Georg Meier vs Fabiano Caruana, Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game) Exchange Variation, C69
2018 Grenke Chess Classic, Round 3, Karlsruhe, Germany 04/02/18
In depth theory of the Exchange Ruy Lopez: https://youtu.be/W72Vw-DxvA0
Fabiano Caruana, the new challenger for the World Championship title has face Germany’s no1. in round 3 of the Grenke Chess Classic. He drew in the first two rounds, perhaps still recuperating from the exhausting Candidates Tournament, but in this game he played the super-precise, attacking chess that got him to challenge Magnus. Meier played the Exchange Ruy Lopez, which Caruana allowed with Nc6 (he usually plays Nf6, going for the Petrov’s Defense).
Caruana didn’t go for the standard lines with f6, he chose Qf6 instead, a somewhat rare line, preferred by Bobby Fischer. They followed the main line until Fabiano played a very interesting novelty – g5! This move is a completely new idea in the Exchange Spanish and it gives black a very double-edged position with great attacking prospects, but leaves the king undefended a s a downside. Meier didn’t run from a fight and he entered a very sharp line with h4! He fought for the kingside and, unfortunately for him, paid a heavy price soon afterwards.
The g5 novelty, as Caruana said in the press conference afterwards, was a line he prepared 4 years ago! He didn’t have an opportunity to use it earlier, and now he did. And with great effect. The attacking line with Qf6 and g5 is definitely a great new idea in the Exchange, and I’m sure it will become very popular very soon.
Meier vs Caruana press conference with Jan Gustafsson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D1HisDtx6Q
Caruana attacked relentlessly until he overran Georg with a kingside blitzkrieg which was just precise enough to give white no good defensive options. Another game which speaks against the variation, and goes in black’s favor in the theoretical debate. It just goes to show that white is positionally better because of his pawn structure, but if black is able to strike first, white will have a hard time defending.
2018 Grenke Chess Classic, Standings after Round 3:
Nikita Vitiugov 2.5/3
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2.5/3
Fabiano Caruana 2/3
Levon Aronian 2/3
Magnus Carlsen 2/3
Matthias Bluebaum 1/3
Arkadij Naiditsch 1/3
Viswanathan Anand 1/3
Georg Meier 0.5/3
Yifan Hou 0.5/3