Sergey Karjakin came within a coin flip of taking an almost unassailable 2-point lead after Game 9 of the 2016 World Chess Championship match in New York. Magnus Carlsen admitted he was “just happy to survive” after he found himself adrift after a long theoretical opening.

In the end it took a combination of brilliant defense and luck, since Sergey sensed his moment but played a bishop sacrifice that turned out to be only the second best move in the position. Magnus held in 5 hours and 40 minutes and now has White in two of the remaining three games.

Sergey Karjakin came into Wednesday’s game in the entirely novel position of being the favourite to win a World Championship match. Someone who knows how that feels is Boris Gelfand, who won Game 7 of his match with Vishy Anand in Moscow in 2012 after the first six games had ended in draws. He went on to lose Game 8, but Boris explained in an interview with Sport-Express.ru that there was one key difference for Karjakin:

” It’s of huge significance that Sergey has a rest day ahead, which back then I didn’t have. It’s very important to survive your victory, to come to terms with it. For the challenger, particularly if he’s playing a match at such a level for the first time, there’s a wealth of emotions after a win.

No doubt I was unable to 100% put that behind me in the next game, but Karjakin has one and a half days and a very good team who should help him. I’d like to warn them all against considering the match won. It’s all just getting started – Carlsen will play with redoubled strength and Sergey needs to be prepared for that. Although I’m sure he understands that perfectly well himself”

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Fabiano Caruana drew a sharp game against Richard Rapport to finish in clear first place in the Superbet Chess Classic, taking the $100,000 top prize and the maximum 13 Grand Chess Tour points. His pursuers could all only draw, though that was a good result for Anish Giri after he stumbled into a lost position against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Ding Liren regained the world no. 3 spot after ending with a fine win over Bogdan-Daniel Deac.

He was never in danger in a single game and could have scored more. He missed a chance against Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the first round, and his one real regret was a failure to turn a huge advantage against Alireza Firouzja into a full point.

There was also nostalgia, as Fabiano had been the first to face 10…Ba5 10.Bf4 0-0 11.0-0-0!, in a game against Magnus Carlsen. Rapport varied from that game with 13.Qe3 and an interesting battle ensued, but there was no opening bomb. When Richie missed a chance to ask more questions with 19.f3! the game soon fizzled out into a draw.

The next event on the Grand Chess Tour, the Superbet Warsaw Rapid & Blitz, starts in just six days, with six of the same players competing. We won’t get to see Ding Liren vs. Magnus Carlsen just yet, however, since Ding has been granted a much needed break!

See also:

• Official website
• All the Superbet Chess Classic games with computer analysis
• Ding Liren and Nepomniachtchi back in action
• Superbet Chess Classic 1: So gets Firouzja revenge
• Superbet Chess Classic 2: Nepo and Rapport strike
• Superbet Chess Classic 3: Ding thwarts Nepo again
• Superbet Chess Classic 4: Caruana beats Nepomniachtchi
• Superbet Chess Classic 5: Firouzja world no. 2 after beating Ding
• Superbet Chess Classic 6: So & Caruana miss wins
• Superbet Chess Classic 7: Firouzja catches Caruana
• Superbet Chess Classic 8: Duda shocks Firouzja

There are few things harder in chess than defending a World Championship title in a big knockout, but current Chinese Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun has now earned herself a 4-game match to retain her title after beating Alexandra Kosteniuk in the semi-final. Her opponent will be Russian no. 1 and world no. 4 Kateryna Lagno, who will be hoping to claim the title for the first time after overcoming Mariya Muzychuk.

The semi-finals of the 2018 Women’s World Championship were the culmination of 15 days of uninterrupted chess action in Khanty-Mansiysk, as the Siberian weather outside the Ugra Chess Academy got colder and colder. Kateryna Lagno has missed a lot of top-level chess in recent years to start a family, but she’s on the verge of the greatest prize.

See also:

• Official website
• All the games with computer analysis on chess24
• New Women’s World Championship starts in Khanty
• Khanty Women’s World Championship, Round 1: Favourites fall to youngsters
• Round 2: More stars fall
• Ding 100 & out, Naka wins in Kolkata and more
• Vishy! MVL! Abdumalik!