Caruana’s big win

FIDE Candidates Tournament 2018 Berlin, Germany March 10-28, 2018 Final Standings 1. Fabiano Caruana USA 2784, 9.0/14 2-3. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2809, Sergey Karjakin RUS 2763, 8.0/14 4. Ding Liren CHN 2769, 7.5/14 5-6. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2800, Alexander Grischuk RUS 2767, 6.5/14 7. Wesley So USA 2799, 6.0/14 8. Levon Aronian ARM 2794, 4.5/14 Average Rating: 2786 Category 22 Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves followed by 15 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.

The winner of the Candidates’ Tournament will be facing off against Magnus Carlsen in November of this year for the world title so there was an extra bit of tension when the last game came around.

Before the last round started Caruana was on first place with 8/13. Mamedyarov and Karjakin were half a point behind at 7.5/13 and Ding Liren was a further half point behind at 7/13. In normal circumstances a draw would have been enough for Caruana, but under the tie-break rules of this tournament should either Mamedyarov (vs Kramnik) or Karjakin (against Ding) win then they have the better tie-break points and would be adjudged the winner.

In short, to be sure of victory Caruana had to beat Grischuk, not an easy proposition under any circumstances.

When play started in the last round Wesley So vs Levon Aronian was a no bearing match and quickly drawn.

The second game to finish was Sergey Karjakin vs Ding Liren, a game both players were trying hard to win. Karjakin seemed to be getting the upper hand but erred on move 27 and was a bit lucky to manage to draw.

Karjakin, Sergey (2763) — Ding Liren (2769) [C84] FIDE Candidates 2018 Berlin GER (14), 27.03.2018 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a3 0–0 9.Nc3 Bg4 10.Be3 Nd4 11.Bxd4 exd4 12.Nd5 c5 13.a4 Be6 14.Nxf6+ Bxf6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 16.Qe2 Qd7 17.b3 e5 18.Ra2 b4 19.Nd2 Rae8 20.Raa1 Bd8 21.g3 g5 22.Nc4 Re6 23.a5 Ref6 24. f3 h5 25. Nb6 Qf7 26. Kg2 h4 27.Nd5? Overlooks a nice tactic. 27...h3+! 28.Kg1

[28.Kxh3? g4+ 29.Kg2 (29.Kxg4 Qe6+ 30.Kg5 Rg6+ 31.Kh5 Rh6#) 29...gxf3+ 30.Rxf3 Rxf3 and wins]

28... Rxf3 29. g4! Kg7 30. Rxf3 Qxf3 31. Qxf3 Rxf3 32. Rf1 Rxf1+ 33. Kxf1 Bxa5 34. Ne7

Black is two pawns up but all of us know in closed positions a knight is better than a bishop, especially when most of the bishop’s pawns are in the same color squares.

34...Kf6 35.Nf5 Ke6 36.Ng3 Bd8 37. Nh1 a5 38. Ke2 d5 39. Nf2 Kd6 40.exd5 Kxd5 41.Ne4 Kc6 42.Kd2 Be7 43.Kc1 Kb5 44.Kb2 a4 45.Ka2 a3 ½–½

Now the only two games left were Grischuk vs Caruana and Kramnik vs Mamedyarov.

Grischuk, Alexander (2767) — Caruana, Fabiano (2784) [C43] FIDE Berlin Candidates (14.1), 27.03.2018 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6

In the Berlin Candidates’ Tournament Fabi had Black seven times. Against 1.d4 he basically stuck to the formation 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 followed by 4...dxc4. Twice he defended against the Catalan ( both drawn) and once, against Aronian, there appeared on the board a sharp Vienna Variation which he won when the Armenian’s attack machine ran out of juice.

In four of his Black games his opponent played 1.e4 and without fail he reeled off the Petroff, winning twice, losing once (the one where Karjakin sacrificed the exchange to put his bishop on d5) and drawing once.

Overall his main defenses held out well and there was no need to fall back on any back-up plans. I believe we have to credit Fabi’s chief second former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov for this excellent preparation. Aside from being a very strong player himself, seconding the greats is something he does very well. 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5

As our BW readers know the main line is 4.Bd3 d5 5.Nxe5 Nd7. The one Grischuk plays is regularly used by his friend GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. The roles are reversed — it is White who offers the exchange of his opponent’s centralized knight. 4...d5 5.Nbd2 Nxd2

Leaving the knight on e4 leads to an inferior endgame for Black: 5...Be7 6.Nxe4 dxe4 7.Qxd8+ Bxd8 8.Nd4 Bd7. White has something like a 70% score from this line, and just to drive home my point I will give you one example: 9.Bf4 Nc6 10.0–0–0 Nxd4 11.Rxd4 Bc6 12.Bc4 h6 ( intending Bg5) 13. b4 a6 14. Kd2! Bg5 15.Ke3 f6 16.exf6 Bxf6 17.Rdd1 Ba4 18.Bb3! Bxb3 19.axb3 The weak pawn on e4 proved to be Black’s downfall. Ponomariov, R ( 2673)- Greenfeld, A (2570) Ohrid 2001 1–0 31. 6.Bxd2

GM Alexei Kuzmin wrote a theoretical in Chessbase Magazine where he shared that at one time he felt that the most promising continuation for White was 6.Qxd2 with the idea of first transferring the queen to the kingside by Qd2–f4–g3 and only then completing the development of the queenside. However, some games of Gelfand, where he met this queen maneuver with the prophylactic ...h6 and later even the aggressive ...g7–g5, changed his opinion. He now believes that the text move is stronger. 6...Be7

Kuzmin: The “obvious” 6...c5?! allows White to develop his bishop with tempo 7.Bg5 since 7...Be7 8.Bxe7 is bad because the undefended d5–pawn means that Black has to recapture with the king.

7.Bd3 c5

In his article GM Kuzmin studied 7... Nd7, 7...Bg4 and 7...c5 concluding that the latter is the most logical move but even here he prefers White. 8.c3 Nc6 9.0–0 Bg4 10.Re1 Qd7 11.h3 Bh5

Better than 11... Bf5 12. Qc2 Bxd3 13.Qxd3 0–0 14.Rad1 Qe6 15.a3 a6 16.Be3 Rad8 17.b4 cxb4 18.axb4 Rd7 19.Bd4 Re8 20.Re3 Bd8 21.Rde1 when White has all the play. Vallejo Pons,F (2696)-Perez Garcia,R (2426) Lugo 2009 1–0 47. 12.Bf4 Qe6 13.a3 0–0 14.b4 h6!

Eliminating any ideas based on g2–g4 together with Ng5. 15.Bg3 b6 16.Nd4!?

A very original idea which took Caruana aback but it fails on two counts: no. 1 the position at the end is not particularly favorable for White, and no. 2, with 24 moves to go to reach the 1st time control Grischuk has 13 minutes left. 16...Bxd1 17.Nxe6 fxe6 18.Raxd1 c4

White has the two bishops which would ordinarily be better than bishop+knight, but on the other hand Black’s dark-squared bishop has good squares to work with. I actually prefer Black here. 19.Bc2 b5 20.a4 a6 21.f3 Bg5!

In the post-game press conference Caruana pointed out here the possibility of 21...Nxb4!? 22.cxb4 Bxb4 23.Rf1 Bc5+ 24.Bf2 Bxf2+ 25.Kxf2 b4 but considering that the tournament situation might require only a draw he did not seriously consider playing it. 22.Bf2

White had four minutes left while Black had 13. 22...Bf4

The point of the bishop maneuver - e5 is a weakness he can work on.

23.Bc5 Rfd8 24.Bd6 Bg3 25.Re2 g5 26.Kf1 Kf7 27.Bc7 Re8 28.Bd6 Rac8!

A far-sighted move. You will see the point later.

29.Ra1 Red8 30.Bb1 Rd7 31.Ra3 d4!

Now we see why the black rooks are on the c- and d- files.

32. axb5 axb5 33. cxd4 Nxd4 34.Rea2 Nc6 35.Be4 Bxe5 36.Bxc6 Rxd6 37. Bxb5 Rd1+ 38. Ke2 Rg1 39.Ke3 Rb1 40.Ra7+ Kf6

The first time control has been reached. Kramnik vs Mamedyarov was still in play but it appeared to be headed for a draw. It was an easy decision for Caruana to make to continue playing on given that his position is clearly better and what’s more White does not seem to have any counterplay. 41.Bd7 Bf4+ 42.Ke2 Rd8 43.Rc2 Rxb4 44.Bc6 c3! 45.Rd7

[45.Rxc3 Rd2+ 46.Kf1 Rb1+ followed by mate]

45...Rc8 46.Be4

[46.Rxc3 Rb6 wins a piece] 46...h5! To “fix” White’s g2–pawn. 47.Kd3 Rb2 48.Ke2 [48.Rxc3?? Rd2#]

48... h4 49. Rd1 Ke5 50. Ra1 Rd8 51.Rd1

Hereabouts Kramnik vs Mamedyarov was drawn so Fabiano only needed a draw to clinch the title, but he did not want to anger the gods of chess by agreeing to a draw in a completely won position so he went for the full point.

POSITION AFTER 51.RD1

51...Rdb8 52.Ra1 Bd2 53.Ra6 Rd8 54.Rc6 Rb1 55.Kf2 Ra1 56.Rc4 Rd4 57.Rc8 Rb4 58.Ke2 Kf4 59.Kf2 Rbb1 60.Rf8+ Ke5 61.Bd3 Rb2 62.Ke2 Re1+ 63.Kf2 Rc1! 64.Rxb2 cxb2 65.Rb8 Bc3 66.Be4 Bd4+ 67.Ke2 Kf4 68.Rb4 e5 69.Rb7 Kg3 0–1

Fabiano Caruana thus won the Berlin Candidates’ Tournament and with it the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen to a 12-game match for the world title come November 2018 in London, England.