First Game of Carlsen - Caruana Match Is Drawn

It lasted for 115 moves.

The first game of the World Championship Match between the world champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and the challenger Fabiano Caruana (USA) took place in London on November 9. The American grandmaster played with the white pieces. The first symbolic move was made by the Emmy-award winning actor Woody Harelson who misheard Caruana and played 1. d4 instead of 1. e4. The challenger had to put the pawn back to its place and started the game with the king's pawn.  

The opponents played the Rossolimo variation with opposite side castling. Carlsen created a dangerous attack on the kingside having sacrificed a pawn. With the g-file open, Caruana was defending his king on mere seconds transferring it to the queenside. Still, the world champion had chances to get a decisive advantage before the time control, but somehow he allowed his opponent to trade queens thus simplifying the position. Caruana lost a pawn but managed to survive the game in a long (115 moves were played in the first encounter!) rook endgame with a pawn down.

  

Sharing his impressions of the battle is Vladimir Potkin, a national team coach and Karjakin's second in the 2016 World Championship match.
 
– This is undoubtedly a new experience for the Candidate. He is used to participating in events with many players. On the contrary, the World Championship match is about two players only. All cameramen and journalists’ attention is focused on them alone! It is quite different from a regular tournament in which you finish your game and go home while others continue. The match tension is huge and needs some getting used to before you start performing to full capacity. 

Game one undoubtedly gave hard tome to Caruana. Being very well aware of it, Carlsen resorted to a sort of psychological trick by employing an aggressive Sicilian Defense rather than Ruy Lopez, which he is a regular to. Judging by time management in the opening, this choice came as a surprise to Fabiano despite Magnus’s having employed this line against Anand this very year. 

Those are the position in which Magnus shines: opting for classical setups he outperforms opponent on subtle finesses (such as deftly choosing when to play…b6, and when…h6, etc.). He is known for fantastic understanding of such finesses during the game! There was a moment when it felt like Caruana was facing a machine: performing with a filigree precision, Carlsen achieved a big edge and had a lot more time on his clock at that. It was reminiscent of the 2004 Leko – Kramnik match in Brissago, in which the Hungarian grandmaster, being a Candidate, went down as White in game one. 

Nevertheless, Magnus seems to be going through a warmup yet. The World Championship match is an immense challenge for him as well. He does have experience playing in three highest level matches, but it is a new opponent and a different environment for him this time as well.  It was cool head that the champion lacked to bring the point home. 

– Was it thanks to the pawn sac in the early middlegame that Black took the initiative over completely?

– This is exactly so. Chesswise, perhaps, Magnus was not entirely precise, but from the practical point of view he was putting the opponent up against serious problems. All this was happening in Caruana's time trouble. This said, going into the first time control Carlsen lost his cool head as well. Were it game three rather than game one, he would have definitely converted it. By that time, he would have been calm, entirely immersed into the game. He was unlikely expecting the opening game as Black to shape so favorably for him. 

A loss would have come as a great challenge for Fabiano. Magnus is known to have pulled off comebacks as a pursuer. 

– Memories of the New York match are still fresh in my memory. Was Sergey Karjakin experiencing a psychological discomfort at the start of the match either?

– Sergey was affected by it to a lesser degree. He was not overly ambitious in the first games just to get used to the match rhythm. We took all this into account, and Sergey, in my opinion, was perfectly well aware of those psychological nuances, playing more calmly for that reason. He drew rather confidently as Black in game one and went on to deliver a calm and confident performance afterwards. 

– Let us return to the London event. Did you like game one, was it up to your expectations?

– There are not a few expecting the match to see an open type of struggle, game one raising to those expectations in full. Rather than messing around in “shallow waters” with one opponent trying to outwit another on certain finesses, it promises to be a full-fledged fight. Despite a lengthy distance, certain games might look boring. With the opponents’ class very high, a lot will depend on the type of setups they get out of the opening. I am confident that being ambitious players, both Carlsen and Caruana will strive for victories. This may be a reason of many other-than-draw games likely in store for us. 

Questions by Vladimir Barsky

The second game of the match is taking place on November 10. The world champion will play with the white pieces.  

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