Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana continue their fight at the World Chess Championship! In round 3 (after two consecutive draws) we saw almost perfect, mistake free play from both players.
Fabiano chose 1.e4 again, and Magnus went for the Sicilian again. In fact, they entered the exact same variation as in game 1 – the Rossolimo Attack; a variation in which white aims to take away a lot of attacking potential from black by eliminating the c6 knight for his lsb, and forming a pawn structure on the light squares to close down the center.
After having been beaten out of the opening two rounds ago, this time Caruana prepared better (no one had expected c5 from Carlsen in the first place) and managed to retain a small edge into the middlegame.
Unfortunately for the spectators, they soon exchanged the major pieces and the queens and entered a pretty dry position neither side could win easily. They drew, but the final position was very instructive because Fabiano sacrificed his knight for a pawn knowing he was entering a position in which Carlsen couldn’t win since he had a wrong color squared bishop. He had a dark squared bishop and a pawn on the h file (h1 is a light square) so the game was drawn immediately after the sacrifice.
Let’s hope for a decisive result in round 4!
For the theory of the Rossolimo Attack: https://youtu.be/iddK1iAVP70
Game moves:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bg7 6. O-O Qc7 7. Re1 e5 8. a3 Nf6 9. b4 O-O 10. Nbd2 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Nxf3 cxb4 13. axb4 a5 14. bxa5 Rxa5 15. Bd2 Raa8 16. Qb1 Nd7 17. Qb4 Rfe8 18. Bc3 b5 19. Rxa8 Rxa8 20. Ra1 Rxa1+ 21. Bxa1 Qa7 22. Bc3 Qa2 23. Qb2 Qxb2 24. Bxb2 f6 25. Kf1 Kf7 26. Ke2 Nc5 27. Bc3 Ne6 28. g3 Bf8 29. Nd2 Ng5 30. h4 Ne6 31. Nb3 h5 32. Bd2 Bd6 33. c3 c5 34. Be3 Ke7 35. Kd1 Kd7 36. Kc2 f5 37. Kd1 fxe4 38. dxe4 c4 39. Nd2 Nc5 40. Bxc5 Bxc5 41. Ke2 Kc6 42. Nf1 b4 43. cxb4 Bxb4 44. Ne3 Kc5 45. f4 exf4 46. gxf4 Ba5 47. f5 gxf5 48. Nxc4 Kxc4 49. exf5 ½-½
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