Sergey Karjakin has much to prove before clash with Magnus Carlsen

Look at the chess world’s tournament and match records from the late 80s and early 90s. Timman had always remained a bridesmaid to Karpov and Kasparov. Such was the hegemony of the two Ks at the top that many strong grandmasters simply fell on the wayside while competing with them.

The 1988-90 Candidates Final at Kuala Lumpur was an interesting affair – this was the first instance where Jan Timman was fighting a match with Anatoly Karpov. The winner would earn the right to play Kasparov for the world title. Karpov crushed Timman 6.5-2.5. Fun fact: In 2015, Karpov alleged that one of Timman’s sponsors had offered to pay him to lose the match! Of course, he added that Jan himself may have not known of the episode.

Timman was not done with Karpov though. In 1991, at the Paris Immopar Rapid tournament, he knocked out Anatoly 2-0, and also defeated him twice at Linares in 1992 and 1993.

1993 was also a remarkable year in terms of chess history. Kasparov and Short decided to hold their own separate match for the world title, which resulted in the then FIDE president Campomanes stripping them of their titles, and even ratings, and organizing the FIDE World Championship between Karpov and Timman, both of whom Nigel had defeated before he got short-circuited by Kasparov in the PCA World Championship. Anyway, in the 1993 clash, too, Karpov defeated Timman handily by a four-point margin becoming the FIDE World Champion.

In 2013, Karpov and Timman played a friendly match (40 mins+30secs) where after three peaceful games, the Dutchman blundered costing him the match.

At the same time as the tournament, a four-game match between Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman had been scheduled. Both had played 99 games against each other until then. This was the fourth instance when the age-old rivals were duking it out in a match. While the first two games ended in draws, an oversight by Karpov cost him the third game.

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“It hurts!” commented Ian Nepomniachtchi after missing a knockout blow against Fabiano Caruana, though it was much harder to see than the tactic he’d blundered a day earlier against Vishy Anand. Anish Giri also had good chances of beating Levon Aronian in an endgame, but nothing could stop all games ending drawn in Round 2 of the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. That meant Vishy, who found a clever way to dodge Magnus Carlsen’s opening surprise, is still the sole leader.

All games were drawn in Round 2 of the Sinquefield Cup, but the only one that saw anything less than a full-blooded fight was Karjakin-Ding Liren. It was only on move 23 of a Marshall that Sergey Karjakin varied from the 23.Qxf5 that Wesley So had played against Ding Liren in the 2018 Berlin Candidates with 23.Ra5. It seemed Sergey’s new move worked well, but he took a draw by repetition in a position where the computers were claiming a healthy edge for White.

See also:

• Grand Chess Tour
• All the Sinquefield Cup games with computer analysis
• St. Louis Rapid & Blitz Winners & Losers
• Magnus vs. History: Sinquefield Cup starts Saturday
• Sinquefield Cup 1: Anand grabs lead as Nepo blunders

Just three days ago Russian ex-World Champion Vladimir Kramnik was ahead of Wesley So in the world no. 2 spot. Now, after losing first to So and now to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, he trails Wesley by a whopping 14.4 rating points and has dropped below Fabiano Caruana to world no. 4. Wesley, meanwhile, ground another Russian player into dust, making Sergey Karjakin pay a heavy price for entering a worse minor piece ending. Veselin Topalov escaped an opening gone wrong to beat Pavel Eljanov and join So and Adams a full point behind Mamedyarov.

Tune in for all the action with commentary by GMs Igor Khenkin and Ljubomir Ljubojevic click here

See also:

• Official website
• All the games with computer analysis on chess24

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