CHESS #1405

Fabiano Caruana has now developed into a formidable rapid player

In November 2018, Magnus Carlsen defended his title against Fabiano Caruana with a pragmatically cynical decision. The match was tied (all 11 games drawn). In the last game of classical time, Carlsen achieved an excellent position, took a draw and went to rapid tiebreakers.

It was a strategic masterstroke. He steamrollered Caruana 3-0 at shorter controls. Anybody could have seen this coming. Carlsen has always been an outstanding fast player. Caruana didn’t take rapid or blitz seriously until after that thrashing. In 2018, Caruana wasn’t even in the Top 100 (Blitz) and he was more than hundred Elo below Carlsen at Rapids.

Last week, these two played the rapid finals of the Clutch Chess. Caruana won a semi-final from 4-0 behind versus Wesley So, while Carlsen demolished Levon Aronian. It was an incredible slugfest that indicated Caruana has now developed into a formidable rapid player. After Day One, they were tied 2-2 with two draws. On Day Two, Caruana took the lead by winning Game 11 though he only equalised the score in terms of four wins each!

This was due to the clutch factor, where some games score higher. Game 5 and 6 were worth two points each and they traded wins. Then, Carlsen won Game 7 and Game 10, while Caruana won Game 9. But these were normal games (1 point each).

Game 11 and 12 were both worth three each. The Game 11 win gave Don Fabiano the lead. Carlsen pulled out all the stops to win Game 12 and take the title. The winner gets US $50,000 and the runner-up US $35,000, plus extra for winning clutch games (two wins each).

Meanwhile, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the Sharjah World Stars, a double round-robin tournament at Internet Chess Club (ICC) for a prize fund of $10,000. The Azeri GM scored 7.5 out of 10 with Pentala Harikrishna (6.5) second.

Fide has teamed up with Chess.com to launch a speed chess championship for women with a complicated format. First there’s a sequence of Swiss events. The first eight in each Swiss qualify for round-robin to push two toppers to the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix involves four events with 12 qualifiers from the Swisses plus 9 seeded players battling. The two GP toppers play a final. There’s respectable prize money for every event.

At the Diagram, White to Play (White: Carlsen Vs Black: Caruana, Game 12 Clutch 2020), Carlsen broke with 16. e6! fe6 ?! (Maybe 16.—f6 is better) 17. Ng5 Rf6 18. Qc2 Rg6 ? [ 18.—g6 19. Bb2 is horrible but this loses outright). White finished 19. Rxe6! Qxe6 20. Nxe6 Rxe6 21. Bb2 Rae8 22. Bd4 Kh8 23. Qf5 Bc8 24. Qh5 c5 25. Bxc5 Re5 26. Qf7 Bf3 27. Bf8! Re1+ 28. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 29. Kf2 Rf1+ 30. Ke2 Nc3+ 31. Kd3 (1-0).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player