1 April 2016
A Man’s Man And His Team
The ultimate day of the candidates tournament in the review of Vladimir Barsky.
"...The Master has sacrificed a piece. You do not know yet how this sacrifice is going to pan out and, being on the edge of your seat, you anticipate further developments. However, the situation becomes clear: the master goes on to deliver mate to his opponent. How has he managed to discover this combination? How has he spotted it out of a dozen other moves and opportunities?" (Mikhail Tal, an extract from the foreword to the book of V. Khenkin "The Ultimate Check).”
This is a flashback of an archaic state of chess some 30-40 years ago. However, given below is a sketch of our days.
...The Candidates Tournament is nearing its end. While the "supporting actors" have left the stage already, the only encounter still in progress is the decisive game Karjakin - Caruana. Black is up a pawn, but White can carry out a spectacular combination involving a rook sacrifice. The VIP room is breathless with anticipation of whether or not Sergey is going to produce this combination. If not, he will be doomed to a grinding task of having to defend his position for indefinitely long. The computer has it all calculated since long ago: the first line evaluates to "+1.7", while the second and all subsequent ones are quite disappointing for White. The minutes are dribbling along in a painful expectation... At last, Karjakin makes a resolute capture of the d5-pawn with his rook! A sigh of relief spreads across the hall, while happily throwing up his hands towards the sky and levitating in the air in an Alpari-like drift is Cyril Zangalis:
- Well done, Sergey! You are a man’s man!
Karjakin – Caruana
37.Rxd5! exd5 38.Qxd5 Qc7 39.Qf5 Rf7 40.Bxf7 Qe5 41.Rd7+ Kf8 42.Rd8+, and Black resigns. Sergey Karjakin has won the candidates tournament and will challenge Magnus Carlsen in autumn this year for the World Champion’s title!
"Morton-commander" Kirill Zangalis and Sergey Karjakin
Let’s recall the standings prior to the ultimate round. As if on cue, the leaders Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana were to face each other. Meanwhile, the Russian grandmaster was most likely satisfied with a draw because in this case he would be ahead of his opponent by the second additional tiebreaker - the overall number of wins in the tournament. However, the first additional tiebreaker was the result of individual games, in which case all plans could still be spoilt by Vishy Anand, who could join the young "Ka-s" in the case of his victory (and with a draw in the leaders’ encounter). Fabiano would then be simply obliged to bow from the waist towards the ex-champion because under such circumstances his having won one game from the Indian magician would assure the American grandmaster’s coming out victorious from the triumvirate of equals.
Nevertheless, nothing of it has ever happened as we know it now. Interestingly enough, the games of the last day would finish in order of importance. In the beginning a peace agreement was signed between Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian and between Anish Giri and Veselin Topalov. In both games White exerted minor pressure out of their openings, but their initiative never outgrew into something tangible and Black equalized their games with precise play.
In Moscow Vishy Anand proved his commitment to the white color as he won four games with the white pieces and lost three with the black ones. Therefore, it was difficult to expect his trying to get at Peter Svidler while being a second player. Moreover, in many respects he would be fighting not for himself, but for "that guy." Besides, Svidler also arrived at the game not without plans of his own. All in all, it was another case of a correct draw: Black experienced no serious problems, but neither was he able to overtake initiative at that.
Peter Svidler and Vishy Anand
At last, there remained no other games but a decisive battle alone, and it was displayed in a full screen mode just like in a movie theater. Both the lobby and the VIP hall were alive with commotion. The spectators’ hall would happily join in sharing vigorous manifestation of emotions, but neither judges nor guards would tolerate it.
Sergey Karjakin:
– I was in such a mood as to let him play for a win if he needed to, whereas I would simply try to play chess by making the strongest moves possible. I should pay due tribute to Caruana for his having successfully heated up the situation on the board. He needed to play for a win as Black after all, and he did outplay me at some moment of the game. Afterwards, however, being to time trouble, he lost the thread of the game, and then I also threw in e4-e5... Even though the correctness of this move needs testing, from the practical point of view I seem to have provoked sharp struggle at a very opportune moment, and shortly after I was in a good shape already. Objectively speaking, the game should have ended in a draw, but because Fabiano had no other choice but to win, he pushed it too far.
Fabiano Caruana is reporting to the journalists:
– My tournament performance was in general not so bad, although its finish turned out not especially shiny. The last couple of games have not gone well for me. I regret a lot more the missed chance in the penultimate game against Peter Svidler than going down in the final encounter, because I had to take risks in the ultimate round since a draw would be as good as a loss. I do not know if I had any winning chances against Sergey Karjakin, but at some point I started looking at my position with optimism. Nevertheless, being in a difficult situation Sergey acted very well.
Even before the game I was aware of my chances for success being not so substantial because winning as Black against such a strong and solid chess player is extremely difficult. I do not know if any other player in my situation could be confident of his victory over Karjakin when playing with the black pieces. Despite all this I tried to put up decent fighting and I see no reason to blame myself for the defeat.
Sergey Rublevsky and Andrey Filatov
The RCF President Andrey Filatov shared a brief interview with Eteri Kublashvili:
– I congratulate Sergey on the outstanding job he has accomplished! We are proud of his milestone victory.
– Have you always felt confident about him during the tournament, or did you feel worried from time to time?
– Even though I always seem to feel somehow worried about him, I also liked his feeling of being confident in victory. It was evident from the way he walked and played. There was confidence in him. If Sergey starts believing in his champion’s capacities, our Museum on the Gogolevsky Boulevard will come to acquire many new trophies one day (smiling).
– What can you say about his last game with Caruana?
– The game pattern was irregular and nervous. Huge inner tension of both players was there for everyone to see. And it ended well!
Sergey and Galiya Karjakins (Photo credit: A. Kirillina)
In the evening of the same day Andrey Filatov held a reception for the members of the FIDE Presidential Board at the Central House of Chess, introducing the delegates to our unique museum of chess. The most honored guests of the evening were Sergey Karjakin, his wife Galiya and his coaches Yuri Dokhoian ("Sensei") and Vladimir Potkin. Besides, presentation of the learning kit the "Chess School", designed for elementary grades, took place; the learning kit has been developed by the Russian Chess Federation with the support of the Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko.
