Fabiano Caruana vs Aleksandr Lenderman, French Defense, Winawer C18
2018 US Chess Championship, Round 2, St. Louis, 04/19/18
After drawing first round against Liang in a fighting 50-move Sicilian, Fabiano Caruana played a swift blitzkrieg win against Lenderman yesterday! He faced the Winawer French and found a continuation that has only been played once before. It gave him a slight improvement on the common lines and must have confused his opponent. After only 20 moves, Lenderman’s position was busted! Caruana finished the game off by creating insurmountable pressure and pinning almost every black piece on the board. This provided a simple, winning tactic which won a piece and the game!
With this win Caruana is now at 1.5/2, half a point behind Akobian and Wesley So, who won both games. This means that we are most likely going to see a close race between the three (if Naka doesn’t joint them as well, and if Robson continues this well).
Here are the standings after rd.2:
Varuzhan Eduardovich Akobian 2/2
Wesley So 2/2
Ray Robson 1.5/2
Fabiano Caruana 1.5/2
Hikaru Nakamura 1/2
Samuel Shankland 1/2
Jeffery Xiong 1/2
Aleksandr Lenderman 0.5/2
Zviad Izoria 0.5/2
Awonder Liang 0.5/2
Yaroslav Zherebukh 0.5/2
Alexander Vasilyevich Onischuk 0/2
Caruana’s approach to the Winawer French in this game made me consider playing something than the Tarrasch against 1…e6 for the first time! He managed to dominate the position so simply that Lenderman never stood a chance! A great miniature by the young genius who might just be the next world champion!
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qa5
7. Bd2 Qa4 8. Qg4 Kf8 9. h4 Nc6 10. h5 h6 11. Qd1 cxd4 12. Nf3
dxc3 13. Bxc3 g5 14. hxg6 Qe4+ 15. Be2 Qxg6 16. Qd2 Nge7
17. Bd3 Qxg2 18. Ke2 Qg4 19. Rh4 Qg7 20. Rg1 Ng6 21. Rf4 Nce7
22. Bb4 a5 23. Rxg6 1-0