WCC, Game Eight

  WCC/November, 2016/NY/Game #8. 

Before this match started, everyone assumed that it ... "was not a matter of if Carlsen would win, only when," as one famous GM tweeted. (I also am friends with Jesse Kraai, and I follow him on FaceBook as well, he also has expressed this idea in his many posts. For me, the worst was a blog - on this site - discussing the match, the picture showed a hand reaching for the 'BS' button!)

I am nearly 60 years old officially (although I often feel much older!) ... and I have been playing tournament chess for over 50 years. (I played in my very first tournament in 1964.) I also have been following the World Championships since Spassky vs. Petrosian in the 1960's. While I freely admit I have almost no experience at the highest levels, chess is still chess. (My last State Championship was in Louisiana in 2014, which I won.)

Some of my thoughts on what has transpired thus far: 

• I predicted it would be a very close, hard fought match. After the first game, I wondered if ALL the slow games would be drawn and the title would be decided after blitz chess...
  or even a single Armegeddon tie-breaker! (See any/all of the comments on the "Chess-dot-com" website after the reports on the first couple of games, I made many posts to these stories.)  
• Yes, Carlsen was number one and Karjakin was only number nine, but often in a match, (especially a short match); the numbers are relatively meaningless.
• Too many people underestimated Karjakin, who might be one of the greatest chess talents of all time ... he is still the youngest player to ever have won the GM title. 
• Everyone seemed to think that Karjakin would be the first to crack ... many blogs, tweets, and articles on the Internet said the same thing.
• Now Carlsen must win at least one game ... in just four games ... just to force the game into tiebreaks. (This is an EXTREMELY!!! tough task ... only time will tell if Carlsen is up to it.)
• IF the match goes to tiebreaks, I like Magnus Carlsen ... he is one of the best blitz players in the whole world ... and just won the "Chess-dot-com" GM blitz challenge. 

1. A good news story on the match, posted only a couple of hours after the game was finished. (He links to "Chess Center" here on this site.)
2. The ChessBase blog/story of this game, GM Fabiano Caruana's analysis is easily the best that I have seen thus far.
3. The "Chess-dot-com" news story (by Klein) on GM Sergey Karjakin winning game eight.  
4.  GM Robert L. Hess ... in his blog ... offers his analysis of the key game, #8.  
5. Search "You-Tube" for any relevant video's of the games in this match. 
6. A NY Times news story ... the match is all tied ... with one game to go.  
7. Nov. 29th, 2016: I indicated that I thought it was going to be a drawn match ... we got here, maybe not by the route that I anticipated, but we are here nonetheless.  (Now I definitely like GM Magnus Carlsen's chances in the tiebreaks.) 

    All the games. (links)