Norway’s Carlsen and Russia’s Karyakin even after four games
NTB/The Local
16 November 2016
10:34 CET+01:00
Magnus Carlsen failed to capitalize on a mistake by Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin as the duo’s fourth game in the their world title match ended in a draw in New York City.
Karjakin began game four aggressively before making a mistake that sent Carlsen on the warpath.
The Norwegian pushed hard for a victory but after the 92-move match Carlsen had to once again settle for a draw with his Russian counterpart.
“Something I have as a chess player is that I have no faith in fortresses. I would like to find a sure way to win, and I thought I had it, but he had a fortress that I failed to break down. So I burned myself on it today,” Carlsen told broadcaster NRK.
The showdown between Carlsen and Karjakin now stands at 2-2 after the first four matches ended in draws.
“Both yesterday and today I’ve wasted opportunities to win, so I do not know how many I’ll get. I don’t have a strategy to wear him out, I have a strategy to play well,” Carlsen said.
The 12-game showdown is billed as the youngest ever in terms of the players’ cumulative ages: Carlsen is 25 and Karjakin is 26. It is also the first between players who came of age in the computer era, representing a generational shift in the game.
More here.
Magnus is not in form. His …Bf4 late in game 4 kicked away a won position according to my version of Houdini. But Houdini wanted to go into an opposite colored B’s ending, so this may have been an unconvertable “won” game.
In game 3, though, he just missed an opportunity to push his f-pawn with check to force Karjakin’s K back before winning another pawn – this would have prevented the counterplay that allowed Karjakin to hold. Houdini’s analysis of those subsequent positions looks pretty good to me.