The Jobless Economy

Hikaru Nakamura – Fabiano Caruana
10th London Chess Classic; London, December 12, 2018
Russian Defence C42

The return game between Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura made the parody of the recent World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Caruana himself. Nothing happened under the classical time control, so that, for the sake of gamblers and sharpers, the verdict is delivered to the tie-break games, rapid, blitz, and so on till Armageddon. Of course, only time will tell what consequences this will have on the “royal game”’s governance, but it’s hard to think that chess may keep maintaining its deepmind’s status by simply and constantly shortening its horizons and times. A “cult” mind game is a much more complex concept than a sport, and it should not be lowered in a betting market. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Nc3 Nxc3 6. dxc3 Be7 7. Be3 0-0 8. Qd2 Nd7 9. 0-0-0 c6 10. h4 d5 11. Kb1 Re8 12. Bd3 Bc5 13. Bd4 Bxd4 14. cxd4 Nf6 15. Rde1 Ne4 16. Qf4

16. ... Qf6 17. Qxf6 Nxf6 18. Kc1. There is at least a certainty about the fact that both in London and Leuven a draw is a draw: 18. Ne5 g6 19. a4 Ng4 20. Nxg4 Bxg4 21. a5 Kf8 22. f3 Bd7 23. Kc1 Rxe1+ 24. Rxe1 Re8 25. Rh1 h6 26. Kd2 Ke7 27. Ke3 Kf6+ 28. Kf4 Bf5 29. Bxf5 gxf5 30. g3 Re2 31. Rc1 Rd2 32. Ke3 Rg2 33. Kf4 Rd2 34. Ke3 Rg2 ½ : ½ Karjakin – Giri, 4th Grand Chess Tour, Rapid YourNextMove, Leuven 2018. 18. ... Rxe1+ 19. Rxe1 Kf8 20. Kd2 h6 21. Ne5 Ng4 22. Nxg4 Bxg4 23. c3 Re8 24. Rxe8+ Kxe8 25. Ke3 g5 26. hxg5 hxg5 27. f3 Be6 28. f4 f6 29. g3 Ke7 30. a3 Bd7 31. Bc2 Be6 32. Bd3 Bd7 33. Bc2 Be6 ½ : ½. “It’s not my job to create excitement as Black, is it?”, Caruana eventually wondered. And yet it should be his job.