Caruana preparation leak overshadows fourth draw

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 14

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The fourth game of the World Chess Championship between champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Fabiano Caruana also ended in a draw in London last night, and the spice was provided by a controversy over Caruana’s preparation being allegedly uploaded online.

On the board, Black continued to dominate the proceedings. After being forced to a draw with white pieces, Carlsen said: “He seems to have out-prepared me with the black pieces so far so I’ll have to try harder.”

Carlsen tried the English Opening, a perfect one for the venue, in the fourth game but couldn’t get through Caruana’s defence. The reigning champion was on the edge, according to some commentators. He said he chose a different opening as Caruana was prepared well as Black in response to e4 or d4 openings.

Controversy

But his selection of the English Opening, which starts with White moving his C-pawn to c4 square, is what the controversy was all about. Just an hour or so before the match, St. Louis Chess Club, which is among the sites beaming the matches live, released a video titled “Today in Chess preparation — Fabiano in Training”. The footage showed shots of Caruana’s laptop, which displayed his database and files showing replies against d4 and e4 openings. The video has since been deleted.

But tongues wagged as Carlsen eschewed his preferred e4 or d4 openings, going for c4. In 37 previous classical matches with Caruana, Carlsen had opted for the English Opening only once.

Looking ahead

With the match tied at 2-2 and the two players not going for the kill, fans are hoping earnestly that the two will play attacking chess in the eight remaining games. The games so far have seen positional chess. In the third game, Caruana seemed to have a chance to exchange a bishop for three pawns and try to develop one of his majority pawns into a queen. Analysts are divided on whether it would have led to a victory, but they are hoping the players will go for such lines in the remaining games.

Different styles

Carlsen and Caruana have stuck to their styles. Caruana is known to be a ‘centre’ player — he looks to control the centre and develop his army from there. Carlsen, the three-time champion, is known as one who doesn’t control the centre initially, preferring to attack from the sides. Carlsen is known to wait for mistakes or weak moves by his opponent before pouncing on him. Caruana has not given him the opportunity so far.

Game 5 is scheduled on Thursday. Caruana has white pieces. Will the world champion have something special up his sleeve with black?