How Carlsen could have won Game 1 of the 2016 WCC

Hi all,

Game 1 of the 2016 World Chess Championship between defending champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Sergey Karjakin just ended minutes ago in a draw. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that Carlsen had a chance late in the game to score a victory, but missed the opportunity. So what exactly was the opportunity that he missed, and how could have have played differently? To answer that question, we must start by looking at the game itself:

Now, let us take a closer look at the end of the game, and specifically at the position after 40. ... Kd6. With hindsight, we know that Karjakin's next two moves are 41. ... Kd7 and 42. ... Kd6. If Magnus had been to know that during the game, he could have used the knowledge to his advantage:

In the actual game, however, Carlsen opted for the more solid 41. Nb5+ and 42. Nd4, and ended up drawing. Of course, it is not entirely fair to criticize him, as for us hindsight is 20/20. Nevertheless, the game was a missed opportunity for Carlsen to jump to an early lead, and his fans should hope that he is in better shape tomorrow. As for Karjakin, he was lucky today, but that will certainly not be the case for the entire tournament. He will need to shek off the nerves and bring his A-game in future games if he wants to have a chance of winning the championship.

What's wrong with Kxe6 ?

Carlsen needs to fit in more time studying, between sending you fan mail and trolling his staff.

LOL This is such a good trolling effort!!!

Karjakin didn't play that. We now know that Karjakin was going to play Kd7 on move 41, and Kd6 on move 42. That's why I say that hindsight is 20/20.

But we also now know that the game was going to end in a draw!

What would be the point of Carlsen going a piece and a Pawn up if he was only going to agree to a draw anyway?

Trumpovsky didnt scare the Karryokkkin.

Also, even the trolling is in the doldrums.

Who had the brilliant idea of getting the nutcase from Cheers to play the first move ? Nerds must have loved it!

"In the actual game, however, Carlsen opted for the more solid 41. Nb5+ and 42. Nd4, and ended up drawing. Of course, it is not entirely fair to criticize him, as for us hindsight is 20/20."

I am surprised you missed Carlsen's earlier win.  Instead of 9. Ngf3 0-0 10. 0-0 Na5 11. Rc1 it would have been game over if Carlsen has moved the other knight: 9. Ndf3 0-0 10. Qxd8 Na5 11. Qxa5.  Down a queen and a knight is unlikely that Karjakin could have survived to a draw on move 42.

Come on macer! Admit that Biotk is right!

Duh! It's already well know that the tournament prize fund is 1 million, while the Russians are offering 5 million to win the match.

The problem is that Carlsen was going to play 12. Qc2, and he can't do that with his queen on a5 after the 11th move.

I will say though that I like Biotk's line of thinking. He's going to go far in chess.

20. g4 instead of g3 seems better. white needs to halt the progress of blacks k-side pawns

Yes, Magnus spents lots of time trolling his staff.

Here I posted a video from him, trolling his coach with a weird new chess variation:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/magnus-carlsen-new-chess-variation-he-trolled-his-team-in-this-video

after watching that video i feel like learning chess may be one of the worst things i ever did.

Well, sending me fan mail was not a complete waste of time for him. When I heard that he intended to send me fan mail, I decided to reach out to him first, and I sent him a letter with some advice for the WCC, on openings, strategy, and various aspects of the game that I don't want to get to specific about here on a public forum. He should receive the letter tomorrow before the game, so we'll see if he's able to use the information to his advantage.

gimme a bucket!

Cringe

Why does it have to be one or the other? Can't I be both?

12. Nxc4 is better than 12. Qc2, wich is merely a tempo loss. Carlsen used a lot of time here, and I knew he was thinking about Qc2, but here he should have played the obvious, and kept his time advantage.

I think that suggests it's the former.  Just saying