Written by: Emadeldin Teama

Game 9 - a killing blow to Ian hopes!

In this article , we are going to analyze game nine. This was the game after a rest day and a stunning blunder from Ian that he did in game eight.In this rest day GM Sergey Karjakin flew to dubai to support his fellow Russian player as well.

Karjakin is a former challenger to Carlsen and the only player in the world who had a positive score in classic chess in a world champion match against Carlsen . It Seems like the Russian team wanted to shake off Carlsen confidence.However, it didn’t help much… Let’s dive into the game!

1-c4!? Ian started with the white pieces in this game. He mixed things up starting as an English opening, another surprise to Carlsen!

1-..e6 Staying flexible, not showing his hands it can literally transpose to tons of openings

2- g3 going for Catalan-like positions. Now Carlsen strikes in the center

2-…d5 3-Bg2 d4!? Taking space in the center, a bit dubious as it opens up the way to the white bishop and releases the tension on the center. White should actually be happy about it

4-Nf3 Nc6 5-0-0 Bc5 6-d3 Nf6 7-Nbd2 a5!?

Carlsen did his homework here, this position was reached once by a grandmaster Ernst as black here and the game continued (8-Nb3! Ba7?! 9-a4!! Where white was better as the black bishop is a dead piece and needs a lot of moves to come back to life. However, Carlsen had something prepared and we will see how did he react in this position )

8-Nb3!? Be7! 9-e3 dxe3 10-Bxe3 Ng4!? Hoping to grab the two bishops in an open game.

11-Bc5! Very nice move by Ian, he want to exchange the dark square bishops and later he can kick the knight on g4 whenever he wants. Black is fine here. However, white is a bit better only due to his lead in development as his king is castled and he is ready to push in the center!

11-..0-0 12- d4 a4!? A little bit annoying moving. White is forced to exchange bishops himself.

13-Bxe7 Qxe7 14-Nc5 a3!? Again another annoying move from Carlsen.

White missed an opportunity to get a slight advantage by playing the unusual 15-b4! the point is if white plays 15-…Nxb4 16-Rb1 and the b7 falls ( notice black cannot go far and play 16-..Nxa2 as he loses a piece with 17-Qd2)

This position was a very critical one. Ian played very quickly the next move..

15-bxa3?! It is not a bad move itself. However, it gives black too much activity and freedom. This shows in the next moves.

15-..Rd8 16-Nb3 Nf6 17-Re1?! Again. Not the best idea.it was very important to get the queen off the d file. Qe2 or Qc2 was so natural followed by Rfd1. Any 2000+ player would choose this plan to keep his center control stable and white can claim he has an edge due to his central control. Now things start to look grim.

17-..Qxa3 18-Qe2 h6 a perfect waiting move giving black king an escape square.

19-h4 Bd7! A fine move to develop the only bad piece that black has. The Bishop will be fine on e8 protecting both the kingside and keeping control of the a4 d8 diagonal.

20-Ne5!? Very logical . going forward and taking advantage of the hanging b7 pawn.

20-..Be8 Qe3?! Unnecessary move to expose to your queen to a knight attack on g5 later.

21-..Qb4! excellent move to vacate the a3 square for the black rook and black now has a plan of doubling on open a file and winning a pawn or at least putting white on the defense .

22-Reb1 Nxe5 23-dxe5 Ng4!? 24-Qe1 Qxe1 25-Rxe1 h5 white was threating to win the knight with f3. The position in the following diagram is equal and white can claim he is a bit better due to a little better bishop.

26-Bxb7 temporary winning a pawn. White should have realized it is TEMPORARY! He can’t keep this extra pawn forever!

26-…Ra4 a normal continuation here would be (27-f3 kicking black knight to bad square then Be4, white will have good bishop and passed a pawn. It is not much but he can claim to be slightly better. However, the next move from Ian is an absolute blunder that he wouldn’t even do normally in blitz. It just shows that he is out of the match totally)

27-c5??

Ian failed to see the huge threat black has. He would play c6 and lockup his light square bishop. White loses a piece here!!

27-..c6!

28-f3 Nh6 29-Re4 Ra7! 30-Rb4 Rb8 the bishop is lost now.

31-a4 Raxb7 32-Rb6? Not evening trying the most stubborn defense of (32-Rxb7 Rxb7 Nd2!? Going for c4 or e4 then maybe b6 or d6. Black must be extremely careful or the a pawn would cost him the game. For example Rb7? Nc4 Rb8 a5 Ra8 a6 Ra7 forced or black lose a rook free Nb6! Kf8 and white has perpetual with Nc8- Nb6!).

33-cxb6 Rxb6 34-Nc5 Nf5 35-a5 Rb8 36-a6 depending on time trouble that Carlsen has. However, the chess human machine Carlsen is able to detect the best moves forcing resignation in few moves.

36-..Nxg3! 37-Na4 c5!

38-a7 Rd8 39-Nxc5 Ra8! The next moves black will play Bc6 keeping everything under control and going with his knight to b5 and the a pawn falls!. Ian didn’t want to try and continue in this ugly endgame and just resign.

here is a link to the game :

Conclusion:

It seems like the match is over, Ian got his spirit broken totally in the 134 game in round 6. He is out of shape and Carlsen won’t miss this chance to seal the deal.

Garry Kasparov wrote the following “Nepomniachtchi has collapsed, making a trivial blunder to lock the match up for Carlsen. But the root of the Russian’s fall was the marathon loss in game six, which broke his focus and his will. The eternal paradox of peak performance in chess, or any endeavor, really, is how to learn from your failures while still carrying on as if you are invincible. You must learn and forget simultaneously.”

Carlsen needs 1.5 point in 5 games where he has 3 games white. It shouldn’t be a problem for him. However, we hope to see beautiful games in the next remaining rounds and we will do our best to analyze them! Stay tuned!