Chris, thanks for posting the game score for game 2.
I understand that Carlsen was steering clear of facing the Petroff by
playing d4. What got me was that he chose a line he'd played against
quite frequently and drawn from black. A lot of commentators and
kibitzing raised the possibility he was the one not so prepared today
based on his clock management coming out of the opening. Well into the
middlegame, Carlsen had an hour less on time left than Caruana.
There's three moves that raised questions for me.
1. What might have been white's plan with 11.Be2. It seemed a bit
passive considering the circumstances. Sure, he wasn't castled yet.
But, I was thinking at the time he might have been better served
getting some early advantage by setting up an open or half-open file
for his queen's rook. The subsequent 11...Ne4 seems to be a perfect
opportunity for Caruana to ratchet up a more aggressive counterplay
then he demonstrated yesterday when Carlsen had him on the defensive
early.
Looking at the flight pattern of black's Knight, I wonder if the
capture of the Bishop at f4 was the mid- to long-term plan, seeing the
sequence: 8...Nc6, 14...Ne7 (prepping the recapture of d5, and then
17...Nxf4 before the obvious take back 18.exf4.
Then on Carlsen chooses to move 23.a5 instead of 23 Qd4 which would
have protected all three pawns at once and given a great sprophyllatic
scope for consolidating white's forces. After all, black's pawn
structure stayed constant throughout the game. As it was, 23.a5 leads
to the quick exchange of pawns and further solidifies blacks position
where keeping the e-pawn from winning a lady was easy to do.
Well, here's to game 3 being much more like today than yesterday's
seven-hour uh, "marathon."
All the best in chess,
David
On 11/10/18, Chris Ross <c.ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[Event "WCh 2018"]
[Site "London ENG"]
[Date "2018.11.10"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[WhiteElo "2835"]
[BlackElo "2832"]
[ECO "D37"]
[Opening "QGD"]
[Variation "classical variation (5.Bf4)"]
[WhiteFideId "1503014"]
[BlackFideId "2020009"]
[EventDate "2018.11.09"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 c5 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8.
Qc2
Nc6 9. a3 Qa5 10. Rd1 Rd8 11. Be2 Ne4 12. O-O Nxc3 13. bxc3 h6 14. a4 Ne7
15.
Ne5 Bd6 16. cxd5 Nxd5 17. Bf3 Nxf4 18. exf4 Bxe5 19. Rxd8+ Qxd8 20. fxe5
Qc7
21.
Rb1 Rb8 22. Qd3 Bd7 23. a5 Bc6 24. Qd6 Qxd6 25. exd6 Bxf3 26. gxf3 Kf8 27.
c4
Ke8 28. a6 b6 29. c5 Kd7 30. cxb6 axb6 31. a7 Ra8 32. Rxb6 Rxa7 33. Kg2 e5
34.
Rb4 f5 35. Rb6 Ke6 36. d7+ Kxd7 37. Rb5 Ke6 38. Rb6+ Kf7 39. Rb5 Kf6 40.
Rb6+
Kg5 41. Rb5 Kf4 42. Rb4+ e4 43. fxe4 fxe4 44. h3 Ra5 45. Rb7 Rg5+ 46. Kf1
Rg6
47. Rb4 Rg5 48. Rb7 Rg6 49. Rb4 1/2-1/2
