CHESS#1325

The world title match, which kicks off in London at the Holborn College on November 9, has issues about coverage. The Agon CEO, Ilya Merezon, is trying to monetise Agon’s exclusive contract by seeking a 30-minute delay on move transmission.

This rehashes an old legal controversy, which has played out many times in many sports. The score of any sporting event is public information. But a media entity with an exclusive can try to monetise thing with a delay on live coverage. Half an hour is an absurd delay. There’s likely to be “samizdat” coverage from all over the internet despite threats of legal action. Multiple websites will offer excellent value-add via commentary.

This may be the closest ever match, going by rating. Magnus Carlsen is reigning champion, World #1 and Elo 2835. Fabiano Caruana is #2 and Elo 2832. Carlsen celebrates his 28th birthday soon and Caruana is 26. Elo suggests Carlsen would win a 1000 game classical match by 502-498 or so. Since they’re playing only 12 classical games, it’s likely to go to tiebreaks. Carlsen is vastly superior at shorter time controls. 

Carlsen is likely to be well-prepared, he’s the better all-round player, and plays error-free, “safe” chess and still generates wins. It’s easier in practice to get stable normal positions, which he loves. Caruana’s forte is whipping up hurricanes from messy, double-edged positions. So it may come down to the opening preparation where Carlsen will look to keep the temperature down while Caruana tries to get things boiling.  

I would rationally back Carlsen, who also has much more match experience (Caruana has effectively none). But I’d really like to see Caruana win for two reasons. One is simply a personal preference for his gutsy style. The other is the feeling that an American champion could generate potential sponsorships. 

The title match will coincide with the Kolkata Super GM which also starts on the same day. That features five foreigners and six Indians playing for $40,000 prize money. World #3, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Karjakin will face off against Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujarathi and local boy, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, along with the two prodigies Nihal Sarin and R Praggnanandhaa.

The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Carlsen Vs Black: Caruana , Sinquefield 2018) is from their last encounter.  White can play 27. f6! Nf5 28. Rg5 Nh6 29. Nf3 Re8 30. Rg2 Black’s tied up and can’t stop R-doubling, Ng5 etc. Instead, White tried 27. Ng4? Kh8 28. f6 Ng8! This is the difference. 

Play continued 29. fxg7+ [29. h6 may be better] Rxg7 30. Be3 c5 31. Bf4 Re8 32. Ne3 Rxg1+ 33. Rxg1 Re6 34. Nd5 Nf6 35. Nc7 Re2 36. Nb5 Re6 37. Rf1 Kg8 38. Nc7 (1/2-1/2). 
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player