Magnus Carlsen - Fabiano Caruana 2018 Altibox chess game analysis

Chessgames Link : Carlsen - Caruana 1-0 Norway Altibox 2018
https://chess24.com/en/read/news/norway-chess-1-carlsen-shows-caruana-who-s-boss

Here's the game to be replayed. Carlsen won in a fairly convincing manner
The world champion played the bishops' opening 1.e4 e5 2 Bc4, escaping the Spanish or Petroff.
Typical of Carlsen trying to find a position to play, not trying to play twenty moves of theory.

After 12 moves, White to play. Black just played ..b5 expanding on the queen side.
But Carlsen will find a way to fight back against these pawn advances.



Here, White played 13 a4! challenging Black pawns.
Caruana played 13..b4 and it followed
14 cb4 ab4 15 Ne3 Bb7 16 d4!? fixing black pawns.

Position after 26 Rc1

Here, Carlsen has sacrificed a pawn but obtained a clear blockade on dark squares.
Without the bishops on dark squares, Black with an extra pawn remains static defending d5 and b4.
With his last move, Carlsen can activate his rook with Rc1-c5 which would regain the pawn with benefits.

Black play 26 .. Rc7 ? which simply drops the b4 pawn right away. 26..Qa6 was the best defense for Black, aiming for e2 square.
26..Qd8 possible also

Position after 32 ..Qc1

Here Carlsen played 33 b4 with a strong advantage. after another 30 moves, he duly converted into a win. The candidate will have to step up his play when under pressure as Carlsen is deadly when having an advantage.

Full game analysis here: you can replay game and annotations