 Interesting and new, according to Megabase. And played very confidently by Karjakin, just like his next moves. In the post-match analysis with GM  Sergey Shipov, Karjakin revealed that this was an idea of his second, the  creative GM Denis Khismatullin. \"I rushed to prepare, and he showed me  this between the games.\"
1. e2e4  1... c7c5 Karjakin is often labelled as the \"Minister of the Defense.\"  People are forgetting, though, that he first proved himself as one of the  strongest tacticians on Earth. In fact, a few years back, during his  meteor-like rising years, even top players like Anand and Kramnik wisely  preferred to avoid the Sicilian when facing him. 2. g1f3  2... d7d6  3. d2d4  3... c5d4  4. f3d4  4... g8f6  5. b1c3  5... a7a6  6. h2h3  6... b8c6  7. g2g4  7... g7g6  8. c1e3  8... c6d4  9. d1d4  9... f8g7 All of this was played fast by both,  but Shankland is about to face a nasty surprise.