HoF #49: Karjakin–"The Minister of Defense"
This blog is a celebration that leverages an outstanding concept of GMs Nielsen and Gustafsson (both of whom are also popular chessable.com authors) but offers my unique take. The two GMs produced videos and multiple lessons regarding their top 50 chess players of all time. Although I provide a link to their work below, my focus is a bit different, though I freely accept their rankings.
How does my work differ? Well, first of all, I'm not a titled player. Second, rather than videos and puzzles, I offer: brief biographies of each player; limited discussion and pictures of some of their works if they wrote; and quotes from those who proved to be eminently quotable. Third, well, I also may have found occasion to add quotes from other famous chess names regarding certain individuals and perhaps even the occasional caricature😏. Fourth and last, to the extent possible I will include two games analyzed by the individual. After all, the greatest of the great should be able to explain what they were thinking during a game, shouldn't they?
This week #49. I hope you enjoy my alternative, much shorter takes. Certainly, I enjoin you to visit the work of GMs Nielsen and Gustafsson (both on chess.com and chessable.com).
chess.com Hall of Fame #49: Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, 12 January 1990, is a Russian super-GM with a peak rating of 2788 in July 2011 that saw him #4 in the world. His current rating of 2750 is a reflection of the fact he has not played many FIDE-rated games since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Karjakin previously held the world record for the youngest-ever GM at 12 years and 7 months—he was so good that at age twelve he served as the official second to Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov during the 2002 FIDE World CC. Karjakin played two Olympiads for the Ukrainian team, winning a team and individual gold in 2004. In 2009 he transferred to the Russian Federation and has played in five Olympiads for the team, winning an individual gold in 2010.
Despite winning the 2022 World Rapid CC, those nascent skills did not allow him to claim the classical World CC in 2016 when he lost to Carlsen 3-1 in rapid tiebreaks.
He is found on chess.com as @SergeyKarjakin but has not played a game on the site since 15 October 2021. Sergey has been banned from prize events since March 2022 because of his statements regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was banned by the Grand Chess Tour that same month and FIDE suspended him for six months.
He is eligible to play in FIDE events now that the suspension ended but has elected not to compete in protest against being unable to play under the Russian flag. Because he refuses to play except under the Russian flag, banned in FIDE events, he fell off the rating list in June 2024.
Let's jump to the heart of the matter, the banning from several tours, chess.com prize events, and a six-month ban by FIDE, for his full-throated support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
No matter what happens, I will support my country in any situation without thinking for a second! [Newsweek, 21 March 2022]
No thinking, no matter what. Wowsers. I stopped looking for quotes from Sergey after reading that one-liner.
And now, let's hear a few comments from the other side.
I think Sergey went over the top in quite a few of his statements. He’s definitely entitled to an opinion, but some of his tweets were in very poor taste. [MVL, Chessbase, 24 March 2022]
I saw what he’s been writing on Twitter — I have nothing to say against Sergey, but I think he’s lost his mind in the last couple of months. [Wesley So, Chessbase, 24 March 2022]
A lot of Russians who previously supported Putin openly or did not say anything about it, chose to turn around and are now saying that Putin went too far. Karjakin has chosen the other way. He has increased his support for Putin. This type of attitude cannot be accepted. [Magnus Carlsen, Chess24, 5 April 2022]
Given these are fifty of the greatest players of all time, how were they as annotators? Well, for those who wrote books we could truly explore that question in depth. But to keep the playing field even, I am only including a game or two taken from a DB or website. If such are available, as I've already discovered several left few traces of their thinking. Besides, I didn't want to burden myself with transcribing comments from a book into a pgn file. Or increase my debt burden by buying books of those who did not yet offer free access to books released to the public domain. Besides, it is far easier and faster to look for annotated games in an online database.
Despite the recent negatives, Sergey offers up some useful personal insights in several games I found in my online DB. More than I can say about a lot of other Hall of Fame players. Below we can ponder two games that Karjakin analyzed.
Karjakin, Sergey (2723) - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2719) FIDE World Cup, 2009.11.21.
Karjakin provides game-time insights but no overall summary, so I'll throw in a few preparatory thoughts. Mamedyarov surprised him with the opening choice, but luck was on Sergey's side as his coach recently had him review those lines. Relatively early on Black played a "thematic" move, but it was a wrong move given that specific position. The same problem all of us suffer from when relying on principles and overlooking specifics.
The middle game is fraught with tension. Black has a passed pawn on d3, and the question is whether it's strong or weak. In this case, it was the latter.
Later, Karjakin missed a "best" move and that allowed Black to regain some hope. For a while opposite color bishops even appeared on the board, along with a pair of rooks on each side. But White could force the bishops off thanks to a nice tactic and Black eventually cracked in the endgame with a passive rook versus an active rook.
Karjakin, Sergey (2760) - Caruana, Fabiano (2794), Candidates Tournament, 2016.03.28
Again, Karjakin provides game-time insights but no overall summary, so I'll throw in a few preparatory thoughts. We encounter the Sicilian Rauzer as Fabiano wanted a win on this final day in the 2016 Candidates tournament. By move fifteen Black's king in the center seemed a bit breezy with no real sanctuary on either wing. Meanwhile, Black was pushing pawns on the queenside in typical Sicilian fashion.
Sergey points out that he missed a strong central breakthrough and by move twenty I'd suggest that neither side was making progress as White's light-squared bishop is technically very bad but Black had yet to connect their rooks. Eventually Karjakin did break in the center, "to bring some clarity to the position", but objectively the position remained equal.
Caruana slipped on move 36 and a tactic effectively decided the game. It's a very nice tactic that sacrifices a whole rook!!
The whole purpose of this section is to address some obvious questions that might pop into your head. How come Kevin didn't talk about this? Or that? Not to mention the other thing! Well, just call me lazy! Or you could appreciate the fact I'm limiting the word count that is imposed on you😏.
Nonetheless, in the series I'll be using this little section to provide links to more fulsome discussions that revolve around some well-known and lesser-known facets of the featured chess giant. That will range from videos to links to other chess.com blogs, usually by Top Bloggers. Enjoy or skip, it's your call, as always.
Let's start with Danny Rensch's video on game four of the tiebreaks that saw Magnus retaining his World CC after Sergey had managed a tie in the classical portion of the event.
Danny lays the foundations behind the motivations of both players entering this game (a draw would allow Magnus to retain his title) and discusses many nuances of the Sicilian opening seen in the game. The conclusion to the game was awesome in case you've never seen it or had forgotten the details.
GothamChess! Who doesn't love IM Levy Rozman's streams!! Here we get to listen to him talk briefly about Karjakin's banishment. It's only a couple minutes up front that relates to the 6-month ban. The rest covers a tournament that was being held in support of Ukraine.
Well, not all the Top Fifty can expect to receive rousing support from their peers and chess fans, but this is an exceptional case by any standard.
That's it for the second installment of my own take on chess.com's 50 greatest players of all time. Hope you enjoyed the blog. The good GMs below have a full selection of videos and puzzles dedicated to each of the fifty.
Cheers!
If you enjoy reading "greatest of" lists then you might also enjoy chess.com's Every Chess 'Player Of The Decade' (From Morphy To Magnus).
Sources for this information included chess.com, wikipedia.com, ChessBase, FIDE, individuals' websites, YouTube.com, news articles, books, and other sources. Plus, my faulty memories. I mixed, matched, cut, and pasted so much that separation is sometimes implausible. Particularly with quotes which are found in a thousand repositories, not to mention book covers, t-shirts, and the rantings of chess coaches of whom I've had more than a few thanks to Chess University and @AttilaTurzo (my primary instructor and co-author of a book we are writing on how to analyze during a game and afterwards.)
HoF #50: "The Stormy Petrel" - Chess.com (Aron Nimzowitsch)
