Here is my analysis, helped by engines of course, of the beautiful decisive tie-break game played by Carlsen and MVL this wednesday.
As one of the previous games in the match, Carlsen choses a semi-novelty in the Najdorf that transposes back to known positions after Black's h5 push. The real novelty comes when Black defends his g7 pawn with Bf8 instead of Kf8 (which would be met presumably by some prepared variation rather than the previously seen draw). Both players miss the most effective rebutal of Bf8, and Black starts to take over, especially with the powerful move Qa5.
Then comes a first turning point. Black errs with Ne5, a seemingly thematic move in the Najdorf that fails in this particular position. Even when White doesn't chose the strongest move (29.Nxe6! would end the game in a few moves), he is ready to go in an endgame two pawns up, whereas Black would lack some wood to throw onto the fire of his queenside attack.
A second turning point occurs when White misses a consolidation and even blunders into 38...Qd4, a move missed by Black. While maintaining the status quo with 45.Qe4 would seem as White's best option, he plays activeky with 45.c4 after which Black enters the endgame on his own terms, a pawn up and without leaving any counterplay to White. In this very difficult position, White allows a rook trade resulting in a tablebase win for Black, which MVL converts without letting victory escape at any moment.
All the commentators agreed on the fact that this game was very spectacular, as both players reached a winning position at some point, and very impressive as some incredibly strong moves were played with such a short time control. Engines might suggest shorter wins for Black during the conversion phase, but the outcome is never put into jeopardy. Of course engines, with an unlimited thinking time, improve on the players's decision between moves 25 and 29 and between moves 34 and 38, two highly critical (and short) phases of the game. To put it differently, the players's questionable decisions are massively concentrated on two series of five moves in a game that lasted 83 moves. Just a couple of mistakes/imprecisions on both sides occured outside these intervals, i.e. in the remaining 70+ moves of the game.
The Carlsen-MVL match, as a whole, was considered as the best match of the year by GM Laurent Fressinet on chess24. This is the game that decided the outcome of the match, perhaps one of the most beautiful quickplay games in recent times.
As one of the previous games in the match, Carlsen choses a semi-novelty in the Najdorf that transposes back to known positions after Black's h5 push. The real novelty comes when Black defends his g7 pawn with Bf8 instead of Kf8 (which would be met presumably by some prepared variation rather than the previously seen draw). Both players miss the most effective rebutal of Bf8, and Black starts to take over, especially with the powerful move Qa5.
Then comes a first turning point. Black errs with Ne5, a seemingly thematic move in the Najdorf that fails in this particular position. Even when White doesn't chose the strongest move (29.Nxe6! would end the game in a few moves), he is ready to go in an endgame two pawns up, whereas Black would lack some wood to throw onto the fire of his queenside attack.
A second turning point occurs when White misses a consolidation and even blunders into 38...Qd4, a move missed by Black. While maintaining the status quo with 45.Qe4 would seem as White's best option, he plays activeky with 45.c4 after which Black enters the endgame on his own terms, a pawn up and without leaving any counterplay to White. In this very difficult position, White allows a rook trade resulting in a tablebase win for Black, which MVL converts without letting victory escape at any moment.
All the commentators agreed on the fact that this game was very spectacular, as both players reached a winning position at some point, and very impressive as some incredibly strong moves were played with such a short time control. Engines might suggest shorter wins for Black during the conversion phase, but the outcome is never put into jeopardy. Of course engines, with an unlimited thinking time, improve on the players's decision between moves 25 and 29 and between moves 34 and 38, two highly critical (and short) phases of the game. To put it differently, the players's questionable decisions are massively concentrated on two series of five moves in a game that lasted 83 moves. Just a couple of mistakes/imprecisions on both sides occured outside these intervals, i.e. in the remaining 70+ moves of the game.
The Carlsen-MVL match, as a whole, was considered as the best match of the year by GM Laurent Fressinet on chess24. This is the game that decided the outcome of the match, perhaps one of the most beautiful quickplay games in recent times.