“I thought maybe I could surprise him,”
the Frenchman said about eschewing his normal Najdorf in favor of the Caro-Kann. “I got caught in the opening.” “It was a fairly smooth win,” Caruana
said. “He didn’t get a chance to show his creativity. I had looked at this idea with Rc1, g4, f4 several months ago. He just ran into an unfortunate coincidence because it was prepared for someone else.”
here 31. Bg1 loses to 31. ... Bxh2! 32. Bxh2 Rxe2.
31. h4 Qg4! 32. Qd3 bxc4 33. Qe3 Rfe7 34. b3 Bb2!, White resigned.
Since 35. Qf3 Qxf3+ 36. exf3 c3 37.
Bd4 c2! leaves Black with a winning material edge Carlsen opined that this was Caruana’s best game of the tourna - ment—“a fine display of power chess.” Topalov was not convinced!
ROUND 2: “IT WAS LOVELY TO GET MY PREPARATION IN THE OPENING.” In what became a recurring theme in
St. Louis, Caruana won several games before they began. In round two, the exceptionally knowledgable Vachier- Lagrave (4/10) tried a surprise on move one but soon found himself out of known waters first.
Caro-Kann Defense, Advance Variation (B12) GM Fabiano Caruana (FIDE 2801, ITA) GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FIDE 2768, FRA) 2014 Sinquefield Cup (2), St. Louis, Missouri, 08.28.2014
1. e4 c6 Very unusual from Vachier-Lagrave, a
Sicilian Najdorf player—“I thought I could surprise him with this line,” said Vachier- Lagrave with a rueful smile.
2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 Qb6 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. 0-0 Qxb2
(see diagram top of next column)
9. Qe1! This move, first played by Kamsky in
2009, has become the major weapon against 6. ... Qb6. The older 9. Nb5 is well met by 9. ... c4! 10. Nc7+ Kd7 11. Nxa8
Bxc2 when Black has done well in many games.
9. ... cxd4 10. Bxd4 Nxd4
It would seem logical to hold back this exchange but the tactics work in White’s favor after 10. ... Bb4 11. Rb1! Qxc2 12. Rxb4! Nxb4 13. Bb5+ Nc6 14. Bc5! with a huge attack.
11. Nxd4 Bb4 12. Ndb5 Ba5 13. Rb1! Qxc2 14. Rc1! Qb2
(see diagram on page 28)
15. g4! “In my prepara tion, I don’t think I looked
at this idea,” admitted Vachier-Lagrave. “It was unfor tunate for Maxime that I had prepared this novelty several months ago, for a game against [GM Shakhriyar] Mamedyarov,” said
Continued on page 28
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