Fabiano Caruana wins the 2018 Grenke Chess Classic! After the Candidates, he once again managed to outrank the competition and finished in clear first. This is his brilliant round 9 win over Vitiugov.
Nikita Vitiugov vs Fabiano Caruana, C43, Petrov’s Defense (Russian Game), Modern Attack
2018 Grenke Chess Classic, Round 9, Baden Baden, Deutschland, 04/09/18
Fabiano has been playing like he is from another world! In two consecutive events he managed to play attacking, fearless, imaginative and super-precise chess, not giving the competition a chance to catch up (he led the candidates from round 4). He won Grenke in clear first as well, with 6.5/9, in front of Magnus Carlsen, who was in 2nd with 5.5.
Here are the standings after round 9:
Fabiano Caruana 6.5/9
Magnus Carlsen 5.5/9
Nikita Vitiugov 5/9
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 5/9
Levon Aronian 5/9
Matthias Bluebaum 4.5/9
Yifan Hou 3.5/9
Arkadij Naiditsch 3.5/9
Viswanathan Anand 3.5/9
Georg Meier 3/9
In round 9 Caruana faced Nikita Vitiugov with the black pieces. He played his signature Petrov’s Defense (also known as the Petroff or the Russian game, depending on where you live). He got out of opening theory on move 5! Perhaps the line was prepared much in advance, and he only got to use it now, but Vitiugov definitely allowed Fabiano to equalize straight out of the opening and black immediately had a very comfortable position.
What came in the middle game is why Magnus Carlsen should fear the upcoming match against Caruana. Caruana played with almost engine strength, showing a deep understanding of the position, attacking prowess, and a relentless search for tiny improvements, which ultimately lead to a dominant, and, finally, to a winning position. He completely outranked Vitiugov.
Game moves:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 d5 5.Nbd2 Qd7 6.Bd3 Nc5
7.Be2 g6 8.Nb3 Ne6 9.Be3 c5 10.Ng5 b6 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.a4 Bb7
13.O-O Nc6 14.f4 Bh6 15.a5 Ne7 16.Bg4 d4 17.Bc1 O-O 18.Qd3 Bd5
19.Qh3 Bg7 20.Nd2 Nf5 21.c4 dxc3 22.bxc3 Rad8 23.axb6 axb6
24.Re1 b5 25.Ne4 Qe7 26.Ng5 h6 27.Nf3 Bc6 28.Bxf5 gxf5 29.Be3
Rd3 30.Rac1 Ra8 31.Qh4 Qxh4 32.Nxh4 c4 33.Kf2 Bf8 34.Nf3 Bd5
35.Nd4 Bc5 36.Nxf5 Ba3 37.Nxh6+ Kg7 38.f5 Bxc1 39.Bxc1 Rxc3
40.f6+ Kg6 0-1