11.29.16 New York is known as the city that doesn't sleep and that's true for the chess activity here as well. There is always chess-related stuff to be had seven days a week. One of this evening's chessic offerings was a lecture given by GM Georgi Kacheishvili at the Marshall Chess Club on some of the games from the World Chess Championship Match. GM Kacheishvili spoke primarily about Games 9 through 11 with some specific observations, general considerations, and even a prediction about the result of the Match.

Don't get your hopes up about the prediction as to who the GM thought would win the Match. When asked, his non-committal answer was Carlsen 55%, Karjakin 45%. Be that as it may, the evening consisted of two hours of thoughtful analysis of the Match, questions to the audience at critical moments in the games, and his overall impression after the completion of the twelve regulation games. Most of GM Kacheishvili's discussion was incredibly fast-moving and in-depth. We will try to bring you just a few of his salient points.

First off, in general GM Kacheishvili felt that neither player was performing at a level that was indicative of their full capabilities. He thought that the stress and tension of the Match was making Carlsen play like "not typical Carlsen" and Karjakin play like "not typical Karjakin."

He questioned Carlsen's use of the Archangel Variation of the Ruy Lopez in Game 9 particularly considering the score of the Match with Karjakin leading by a point with only four games remaining in regulation.

His biggest curiosity for Karjakin's play in Game 9 was why the challenger played 39.Bxf7+ (a move he took over twenty-six minutes on instead of the stronger Qb3 in the position above.

In this position from Game 10, GM Kacheishvili again called out Karjakin on his clock management. Whereas in the previous position Karjakin used twenty-six minutes, in this position he made the move 10...Qxe7 in just five seconds. According to the GM, a couple minute's examination would have revealed 10...Nxe7 as clearly superior.

Taking over thirty-three minutes to play 15...c6 in this Game 10 position was an indication to Kacheishvili that Karjakin may be in danger of losing this game. The simple 15...Ng6 could have conserved a tremendous amount of precious time that Karjakin needed later in the game.

If Karjakin loses the Match, Kacheishvili thinks he may look back with regret that he played 20...d5 in this position from Game 10 rather than the drawing 20...Nxf2 because Carlsen's win in this game was a major turning point in the Match. If Karjakin had played 20...Nxf2 and held Carlsen to a draw in Game 10 with only three games remaining it would have inched Karjakin closer to the title rather than allowing Carlsen to equalize. "An unfortunate outcome for Karjakin."

Carlsen took some heat from Kacheishvili on his choice of 22.h4 in this Game 10 position, played in only 16 seconds, rather than 20.Rae1 preparing 21.Ng4. Kacheishvili mentioned an interview that Carlsen gave before the Match began in which he floated the idea that a tournament format should be used to determine the World Champion rather than a match format. This indicated to the GM that Carlsen was not looking forward to playing yet another grueling match against the same opponent for possibly twelve games or more.

In this position right out of the opening in Game 11, Kacheishvili was not impressed with Karjakin's 6.d3 a move that "is not promising anything."

One way or another, Wednesday's tie break games will decide the outcome of the 2016 World Chess Championship. Enjoy the games!