf7 21.Nxf7 

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21...Kxf7= Endgame KRR-KRR 

22.e4 Kf6 23.Ke3 g5 24.g3 h5 25.h3 g4 26.hxg4 hxg4 27.f3 gxf3 28.Kxf3 Ke5 29.exf5 exf5 30.Re1+ Kf6 31.Rac1 Rxc1 

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32.Rxc1 KR-KR 

32...Rd8 33.Rc7 Rd3+ 34.Kf4 Rxa3 35.Rxb7 Ra4 36.Rb5 a5 37.Rxf5+ Kg7 38.Rg5+ Kf6 39.Rf5+  ½–½

Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar (2809) - Grischuk,Alexander (2767)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (13), 26.03.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0–0 5.0–0 d5 6.c4 dxc4 7.Na3 c3 8.bxc3 c5 9.Re1 D77: Fianchetto Grünfeld: 6 0–0: Replies other than 6...c6 

9...Nc6 10.Bb2 Nd5 11.Qc2 

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11...cxd4N [11...Nb6 12.Rad1 Bf5 13.e4 Bg4 14.h3 Bxf3 15.Bxf3 Qc8 16.Bg2 e6 17.dxc5 0–1 (67) Dreev,A (2652)-Puranik,A (2509) Bastia 2017] 

12.Nxd4 Nf6 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.c4 Bf5 15.Qc1 Qc7 16.Nc2 Rab8 17.Bc3 Bxc2 18.Qxc2 Ne8 19.h4 c5 20.Red1 Bxc3 21.Qxc3 Nf6 22.Bf3 h5 23.Rab1 Rxb1 24.Rxb1 Rb8 

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25.Rb5 Ne8 26.Qe3 Rxb5 27.cxb5 Nd6 28.a4 c4 29.Kg2 c3 30.Bc6 Qa5 31.Qc5 a6 32.e4 axb5 33.axb5 Kh7 34.e5 Nxb5? [34...Nf5=] 

35.e6! [Inferior is 35.Bxb5 c2=] 

35...Qa3 36.Qxb5 

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36...c2? [36...f5 37.Qc4 Qa5] 

37.exf7 Kg7 38.Be4+- c1Q 39.Qe8 1–0

Caruana,Fabiano (2784) - Aronian,Levon (2794)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (13), 26.03.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.d3 d6 9.Bd2 C88: Closed Ruy Lopez: Anti-Marshall Systems [9.c3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.h3 Re8 12.d4 Nd7 13.d5 Bf8 14.Nbd2 g6 15.Nf1 Bg7 16.g4 c4 17.Ng3 Nb7 18.Be3 Ndc5 19.b4 cxb3 20.axb3 1–0 (47) Alekseev,E (2616)-Kovalev,V (2639) Tallinn 2018; 9.a4 Bd7 10.c3 Na5 11.Bc2 c5 12.Nbd2 Re8 13.d4 exd4 14.cxd4 Bg4 15.h3 Bh5 16.d5 Qc8 1–0 (39) Caruana,F (2773)-Aronian,L (2816) Sao Paulo/Bilbao 2012] 

9...Bg4 10.c3 d5 11.h3 Bh5 

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12.Qe2N [12.exd5 Nxd5 13.g4 Bg6 14.Nxe5 Nxe5 15.Rxe5 Nb6 16.d4 Bd6 1–0 (46) Jackson,S (2185)-Littlewood,P (2435) London 1984] 

12...Rb8 13.Bg5 dxe4 14.dxe4 h6 15.Bc1 Bg6 16.Nbd2 Nh5 17.Nf1 Bc5 18.g3 Kh7 19.Kg2 Qe7 

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20.Bc2 Rfd8 21.b4 Bb6 22.a4 Nf6 23.Nh4 Qe6 24.Bd3 Bh5 [24...Qd7² 25.Rd1 Ne7] 

25.g4 Bxg4 26.hxg4 Nxg4 

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27.Nf5! Nxf2 28.Bc2 g6! 29.N1e3 [29.a5± Ba7 30.N1e3 (30.Be3 Nxe4 31.Bxa7 Nxc3±) 30...gxf5 31.exf5 Rg8+ 32.Kxf2] 

29...gxf5 30.exf5 Qf6 31.Qxf2 

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31...e4? [31...Nxb4!= 32.cxb4 Rd4] 

32.Rh1 [Don't do 32.Bxe4 Ne5+-] 

32...Rd6 33.Bxe4 Rg8+ 34.Kf1 Ne5? [34...Rg5 35.Nd5 Rxd5 36.Bxg5 Qxg5] 

35.Qf4 c6 36.axb5 Rg5 37.bxa6 Qd8 38.f6+ Ng6+- 39.Rxh6+ 1–0

Ding,Liren (2769) - Kramnik,Vladimir (2800)

World Chess Candidates 2018 Berlin (13), 26.03.2018

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 b6 5.e4 Bb7 6.d3 d6 A17: English Opening: 1...Nf6 with ...Bb4 

7.Bg2 g6 8.0–0 Bg7 9.Re1 0–0 10.d4 cxd4 11.Nxd4 a6 12.b3 Nbd7 

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13.Ba3N [13.Bb2 Qc7 14.Re2 Rad8 15.Qe1 Qb8 16.Rd1 Nc5 17.f3 Rfe8 18.Kh1 ½–½ (18) Portisch,L (2655)-Spassky,B (2615) Mexico City 1980] 

13...Nc5 14.b4 Ncd7 15.b5 Ne8 16.Rc1 Ne5 17.Qe2 axb5 18.Ndxb5 g5 19.h3 

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[White should try 19.Red1² ] 

19...f5 20.exf5 Bxg2 21.Kxg2 Rxa3! 22.Nxa3 Qa8+ 23.Qe4 Qxa3 24.fxe6 

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24...Nf6! 25.Qe2 Qa8+! 26.f3 h5! 27.e7 Re8 28.Ne4 g4 29.hxg4 hxg4 30.fxg4 Nfxg4 [30...Rxe7–+ 31.g5 Nfg4] 

31.Qd1 

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31...Bh6! [Don't take 31...Rxe7 32.Qd5+ Qxd5 33.cxd5³; Reject 31...Qxa2+?! 32.Rc2³] 

32.Rc3 Rxe7 [Much weaker is 32...Qxa2+?! 33.Re2=; Black should play 32...Kh7µ 33.a3 Nf6] 

33.Qd5+ Qxd5 34.cxd5 Ra7 35.Re2 Nf7 36.Kh3 Nge5 

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37.Nxd6! Nxd6 38.Rxe5 Bg7 [Much weaker is 38...Rxa2?! 39.Rc6±] 

39.Rg5 Ne4 40.Rc8+ Kh7 41.Rh5+ Kg6 42.Rh4 Ng5+ 43.Kg2 Rxa2+ 44.Kf1 Ra1+ 45.Ke2 Ra2+ 46.Kf1 Ra1+ 47.Ke2= Ra2+= ½–½