Even as a lifelong QGD player, I wasn't really familiar with this Bf5 line, where as you say, classical theory says that black has solved all his problems. As it turns out, there's life left in the position yet! Thanks for laying out all of the predecessor games by Jobava et al.
This is why I'm not unhappy with Carlsen's withdrawal. Of course I understand the dark cloud that will float above the head of his successor, but Ding against Nepom is going to be way more interesting.
Thanks for the analysis - with or without engine assistance or later confirmation? It seems to contradict "It’s far from obvious where Black went wrong in the game" in the blog post - question marks for 23.-c5 and 31.-Re7 by Dennis (and engines). The third one for 35.-Kc7 may be "redundant" as better moves would have only prolonged the suffering without real hope for survival. 23.-c5? had its rationale but was simply bad, besides 23.-g5 also "lashing out" something like 23.-Kd7 (now) would have forced Carlsen to demonstrate a way of making further progress - he doesn't have targets yet for his bishop pair? It may have been suffering for Nepo but with (more) realistic hopes of survival.
"enjoying the boost in confidence he received from a second straight Candidates victory" - this may imply that the second candidates victory would provide a bigger boost than the first one? In any case, while lack of confidence is bad news, confidence isn't necessarily good news. And the recent past may have mattered more: Nepo couldn't make the switch from rapid/blitz to classical? He took his time, it wasn't the Nepo playing quickly and downright badly as seen in the past, but he still may have found it hard to delve deeply enough into the position. And Carlsen didn't have to make such a switch.
Re: "It's far from obvious": Of course with the engine it's clear(er), but these are the sorts of errors that would easily go unnoticed without engines - even by a top player like Nepo.
Re: "the boost in confidence": I didn't mean to compare it to his first Candidates victory. My thought was that he probably would have been psychologically recovered from the match from the passage of time (from feeling bad back to his usual confident self), and then, additionally, he won the Candidates (going from normal confidence levels to something more).
Thanks for the high-quality opening survey!
Even as a lifelong QGD player, I wasn't really familiar with this Bf5 line, where as you say, classical theory says that black has solved all his problems. As it turns out, there's life left in the position yet! Thanks for laying out all of the predecessor games by Jobava et al.
This is why I'm not unhappy with Carlsen's withdrawal. Of course I understand the dark cloud that will float above the head of his successor, but Ding against Nepom is going to be way more interesting.
Thanks for the analysis - with or without engine assistance or later confirmation? It seems to contradict "It’s far from obvious where Black went wrong in the game" in the blog post - question marks for 23.-c5 and 31.-Re7 by Dennis (and engines). The third one for 35.-Kc7 may be "redundant" as better moves would have only prolonged the suffering without real hope for survival. 23.-c5? had its rationale but was simply bad, besides 23.-g5 also "lashing out" something like 23.-Kd7 (now) would have forced Carlsen to demonstrate a way of making further progress - he doesn't have targets yet for his bishop pair? It may have been suffering for Nepo but with (more) realistic hopes of survival.
"enjoying the boost in confidence he received from a second straight Candidates victory" - this may imply that the second candidates victory would provide a bigger boost than the first one? In any case, while lack of confidence is bad news, confidence isn't necessarily good news. And the recent past may have mattered more: Nepo couldn't make the switch from rapid/blitz to classical? He took his time, it wasn't the Nepo playing quickly and downright badly as seen in the past, but he still may have found it hard to delve deeply enough into the position. And Carlsen didn't have to make such a switch.
Hi Thomas,
Re: "It's far from obvious": Of course with the engine it's clear(er), but these are the sorts of errors that would easily go unnoticed without engines - even by a top player like Nepo.
Re: "the boost in confidence": I didn't mean to compare it to his first Candidates victory. My thought was that he probably would have been psychologically recovered from the match from the passage of time (from feeling bad back to his usual confident self), and then, additionally, he won the Candidates (going from normal confidence levels to something more).