TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
World Chess Championship 2018 (TB)
Carlsen retains his World Chess Championship title with an overwhelming rapid tie-break performance
Mark Crowther - Wednesday 28th November 2018
Magnus Carlsen won the rapid tie-break of the 2018 World Chess Championship 3-0 to retain his title for another two years. This was a dominant performance that justified his decision to steer for the tie-breaks probably as early as just after the opening of game 11.
Game 1 Carlsen gained a large and according the computers, winning, advantage in an English where he played an interesting new idea. Carlsen thought for 10 minutes over 24.Bxe6+ but didn't find the best (instead (24. Rxd4 Kf7 25. Kh1 stepping out of potential knight checks was very good) and over the next few moves Caruana was very close to a draw before blundering with 37...Kxe4 (37...Ra2+) and being ground down after that.
Game 2 was another Sicilian. Caruana gained a decent advantage and was scathing about his own play "The second game was a disaster I didn't even put up a fight." He resigned on move 28.
Game 3, Carlsen switched to 1.e4 and in a Sicilian he retained decent control throughout trading down to a draw. Caruana had to keep complicating to stay in the match which led to a lost position and in the end he resigned the game and the match on move 51,
"I just wasn't playing at his level or anything close to it." - Caruana. Further comments below.
Comments
Carlsen stressed a number of times that "The last couple of years my game hasn't been great." and that he was reasonably pleased to play so well against such a strong opponent. The question of draws has as usual occupied the general public but it seems the match was at quite a high level. The failure to convert game one clearly hurt Carlsen a lot.
Carlsen fist pump after winning game one of the tie-break. Photo © NRK
"I never felt great about the first game. If I'd won that won I felt the match would have been very different."
"Fabiano is the toughest opponent I have faced in World Championship matches, and in classical chess he has as much right as I do to call himself the best in the world."
Caruana resigning game 2 of the tie-breaks. Jonathan Tisdall @GMjtis on twitter "There was a brief flickering of pained emotion on Caruana's face at the end of rapid game 2, but he seems determined and imperturbable as ever already." Photo © NRK
Carlsen responded to criticisms of his draw offer in Game 12 by saying he missed a few details about the position and didn't realise it was so advantageous. But he also admitted "I had actually thought even before game 12 that if I had a slightly favourable position I was indeed going to offer a draw."
"They're entitle to their stupid opinions." Photo © NRK
Mentioning Kasparov and Kramnik's critical comments about the draw offer in game 12. "They're entitle to their stupid opinions." He said it with a smile but he was perhaps also seeking vindication of his decision, although he did also say that the result can't really be used as that as things could have gone differently.
So that's that for another two years. I expect Caruana to come back strongly after this and am confident he will get another shot. I hope Carlsen can resume improving - it has felt like his career (outside of rapid and blitz chess) has stagnated the last couple of years and it's interesting to hear that Carlsen feels that strongly too.
Carlsen Game 1 tie-breaks. Photo © NRK
It is disappointing that the classical world championship was decided by rapid chess after 12 draws. There is new leadership in FIDE, they've gone for a match to decide the Women's World tile. I hope that a way will be found to make these matches have a few more games, 14-20 are all doable with a will, perhaps with a slightly accelerated timetable such as used in the Candidates.
| WCh Rapid TB | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlsen, Magnus | - | Caruana, Fabiano | 1-0 | 55 | A22 | English Opening |
| Caruana, Fabiano | - | Carlsen, Magnus | 0-1 | 28 | B33 | Sicilian Sveshnikov |
| Carlsen, Magnus | - | Caruana, Fabiano | 1-0 | 51 | B40 | Sicilian Classical |
| WCh Rapid TB London (ENG), 28 xi 2018 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Ti | NAT | Rtg | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | Perf | ||||||
| Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2835 | 1 | 1 | 1 | . | 3 | |||||||
| Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2832 | 0 | 0 | 0 | . | 0 | |||||||
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