Sergey Karjakin vs Ding Liren, C78, Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game), Closed
2018 Chess Candidates Tournament, Round 14, Berlin, Germany, 03/27/18
Caruana won the Candidates Tournament, but Sergey came really close. In round 13, he played a passive, boring draw and traded queens early on which decreased his chances significantly. Perhaps he did it to save energy for the last round in which he face Ding Liren with the white pieces.
They played a very theoretical Closed Ruy Lopez in which Sergey made a very practical middle game decision and traded down to a position in which he has a “good knight” vs “bad bishop”, meaning that the pawn structure favors the knight significantly, due to his mobility and the ability to control both color complexes, as opposed to Ding’s dark squared bishop. What made matters worse for the Chinese genius is the fact that all of his pawns were on dark squares. This means that his own pawns reduce the scope of his bishop and take away it’s squares, and additionally, having pawns on one colored squares inevitably weakens the other color complex. Sergey was thus able to centralize his knight on the central light squared outposts and dominate the position in the middlegame.
And when things seemed perfect he made an inconceivable beginner’s blunder and gave away an important pawn and the advantage. He allowed Ding to compensate for the bad bishop with extra material. They soon entered a completely closed endgame structure in which Sergey could only lose, and Ding can’t make any progress so they drew fairly quickly.
This is by far one of the most instructive games from the tournament so far, because imbalances such as this one are often what proves to be crucial, and players (especially weaker ones), often never even consider the consequences of trading minor pieces depending on the pawn structure. Bad bishop vs a good knight (and vice versa) is also one of the most common advantages you get in middlegame-endgame transitions so it’s definitely worth studying.
Thanks for watching the Candidates analysis! Coming up are instructive games by the old masters such as Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal, as well as a series on opening theory and lesser known ideas in early middlegame. I will also be covering some of the key encounters between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana so far, as preparation for their London match for the World Chess Championship. See you soon with more chess!
Final Standings after Round 14:
Fabiano Caruana 9/14
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 8/14
Sergey Karjakin 8/14
Ding Liren 7.5/14
Vladimir Kramnik 6.5/14
Alexander Grischuk 6.5/14
Wesley So 6/14
Levon Aronian 4.5/14