The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana drew a long Petroff Defence in game 6 of the World Chess Championship. This was the first of two games in a row where the champion Carlsen has white. Having the white pieces used to be seen as the opportunity to play for a win, but in the last decade of World Championship Matches it's often been very hard to demonstrate anything if black is well prepared. Today Caruana was not in any trouble in the symmetrical pawn structure they reached and starting with the excellent 21... c5 he took over the initiative leaving Carlsen having to scramble for a draw.

Carlsen: "I was just way too casual"

Once they reached first time control at move 40 it was already tricky for Carlsen and he thought for a long time over 43.Bf3 and it's clear he already decided to give up a piece for three pawns (later just two) on move 58 he gave up yet another pawn to achieve a fortress that computers confirm was drawing with best play. After 67.Kg6? computers sprang to life again saying white was lost but only after 68...Bh4 from black, after 68...Nf3 black had no further chances and the game was drawn in 80 moves and about 7 hours of play. Carlsen was surprised by the news that he briefly had a lost position.

Carlsen: "As a matter of fact that was the 2nd time in the game I’d missed the plan with Ba3. I thought I’d actually have 3 pawns, not 2 pawns, so I thought it would be a fairly straightforward draw, and when it turned out I only had 2 pawns I was quite worried"

Game 7 Sunday 3pm Carlsen-Caruana. Carlsen white again.

Score Carlsen 3 Caruana 3.