World Chess Championship 2016 (10)
Carlsen levels World Championship match after nervy game 10
Mark Crowther - Friday 25th November 2016
Magnus Carlsen won an extremely tense six and half hour struggle against Sergey Karjakin to equalise the match at 5-5. In a game with many turning points it looked for a long time like Karjakin would hold out for a draw but Carlsen eventually showed some of the skills that make him the best player in the World and finally broke the resistance Karjakin.
Carlsen returned to the quiet 4.d3 against the Berlin and hoped to outplay his opponent in a long positional game. Karjakin looked to be under a small amount of pressure before Carlsen erred with 19.Bxe6 which computers immediately pronounced as an equal position with 20.Nxf2 and 21.Nxf2. After this an extremely long endgame resulted where Carlsen could press at will it seemed and Karjakin had to wait. Karjakin could have tried to play g5 at some point but clearly felt his position was a fortress. Carlsen showed his great experience in winning endgames against the best by waiting and waiting for his only breakthrough try with b5. He eventually played it under the best circumstances after 56...Rhh7? and was winning after second time control. Karjakin gambled with 61.Rhc7 and was rewarded with the inferior 62.Nd5 but even so the defensive task was beyond him.
This was a far from perfect game but was at times an unbearably tense struggle which leaves the match tied at 5-5 with two games to go and possible rapid and blitz tiebreaks after that.
Rest day Friday 25th November.
Game 11 Saturday 26th November 2pm local time 7pm UK time. Karjakin vs Carlsen.
View the games on this Page
Download the PGN from this page
vs