BILBAO#4

Carlsen has White against Kramnik and chooses the English again.
Not riding as high as a year ago in London, he may be trying to get comfort from his previous success.

Still, Kramnik has proven to be well prepared in everything they throw at him.
He has been playing fast and shows confidence and deep preparation.

The English turned into the Reversed Dragon and they followed a game played by Burkov and Barkhatov in 2006, 1/2, until move 15.

The queenside became congested by move 27 and as neither side was prepared to stick his neck out to free it all up again, they shifted their attention to the kingside for a pawn confrontation.
So far, move 35, the game is balanced and not exactly on a knife edge.

It seems time is not going to be of the essence as they trundle along to the 40 move time portal.

Here are the first 40 moves to play through.



They staggered on for another 30-odd moves and came to the draw they could have had here.

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