Chessable Houska's Caro

2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 (2)

Caruana off to a flying start with a perfect score after two rounds

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was badly beaten by leader Fabiano Caruana. Photo ©

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was badly beaten by leader Fabiano Caruana. Photo © | http://uschesschamps.com/live

Fabiano Caruana demolished Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's Advanced Caro-Kann to plve to a clear lead of 2/2. Caruana was surprised by MVL's choice of the Caro-Kann but used a new idea he prepared for Mamedyarov a few months ago. Caruana is already a point clear of Magnus Carlsen who secured a reasonably comfortable draw against Hikaru Nakamura using the 3...g6 line of the Ruy Lopez to surprise his opponent, that game finished in perpetual check. Carlsen has started his first two games with black and gets his first white against the leader in round 3. Levon Aronian had a bit of an opening disaster against Veselin Topalov but once he escaped immediate difficulties Topalov just collapsed very quickly to a horrible loss. Topalov may already be in huge trouble in the event unless he can recover his form, in particular calculation which he himself highlighted in his post-game press conference.

Round 2 Standings: Caruana 2/2, Aronian 1.5, Nakamura, Carlsen 1, Vachier-Lagrave 0.5, Topalov 0pts.

Round 3 Friday 2pm local time 8pm UK time: Topalov-Nakamura, Vachier-Aronian and Carlsen-Caruana,

I will be hosting commentary with GM Lars Bo Hansen on ICC which can be seen at ICC's Twitch TV page. Feel free to drop in. I'm also hosting with Ronen Har-Zvi on Saturday.

Fabiano Caruana move to 2/2 with a crushing win against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave almost straight out of the opening. The Advanced Caro-Kann is clearly in a bit of trouble these days and Vachier-Legrave was put under pressure almost immediately, got into serious time pressure and his position collapsed. More impressive preparation from Caruana who faces Carlsen with black on Friday's Round 3.

Caruana didn't expect the Caro-Kann (instead the Najdorf Sicilian) but had an idea of 14.Rc1 Qb2 15.g4 he prepared several months ago for Mamedyarov. "I didn't remember all the details but decided to play fast anyway." Caruana. 17...Nh6 seems to be the losing move for black wiht possibly 17...Kf8 leading to an unclear position but white had a huge time advantage at this point and a lot of attacking possiblities.

Magnus Carlsen drew a Ruy Lopez with the unusual 3...g6 against Hikaru Nakamura. Both players said that black was more or less fine out of the opening. Carlsen thought his 18.... Nh5 was an enterprising move potentially giving up a couple of pawns but Nakamura slightly surprised him in return and the game fizzled out to a draw by perpertual check. Carlsen plays Caruana in round 3 and Carlsen said that when asked about his challengers to his number one rating he said of Caruana "It's clear for everyone to see he's probably the guy now."

Levon Aronian turned round a rather dodgy Slav opening with white into victory against Veselin Topalov. Aronian missed the forcing sequence 10. Ne4 Nxe4 11.Ng5 Qd5 12.f4 h6 13.Nh3 Bxh3 14.gxh3 Bxd4! left him in deep trouble (he thought he had chances) although the position was still extremely sharp. Topalov just started to go wrong. "I basically lost the game in two moves" Around move 20 Topalov said he confused the position of the rook and king in his mind and so there was no check where he expected one and then in a position that was already difficult 22...0-0-0 "was just a mistake" and Aronian won very quickly after that. Topalov said that there was something "drastically wrong" with his calculations and he wasn't sure how he was going to fix this problem.

Aronian said he knew what he played was wrong but at the board he asked himself "why is this wrong?" and when Topalov played 14...Bxd4! "I found out." Aronian's position was "very sad" as none of his attacking ideas worked and the position didn't look as though it could be opened up for his bishops. Already after 20...Qe6 Aronian felt he was now alive but then Topalov collapsed with 22...0-0-0 rather than going king-side when the position is roughly balanced according to Aronian.

2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 Saint Louis USA (USA), 27 viii-7 ix 2014 cat. XXIII (2802)
1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2801 * * . . . . . . 1 . 1 . 2
2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2805 . . * * ½ . . . . . 1 . 2972
3. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2787 . . ½ . * * ½ . . . . . 1 2841
4. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2877 . . . . ½ . * * ½ . . . 1 2777
5. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime g FRA 2768 0 . . . . . ½ . * * . . ½ 2646
6. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2772 0 . 0 . . . . . . . * * 0
Round 2 (August 28, 2014)
Caruana, Fabiano - Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 1-0 30 B12 Caro Kann Advanced
Aronian, Levon - Topalov, Veselin 1-0 29 D15 Slav Defence
Nakamura, Hikaru - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ 32 C60 Ruy Lopez

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