Friday, December 2, 2016

Pulitzer Prize

Magnus Carlsen – Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin
World Chess Championship tie-break game 2; New York, November 30, 2016
7k/6p1/3BBpKp/8/7P/6P1/4r3/8 w - - 4 62

Position after 61. ... Rf2-e2

62. Bg4?? 62. Kf7! would have left Black without help, e.g. 62. ... Rb2 63. Bf8 Rb7+ 64. Kg6 f5 (what else?) 65. Bc5 Rc7 66. Bd4 winning easily. 62. ... Re8! The Rook immediately comes to rescue of the back rank. 63. Bf5 Kg8 64. Bc2 Re3 65. Bb1 Kh8 66. Kf7 Rb3 67. Be4 Re3 68. Bf5 Rc3 69. g4 Rc6 70. Bf8 Rc7+ 71. Kg6 Kg8 72. Bb4 Rb7? A mistake which might have costed Karjakin the game. Black ought to play 72. ... Rc6 swinging the Rook along the sixth rank. 73. Bd6? Once again Carlsen misses an easy win: 73. Be6+ Kh8 74. Bf8 and Black can resign. 73. ... Kh8 74. Bf8 Kg8 75. Ba3 Kh8 76. Be6 Rb6 77. Kf7 Rb7+ 78. Be7 h5! An elegant way to a book draw. 79. gxh5 f5 80. Bxf5 Rxe7+ 81. Kxe7 Kg8 82. Bd3 Kh8 83. Kf8 g5 84. hxg6 ½ : ½. Stalemate.


Magnus Carlsen – Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin
World Chess Championship tie-break game 4; New York, November 30, 2016
2R5/4bppk/1p1p4/5R1P/4PQ2/5P2/r4q1P/7K w - - 5 50

Position after 49. ... Kg8-h7

50. Qh6+!! 1 : 0. For if 50. ... Kxh6 then 51. Rh8 mate, while if 50. ... gxh6 then 51. Rxf7 mate.

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