Leviathan

Last week I compared the Norwegian world chess champion Magnus Carlsen to a lurking crocodile, ready to grab its oblivious prey. Perhaps a more apt metaphor is that of the whale in Milton’s Paradise Lost: ‘haply slumbering on the Norway foam…’. Mariners in Milton’s narrative mistake the leviathan for an island, moor their craft, and are undone as the whale wakes and dives.
 
So it was with Carlsen, who destroyed Caruana once he roused himself to action. This week, the third, final and decisive game from the tie-break which confirmed him as world champion again.
 
Carlsen-Caruana: World Chess Championship Rapidplay Play-off (Game 3) London 2018; Sicilian Defence
 
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 c4 Needing only to avoid defeat in this game Carlsen chooses a safe line. He quickly sets up the so-called Maroczy Bind centre with pawns on c4 and e4. The advantage of this set-up is that whenever Black tries to break the bind with … d5 the resulting simplification often leads to completely equal positions. Interestingly, in the final game of the 2016 play-off (where Carlsen, playing Sergei Karjakin, also needed only to draw) he chose 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 f3, an offbeat line that nevertheless has the advantage of again allowing White to establish the Maroczy Bind centre with c4 on the next move. 3 … Nc6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 Bc5 6 Nc2 Nf6 7 Nc3 0-0 8 Be3 b6 9 Be2 Bb7 10 0-0 Qe7 11 Qd2 Rfd8 12 Rfd1 Ne5 13 Bxc5 bxc5 14 f4 Ng6 15 Qe3 d6 16 Rd2 a6 17 Rad1 Qc7 18 b3 Carlsen has carefully established a rock-solid fortress and made it difficult for Black to find any plan that can complicate the position. 18 … h6 19 g3 Rd7 20 Bf3 Re8 21 Qf2 Ne7 This is a good try to generate some dynamism in the position.