Caruana, the rising superstar

Games from Olympiad
Vol. XXII, No. 100
Friday, December 12, 2008 MANILA, PHILIPPINES
ChessPiece
Bobby Ang

The chess Olympiad is, of course, first and foremost a chess event. Oftentimes we concentrate on the sporting, competitive and sometimes even political aspects of the various teams’ performances and miss out on the rich chess content that gets served up in every Olympiad. Today we will concentrate on the great games played in the 38th Chess Olympiad held in Dresden 2008.

2640. He is of Italian parentage born in Miami, Florida, in July 1992 and learned to play chess when they moved to Brooklyn and is a product of the Susan Polgar Chess Club. His rise from then on can only be described as sensational: at 10 years old he defeated his first GM, the late Alex Wojtkiewicz, in an official tournament, FM title at the age of 12, IM at 15, and, in July 2008, his GM title.

During those years when Caruana was an up-and-comer I had briefly looked at his games and judged him to be a dry and boring technician. I am very glad to see from the Olympiad games that he has developed his attacking instinct quite well indeed. With technique you can become a master, but to beat the masters you need to take the fight to them, to create, to attack.

Caruana, Fabiano (2640) – Berg, Emanuel (2623) [C10]
38th Olympiad Dresden GER (7), 20.11.2008

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4

This is already a bit of a surprise, as Berg, the champion of Sweden, is known as a specialist of 3…Bb4 4.e5 c5, the French Winawer.

4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6

Black wants to eliminate White’s knight on e4 followed by pushing …c7-c5.

6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.Bd3

In the “Opening for White According to Anand” series written by former world champion Alexander Khalifman, quite an acclaimed series of opening theoreticals, El Khalif does not have much faith in this line adopted by White. This game follows his analysis up to the 13th move, with Khalifman ending with the comment that black “can easily complete his development and equalize.” We will see.

7…c5 8.dxc5

Nowadays all the rage now is the Volokitin plan with 8.Be3 Qc7 9.Qe2 followed by queenside castling, but there is nothing wrong, of course, with this classical approach.

8…Bxc5 9.Qe2 0-0 10.0-0 b6 11.Bg5 Bb7 12.Rad1 Qc7 13.Ne5 Rfd8 14.Kh1

White can play to open the g-file, but it can also backfire. Let us see: 14.Bxf6 gxf6 15.Qg4+ Kf8! (Not 15…Kh8? 16.Qh5 Rxd3 17.Nxf7+! Kg7 18.Rxd3 Qxf7 19.Qxf7+ Kxf7 20.Rd7+ wins) 16.Nc4 Ke7 followed by …Rg8 and it is Black who is attacking.

14…Be7 15.Rde1 h6 16.Bh4 Nd5 17.Bg3 Bd6 18.Qe4 Nf6 19.Qh4 Nd7?

The mistake. Black wants to exchange pieces but overlooks the attack that follows.

20.Nxf7! Kxf7 21.Rxe6! Nc5?

Black gets checkmated after 21…Kxe6? 22.Bc4+ Kf5 23.Qh5+ g5 24.Qf7+ Nf6 25.Be6+ Ke4 26.Qg6+ Kd4 27.Qd3+ Kc5 28.Qc4#.

Best play seems to be 21…Ne5! and after 22.Rxe5 Bxe5 23.Qh5+ Kg8 24.Bxe5 Qe7 25.f4 White’s two bishops are dominating and he has a strong attack, but there is no immediate win.

22.Rxd6! Rxd6 23.Qf4+ Ke7 24.Re1+ Kd7 25.Bb5+ Bc6 26.Qf5+ Ne6 27.Bxd6 Qxd6 28.Rxe6! 1-0

Black resigns as after the forced 28…Qxe6 29.Bxc6+ Kd6 30.Qxe6+ Kxe6 31.Bxa8 there is nothing left to play for.

Here is the full article.