SVIDLER vs CARLSEN – EUROPEAN CLUB CUP 2018 ROUND 7

This was Carlsen’s last game of chess before his match against Caruana starts on 9 November in London. It also concludes a stressful week where any single loss would have meant losing his number one spot on the FIDE ranking list. Carlsen has been the world number one since mid-2011. As things stand, the end of October rating list will show Carlsen still at number one with a rating of 2835. That is only three ELO points above second-placed Caruana.

Svidler, on the other hand, flies to the Netherlands for his six-game match against Sam Shankland in Hoogeveen starting on 21 October. I will be covering that match as well.

This game is from round 7 of the 2018 European Club Cup. It is between Peter Svidler with White against Magnus Carlsen with Black.

This game features a Caro-Kann Defence. To learn more about the Caro-Kann Defence, here is the best instruction book I could find on Amazon.

Svidler,Peter (2756) - Carlsen,Magnus (2839)

34th European Club Cup 2018 Halkidiki (7), 18.10.2018

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6 6.c3 Bd6 7.Bd3 0–0 8.Qc2 Re8+ 9.Be3 h6 10.Ne2 Na6 B15: Caro-Kann: 3 Nc3: 3...g6 and 3...dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nf6 5 Nxf6+ exf6 [10...Be6 11.Qd2 Nd7 12.Bf4 Bxf4 13.Qxf4 Nc5 14.Qd2 Nxd3+ 15.Qxd3 Qe7 16.b3 Bf5 17.Qd2 Rad8 18.f3 0–1 (59) Hossain,E (2432)-Le,Q (2739) Ashkhabad 2017] 

11.0–0 Nc7 12.c4 

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12...Bg4 White is slightly better. 

13.h3N [13.Nc3 looks sharper. 13...b5 14.h3 Bd7 15.b3 a5 16.Rfe1; 13.Nc3 Qd7 14.Ne4 Ne6 15.d5 cxd5 16.cxd5 Nc7 17.h3 Bh5 18.Nc3 1/2–1/2 (30) Shailesh,D (2269)-Muthaiah,A (2299) Rajahmundry 2016] 

13...Bxe2 14.Bxe2 Ne6 15.Rad1 Qc7 16.Bg4 Rad8 17.Rfe1 Bf4 18.Bxf4 Nxf4 19.Rxe8+ Rxe8 

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20.h4 Qa5 21.g3 f5 22.Bf3 Re1+ 23.Kh2 Rxd1 24.Qxd1 Ng6 25.a3 f4 26.Be4 fxg3+ 27.fxg3 Nf8 28.d5 cxd5 

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29.Qxd5 Qxd5 30.Bxd5= Endgame KB-KN 

30...b6 

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31.b4 c5 is the strong threat. 

31...Nd7 32.Kg2 Kf8 33.Kf2 Nf6 34.Bf3 Ke7 35.Ke3! Kd6 36.Kd4 Ng8 37.c5+ bxc5+ 38.bxc5+ Kc7 39.Bd5 Ne7 40.Ke5 [40.Bxf7± aiming for g4. 40...Nf5+ 41.Kd5] 

40...Nxd5 

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41.Kxd5 Threatens to win with h5. KP-KP 

41...h5! 42.c6 a6 43.a4 

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43...a5! 44.Kc5 Hoping for Kb5. 

44...f6! 45.Kd5 g5 46.Ke6 Kxc6 47.Kxf6 gxh4 48.gxh4 KPP-KPP 

48...Kd6 49.Kg5 Ke5 

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50.Kxh5 KPP-KP 

50...Kf5 51.Kh6 Kf6! The position is equal. 

52.h5 Kf7! 53.Kg5 Threatening mate with Kf5. 

53...Kg7 54.h6+ Kh7 55.Kh5 Kh8 

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56.Kg6 Strongly threatening Kf6. 

56...Kg8 57.h7+ Kh8 58.Kh6? [58.Kf7]  ½–½