Leviathan

Last week I compared the Norwegian world chess champion Magnus Carlsen to a lurking crocodile, ready to grab its oblivious prey. Perhaps a more apt metaphor is that of the whale in Milton’s Paradise Lost: ‘haply slumbering on the Norway foam…’. Mariners in Milton’s narrative mistake the leviathan for an island, moor their craft, and are undone as the whale wakes and dives.
 
So it was with Carlsen, who destroyed Caruana once he roused himself to action. This week, the third, final and decisive game from the tie-break which confirmed him as world champion again.
 
Carlsen-Caruana: World Chess Championship Rapidplay Play-off (Game 3) London 2018; Sicilian Defence
 
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 c4 Needing only to avoid defeat in this game Carlsen chooses a safe line. He quickly sets up the so-called Maroczy Bind centre with pawns on c4 and e4. The advantage of this set-up is that whenever Black tries to break the bind with … d5 the resulting simplification often leads to completely equal positions.