Carlsen is not in the shape he used to be and I can understand his choice. I don't like his attitude, but he has all the rights to manage its tournament the way he thinks best.
Sure. I don’t like his attitude either, which is why I’m rooting for Fabi.
I understand he has the right to manage the tournament as he sees fit. I just don’t understand the logic of not even trying to push for a few more moves. Low risk, high reward given his huge time advantage.
Yes, he was in a position that both engines and human grandmasters said was superior, with time pressure. But there's no clear line to force difficult moves for Caruana before the time control kicks in after move 40, and then it's a whole new game; Caruana gets a fresh 50 minutes on the clock and can potentially fight his way to an exhausting draw. Plus there's the risk that any blunder -- and remember this is coming in a crowded, grindy-looking middlegame -- loses the championship.
From that spot, it makes sense for Carlsen to try to go straight to the tiebreak games where he feels he's more strongly favored.
We now have a little more data courtesy of chess.com's computer tournament.
Starting from the final position of Game 12, the engines have played 18 games to completion against each other, with more to come. 10 draws, 6 wins for Black and 2 for White.
Both of the wins for White picked up the game from the point of the draw with
32. Qa3 Rb8
and continued with White, soon after, aiming to play Nd1 and Nc3 (Stockfish went for those on moves 34 and 35, Ethereal on moves 35 and 37).
This is apparently exactly the line Carlsen said he was worrying about.
The position also seems to present some pretty tricky endgames. Laser, which has a rating 300 points higher than Carlsen's and gets to play with tablebase, managed to lose as Black that way.
(Caruana also suggested he might have tried to get a knight to e6; the engines have drawn a few times starting with that line)
mindgam3|7 years ago
I understand he has the right to manage the tournament as he sees fit. I just don’t understand the logic of not even trying to push for a few more moves. Low risk, high reward given his huge time advantage.
ubernostrum|7 years ago
Yes, he was in a position that both engines and human grandmasters said was superior, with time pressure. But there's no clear line to force difficult moves for Caruana before the time control kicks in after move 40, and then it's a whole new game; Caruana gets a fresh 50 minutes on the clock and can potentially fight his way to an exhausting draw. Plus there's the risk that any blunder -- and remember this is coming in a crowded, grindy-looking middlegame -- loses the championship.
From that spot, it makes sense for Carlsen to try to go straight to the tiebreak games where he feels he's more strongly favored.
ubernostrum|7 years ago
Starting from the final position of Game 12, the engines have played 18 games to completion against each other, with more to come. 10 draws, 6 wins for Black and 2 for White.
Both of the wins for White picked up the game from the point of the draw with
32. Qa3 Rb8
and continued with White, soon after, aiming to play Nd1 and Nc3 (Stockfish went for those on moves 34 and 35, Ethereal on moves 35 and 37).
This is apparently exactly the line Carlsen said he was worrying about.
The position also seems to present some pretty tricky endgames. Laser, which has a rating 300 points higher than Carlsen's and gets to play with tablebase, managed to lose as Black that way.
(Caruana also suggested he might have tried to get a knight to e6; the engines have drawn a few times starting with that line)