CARUANA vs KARJAKIN – SINQUEFIELD CUP 2018 ROUND 6

Caruana’s crushing victory in round six left little doubt that he is coming into some excellent form ahead of his World Championship match.

In fact had Carlsen not managed to salvage the draw against Grischuk, Caruana would have been the new number one ranked player on the live rating list. As is the rating difference between the two has reduced to just 7.4, something that can be erased should Caruana somehow beat Carlsen with Black in Round 7. Carlsen has been World number one since the middle of 2011, so this is a potential big deal.

The Carlsen versus Caruana game in round 7 will be the last time that the two players face each other before their match in London – so be sure not to miss that one.

Today’s game features a Nimzo-Indian that includes some Q&A style annotations.

While playing through the game, scroll slowly so that when you get to the questions you can put some time on the clock (ten to fifteen minutes) and try and find the solution.

Caruana,Fabiano (2822) - Karjakin,Sergey (2773)

6th Sinquefield Cup GCT 2018 Saint Louis (6), 24.08.2018

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 0–0 5.Bg2 d5 6.Nf3 dxc4 7.0–0 Nc6 8.Qa4 E20: Nimzo-Indian: 4 g3 and 4 f3 
8...Bd7 9.Bg5 [9.Qc2 Be7 10.e4 Nb4 11.Qe2 Nd3 12.Be3 b5 13.Ne1 Nxe1 14.Rfxe1 c6 15.Rad1 Rc8 0–1 (41) So,W (2780)-Anand,V (2768) Saint Louis 2018] 
9...a5 

XABCDEFGHY
8r+-wq-trk+(
7+pzpl+pzpp'
6-+n+psn-+&
5zp-+-+-vL-%
4QvlpzP-+-+$
3+-sN-+NzP-#
2PzP-+PzPLzP"
1tR-+-+RmK-!
xabcdefghy

10.Bxf6N White has an edge. [10.Rfd1 Nxd4 11.Rxd4 Bxc3 12.Rxd7 Qxd7 13.Qxd7 Nxd7 14.bxc3 f6 15.Be3 Rab8 16.Nd4 Kf7 17.Nb5 1–0 (17) Lenderman,A (2600)-Gretarsson,H (2567) Reykjavik 2018] 
10...Qxf6 11.a3 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Qd8 13.Qxc4 a4 14.Nd2 Na5 15.Qb4 Ra7 16.Rab1 b6 17.e3 Bc6 18.Bxc6 Nxc6 19.Qb5 Qa8 20.c4 Rd8 21.Rfc1 e5 [21...h6= remains equal.] 
22.d5± Nb8 23.c5 Ra5 

XABCDEFGHY
8qsn-tr-+k+(
7+-zp-+pzpp'
6-zp-+-+-+&
5trQzPPzp-+-%
4p+-+-+-+$
3zP-+-zP-zP-#
2-+-sN-zP-zP"
1+RtR-+-mK-!
xabcdefghy

Now that White has the space advantage, the time has come to open the position and launch the attack. Find the move.

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24.Qb2! Qxd5 25.cxb6 cxb6 26.Nc4 Rc5 27.Qxb6 

XABCDEFGHY
8-sn-tr-+k+(
7+-+-+pzpp'
6-wQ-+-+-+&
5+-trqzp-+-%
4p+N+-+-+$
3zP-+-zP-zP-#
2-+-+-zP-zP"
1+RtR-+-mK-!
xabcdefghy

27...f6?
Can you find an improvement on Black's decisive error?

00000

[27...Rcc8±] 
White's next move exploits the error and forced Black to resign within three moves. What was it?

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28.Rd1 White is clearly winning. 
28...Qxd1+ 29.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 30.Kg2  1–0