International Events / 2016 Wijk aan Zee
by a thread and continued ... 45. ... h5? ... and the game concluded ...
46. Kb4 Kc8 47. Ka5 Kc7 48. h4! The first of two key tempo moves which
enable White’s king to reach b6 ... twice. By now Hou had woken up to her problems, but it is too late to save the game.
48. ... Kb8 49. Kb6 Kc8 50. b4 Kb8 51. b5 cxb5 52. axb5 axb5 53. Kxb5 Kc7 54. c3!, Black resigned.
Hou resigned because White will play 55. Kb6 and 56. c6 and clean up Black’s pawns. “She just needed to play 45. ... a5! to make
an easy draw,” said Carlsen immediately after the game. The point is that after 46. b4 h5! White can no longer reach a5 with his king, e.g. 47. bxa5 h4 48. Kd4 Ke6 49. c4 dxc4 50. Kxc4 Kd7 and now after 51. a6 bxa6 52. Kb4 Kc7 53. Ka5 Kb7 and Black is just in time to defend. (See this ending also examined in “The Practical Endgame” on p. 46-47. ~ed.) Caruana, 24, declared himself reasonably
satisfied with his performance, especially given that the 13 round Tata Steel tournament was comparable in length to March’s Candidates tournament and therefore a good test of stamina. Caruana also had the satisfaction of being the only player in Wijk aan Zee to beat Chinese 16-year-old prodigy Wei Yi in the following fine game.
OPEN RUY LOPEZ (C83)
GM Fabiano Caruana (FIDE 2787, USA) GM Yi Wei (FIDE 2706, CHN) Tata Steel Chess 2016 (10), Wijk aan Zee, North Holland, 01.27.2016
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. c3 Be7
11. h3 Bh5 “A good move. On 11. ... Bxf3 I would take
back with the g-pawn,” said Caruana, “and after 12. gxf3 Nc5 13. f4 Qd7 14. Qf3 I will follow with 15. Rd1 and then at some point b2-b4 to begin attacking the d-pawn via Bb3.”
12. g4!? Wei spent 42 minutes on his previous move
and Caruana explained, “He was probably calculating 12. Bb3 Nxe5 which is critical. I can try 13. Qxd5 (If 13. Bxd5 Nxf3+ 14. gxf3 Nf6 and he will have good compensation for the Exchange.) but after 13. ... Nxf3+ 14. gxf3 Nf6 15. Qc6+ Kf8 16. Rd1 Bd6 17. Bf4 I felt that he could probably simplify to a decent ending.”
12. ... Bg6
think that Black has fully equalized,” said Caruana. “However after 18. ... c6 in this line, Black would be very solid.”
18. Bxe4! dxe4 19. d5!
“I am not sure what he missed,” admitted Caruana. “Perhaps he wanted to avoid being slightly worse in the previous variation but now Black is close to lost.”
19. ... b4 “19. ... cxd5 20. Qxd5+ Qxd5 21. Nxd5 Bd8
22. Rfd1 is a disaster for Black,” said Caruana. “White has domination and I don’t think it would give him many chances to survive.”
20. dxc6 Qxd1 21. Nxd1 Rfd8 “Black’s problem is that he just can’t get rid
13. Nd4! “This is a new position and 13. Nd4 is
completely new,” explained Caruana. “13. Bb3 (which had previously been played with success by Fischer—IR) runs into 13. ... Nc5! 14. Bxd5 Qd7”
13. ... Qd7 “Very logical. He can also try 13. ... Nxd4 14.
cxd4 when he has a lot of options—14. ... h5 (14. ... c5 or 14. ... 0-0 , said Caruana. “I looked at this position a couple of weeks ago.”)
14. f4 Nxd4 15. cxd4 f5 16. Be3 “I also considered 16. exf6 e.p. Bxf6 17. f5
Bf7 but after he castles the knight on e4 is very hard to get rid of,” explained Caruana.
16. ... 0-0 By now Wei was an hour behind on the
10. Bc2!? Bg4 “The point of 10. Bc2 was that after 10. ...
0-0 11. Nbd2 I get a line that he doesn’t want, avoiding the 10. Nbd2 Nc5 11. Bc2 d4 lines, which I assumed that he wanted to play,” explained Caruana.
42 April 2016 | Chess Life
clock and it was clear that Caruana was still in his preparation, having played almost instantly until 16. Be3.
17. Nc3 c6?
(see diagram top of next column) “On 17. ... Nxc3 18 .bxc3 Rac8 I was intending
19. a4 c5 20. axb5 axb5 21. Ra6 when I don’t
of the c-pawn, e.g. 21. ... Rac8 22. Rc1 Be8 23. c7, later supported by Bb6,” explained Caruana; “I was expecting 21. ... h5 but then 22. Rc1!? hxg4 23. hxg4 fxg4 24. Bc5! followed by 25. Ne3 looks very bad for Black.”
22. Rc1 Rd3 23. Bc5!? “My goal is to trade bishops, put a rook on
e1 and a knight on e3, which should be winning,” indicated Caruana.
23. ... Bd8 “After 23. ... Bxc5+ 24. Rxc5 Rxh3 I have 25.
Nf2 Rg3+ 26. Kh2 Rf3 27. c7 Rc8 28. Rd1! Rxf2+ 29. Kg1 and the e-pawn decides,” said Caruana.
24. e6 Rc8 “If 24. ... fxg4 25. hxg4 Rg3+ 26. Kh2 Rxg4
27. Ne3 Rh4+ 28. Kg3 and his rook is very bad,” said Caruana. “In general he should keep his rook where it is well placed. Perhaps 24. ... Be8 25. e7 Bc7 26. Ne3 Bxc6 27. Bxb4 Be8! was possible when he could try to hang on; at least it was better than the game.”
25. e7 Ba5 “After 24. ... Rc8, 25. ... Bc7 doesn’t make
much sense,” said Caruana. 26. gxf5
(see diagram next page) 26. ... Be8
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