NYT: Шахматная дуэль Карякина и Карлсена разжигает страсти времен холодной войны

Россиянину Сергею Карякину и норвежцу Магнусу Карлсену осталось сыграть одну партию в чемпионате мира по шахматам. Шансы на корону у обоих равны: 9 из 11 предыдущих партий они сыграли вничью. Как отмечает The New York Times, поклонники шахмат в США уже сравнивают битву гроссмейстеров с легендарным противостоянием Бобби Фишера и Бориса Спасского в эпоху холодной войны.

Лишь одна партия отделяет россиянина Сергея Карякина и норвежца Магнуса Карлсена от звания чемпиона мира по шахматам. Как сообщает The New York Times, гроссмейстеры равны друг другу по силам, и судьба мировой шахматной короны зависит от случая.

Газета напоминает, что решающая схватка действующего чемпиона мира Карлсена и 26-летнего российского шахматиста назначена на 28 ноября. Карлсен будет играть белыми, а Карякин – черными фигурами. Предполагается, что таким образом норвежец получает преимущество, но Карякин играл черными тот единственный раз, когда ему удалось одержать верх над Карлсеном. Из сыгранных на сегодня 11 поединков 9 окончились вничью, напоминает газета.

Эта серия матчей за звание чемпиона мира впервые проводится в Нью-Йорке с 1995 года – тогда она проходила в здании Всемирного торгового центра. «Американские поклонники шахмат надеются, что эта встреча возродит накал страстей холодной войны, который был вызван прежним противостоянием Востока и Запада во время матча между Бобби Фишером и Борисом Спасским в 1972 году, породившим в США настоящий шахматный бум», — пишет The New York Times.

По данным газеты, Сергей Карякин стал самым молодым гроссмейстером в истории, он впервые приехал в Нью-Йорк, очень популярен в России и поддерживает президента Путина. Билеты на игру в понедельник еще можно приобрести за 200 долларов, хотя, как отмечает The New York Times, зрители были бы более заинтересованы в исходе чемпионата, если бы за звание боролся американец.

Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in Dead Heat in Chess Championship
By JOHN LELANDNOV. 26, 2016

источник: static01.nyt.com
Magnus Carlsen, right, the reigning champion, faced Sergey Karjakin in Game 11 of the World Chess Championship on Saturday. Credit Misha Friedman for The New York Times

With one game remaining in their World Chess Championship match, Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are in a dead heat, after a quick but tense draw on Saturday.

Carlsen, a Norwegian and the reigning champion, entered the match a heavy favorite, but through 11 games, nine of which have ended in draws, Karjakin, a Russian, has shown himself Carlsen’s equal.

After the 11th game, Carlsen, looking relieved, said, “It’s so close now that anything can tip the scales.”

The match, which began in Manhattan on Nov. 11, has been tense throughout, with each player pressing infinitesimal advantages to try to force his opponent to make mistakes and coolly defending positions that appeared vulnerable. The first seven games ended in draws, before Karjakin won in the eighth round, seizing control of the match. All he had to do was play even for the last four games.

But after a draw in the ninth game, Karjakin missed several chances for a draw in the 10th, and Carlsen punished him with a six-and-a-half-hour, 75-move defeat. It was an avoidable loss for Karjakin, allowing Carlsen to tie the match and setting the stage for Saturday.

The final game of regulation play is set for Monday. If the players are tied at the end, they will return on Wednesday for a battery of tiebreakers. On Monday, Carlsen will have the white pieces, which move first and are considered to provide an advantage, but Karjakin played black in his lone win in the match and in a previous win against Carlsen.

This meeting is the first world championship match played in New York since 1995, when it was held in the World Trade Center. American chess fans have hoped that it will rekindle some of the fervor created by the 1972 match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, a previous East-West showdown that tapped the passions of the Cold War and spurred a chess boom in the United States.

Game 11 started like most others in the match, with white — in this case Karjakin — playing an opening called the Ruy Lopez and Carlsen countering with a version of the Berlin defense.

“It’s all theory so far,” Bruce Pandolfini, a chess writer and teacher, said, meaning that all of the moves could be found in chess books and neither player had an advantage or a route to one.

“Carlsen is always trying to get his opponent out of the book,” Pandolfini said. “But Karjakin is a great counterpuncher, and I think he’s better prepared.”

After 18 moves, Carlsen, 25, took the initiative, forcing Karjakin, 26, into an exchange of bishops and rooks and moving his own pieces into more aggressive positions. Although computer evaluations rated the players’ positions as even, Carlsen was dictating play, said Denes Boros, a Hungarian-born grandmaster and a commentator attending the match.

“It’s a simple situation but very tense,” Boros said. “It’s like a volley in tennis — you make one mistake, and it’s over.”

When Carlsen pushed a pawn within a space of the end line, e2, it was “like a bone in the throat,” Boros said. “If white doesn’t find a way to get rid of it, he’ll choke to death.”

Yet even this situation was even, according to the computers.

At the venue, in the Fulton Market Building in Lower Manhattan, attendees excitedly moved closer to television monitors or played their own games at tables.

After 34 moves, Carlsen did not see a way to win and offered a draw.

Karjakin was the youngest player ever to earn the title of grandmaster, at 12 years 7 months, and he is wildly popular in Russia, where he has been a supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin. This is his first time in New York.

Two Americans had been in the running for the chance to challenge Carlsen for the championship — an indication of how far American chess has advanced in recent years — but Karjakin beat them in a tournament in Moscow in March. The United States team also won the Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, in September — a first.

In New York, many said they would be more interested in the match if an American were playing. Tickets for Monday’s game were still available at $200 for a regular day pass and $500 for a V.I.P. ticket.

The tiebreakers, if necessary, would start with four rapid games, in which each player has 25 minutes to complete his moves. If the players were still tied after four games, the next round would consist of up to five two-game blitz matches, in which each player has five minutes to complete his moves. If each of these two-game matches ended in a draw, the players would go to a sudden-death game, in which the player with the black pieces would have only four minutes to complete his moves. If that game ended in a draw, the player who had black would be the winner.

Carlsen, besides being the top-rated traditional chess player, is rated No. 1 in rapid and No. 2 in blitz. Karjakin is rated 11th in blitz.