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Cover Story / 2014 Sinquefield Cup “I couldn't hope for better,” Caruana


said about starting 3-0, “especially since I was starting with two blacks [out of the first three games].” He now led by 11


⁄2


points, mathematically the maxi mum possible. “I'm going to have to beat him to stop


him,” Carlsen said about their rematch in round eight.


ROUND 4: “IT WAS A LOT OF FUN, SO I DECIDED TO GO FOR IT.” Caruana rode the wave once more, this


time with a positional masterpiece over Aronian, the man he was busy passing for world number two. White’s rooks first came to the queenside to prevent Black’s expansion, then after a piece sacrifice, they hurried back to invade the kingside. That wasn’t the maneuver that impressed his opponent the most. “[15.] Na2 looks like a player from


space,” Aronian said. “He knew the posi - tion more than I did maybe.” Topalov called the move “very deep.” The clever redirection from c3 to b3


stopped any ideas of ... a5, and later decoyed Black’s knight away from the center for a winning breakthrough. To understand the defenselessness of


Aronian’s position, one only had to look left to see Black’s somnambulent knights drifting aimlessly. After 45. Rf6 Caruana allowed a faint smile to disturb his usual complete equanimity.


A positional masterpiece GM Fabiano Caruana (FIDE 2801, ITA) GM Levon Aronian (FIDE 2805, ARM) 2014 Sinquefield Cup (4), St. Louis, Missouri, 08.30.2014


19. ... Rf7 “19. ... Nc3! 20. Bxc3 dxc3 21. Qe3 Rad8


looked very exciting for me,” said Aronian, “but then for some reason I [waited] and my position started getting worse.”


20. Rc1 Rd8 21. Ng5 Rf6?! “When you miss an opportunity you


start blaming yourself,” admitted Aronian, “though maybe the position is already slightly worse for Black.” The line 21. ... Bxg5 22. Bxg5 Rdf8 was safer.


22. Qh5 h6?! “Maybe he should have taken the knight


last move but this is definitely a mistake,” said Caruana. “I was looking at 22. ... Rh6! 23. Qf7+ Kh8 which looks bad, but after 24. Qf3 Bxg5! 25. Bxg5 Rf8 my queen has to go backwards and I wasn’t sure how much advantage I had.” White could also try 23. Qg4!?, leading to a position similar to the game, though slightly less favorable, after 23. ... Rg6 24. h4 h6 25. Qh5!.


23. Nf3! “Now Black can’t do much and must


always watch out for tactics,” said Caruana.


15. Na2!? “This seemed like a strange move,” said


Aronian, “but I guess it was part of his preparation. The innocuous 15. h3 had been seen previously in a GM Leinier Dominguez Perez-GM Sergey Karjakin rapid game from 2013. “We [Chuchelov and I] had found 15. Na2 sometime ago,” said Caruana. “It’s not a huge novelty but it leads to a very double-edged game.”


30 November 2014 | Chess Life


23. ... Rdf8 24. Rf1 R8f7 25. Rae1 Bf8 26. h3 Intending Nh2 but “when I saw an even better idea, I went for it,” said Caruana.


26. ... g6 27. Qh4 Qe7 28. Qg3 Bg7 (see diagram top of next column)


29. Na5!! “A strong sacrifice,” said Aronian. “I felt


that after 29. Nh2 I might be OK, because


33. f4 The position Caruana foresaw when


sacrificing his knight on a5. White’s main threat is the slow advance of his kingside pawns but Black’s knights are so far offside that they cannot prevent this.


33. ... c5 34. Nh4 “My first idea was 34. Qf3,” said Caruana,


“but then I noticed 34. ... cxb4 35. g4 Rg5! and decided to make my knight safe.”


15. ... Nd7 16. Qe2 d4 17. Reb1 “I played this to prevent 17. ... a5,


though I am not really sure Black can’t play it anyway!” admitted Caruana.


17. ... Nb6 On 17. ... a5 18. bxa5 Nxa5 19. Rxb5


Qxa3 Caruana intended 20. Rbb1 but agreed that Black should be fine after 20. ... Nc6.


18. Nc1 Na4 19. Nb3


I will sacrifice an Exchange with ... Rf4; after Ng4 and probably I am fine.” Caruana agreed. “[After ... Rf4] Black gets a lot of dark squares and a knight on c3. Plus I wanted to sacrifce myself!”


29. ... Nxa5 30. Nxe5 Nb7 31. Nxg6! “I wasn't sure if I was better or winning


but practically I thought it would be very difficult for him to defend,” said Caruana.


31. ... Qd8


Aronian spent 11 minutes wondering whether 31. ... Rxg6 32. Qxg6 Qf6 would be a better chance. However so long as White keeps the queen on the board via 33. Qg4 then the advance of the white pawns should be very similar to the game.


32. e5! Caruana spent 16 minutes on this obvi -


ous move, which led to (incorrect) spec ulation that Aronian had offered a draw. Caruana explained later, “I was considering winning a pawn with 32. Ne5 Rf8 33. Ng4 Rg6 34. Nxh6+ but after 34. ... Kh7! 35. Ng4 Bf6! I was worried that my queen would be forced back to h2.”


32. ... Rf5


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