TWIC is 29. First issue 17th September 1994.
World Chess Championship 2018 (Preview)
World Chess Championship 2018, Carlsen-Caruana, too close to call?
Mark Crowther - Thursday 8th November 2018
Press Conference on Thursday 8th November 2018. | https://www.vgtv.no/video/166927/pressekonferanse-dagen-foer-sjakk-vm
Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana will play a 12 game match in London to decide who will be World Chess Champion for the next two years. 27 year old Carlsen has successfully defended the title twice since taking it from Viswanathan Anand in 2013. At least on paper this match should be his most difficult yet, as there are just a statistically insignificant 3 rating points between them. Not that Carlsen's last defence against Sergey Karjakin in 2016 was at all easy for him.
Fabiano Caruana won the FIDE Candidates tournament in Berlin (March 2018) to qualify to play this match, he had also come pretty close on his debut in 2016 too. Caruana's most impressive result to date was his 8.5/10 in the 2014 Sinquefield Cup beating the entire field in the first cycle of the double round robin and only being held to a by Magnus Carlsen in the 8th round from a position where he was at one point also clearly winning. This is the kind of peak he is capable of. Caruana has looked more assured in tournaments than Carlsen this year although in their fourindividual classical encounters Carlsen has dominated with a win and also had winning positions in a couple of the draws, who will take comfort more from these escapes is unclear.
26 year old Caruana has a more complicated tactical style than the champion and has better conventional opening preparation too (although Carlsen has his own style and goals in this phase). Caruana has the power to beat Carlsen and as the champion acknowledged, may feel he is stronger in certain types of middle-game. Caruana isn't a time trouble addict but has occasionally run into problems on the clock. Maybe not so much in 2018 either. If Caruana can keep a good pace without sacrificing his depth of thought it will be very tough for Carlsen.
Carlsen has been the highest rated player in the world since 2010 (apart from a couple of ratings periods where Anand briefly overtook him), he's been champion since 2013. Now Caruana is challenging him both for the top spot and the title. I've been expecting Carlsen to put in another career defining tournament performance for a few years now but whilst some events have looked promising he hasn't quite delivered. "I know more chess than I did in 2013, but still my rating is lower and my results are worse. It just doesn't make sense." Carlsen said in a recent interview and at the at the press conference today he said "I need to step it up. I have great confidence in my power to do exactly that."
Carlsen has also spoken about his energy levels being lower than they were a few years ago. and generally he gives the impression that he's a bit vulnerable. On the plus side Carlsen hasn't lost to Caruana in three years, Caruana hasn't played any classical matches, never mind a world title match and one of Carlsen's main strengths is his great competitive spirit, if this challenge doesn't motivate him nothing will.
I think predictions are a little bit pointless, this will be settled over the board by two closely matched players of contrasting styles. I don't believe the result is yet written and it good fortune could easily settles this, a nice piece of preparation that hits a bulls eye, a moment of unaccountable weakness. All to fight for.
There will be coverage of the match many of your favourite chess web sites. Many are carrying live moves and commentary in spite of organiser Agon's threats to take action. Agon have already lost 5 court cases, the law just isn't as they think it is and case law has been settled for many years. Their action has no justification at all and has certainly poisoned my attitude towards the match quite a bit. I will stick to their half hour demand, because it's not worth it for me to do otherwise, most likely I will update just at the end of play and produce a short article on each game.
A couple of articles by chess writers I like:
The Couch Potato’s Guide to the 2018 World Chess Championship by Ian Rogers
and
13 Things To Know About The Carlsen vs Caruana World Chess Championship by GM Jonathan Tisdall
Also Sean Gregory's article on the match for Time with some short quotes from me: This Kid From Brooklyn Could Return America to Chess Dominance for the First Time Since Bobby Fischer
