Magnus Carlsen celebrated his 26th birthday and a third consecutive World Chess Championship victory last Wednesday. Hundreds of millions watched while over the course of nearly three weeks the defending Norwegian champion played Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin to retain the title. Both grandmasters are a mere 26 years old.
Carlsen was thought to be the overwhelming favorite going in, but, game by game, Karjakin matched Carlsen’s ingenuity, inevitably requiring an additional tiebreak series of four rapid games to settle matters.
The competition took place in the United States for the first time since 1999, in an effort by the World Chess Federation, FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs), to better commercialize the game. The venue was New York City’s Seaport District, situated on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Both players met in a dedicated glass playing room, with spectators watching and playing skittles games (side games) nearby.
THE CLASSICAL MATCH
The format is simple: the best of 12 classical games becomes world chess champion. In chess, “classical” is synonymous with “slow.”
For each game in this match, the regulations allow 100 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes added at move 40, then 15 additional minutes added at move 60. A 30-second increment per move is also added to the main time throughout the entire game.
Some epic draws and visible exhaustion highlighted the first seven rounds. The stubborn Berlin Defense of the Ruy Lopez, colloquially known as the Berlin Wall, was employed as a powerful drawing weapon for Black in four of these seven games.
In the third round, Karjakin’s Berlin was almost toppled in a nearly seven-hour-long ordeal.
By round four the next day, Carlsen stopped to take a nap on the sofa in the glass room, while his opponent pondered a critical move. Several commentators became concerned that Carlsen repeatedly failed to capitalize on advantages.
In the fifth game, it was Karjakin missing serious winning chances after an unclear pawn sacrifice in the late middlegame. Carlsen appeared increasingly depressed, even outright annoyed, in the postgame press conferences.
Fast forward several draws later to game eight. Carlsen played an unambitious queen’s pawn system known as the Colle, and Karjakin seized the initiative. Carlsen fared worse in a difficult ending, and finally he slipped. The position in the diagram to the right resulted, and Black played the beautiful pawn push 52. … a3-a2! threatening to promote to queen, whereupon Carlsen resigned the first game of the match (after the White queen is distracted by taking the pawn, Black can invade with his knight to g4, and then checkmate or win White’s queen by force shortly after).
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A dejected Carlsen failed to show up to the regular postgame press conference. The momentum clearly favored Karjakin.
Afterwards, in game nine, it seemed Magnus would hand Sergey a second victory. But Karjakin could not convert his advantage, and Magnus came back to even the score with a convincing win in round 10. The players drew rounds 11 and 12 to proceed to the:
TIEBREAK MATCH
The four rapid games had time controls of 25 minutes per player, with a 10-second increment added every move. Game one repeated the character of the classical match: a straightforward draw out of the Berlin.
In game two, Sergey (Black) came into some trouble, as Magnus achieved a favorable material imbalance of two bishops for a rook. Commentators spoke of forced wins found by computer, some in excess of 20 moves.
Then came a miracle — Karjakin systematically sacrificed all his remaining men for a forced draw, with only seconds left (see the puzzle section for more).
In the next game, Carlsen unexpectedly pushed with the Black pieces, and Karjakin faced serious time pressure. Carlsen kept pressing. In a critical position with a handful of seconds, Karjakin failed to find the adequate defense, and lost.
This meant Sergey needed to win the last round with Black to survive. The need-to-win scenario predictably provoked inferior play from the Russian challenger, culminating in the final position above. Can you find Carlsen’s winning move, sealing this world chess championship? (Answer is in the puzzle section)
Eddie Wyckoff is the author of “Chess Puzzle Learning Levels,” and writes the chess puzzle for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at lobochesspuzzle@gmail.com.
