TWIC is 29. First issue 17th September 1994.
World Chess Championship 2018 (1)
Carlsen misses great chances to win game 1 of his world title defence against Caruana
Mark Crowther - Friday 9th November 2018
Caruana and Carlsen in play during game 1. | https://direkte.vg.no/studio/sjakk-vm-2018-dag-1
The first game of the FIDE World Chess Championship in London between defending Champion Magnus Carlsen and his challenger Fabiano Caruana ended up in a hard fought draw. It will be Carlsen who will be unhappy as he reached a winning position on move 33 where he had plenty of time on the clock and his opponent was down to the 30 second increment but when they reached time control move 40 Caruana was only a bit worse and held the draw with no further scares. The game finished in 115 moves, the longest between the players, their previous record was 91 in Bilbao 2012.
Match score after Game 1 Carlsen 0.5 Caruana 0.5.
After Caruana chose 1.e4 Carlsen replied with the Sicilian and allowed the Rossolimo Variation following the moves 1...c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 which a few years ago was his own winning weapon as white. Caruana didn't exactly play badly but his play looked slightly irresolute, it would hardly be surprising if he wasn't feeling the pressure of this new situation. Carlsen played boldly and after the first new move, Caruana's 11.f4, Carlsen was for choice.
It's always misleading to just monitor the computer evaluations as they rise and fall but here are a few key moments. 17.Nf6 turned out to increase black's edge, Carlsen's 21...Nf8 was not liked by computers at all (they thought it equal and 21...Qe6 was better) but very soon Caruana was in serious time pressure and after 25 moves he had 5 minutes 46 left plus the 30 second increment, Carlsen had 25 minutes. 27.Qe2?! (27.Rf3) put Caruana under more pressure but then he did very well to find pretty much the best for quite a few moves until 33.Ke2? which should have been the losing move.
Carlsen found 33...Qg5! threatening h5 but when Caruana anticipated this with 34.Nh2 Carlsen no longer needed the move, it's here he needed to find 34...Qe5! with infiltration of the Queen side to follow, Carlsen played 34...h5?! which doesn't spoil anything yet but is a step in the wrong direction, Carlsen blew about half his remaining 15 minutes on 36...h4?! looking very flustered doing it. 37.e5! almost equalises for black but instead Caruana played 37.Kd2? and black is winning again but Carlsen's composure and time were diminishing fast 38...Rg3! (a risky looking exchange sac that's completely crushing) 39....b5! and 40...Qb1! should all have brought home the full point but instead 40...Bxc3? played with only seconds to spare on the clock left Caruana with a position he could hold.
After first time control Caruana was forced to take Queens off but then found a good forcing sequence that left him defending a Rook and Pawn Endgame a pawn down but one that he would have been confident he could draw. The game finished in 115 moves but with no further real problems for Caruana.
So after the first game I saw a few things I flagged up before the match. It must be worrying to Carlsen that both in his last World Championship match and in recent games against Caruana he isn't winning won positions. Carlsen seems to be generating more winning chances than he used to but seems a lot worse at converting them.
Caruana was a little slow out of the blocks and will lose this match if he gets into time trouble as bad as this many more games. But having stayed level when he should have lost he will surely take much comfort from that.
Finally in an interview with VG, the official Norwegian broadcaster Carlsen said thinks he is a bit weaker now than when he became World Champion in 2013 a startling admission even if it also happens to be true.
View the games on this Page
Download the PGN from this page
vs
