| Carlsen - Caruana World Championship Match (2018) |
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The 2018 World Championship between reigning champion, Magnus Carlsen, and challenger, Fabiano Caruana, a 12-game match organized by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon, was played in London, at The College in Holborn, 9-28 November. Caruana qualified as challenger at the World Championship Candidates (2018). The time control was 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 more minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move from move 1. Colors alternated between games except after game 6, so the same player played with White in games 6 and 7. Draw agreements were not allowed before Black's 30th move. If the match was tied 6-6 after 12 games, tiebreak games would be played on 28 November to determine the winner, starting with a best-of-four Rapid match at 25 minutes per player with a 10-second increment; if still tied, up to five two-game Blitz minimatches at 5 minutes per player with a 3-second increment, the winner of any minimatch winning the championship. If still tied, an Armageddon game to determine the champion. All Classical games, and the first Rapid tiebreak game, began at 15:00 UTC (10:00 USA/Eastern). Ten-minute breaks between tiebreak games were stipulated in the regulations but could be waived by the chief arbiter Stephane Escafre. After 12 consecutive draws in the Classical games, Carlsen won the first three Rapid tiebreak games and defended the title for the third time. Elo Classical Rapid
Carlsen 2835 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 9
Caruana 2832 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 6
Official site: https://web.archive.org/web/2018113...
Regulations: https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/...
Scheduling: https://worldchess.com/tournament/1...
Chess.com 1: https://www.chess.com/article/view/...
Chess.com 2: https://www.chess.com/article/view/...
ChessBase: https://en.chessbase.com/post/magnu...
chess24: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-t...
TWIC: https://theweekinchess.com/chessnew...
FIDE: https://ratings.fide.com/tournament...
Previous: Carlsen - Karjakin World Championship Match (2016). Next: Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi World Championship Match (2021)
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Later Kibitzing> |
Nov-28-18
 | | saffuna: <frogbert> If Carlsen is the best, it is by a tiny margin. Certainly you would agree he is no longer in a class of his own the way he was four or five years ago. |
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Nov-28-18
 | | HeMateMe: lets not throw out the format just yet. Players like Aronian, So, Nakamura, Anand, Svidler, would not be so passive. Caruana apparently has lost enough games against magnus Carlsen to know that he can't lead MC into a new line and outplay him, not with a winning probability. Instead, he hoped Carlsen would somehow get bored and take chances, make a mistake, perhaps have a bad rapids game. Caruana is a cautious man. If there is a rematch he'll play differently. |
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| Nov-28-18 | | Tal1949: Carlsen has just proved that he is the better rapid chess player, but little else. My suggestion for the next WC is to play a 16 game match with 8 standard chess games and 8 Chess 960 games, alternating the format after every 2 games. By playing them at classical time control we will find out who the true world champion is. This current format is proving nothing. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | frogbert: <saffuna> It depends on what you're measuring. I agree that the distance to #2 has become much smaller - at least in classical chess. But Caruana depends more on preparation and calculation - and is very good at that. Judging by pure chess talent and capability among the current elite, I think we've got the right champion. Disagree? |
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Nov-29-18
| | saffuna: No, I don't. |
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Nov-29-18
| | saffuna: <Can most tennis fans list every Wimbledon winner from Gore through Djokovic? > I could name every male champion going back to at least 1966. Most of the female champions as well, though I'd get some years mixed up. (For most of the 80s I could just say Navratilova for year after year.) But there's a new Wimbledon champion every year. The chess champion has only changed seven times in the same period, since 1966. |
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Nov-29-18
| | HeMateMe: Goran Ivenisovic? |
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| Nov-29-18 | | fabelhaft: <Carlsen has just proved that he is the better rapid chess player, but little else. My suggestion for the next WC is to play a 16 game match with 8 standard chess games and 8 Chess 960 games, alternating the format after every 2 games. By playing them at classical time control we will find out who the true world champion is. This current format is proving nothing> So 8 games instead of 12 in classical chess and then 8 in a totally different chess variant would show who the true World Champion is better than 12 games and then 4 or more in the same variant but less time? |
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| Nov-29-18 | | andrewjsacks: The superior player won, but he was off form in the classical games, and the current system is a joke. Caruana made a fine accounting of himself in the 12 games--which should have been 24. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | Pawn Dillinger: <Tal1949: Carlsen has just proved that he is the better rapid chess player, but little else. My suggestion for the next WC is to play a 16 game match with 8 standard chess games and 8 Chess 960 games, alternating the format after every 2 games.
By playing them at classical time control we will find out who the true world champion is. This current format is proving nothing.> Introducing a different variation of chess — that's all 960 is — to somehow decide the outcome of a classical championship is falling victim to the same tiebreak mentality that has putatively brought the current malaise on the scene.
First to six in unlimited games, then 24, 18: Complain, complain, complain. Now that 12 and the tiebreaks aren't good enough, complain, complain, complain.
If it's 18 games and draw odds and no tiebreaks, it will be complain, complain, complain. Let's take this further: what are the tiebreaks for the world rapid championships? Blitz! How stupid is that? For Blitz? Armageddon! Yes, so now let's bring in 960. I guess that's better than bullet, but can't you see the problem? It's two things: change for the sake of change and for those who only know to complain, complain, complain. These are the two things that make chess stink. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | andrewjsacks: With all due respect to Caruana, Carlsen is the best player in the world, and there is no clear number two, although Caruana had a great year and has risen a notch. Would he win another Candidates Tournament now? Maybe only. |
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Nov-29-18
| | HeMateMe: leave 960 with bughouse, chess to play when you're drinking with friends. Caruana took his beating like a man. He needs to run those games through Stockfish and try some alternate lines, create something new. On to 2019! |
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| Nov-29-18 | | SatelliteDan: Possible classical format. Best score out of fifteen games wins. Challenger plays white 8 games. Tie rewarded to reigning champion. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | jphamlore: The legendary former general manager of the Green Bay Packers, Ron Wolf, had a test to see whom he would mentor as an NFL scout, handing an interviewee several tapes and asking them to evaluate the players shown on the tapes in detailed scouting reports. Wolf operated under the theory that a person either had it in them to know how to evaluate a draft prospect or they didn't, and there was no reason to waste any time on someone who didn't. I wonder if there is something in the filtering system of the chess establishments of the former countries of the Soviet Union that weeds out the players who aren't also extremely strong at rapid and blitz, or at least natural fast thinkers. While Botvinnik would go ballistic at the thought of one of his young players playing blitz chess, perhaps the filtering process had already selected lightning fast thinkers like Karpov and Kasparov. It's not like Botvinnik was writing holy scripture. His hatred of blitz I think should be seen as a relic of his growing up in the Soviet Union of Stalin. As Karpov has noted, back then blitz was the natural way chess players introduced themselves to make friends. But in Stalin's time, it was dangerous, even life-threatening, to have the wrong friends. I wonder if there is a generation or more of chess coaches who have misinterpreted Botvinnik, not understanding he was a product of his time. I think Caruana would have been the perfect student for Kasparov, who might have fixed Caruana's game to where Caruana could have success against Carlsen at classical time controls post-2015. But I am not sure, even had Rex Sinquefield been cutting the check, whether Kasparov would have evaluated Caruana as having the raw talent in fast thinking. Wei Yi would have been the absolutely perfect Kasparov student to develop someone to be a worthy challenger for Carlsen, but that was impossible too. :-( |
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Nov-29-18
 | | Penguincw: Video analysis of all 3 rapid games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLx.... |
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| Nov-29-18 | | FlashinthePan: <Check It Out> Caruana may very well have also prepared a second speech, for victory. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | Sokrates: <... Hi Sokrates,
Botvinnik would lost the tie breaks, he hated fast chess in any form.
Yes he was the favourite son of Stalin but without him bringing in some kind of order, although biased, it may have been chaos. >Hi Geoff, you can't be serious. Stalin or chaos? He killed more of his own people than Hitler. No, you can't be serious! |
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| Nov-29-18 | | Sokrates: <mkrk17: Magnus has been just hardly holding on to his world title last 2 times (Fabiano and Sergei). Its about time someone younger and with a different playing style knocks him out. Its getting boring to see 12 games draw everytime.> Yeah, let some fresh youngsters knock him out, let'em do that! They only need to win the candidates and beat that boring old dude. Come on, do it! |
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| Nov-29-18 | | einojeinoj: Magnus is a great champion and deserves to win this match. He just proves that his pure talent can match the deep preparation of Fabiano in classical time control and can outclass him in rapid when on the board ability is much more important than memorization.
I hope Magnus to improve more in classical chess for the next WCC in 2020 in able to shut the mouths of his critics.
Pure Talent is the key! |
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| Nov-29-18 | | jphamlore: https://chess24.com/en/read/news/ar... <Artemiev: Frankly speaking, I’ve never considered myself a gifted player. I just enjoy the games themselves. However, back in 2010, when I showed myself as a great blitz player, everyone started talking about me as a talented chess player.> Caruana it seems to me willed himself to the top through relentless work, like Korchnoi, but at the beginning he might not have been judged to be one of the very few with the natural gift. The jury is still out it seems to me whether total focus and discipline is enough to make it all the way to world champion. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | rogge: <nok: <In rapid game number two, Caruana reached a position out of the opening that was clearly better for him.> Some say it's easier to play with black esp in rapid.> Yeah, and Caruana lost two games with Black. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | PhilFeeley: <einojeinoj: Magnus is a great champion and deserves to win this match. He just proves that his pure talent can match the deep preparation of Fabiano in classical time control and can outclass him in rapid when on the board ability is much more important than memorization. I hope Magnus to improve more in classical chess for the next WCC in 2020 in able to shut the mouths of his critics. Pure Talent is the key!> Could not agree more. All the whining about rapid and blitz playoffs forget that it takes great ability to play these formats. Over-the-board strength shows who's the best. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | pietah: A worrying remark was made by Magnus Carlsen. Rapid would rightly be part of a match for the World Chess Championship. Carlsen has proven to be an all-round chess player with this world championship. He has not proved that he is the undisputed number 1 in classical chess. Remarkable: the first world champion who is not the best in the pace at which a centuries-long tradition is based. A shame that FIDE still allows tiebreaks, the top players should come into action.
Because of the prospect of these rapids, Carlsen decided to offer the last game. From his perspective understandable. However, as a fan of traditions in world championships, a mockery. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | devere: Fab still has an opportunity at the London Classic in December to become the #1 rated player in the world. |
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| Nov-29-18 | | jphamlore: For those wanting a 24-game match, my rough count is starting from London Chess 2015, Caruana has failed to defeat Carlsen in 24 straight classical time control games. Most of the games prior to this match, Caruana was sweating if not on the run and one idea from being finished in many games. This is a cumulative worse drubbing than Kasparov administered to Short, and Caruana had years to try and break this. How in the world is Caruana considered to be Carlsen's nemesis. Nakamura even at classical time control has done better in that time period. |
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