The Week in Chess

The 11th game of the World Chess Championship was a damp squib as Magnus Carlsen couldn't show anything dangerous against Fabiano's Petroff Defence. They followed a line that seemed to have been mentioned in the video leak at the start of the championship (the video says 4.Nc3 instead of 5.Nc3 but that probably is a typo) and Carlsen showed nothing. He did think for quite some time over his moves starting with 11.Rhe1, it is impossible to believe he hadn't prepared the line, perhaps he intended something sharper but backed out at the last minute, we'll have to wait and see. Once the match is over I think more searching questions will be asked about the lack of punching power with white. Carlsen quickly transposed into a drawn blshops of opposite colours endgame, Caruana had to show a bit of care but held very comfortably in the end.

Carlsen on what might happen in the final regulation game 12 on Monday: "Depends on what he wants to do. If he wants to shut it down that's fine by me, we'll play rapid. Otherwise we'll have a fight."

The game started somewhat unusually with Sergey Karjakin, Carlsen's previous challenger making the ceremonial opening move. He chose 1.b4, Carlsen joked afterwards he maybe should have stuck with it. Carlsen, Karjakin and Caruana were in a jovial move at the start of the game and perhaps this rather unusual guest help break some tension.

If the match is drawn there will be a day of tie-breaks on Wednesday.

Score Carlsen 5.5 - Caruana 5.5