Game 1 ends in spirited 115 move draw.

by kevinspraggettonchess · Published November 10, 2018 · Updated November 10, 2018

Quick 5-Minute Summary

Traditionally the first game of any World Championship match is not a good indicator of what is about to come. Is this true of yesterday’s game? Perhaps, perhaps not.

I have read/listened to what other observers think. To this let me add that Caruana seemed to be just another spectator. If I was on Caruana’s team then I would be slightly worried about Fabiano’s apparent lack of sense of danger: he seemed to helplessly drift into the worse position almost right from the start.

Very uncharacteristic of the American. I think we should not over-emphasize that Caruana was more nervous than usual. (Both players were nervous.) The entire game looked as though Caruana had a big red ‘target’ sign on his head. I don’t remember seeing another game of Caruana with his king bobbing around so much.

Hopefully this was just an isolated incident.