Carlsen-Karjakin, Game 10, WCC 2016

Hello, and welcome to this post that I know nobody will read, so consider this as an attempt to talk to myself about masters' games. You might be asking why I picked up a game that happenend in 2016... well, I was searching about the pasts World Championships of Magnus Carlsen, and I stumbled across this very interesting situation that Magnus found himself in the World Chess Championship 2016. It was a best-of-12 match, and all of the first seven games were draws. But then, in Game 8, Karjakin was able to defeat Magnus with the black pieces in 52 moves. Magnus was so uncomfortable with the loss that he left the press conference before it even began. According to the rules, this results in a penalty, where FIDE stated that he would loose 5% of his final prize.

So the pressure was on. Magnus needed to win a game against the so-called "Minister of Defence" to tie the match again and have more chances to win and retain his title. Game 9 was a draw. It was a Ruy Lopez and both players stayed a long time into their preparations. Interesting enough, Karjakin had an advantage, but decided to stay solid, and Magnus defended very accurately, turning the game into a draw. In game 10, with the white pieces, it was time to strike back against Karjakin.

With this win, Magnus tied the World Championship match. Games 11 and 12 were draws, so the match proceeded to the tie-breaks. Karjakin was able to draw the first two rapid games, but Magnus won 2 other games and was able to retain his title of World Chess Champion. Karjakin fought hard, and had his chances, but Magnus is... well, Magnus.

Well, so that was it, my non-existent readers. Hope you liked my "analysis" of Game 10 between Carlsen and Karjakin (and by the way, this analysis was made by me, a 1160 with an engine, so much things could be wrong).