Let us rise the curtain and see.....! - Carlsen vs Caruana from the Challenger's perspective
"He would never give up, even if the victory seemed impossible" - James Allen on Michael Schumacher
"The very top, like the summit of Everest is weird territory, impossible to understand unless you have actually been there..." said John McEnroe on becoming No.1 in World ranking!
YES!
......it is a weird territory .......because the one who reaches the top...is alone! There is no place for anybody other than the No.1 person, on top!
That requires some getting.....prerequisites certain qualities.....
Greg Norman, the great golfer said, "I tend to believe that I'm right until proven wrong....and I had learnt early about DIN and DIP.....'do-it-now' and 'do-it-proper...no matter what the task on hand was!"
What does he mean? .....and what it means to us in Chess!?
Well, before getting to that.......here is the progress chart of Fabi, which has a striking similarity to Magnus's chart.....both show a proclivity to keep pushing higher....however great or miniscule the rise may be!
....and 2014 to 2018, he maintained his rating in 2800 plus steadily and currently stand at 2827
Coming to what Greg Norman said....DIN and DIP.....
It means staying in the present.....forgetting the previous shot....the "bogey" or a "birdie"....or expecting anything.....Just stay in the current.....hit the shot on hand!
Gerald Abrahams rightly said, "Chess act is essentially a fresh application of mind to data"! This is the connect for DIN and DIP....though "proper" is a term which can be used only in the Platonic sense of the word.
Michael Johnson, the great athlete, said in his 'Slaying the Dragon".....
"Most of the time I don't even think about losing. The confidence that comes from knowing I am the best prepared, most disciplined person in the race. That translates into the belief that if I am in the race, I am going to win. After all, this is competition. The very point of competition is winning. Why go after something and ignore its very nature? If I'm going to run, I'm going to try to win. I'm going to do everything I can to win, and I'm going to expect to win. Everytime!"
We know Magnus approach to Chess is similar.....though, Chess is a lot different from 'track & field'......But in spirit, a champion is supposed to feel that way always and the challenger should begin to feel like what Johnson said, which is the least required to outclass such a monster called Magnus!
Let us peep into Fabi's world of creation......I shall not deal about Magnus as we know about him very well .....and it is not only from his longevity at the top.....but already one gets a feeling that he is a "match-veteran"!
I will not get into the mythical world of "openings" as neither I know anything about it.....nor believe it in the sense it is considered now. Neither will deal with other aspects like technique in various phases and other such chessical aspects...which every top player possess at varying degrees.....and for me that doesn't affect or determine the outcome.....
I shall deal with the following four abstract features ......which tacitly act at high level competitions and therefore remain veiled. And as far as I can observe in his games.....studying his games played in 2017 and 2018......I classify his pros and cons as follows and substantiate them with a few examples.
Cons:
- Patience - that great art of "being"
- The tendency to allow him to get surprised....suddenly
Pros:
- Fearlessness and a great Will to win
- Willingness to thrive in chaos and unclear situation
Caruana is not an extravagant player.....his pieces move around with freedom, but are not insurgent. Perhaps, he has a very different feel for space and makes his pieces move around them. This is a very good trait when he encounters Carlsen who too has a very different feel for space.....but the difference is that Carlsen has a very plain perception of the function of his pieces too and until he gets a clarity he will not decide on anything that will transform the position.
It is here that Fabi got caught in some of his games that he lost in the recent past, perhaps he is not as patient as Magnus and at times Caruana tends to "do" something....rather than "remain" with a plain acceptance that nothing is clear or understandable at the moment! Perhaps we can assume that he tends to provoke his opponent at times.....
Anand vs Caruana, Tata Steel, 2018
11.....Bf5!?
They might have analysed it and may have arrived at a "conclusion" whether this is ok or .....Be5 is ok.....which for me it is irrelevant. The game happens over-the-board and the decisions too happen in the heat of the moment. Post mortem serves the same purpose as an autopsy does......inconclusive on most occasions!
12.b4 Nc7 13.f3 Bg6!?
Surely there must have been a buzz around across the globe and sadly, it would have been only be for a fleeting moment as the AI would have shown the flip side of this little trick! 14.fe4? de4 15.Be4 Be5! and if that Bishop is taken, a check on d4 puts things in perspective! Of course, Vishy - the grand veteran at the helm - is a great trickster himself and sees things in a flash!
14.c5! Be5 15.de5 Ng5 16.Bg2 d4 17.f4 Nd5 18.fg5 Ne3 19.Qd2 Bd3 20.Qd3 Nf1 21.Kf1 Qg5 22.Nd2 Qe5 23.Nf3 Qh5 24.Qd4!
and White's pieces became too active, especially the minor pieces and Black Rooks weren't a match to them....Anand concluded the game brilliantly!
Karjakin - Caruana, Candidates - 2018
Here again, White pieces after the following exchange sacrifice by Karjakin, became very active
17.Bd5! Bd1 18.Rd1 Qc7 19.c4! Rge8 20.Qf2 b6 21.g4!
.......and commanded more space, pushing Caruana into passivity. (1-0 on move 48)
Mamedyarov vs Caruana, Tata Steel - 2018
Once White got the Black's most active Bishop...the Bishop on b7 exchanged, Caruana tried for some pseudo activity with his Knight and after Shakhriyar got that Knight too promptly off the board, the resultant position held no joy for Caruana and he succumbed on the 43rd move.
"When the mind is not revealing as effectively as is required by the situation, then one is omitting to take into account appearances from a field of apparent irrelevancy. The unexpected emerges from the dark; yet it was always there" observed Gerald Abrahams in Chess Mind!
This probably is another chink in the armoury of the Challenger! And what can be a better example than the following game ....!
Anand - Caruana, St Louis - 2018
The position is in a state of equilibrium, and perhaps Black was searching for more with some geometrical theme by giving up the e pawn and opening up the route for the e8 Rook to e2!
But, he was in for a nasty surprise....a glaring omission of what was already there! Anand unleashed a much beautiful and subtler side of the same geometrical motif!
19.....Bg4 20.Bc6! bc6 21.fe5 f6?! 22.ef6!! Re2
This was what Caruana had in his mind when he played .....Bg4
23.f7 Kf8 24.Bg7!! Kg7 25.Qc3 Re5?
Anand pointed out that Black could have played 25......Qe5 and the resulting exchange down position remained still unclear. But Caruana felt otherwise! This could be another crucial factor in the match! Carlsen perhaps might blindly head for the ending after 25.....Qe5 whilst Caruana is unable to decide on it and lands in greater mess!
26.Qd4!!
a Spectacular move by Vishy which concludes the game....effectively 1 - 0
as Black cannot meet both f8=Q as well as Rc5!
What does the Challenger bring to the table, to stake his claim!?
First of all, he is a fearless fighter and has greater will to win....unlike Carlsen's earlier challengers! Hence, Carlsen cannot afford to play on autopilot mode - though I do not claim that he did it with Karjakin or Vishy but it was obvious that he was not stretched a bit.
Like Carlsen, Caruana too has very strong nerves and remains unperturbed - at least visibly and can reset his attention to focus on what he has, rather than what he missed!
He has a very different approach to chess as the following kaleidoscope of positions suggests.....
Aronian - Caruana, Candidates - 2018
Caruana continued.....
21....g6 22.h5 Kh8!
and went on to win in a clinical fashion
The following game is a very bizarre one....it is so unclear till some point and suddenly something emerges. Black could not succeed in breaking the loose pawn cover of White King....whilst, his King remained in open, but looked ok with pieces around. The White Knight on f5 looked far more formidable along with the dark squared Bishop - which both defended the White King and had an eye on e5 point. The position suddenly transformed and only a machine could have maintained the equilibrium
Caruana - Anand, London Classic - 2017
and won in few more moves.
Caruana - Karjakin, St Louis - 2018
In this game, Caruana just expended minimum effort and infact, the Knight on d2 did not have to move any further....except one move towards the end.....and utilised the poor positioning of Black pieces.....mercilessly.
Caruana - Anand, Olympiad - 2018
Like Carlsen, Caruana has more conviction on what he does.....and it has nothing to do with "correctness" - a machine like precision..... but, that uncanny ability to go with the tide and play out a sequence of moves which suddenly transforms the position!
Abrahams wrote about these transformation in Chess thus......"In chess, awareness is not a simple and isolable mental process. The end product is the open plain of clearly seen. But the attainment of that grasp of the complete and continuous is as much the product of effort, training, experience,, and the variables of natural equipment as is the capacity of a man to recognise in the distance a hill or a river, or to discriminate these things in a crowded foreground.
Any departures from the normal configuration, any feature of the geometry of the piece movements sufficiently individual to escape expectation, and therefore observation, is called an 'idea'. Ideas inhabit the Chessboard, to be seen or missed, as animals inhabit the forest. One fails to see them because one is looking at the tree, or because the play of light on other objects constitutes a camouflage."
The game of chess happens in this seeing - either plain and clear or chaos and confused .....what one sees or misses is known only on hindsight once the smoke clears. Till then both the parties....however great and experienced they may be....and however 'great' their purported calculating abilities may be.....they get to see only hazy blur pictures....and one has to have that mental toughness to continue the fight through and through.
Caruana matches Carlsen in this aspect and I hope to see a great clash and I am inclined to give only a marginal edge to the reining Champion .....55:45
I remain.....
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