World Chess Championship Game 11: Good Prep Gets Caruana Easy Draw In Petroff

Thanks to excellent preparation, Fabiano Caruana easily neutralized Magnus Carlsen's 5.Nc3 move in the Petroff today. The shortest game of the world championship match (in time, not moves) ended in a draw, and now there's just one classical game to go. A tiebreak on Wednesday is now clearly on the horizon.

"When I play something in the opening, he plays fast, I think and it’s a draw—then that’s usually not perfect," Carlsen said today. "He’s been very well prepared so far and I haven’t gotten much, those are the cold, hard facts."

The reigning world champion has never failed to be brutally honest about his own play. He admitted that once again, he didn't get anything in what was his last chance to press as White in a classical game, and now his opponent will have one more chance to do the same.

The handshake before the game. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Today's game also reminded chess fans of the last match game in New York, two years ago, when Carlsen surprised the world by basically going straight for the draw, being confident in his rapid/blitz skills in the tiebreak. The difference, however, was that today it was his opponent who prevented him from playing for a win.

Carlsen's opponent from 2016, Sergey Karjakin, was in fact in the playing hall. As he and his wife happened to be in London, he had accepted the invitation to make the first move today. And he took everyone by surprise, didn't even ask Carlsen and just played 1.b4.

Karjakin back at a world championship match... | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

...and playing 1.b4! | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

That was a joke of course, and it worked out well. Because DGT board operator Sotiris Logothetis had already started the broadcast (coincidentally, a bit earlier than he usually does), the move was actually visible on the internet and the TV screens in the playing hall, and the effect was a good laugh among the spectators and journalists.

If Karjakin had played 1.f4, he would have followed Anish Giri's advice. It was the Dutch GM who responded very quickly to a tweet from Carlsen on the rest day.

Where did Karjakin get his motivation to play 1.b4? From two people in fact, one a former world champion! You can find out in this interview with Karjakin:

Caruana said he enjoyed seeing the Orangutan appear on the board. "But I was also happy to see Sergey," he said. "It was a bit of a surprise to see him. I didn’t know that he would be here."

Everyone enjoyed this fun moment. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

"Maybe that’s what I should have done," Carlsen remarked afterward, but at 3 p.m. he pushed the b-pawn back to its initial square. When the clock was started, he played 1.e4 instead, like in game six. In fact, his white games have followed the pattern 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4 and 1.e4 again. 

Caruana went for his trusted Petroff, and this time Carlsen decided that the situation asked for something more than the timid 4.Nd3. He went for the absolute mainline with 5.Nc3, and in the press room one could hear a sigh of relief. We'd have a game! Well...

Back to seriousness: How to deal with Caruana's Petroff? | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Caruana played the line 5...Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Be3 0-0 (7...Nc6 eventually got Caruana in trouble against Carlsen at the 2018 Sinquefield Cup) 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.0-0-0 like he had done twice before in his career, but instead of 9...c6 he went for 9...Nf6. That wasn't a surprise to his opponent, if only because it had been leaked in the infamous video from the Saint Louis Chess Club from last week.

And that's exactly what Carlsen said at the press conference: "The 9...Nd7-f6 line was there obviously, but he managed to surprise me nevertheless. So if that was indeed some kind of gambit, it worked well."

Somehow, Caruana's very next move 10...c5 already caught Carlsen by surprise, who spent 10 minutes on 11.Rhe1, and after the queens were traded, another 12 minutes on 15.Nh4. "I equalized without any real problems so I don’t know why he went for this line," Caruana said.

Caruana again got his preparation on the board. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

That was also American's first big think, who had to decide whether the immediate 15...Ng4 or first 15...Rfe8 was the most accurate. Both GM Sam Shankland (in Chess.com's Twitch show) and GM Ian Rogers (in the press room) liked his choice of the rook move, and said that he didn't see a way for White to avoid the draw anymore.

When the last rooks were traded and an opposite-colored bishop endgame appeared on the board, some photographers quickly ran to the playing hall to get a good spot. However, the game lasted almost an hour longer.

Caruana found an excellent defense that consisted of giving up one pawn to get time for the ideal pawn setup. "As long as the bishop can defend the kingside, Black is absolutely fine," GM Jon Speelman pointed out.

Here's Alex Yermolinsky's video analysis of game 11:

“There really wasn’t much," Carlsen started the press conference. "I was hoping to be able to press just a little bit. Every chess player knows the game Ljubojevic-Karpov. Karpov won like this. But obviously the drawing margin is very high."

(You can actually practice that famous endgame as a drill here on Chess.com.)

Carlsen mentioned a Karpov classic today. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

"Not much really happened today," Caruana said. "I was a bit surprised by 15.Nh4"

The American GM was asked whether, before the match, he would have preferred having just one game as White for the world championship, but the answer was no. “I want to enjoy the process of it. I would feel kind of bad missing the first 11 games of the match. It’s a normal situation [I’m in now]. It’s not a bad one at all.”

Caruana said he's not in a bad situation at all. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

About Monday's game 12, he said: "What can say? It’s going to be a tough game. At this point the tension is at its peak. If I knew what would happen I would tell you."

Carlsen noted the difference with game 12 in New York, when he had White: "Psychologically it's different obviously. We will see what happens. I would prefer to be White.”

Carlsen needs to defend one more black game before most will consider him the favorite again. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Shankland still believes Carlsen is the favorite after the draw today, even though he has Black in game 12: "It’s pretty clear that Magnus is willing to take chances with Black. But his preparation with the Sveshnikov is teetering.”

Many fans would have loved to see a decisive game by now, but among those who are enjoying the match tremendously is Wesley So, who also briefly joined Chess.com's show today.

"I think this is one of the best matches in recent years, in many years," he said. "I see a lot of ideas. I know people will be really shocked to hear that!"

With just one classical game remaining, the chances are high that we'll see a playoff. Here are the regulations:

Mike Klein contributed to this report.

To follow the match, Chess.com has extensive coverage, including daily reports on game days right here on Chess.com/news. You can catch all of the moves live at Chess.com/wcc2018 and watch Chess.com's best-known commentators, IM Danny Rensch and GM Robert Hess, on either Twitch.tv/Chess or Chess.com/TV. Special guests, including Hikaru Nakamura, Hou Yifan, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Sam Shankland and more will be joining the live coverage on different days. 

In addition, GM Alex Yermolinsky will be doing round-by-round wrap-up videos, available immediately after every round on all your favorite social platforms (Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Chess.com). 

The current U.S. chess champion GM Sam Shankland will provide written, in-depth analysis of each game in our news reports.

GM Yasser Seirawan will share his thoughts on the match standings and inner workings of how the players are approaching each game with videos, exclusive to Chess.com members, on each rest day.

Previous reports:

• How To Watch The World Chess Championship: Carlsen vs. Caruana
• Carlsen-Caruana Venue Set
• 2018 World Chess Championship Opens In London
• World Chess Championship Game 1: Caruana Struggles But Holds Draw Against Carlsen
• World Chess Championship Game 2: Carlsen 'Grovels' To Draw After Caruana's Opening Surprise
• World Chess Championship Game 3: Caruana Repeats Rossolimo But Can't Break Carlsen
• World Chess Championship Game 4: Draw Again Despite Release Of Caruana's Training Notes
• World Chess Championship Game 5: Caruana's Surprise Gambit Doesn't Break Impasse
• World Chess Championship Game 6: Caruana Misses 'Impossible' Win
• World Chess Championship Game 7: Another Queen's Gambit, Another Draw
• World Chess Championship Game 8: Carlsen Dodges Bullet In Sveshnikov Sicilian
• World Chess Championship Game 9: Another Draw Sets Record
• World Chess Championship Game 10: Draw Streak Continues Despite Wild Game