The Week in Chess

Game 7 which begins the second half of the World Chess Championship in London was another quiet draw, this time in 40 moves. Magnus Carlsen once again had white, after getting into trouble against Fabiano Caruana's Petroff in game 6 he returned to the Queen's Gambit Bf4 variation today. Caruana played the rare 10...Qd8 and achieved total equality only a few moves later. Caruana admitted to playing a few careless moves after that and while he was still equal he had to show a small amount of care, but by move 40 the players saw no reason not to draw by repetition. As I suspected, the sequence of two whites in a row for Carlsen didn't prove useful to him at all.

Carlsen 3.5 Caruana 3.5.

Next game Monday 19th November 3pm UK time. Caruana-Carlsen.