Wednesday
Nov302016
2016 World Championship, Game 16: Carlsen Wins, Retains His Title
Wednesday, November 30, 2016 at 6:46PM
Magnus Carlsen finished in style with a beautiful queen sac, putting away the very game challenger to win the playoff 3-1 and the match overall by a 9-7 score. Sergey Karjakin had to take extra chances to try to win with Black, and while it backfired it was the right strategy. (The game, with my notes, is here.)
Congratulations to Carlsen on the win and Karjakin for making a tremendous fight of it. He had his chances in the match, and if he had spotted his opportunities in games 9 and 10 he would almost certainly have been the champion. But Carlsen missed opportunities too, and in the end his dominance in the rapid portion made him the deserved winner of the match.
Reader Comments (5)
This match provides a pretty good reason to replace classical time control with rapid chess. The level is still very high, but the four rapid games were far more exciting than the regular games. Plus the limited time allowed the stronger player to make the difference.
Seemed like a nervy match, but very entertaining. Karjakin definitely could have won. I'm really glad Carlsen won by finding the pretty idea in the last rapid. That's the way to win a match.
I don't like the fact that the world chess championship has been (twice now, right?), or for that matter can, in general, be decided by rapid (or even worse blitz or armageddon) games.
[DM: Three times: Kramnik-Topalov, Anand-Gelfand, and now Carlsen-Karjakin.]
I would prefer a slightly longer match, say fourteen games, and, in the event of a draw, the champion retains the title. A mere twelve games makes any loss more critical and seems to promote more staid play. A longer match would help allay this problem. And while two more games would be good, I am not opposed to slightly shorter time controls more on the order of four hours, as this may appeal more to the viewing public and to sponsors. Rapid and blitz, however, strike me as too different to merit inclusion in what I would argue should remain the classical world chess championship.
The match was a bit of a snoozefest for me. I am a big Carlsen fan, but think he relies on his talent a bit too much over preparation. Hopefully this was a scare for him and a wake-up call that the wolves are at his heels.
While Dennis did not get the final score correct, he did get the margin of victory (+2) right on the mark. As close as this really was, we could have a Carlsen - Karjakin rematch. However, it maybe a Carlsen - Caruana or even a Carlsen- So match. Let's not forget Kramnik, if only he was 10 years younger!
I do wish they could go to a longer match say 16 games, as it seems to take 4 to 6 games, before they open up with their best stuff.
[DM: You're too generous in the first paragraph, but thanks all the same. As for paragraph two, I'm with you - I think 16-20 games would be ideal. (That's 16-20 classical games.)]