Wild Thanksgiving Game Leads to Tenth Draw in Carlsen-Caruana

Fabiano Caruana, Photo IM Eric Rosen

The tenth draw of the Magnus Carlsen-Fabiano Caruana match was the wildest game yet, with each player's position hanging on a tempo. Both players showed incredible chess in a brave opening choice, in the same line of Sveshnikov Sicilian as game eight, but this time with a new wrinkle, 12. b4. This commentator was worried for the American challenger due to Black's attacking chances.

Luckily, Five-time World Champion Vishy Anand joined the Today in Chess show to soothe my concerns, saying he preferred White even in the heat of complications. Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura said on the chess.com stream that he thought we'd almost definitely have a decisive game today.

Blood spilled certainly seemed very likely, but the top two players rose to the occasion, playing one excellent move after another despite the ticking clock. When the dust settled into the second time control the double rook endgame was still complex, and Fabiano grabbed a small edge with some incisive play. However, it was not enough.

Follow the well played, wild contest and judge for yourself. Who's in better form as we approach the end of the match?

[pgn] [Event "Carlsen-Caruana FIDE World Chess Champs"] [Date "2018.11.22"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B33"] [WhiteElo "2832"] [BlackElo "2835"] [PlyCount "107"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"] [WhiteTeam "United States"] [BlackTeam "Norway"] [WhiteTeamCountry "USA"] [BlackTeamCountry "NOR"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Nd5 Nxd5 8. exd5 Nb8 9. a4 Be7 10. Be2 O-O 11. O-O Nd7 12. b4 a6 13. Na3 a5 14. bxa5 Rxa5 15. Nc4 Ra8 16. Be3 f5 17. a5 f4 18. Bb6 Qe8 19. Ra3 Qg6 20. Bc7 e4 21. Kh1 b5 22. Nb6 Nxb6 23. Bxb6 Qg5 24. g3 b4 25. Rb3 Bh3 26. Rg1 f3 27. Bf1 Bxf1 28. Qxf1 Qxd5 29. Rxb4 Qe6 30. Rb5 Bd8 31. Qe1 Bxb6 32. axb6 Rab8 33. Qe3 Qc4 34. Rb2 Rb7 35. Rd1 Qe2 36. Re1 Qxe3 37. Rxe3 d5 38. h4 Rc8 39. Ra3 Kf7 40. Kh2 Ke6 41. g4 Rc6 42. Ra6 Ke5 43. Kg3 h6 44. h5 Kd4 45. Rb5 Rd6 46. Ra4+ Ke5 47. Rab4 Ke6 48. c4 dxc4 49. Rxc4 Rdxb6 50. Rxe4+ Kf7 51. Rf5+ Rf6 52. Rxf6+ Kxf6 53. Kxf3 Kf7 54. Kg3 1/2-1/2 [/pgn]

Happy Thanksgiving from US Chess, and to everyone working through the holiday to cover this epic match, including IM Eric Rosen, in London taking over our US Chess social media feeds!