Carlsen-Karjakin Game 4

My main point is since Sergey Karjakin did not lose to the highest rated player in the world, he must have played well. Magnus Carlsen is the best in punishing blunders, winning endgames, converting advantage to a win. Magnus Carlsen beat Vishy Anand very convincingly in last two world championship matches. Vishy Anand is still quite good player and he won the Champions Showdown tournament against people including Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.

You guys predicted a complete domination by Magnus Carlsen. I guess in same way that Donald Trump was expected to lose the election. It is still possible that Sergey Karjakin will win this match. You guys underestimate him.

I completely agree with your most recent post Tangelo777. Carlsen is obviously the better player and has played better in this match thus far, but it's still level. It's very important that Carlsen doesn't change his approach, I think only then would Sergey really have a chance of winning.

Es cierto que todos habíamos predicho que MC iba a aplastar a Karjakin y viendo estas 4 partidas lo sigo afirmando, MC está dominando completamente en todas las partidas, Karjakin acabara cediendo dentro de poco, ya que solo se dedica a defender, no tiene posibilidades de ganar tal y como esta jugando.

I agree but Bxc4 was a mistake. Unlike Carlsen for not totally punishing it. But it happens to all players. Its going to be tough for Carlsen after these last two draws.

I think Karjakin has shown his defensive capability as well as some luck - Carlsen had a clear path to victory in game 3 and him missing it is not something that happens too often. But I think more importantly is that in the end you don't win by defending. Unless Karjakin starts creating positions where he has winning chances we're only going to see 1/2s punctuated by 0s on his side of the score card.

So far this match is reminding me a lot of the first Anand - Carlsen match. It seems like Anand's initial gameplan was to try to play ultra solid and prove Carlsen wasn't going to beat him in dry positions to try to push him out of his comfort zone. But then, like now, in going for that strategy you are voluntarily putting Carlsen in his zone and he is once again proving he can win these positions and often end up being the only one with any winning chances at all.

Carlsen's opening prep, or anti-opening prep as it might be, seems better than ever match meaning Karjakin can't afford to let possible opportunities slip away from him. Was it possible for him to try to get more out of his position in game 2 than just waiting moves, for instance?

The supercomputer (analysis.sesse) showed a missed win for Carlsen on move 42.
42... Bd5! 43. g3 g4!! (counter-intuitive) 44. Nd1 Bf3+ 45. Kd2 Bxd1 46. Kxd1 Kg6! 47. a4? (suggested by SF) Kf6! (with idea of moving f6-d5-e4)
Now after you put it to Stockfish the eval will be rising rapidly. Eventually, the black king will come close to white's king and create a passed pawn.

man this match reminds me of Rocky Balboa matches, so many blows but no knockouts. I just hope Rocky doesn't win in the end this time :)
Also why the heck did they resurrect that line? And why did magnus avoid 9...d5 This is supposed to be even slightly dangerous for white, especially after Ivanchuk-So( I think Giri also wrote an article on this line) . Was it all just a winning attempt by Magnus? Its a bit hard to believe

Putin just appointed Karjakin Russian Minister of Defense

Be6 was a forced win I think. It's not that Karjakin is a master defender, Carlsen just missed a really easy win because he was tired.