Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:06 pm
Well Matt, I am following the match closely. It's painful to watch, largely because of Magnus' grinding style of attempting to create a small advantage and then relentlessly press the issue for many hours. Magnus had previously separated himself from the rest of the world with his Capablanca like precision, but now the world has caught up. His chess style tends to suck all the life out of a position and he usually does so with staid openings and an early exchange of queens.
I'm rooting for Caruana, who I know personally. We actually played a rated tournament game together at Adelphi in Garden City in 2000, when I was the Editor of Empire Chess. I've crossed swords with several world championship candidates, but Fabi is the only one I managed to actually beat. His teacher at the time was Bruce Pandolfini and it was obvious even then that he would be a world class player when he matured. Of course now I would have no chance to beat him but I could probably manage a draw once in a while...
Caruana had his chances today but failed to convert a promising advantage. I think there will be at most one decisive game during the first 12 games. Most likely they will continue to draw the remaining games, which speaks to the absurdity of a World Championship being only twelve games at a non-rapid time control. Matches used to be 24 games which was much more fun to watch. Now we have the stupid tiebreaker of four rapid games followed, if necessary, by 2 blitz games and if there is still a tie, one final Armageddon game. Magnus is the best in the world at rapid and blitz and should have no problem besting Fabi at those time controls. Too bad, because at his best Fabi is probably stronger than Magnus, but the format of the match makes it hard for him to demonstrate that and rapid and blitz are very different games than "slow" chess.