15 November 2016
Karjakin Survives in the Third Game
The match score is 1.5-1.5.
The World Champion Magnus Carlsen had White in the third game of the World Chess Championship in New York.In the Anti-Berlin line of the Ruy Lopez Carlsen opted for a rare continuation – 10.Re2 instead of 10.Re1. Karjakin took a lot of time and found an original reply. Soon an ending arose, featuring the same material balance as in the first game – White had a rook and knight against Black's rook and bishop. White enjoyed a slight pull, because his knight was very active, while the black bishop was forced to retreat to the edge of the board and work on defensive tasks only. Nevertheless, Black's position remained solid.
Photo by I. Ivanov
After the game Karjakin criticized his 24...Rd8, suggesting 24...d5 with a normal game instead. White reacted to the text with 25.f4!, obtaining a comfortable edge. The challenger rearranged his forces and built a strong defensive line on the queenside, but then rushed too much with active operations – instead of 30...Ra2, a passive but safe 30...Bh6 deserved attention, aiming at covering all invasion squares. The World Champion skilfully utilized the opponent's inaccuracy and won a pawn. Yet, the margin of safety in Black's position remained very significant, as all White's pawns were weak and could potentially become targets for the enemy rook.
The game continued for almost seven hours, with 78 moves played. Carlsen pressured, Karjakin kept defending. In such a tense struggle errors are inevitable, and somewhere around move 65 Karjakin miscalculated and found himself on a verge of a defeat. He had to give up a bishop for two pawns, but White's only remaining pawn could bring Carlsen a win. However, the Norwegian was the last to err in this dramatic game, allowing Karjakin to survive with a draw.
More than a hundred spectators and journalists awaited the players after the game and met them with applause.
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