- Over more than two weeks, more than 600 moves, 48 hours of play, one scandalous video and one black eye, the world’s top two grandmasters have now fought to a dozen straight draws. The World Chess Championship match between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and the U.S.’s Fabiano Caruana remains deadlocked at the end of regulation, and the title will be now be decided by speedy tie-breaking games including, perhaps, a sudden-death format known as Armageddon.
But before the tiebreakers came a wild, oscillating Game 12. Carlsen, with the black pieces, and Caruana, with the white, began with the Sveshnikov Sicilian, just as they had in Game 8 and Game 10. Carlsen was the first to deviate from the earlier contests, perhaps a stratagem to take Caruana out of his seemingly excellent preparation for the championship, and to angle for a decisive result at last. By the 12th move, the two were in uncharted territory, looking at a board that that no two people had created before at this level of chess.
The only odd thing about the draw was that Carlsen didnt play on until move 38 or 39. Carlsen knows that he's a strong favourite in the tiebreaker. All he had to do was draw all the games in the classical time control. Carlsen was playing black. He had a strong position, but nothing obviously winning. Why take a chance on things going awry in the classical when you're an 80%+ favourite in the tiebreaker? He knew Caruana would be highly pressured to draw if he offered. The draw wasn't good for chess, but it was good for Carlsen.
posted 1969 days ago