Fabiano Caruana vs Levon Aronian, Ruy Lopez, Closed (C88), Anti-Marshall Systems
2018 Chess Candidates Tournament, Round 13, Berlin, Germany, 3/26/18
Fabiano is back in the lead! Before round 13 him and Sergey Karjakin were both at 7/12, but with Sergey in clear first due to having a higher number of decisive results. He drew his today’s game against So quickly, and didn’t fight for a win, which gave a chance for Caruana to take over the lead once more!
He had the white pieces against Levon Aronian, who is in last place and playing sadly, and he was considered a favorite before the game. They played a Closed Ruy Lopez. A highly theoretical variation with clear plans for both sides, a lot of maneuvering and not too many exchanges or attacking moves early on. Levon managed to equalize and to gain a bit of initiative, but failed to materialize on it and let it slip in Caruana’s favor soon after. Caruana started gaining space on both sides of the board. He pushed Levon back, improved his pieces and started an attack. Levon completely underestimated his threats and got him self into a very bad situation.
He was forced to sacrifice a piece and got a worse position, but the onslaught that came afterwards by Caruana is what makes this game completely mad! He played an attack so swift and precise, that Aronian stood absolutely no chance (he did, however, have an opportunity to play a super complicated engine line which would draw, but no human could have spotted it, let alone with 3 minutes on the clock).
Caruana kept on attacking until Levon collapsed and resigned. This means that Caruana is now at 8/13! He is in clear first as they go into last round no matter what happens in the rest of the games, regardless of other results. Therefore, he gets to decide his own faith! I must say I rooted for Sergey, but his passive, cowardly play against Wesley today made me switch sides! I hope Fabi continues playing this well and gets to challenge Magnus for the title! Stay tuned for round 14!
*Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game) occurs after the moves:
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5,
And the closed variations are characterized by white retreating the bishop to a4 with 3…a6, 4. Ba4