Most things happen at random, by chance

Magnus Carlsen – Hikaru Nakamura

Unofficial World Fischerandom Chess Championship match game 4 (45+15); Høvikodden, February 10, 2018

rbqnnkbr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RBQNNKBR w KQkq - 0 1

Position 412

1. d4 c5 2. dxc5 Qxc5 3. f3 Qc7 4. Qd2. “4. e4 could’ve been met by 4. ... f5!? and if 5. exf5 then 5. ... Bc4+, that’s why probably Magnus played 4. Qd2!?”, Grandmaster Andrey Alekseevich Deviatkin argued. 4. ... f5 5. c4 Bxc4 6. Bxf5 Nd6 7. Bc2 Nc6 8. Rc1. “Obviously, Fischerandom is almost terra incognita, yet this is still very much chess where general laws of positional chess developed by Steinitz etc. apply as well. Structurally, Magnus Carlsen’s position in game 4 after move 8 seems more appealing to me”, Deviatkin said. 8. ... Bf7 9. Bb3 0-0 10. Bxf7+ Nxf7 11. e4 e6 12. Ne3 a6 13. Bf2 Nfe5 14. Nd3 Nxd3 15. Qxd3 b5 16. Qd2 Qb7 17. 0-0 Bf4 18. Bg3 Bxg3 19. hxg3 Rac8 20. Ng4 Ne7 21. Qg5 Ng6 22. Rxc8 Rxc8 23. Rd1 Rc2 24. Qd8+ Nf8 25. Kh2 Rc5 26. Rd6 b4 27. Rb6 Qa7 28. e5 Rc8 29. Qe7 Ng6. 29. ... Qc7 30. Nf6+!? (30. Rxb4 Ng6 31. Qg5 Rf8 is not too different from the actual game) 30. ... gxf6 31. exf6 d5 32. Rc6 Qxe7 33. fxe7 Re8 34. exf8=Q+ Kxf8 35. Rxa6 leads to a very drawish Rook endgame with a (nearly meaningless) Pawn up for White. 30. Qxb4 h5 31. Rb7 Qc5 32. Qe4 hxg4 33. Qxg6 Qd5 34. Rb3 gxf3 35. Rxf3 Rf8 36. Rd3 Qxe5 37. Rxd7 Rf5 38. Rd8+ Rf8 39. Rd7 Rf5 38. Rd8+ Rf8 39. Rd7 Rf5 40. Rd8+ Rf8 41. Rxf8+ Kxf8 42. b4 Qe2 43. a4 Qa2 44. a5 Qc4 45. Qb1 Kg8 46. Qe1 Kh7 47. Qe3 Qxb4 48. Qd3+ g6 49. Qxa6. White managed to enter into a Queen ending a Pawn up, which might not be winnable in absolute terms, but that too appears to be not so easy to draw for Black. 49. ... Qc5 50. Qb6 Qh5+ 51. Kg1 Qd1+ 52. Kf2 Qd2+ 53. Kf3 g5 54. Qxe6 Qxa5 55. Kg4 Qa8 56. Qf7+ Kh8 57. Qh5+ Kg7 58. Qxg5+ Kh8 59. Kh3 Qa1 60. Qd8+ Kg7 61. Qe7+ Kg8 62. g4 Qc3+ 63. Kh4 Qb2 64. Qe8+ Kg7 65. Qd7+ Kg6 66. Qd6+ Kg7 67. Qd5

67. ... Kg6?? A dramatic error in the “frozen stillicide” of time. 67. ... Qc2/e2/f2/b1/b6/b8/a1/c3 and 67. ... Kh7/h8 are all tablebase draws. 68. Qg8+ 1 : 0. “Long ago, Magnus has managed to win a similar endgame against Aronian, even though he had only one g-Pawn instead of two! Hard time for Hikaru”, Deviatkin says.

Magnus Carlsen – Levon Grigori Aronian
Candidates Tournament; tie-break game 4 (25+10); Elista, June 3, 2007
7k/3Q4/8/6K1/6P1/8/8/7q b - - 2 82

Position after 82. Kh4-g5

82. ... Qc1+?? 83. Kg6 Qb1+ 84. Qf5 1 : 0.

Magnus Carlsen (right) vs. Hikaru Nakamura (left). Photo: Berit Roald/NTB Scanpix. “I spent too much time. In the end it became too difficult to defend”, Nakamura eventually said. “I succeeded in taking advantage of more time on the clock”, Carlsen told NRK.