Shall We Play Fischerandom Chess?

Magnus Carlsen – Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin
World Chess Championship match game 12; New York, November 28, 2016
Spanish Game C78

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. 0-0 Nxe4 5. Re1 Nd6 6. Nxe5 Be7 7. Bf1 Nxe5 8. Rxe5 0-0 9. d4 Bf6 10. Re1. In the third game Carlsen played the weird 10. Re2 b6 11. Re1. 10. ... Re8 11. Bf4 Rxe1 12. Qxe1 Ne8 13. c3 d5 14. Bd3 g6 15. Na3!? A very insignificant novelty, but quite good to repeat without repeating: 15. Nd2 Ng7 16. Nf3 Bf5 17. Bxf5 Nxf5 18. Qe2 c6 19. Re1 Ng7 20. Be5 Bxe5 (20. ... Ne6 21. Bxf6 Qxf6 22. Ne5 Re8 23. Ng4 Qd8 24. Qe5 Ng7 25. Qxe8+ Nxe8 26. Rxe8+ Qxe8 27. Nf6+ Kf8 28. Nxe8 Kxe8 29. f4 f5 30. Kf2 b5 31. b4 Kf7 32. h3 h6 33. h4 h5 ½ : ½ Carlsen – Anand, Chennai 2013, World Chess Championship match game 8) 21. Nxe5 Qd6 22. Qf3 f6 23. Nd3 Re8 24. Rxe8+ Nxe8 25. Qe3 Ng7 26. h3 Kf7 27. Qh6 Kg8 28. Qe3 Kf7 29. Qh6 Kg8 30. Qe3 Kf7 ½ : ½ Carlsen – Kramnik, 2nd Qatar Masters Open, Doha 2015. 15. ... c6. “Such a pity to see this symmetrical positions at highest level! When helping Kramnik with the Berlin I didn’t know we were killing the game!”, Grandmaster Miguel Illescas Córdoba said. 16. Nc2 Ng7 17. Qd2 Bf5 18. Bxf5 Nxf5

19. Ne3 Nxe3 20. Qxe3 Qe7 21. Qxe7 Bxe7 22. Re1 Bf8 23. Kf1 f6 24. g4 Kf7 25. h3 Re8 26. Rxe8 Kxe8 27. Ke2 Kd7 28. Kd3 Ke6 29. a4 a6 30. f3 Be7 ½ : ½. “I guess the players must be exhausted by their surfeit of rest days”, Grandmaster Nigel David Short said. It’s the failure of the format (but not only). I wonder why the so-called playoffs aren’t played at Fischerandom chess (with classical time control), rather than Rapid-Blitz-Armageddon, but nobody answers. Shall we have to ask Yeltsin?

Pamela Wasserstein, New York Media’s CEO, made the ceremonial first move for World Chess Championship match game 12. Photo: Max Avdeev for World Chess by Agon Limited.