Candidates Tournament in Berlin March 2018

[Chris Goodall]

Who was it that said of his/her thinking technique "First I consider how to sacrifice my queen, then my rooks, then my minor pieces, then my pawns?" I was sure I'd seen it attributed to Tal. Maybe I dreamt it.

Anyway, ...Nxb4 would have been found by anyone following that advice.

I'm supporting anyone but Karjakin, and I think Caruana will win handily today and make everything else moot.

[Nick Ivell]

Certainly we should always include captures in our list of candidate moves. The problem is the follow up. When I saw ...Nxb4 suggested by the engine, I couldn't see the follow up. I suggest this is because ...Rd4 is a 'quiet' move - neither a check nor a capture. Quiet moves are always the hardest to see.

[JustinHorton]

Unibet:

Caruana 9/10
Karjakin 9/4
Mamedyarov 5/2
DIng 40/1

[JustinHorton]

Grischuk will throw caution to the wind. King's Gambit or similar.

Petroff

[LawrenceCooper]

Aronian-So ended peacefully.

[David Robertson]

I suspect - for humans anyway; even very good GM humans - that the move ...Nxb4 is 'unseeable' because the idea of which it is a part is 'unseeable' (except in retrospect). That is to say, following Nick, that the concept of Idea aggregates Move + Follow-up(s). And that the best human chess is, in fact, not a series of moves at all, but a series of ideas. Hence, the better players have the better ideas, not merely the better moves. Indeed, I imagine most of the best coaching implicitly or explicitly handles the game like this: 3 Bb5 in the Spanish with the idea that...; 6 h3 in the Najdorf with the idea that...; and so forth. So, where a move is out of reach to us, it's because the idea is out of reach. And amateurs find more ideas are beyond them.

To make my point by concrete example, go look at Karjakin - Caruana the other day: the position arising after 16...Bg4. Stockfish doesn't rank Karjakin's 17th move in its top four preferences; nor would I. Whatever idea Karjakin has, would never occur to me. Even with the wisdom of retro-analysis, I still don't see Karjakin's idea. Yes, I can construct a narrative to explain how he won - but only after he'd won. And of course, I can see the move 17 Bxd5 and the follow-up sequence 17...Bxd1; 18 Rxd1. But I still cannot fathom how Karjakin believed this was the way to go. It's one small example of why I'm not a GM - a small but fundamental example: I don't understand enough.

[Tim Harding]

However, if he takes a quick draw and Karjakin goes on to win, he's going to spend the rest of his life wishing he didn't, so I'm not entirely convinced.

EDIT: Incidentally, bothering to look at the regulations, I notice:

The players cannot draw a game by agreement before black’s 30th move

So while I wonder whether the arbiters really would step in to prevent a threefold repetition early doors, strictly speaking an early draw is not a straightforward option to take.

Aronian-So draw by repetition in 17 moves.

[Roger de Coverly]

To make my point by concrete example, go look at Karjakin - Caruana the other day: the position arising after 16...Bg4. Stockfish doesn't rank Karjakin's 17th move in its top four preferences; nor would I. Whatever idea Karjakin has, would never occur to me. Even with the wisdom of retro-analysis, I still don't see Karjakin's idea.

[SetUp "1"] [FEN "2kr2r1/pp1qbpp1/4b2p/2pp4/5P2/P1P1BB2/1PPQ2PP/2KR3R b - - 2 16"]

The game continued with .. Bg4 and then Karjakin played Bxd5 sacrificing the Rook on d1.

It's an exchange sacrifice, but whether it's a normal idea in that type of position isn't known to me. Elsewhere in the Dragon if .. Rxc3 is possible or for White Rxh5, they are immediate candidate moves, but that's familiarity with the type of position as much as anything else.

Earlier in the game, a Kramnik style .. Rg8 got an airing, although in the context it looks forced unless Black is risking 0-0.


[SetUp "1"] [FEN "r3k2r/pppqbpp1/3pb2p/8/3B4/P1P5/1PPQ1PPP/2KR1B1R b kq - 0 12"]

[Chris Goodall]

Grischuk will throw caution to the wind. King's Gambit or similar.

Petroff

Well that's a Black opening, isn't it. Grischuk's throw-caution-to-the-wind move was 4.dxe5 allowing Black "equality" with 4...d5, except it's not equality because there are competing majorities on the board.

[benedgell]

I reckon Kramnik will be the only winner today.

[JustinHorton]

I quite like Karjakin. The chess24 computer reckons he's dead equal, but the trouble is that its line involves Ding sticking all Black's pawns on the same colour as his bishop, which may not seem to him like a strategy to preserve winning chances.

[Nick Ivell]

Thanks to Roger for posting relevant positions from the previous round. All credit to Karjakin: his exchange sacrifice was brilliant. I'm always interested in what Nietzsche would term the 'human, all-too human' aspect of chess. And although the exchange sac doesn't seem to worry the engine, the fact is that White's position is easier to play. Caruana admitted after the game that he hadn't realised how difficult his position was to play. I don't think he'll be playing ...Bg4 again in a hurry, no matter what the engines say. In my world, the bishop on d5 is worth a rook!

[Chris Goodall]

People have noticed that 13.Nd4 is possible for Grischuk, which looks like a clever way of doing something stupid as Silman would say.

I don't think Grischuk-Caruana will be a draw. Where does Fabi put his king?

[LawrenceCooper]

People have noticed that 13.Nd4 is possible for Grischuk, which looks like a clever way of doing something stupid as Silman would say.

I don't think Grischuk-Caruana will be a draw. Where does Fabi put his king?

The kingside looks safe enough

[Chris Goodall]

People have noticed that 13.Nd4 is possible for Grischuk, which looks like a clever way of doing something stupid as Silman would say.

I don't think Grischuk-Caruana will be a draw. Where does Fabi put his king?

The kingside looks safe enough

I disagree.