3 Analyzed Caruana-Carlsen Games

Carlsen-Caruana Tata Wijk Aan Zee 2018 Draw - Petroff (most recent game)
Caruana-Carlsen Isle of Man open 2017 0-1 - Spanish
Carlsen-Caruana Sinquefield 2014 0-1 - Italian
All analyzed

also available here Carlsen vs Caruana- 3 annotated games

https://en.chessbase.com/post/isle-of-man-open-magnus-carlsen-beats-fabiano-caruana

Caruana wins 14th round. Will play World Championship against Carlsen in November 2018. Grischuk-Caruana 0-1 analysis

Grischuk-Caruana (14) Candidates 2018 Analysis March 27, 2018 0-1

Caruana will challenge Magnus Carlsen for World Chess crown in November 2018. also available here
chessbase : Grischuk-Caruana-annotated.html

Caruna wins against Aronian in Round 13 Candidates in Berlin- Analysis

Caruana-Aronian 1-0 Candidates 2018 Analysis March 26, 2018

also available here
chessbase : Caruana-Aronian-annotated.html

Karjakin-Caruana Round12 1-0 Analyzed here Candidates 2018

Karjakin won against leader Caruana today -Candidates 2018 Berlin-. Both at 7 points with 2 rounds to go analysis here Karjakin-Caruana 1-0 annotated

Kramnik-Aronian 36th move tactics (Annotations)

also available here
chessbase : Kramnik-Aronian.html

Opening repertoire against Scandinavian 1..d5

Typically 1..d5 is a popular move for blitz/fast games for tournaments and online play against 1e4. less so at top level, so here's my quick guide against 1..d5 for 1 e4 players !

1e4 d5 Repertoire for white

One advice is that if White goes castle on the kingside ( i.e early O-O), Black is close to equalize. Therefore White must select more ambitious lines with O-O-O ( castling queen side) to fight for an advantage. Quite inportant  to remember for bullet / 3' games !

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Bc4

here Black can play

A) 6.. Bf5  which is the main line I recommend the following set-up for White
7. Bd2 e6 8. Qe2 Bb4 9. O-O-O Nbd7 10. a3

10... Bxc3 11. Bxc3 Qc7 12. Ne5 12... Nxe5 13. dxe5 Nd5

Now we reach a fairly well-known position. Here's the trick 14 Bd4 !?

The main variation, most often played is this one instead 14. Bd2 O-O-O 15. g4 Bg6 16. f4 h5! 17. h3 hxg4 18. hxg4 Rxh1 19. Rxh1 Qb6 20. Rf1 Qd4.

In this line Black creates enough counterplay with 16..h5! break, opening the h file. if White prepares f4-f5, Black can play ..Qc5 or ..Qd4.  Database game stats do not indicate White has an edge here, nor do chess engines ( Stockfish, Komodo,..)

The idea behind 14 Bd4!? instead is a more active bishop, aiming at a7 or c5/d6. Also we will decide if g4 or f4 makes sense. This idea may surprise Black as well.

14... O-O-O 15 Bc5!? with an  edge for White. Please note that 14..b6 is the best answer to cover c5 for Black but White can still claim a smaller edge. Leave a comment at the bottom of this post  if you need to see how.

Final position ( Variation A) after 15 Bc5!?

A) 6.. Bg4 I'd say this is this the 2nd most popular move by scandinavian players

here's the line I recommend
7. h3 Bh5 8. Bd2 e6  9. Nd5! Qd8 10. Nxf6+ gxf6 11. Qe2 Nd7 12. g4! Bg6 13.
O-O-O Qc7 14. h4 h5 15. g5 O-O-O 16. gxf6 

Here again White has an edge. more space, Ne5 or Ng5 are possible, and White's king is safer. See replay below for additional variations

All variations here replay 1e4 d5 repertoire

1 e4 d5 repertoire replay with chessboard

1 e4 d5 analysis : repertoire for white

1 e4 d5 Analysis : Repertoire for White March 19, 2018

Position after 6 Bc4

Position after 15 Bc5!? (6..Bf5 variation)

Position after 16 gf6 (6..Bg4 variation)

also available here

1 e4 d5 chess opening analyzed

Round 9 Candidates Analysis (Express)

Karjakin-Kramnik 1-0 Kramnik crashed and burned his vessels
Caruana-Ding Liren 1/2 1/2 Caruana missed several wins

 Full Analysis here games round 9 FIDE candidates analyzed

Round 9 Games Annotated 

Grischuk wins against Kramnik in 91 moves : Full Game Annotated

Grischuk (2767)-Kramnik (2800) 1-0 Candidates 2018 Analysis March 19, 2018

also available here
chessbase : Grischuk-Kramnik-annotated.html

round 7 FIDE Candidates annotated : Aronian-Caruana 2018 0-1

also available here
chessbase : Aronian-Caruana-annotated.html

Aronian-Grischuk round 5 Berlin 2018 1/2 1/2 annotated

Kramnik-Caruana Round 4 0-1 2018 Candidates Berlin annotated

http://kramnik-caruana 2018 annotated here

Candidates game annotated

Grischuk-So Round (2) 1-0

Grischuk-So (Spanish) 1-0 Analysis.html

pgn game

[Event "World Championship Candidates"]
[Site "Berlin GER"]
[Date "2018.03.11"]
[Round "2"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Alexander Grischuk"]
[Black "Wesley So"]
[ECO "C78"]
[WhiteElo "2767"]
[BlackElo "2799"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 b5
7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Bb7 10. Nbd2 Re8 11. Ng5 Rf8 12. Re1
d5 13. exd5 Nxd5 14. Ndf3 Qd7 15. d4 exd4 16. cxd4 h6 17. Ne4
Rfe8 18. Bd2 Nf6 19. Rc1 Nxe4 20. Rxe4 Bf6 21. Rg4 Kh8 22. Rc5
Rad8 23. Qc1 Nxd4 24. Nxd4 Re4 25. Rxc7 Qxd4 26. Be3 Rxg4
27. hxg4 Qe4 28. f3 Qb4 29. Rxb7 Bxb2 30. Qf1 f6 31. Qf2 Be5
32. f4 Bd6 33. g5 Qe4 34. Qf3 Qb1+ 35. Qf1 Qe4 36. Qf3 Qb1+
37. Kf2 Bb4 38. Qe2 Qe4 39. Qf3 Qb1 40. Kg3 fxg5 41. Kh2 Qf5
42. Rf7 Qg6 43. fxg5 Bd6+ 44. Kh3 1-0

Key positions 

1.Position after 9..Bb7

2.Position after 22 Rc5!

3. Position after 40 Kg3!?

pgn game with analysis here 

Grischuk-So (Spanish) 1-0 Analysis.html

Aronian-Kramnik 2018 replay with annotations

Aronian Kramnik 2018 Chess Analysis

Replay game here
http://aronian-kramnik_2018-annotated.html

after 8..Rg8

after ..f5

after ..Qe2

Grischuk wins against So in Spanish Defense

Spanish 5d3 key games : chess opening analysis (white)

also available here chessbase : spanishd3analysis.html