In the second game Caruana played an interesting sideline in the Bf4-QGD, which is quite surprising because the mainline is supposed to be safe for black. The interesting point is that the queenless middlegame should normally suit Carlsen very well, so I must admit that I don’t really get it and my engine doesn’t get it either.

This whole game is pretty weird, because it feels like Carlsen got bluffed. Regardless how long you let the engine run, the evaluation is around +0.5 everywhere. There are no tricks, no sacrifices, no couterplay, no nothing for black, just endless suffering. It is even hard to imagine why this should be better than the QGA or the Vienna, the lines that got Caruana in the position to play the match.