Sergey Karjakin vs Fabiano Caruana, C42, Petrov’s Defense (Russian Game)
2018 Chess Candidates Tournament, Round 12
Sergey Karjakin played an immortal Russian Game today! He faced the tournament leader, Fabiano Caruana, who was in clear first after 11 rounds. Sergey had started the tournament horribly, but he managed to pick himself up and play much better as the rounds went by and he crushed Aronian in round 11 which brought him to the second place on the scoreboard! And today he played one of his best games ever against Caruana and demolished him so badly, that after 20 moves blacks position was resignable.
The game started as a relatively boring Petrov’s defense, but right out of the opening Karjakin played a move so strong that even the engines didn’t realize it at first! He gave up his rook for a bishop and a pawn but in exchange he got a dominating position and all of Caruana’s pieces were as good as dead!
From then on he built up on his advantage and managed to convert into an ending in which he had 4 pawns for the exchange and Caruana was completely busted and resigned! This is perhaps the game of the year, and by far the most exciting one at the Candidates Tournament so far!
He is now in first place! He has an equal amount of points as Caruana, and Mamedyarov lost to Ding so he will definitely stay in first until round 13! He has now gathered momentum and I think he is too strong for anyone to stop him from winning! And if he manages, and gets to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship for the second time, I think the result might be a lot different!