Magnus Carlsen vs Fabiano Caruana, Bishop’s Opening, Berlin Defense C24
2018 Altibox Norway, Round 1, 05/28/18
The World Championship Match between Magnus Carlsen, the current world champion and the challenger, Fabiano Caruana, is less that half a year away. The fact that they are about to battle for the highest honor and prize in chess makes every single one of their games much more significant. Altibox Norway is even more special since it’s Magnus’s home turf, and disappointing here would be crushing for morale. Round 1 was played yesterday and this game was the most awaited one, despite the setup being ten of the world’s strongest chess players. This is the only game that didn’t end in a draw!
Magnus went for the Bishop’s opening (as he did in the Grenke Classic not so long ago). An alternative to 2. Nf3, which doesn’t give as much advantage to white out of the opening, but it’s still solid enough. Magnus will go for advantage if he can, and I believe he chose this opening to avoid main line theory as much as possible. Fabiano was the one who chose an uncommon continuation first, though, and he went for a very attacking setup against the Bishop’s Opening. It backfired…
Standings after Round 1:
Magnus Carlsen 1/1
Viswanathan Anand 0.5/1
Levon Aronian 0.5/1
Sergey Karjakin 0.5/1
Ding Liren 0.5/1
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 0.5/1
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 0.5/1
Hikaru Nakamura 0.5/1
Wesley So 0.5/1
Fabiano Caruana 0/1
Game moves:
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Bxd2+
7.Nbxd2 a5 8.c3 Nbd7 9.exd5 cxd5 10.O-O O-O 11.Re1 Re8 12.Nf1
b5 13.a4 b4 14.cxb4 axb4 15.Ne3 Bb7 16.d4 e4 17.Ne5 Nxe5
18.dxe5 Rxe5 19.Qd4 Re7 20.Rac1 Rd7 21.Red1 h6 22.Rc5 Ra5
23.Rxa5 Qxa5 24.h3 Kh7 25.Rc1 Rc7 26.Rxc7 Qxc7 27.Qxb4 Qc1+
28.Bd1 Ba6 29.Qd4 Be2 30.Kh2 Bxd1 31.Nxd1 Qc7+ 32.Kg1 Qc1
33.b4 e3 34.fxe3 Ne4 35.Qxd5 Nd2 36.Qf5+ Kh8 37.Qg4 f5 38.Qe2
Ne4 39.Qe1 Qa1 40.a5 Nd6 41.Qd2 Nc4 42.Qd4 Qc1 43.Kf1 Nxe3+
44.Qxe3 Qxd1+ 45.Kf2 Qc2+ 46.Kg3 g5 47.Qe5+ Kh7 48.Kh2 f4
49.Qd5 Qa4 50.Qf7+ Kh8 51.Qg6 Qxb4 52.Qxh6+ Kg8 53.Qxg5+ Kh7
54.Qh5+ Kg7 55.Qg5+ Kh7 56.h4 Qd6 57.Qh5+ Kg7 58.Qg5+ Kh7
59.h5 f3+ 60.g3 f2 61.Qg6+ Kh8 62.Qxd6 f1=Q 63.Qh6+ Kg8
64.Qe6+ Kh8 65.Qe3 Qb5 66.Qc3+ Kh7 67.g4 Qd5 68.Qc7+ Kg8
69.Kg3 Qe6 70.Qd8+ Kh7 71.Qd3+ Kh8 72.a6 Qe5+ 73.Kh3 Qa1
74.Qd8+ Kh7 75.Qe7+ Kh6 76.Qe3+ Kh7 77.a7 1-0