人格

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Notes by Leonard Barden

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Fabiano Caruana – Peter T. Roberson
30th European Club Cup; Bilbao, September 15, 2014
Anglo-Indian Defence A15

Another, less known, Caruana bomb occurred at the European Club Cup in Bilbao where the Italian arrived straight off the plane from St. Louis as his team faced the English amateurs Grantham Sharks and their top board Peter Roberson, 25, who recently gained the international master title.

The opening 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 b6 3. g3 Bb7 4. Bg2 g6 5. d4 Bg7 6. 0-0 0-0, three fianchettoed Bishops and no central Pawn clashes, looked like shadow boxing until Caruana’s 7. d5!? showed that even in this routine position he was well prepared. Opening databases show that the unusual Pawn push has by far the best results of any move here. Moreover, it had been previously played by the élite GMs Étienne Bacrot, Alex Grischuk, and Vassily Ivanchuk, an excellent pedigree. And that was not all. After Black’s reply 7. ... Ne4 8. Qc2 f5

Caruana brought out 9. Rd1! a novelty in a position where world No5 Grischuk had won with 9. Bf4, then followed up with a small tactic to reach a position where he had the initiative and the better Pawn structure. It was possibly tenable with best play, but Roberson soon lost a Pawn and Caruana smoothly switched to a won Queen ending. 9. ... c6 10. Nd4 cxd5 11. cxd5 Bxd5 12. Nxf5 Rxf5 13. Bxe4 Bxe4 14. Qxe4 Nc6 15. Nc3 e6 16. Bf4 Rc8 17. Rd6 g5 18. Be3 Ne5 19. Rad1 Qf8 20. Qb7 Rf7 21. Ne4 h6 22. Bd4 Rc2 23. Bxe5 Bxe5 24. Rxd7 Rc7 25. Rxf7 Qxf7 26. Qa8+ Kg7 27. b3 Rd7 28. Rc1 Rc7 29. Rxc7 Qxc7 30. Qe8 Qc2 31. Qe7+ Kh8 32. Qf8+ Kh7 33. Qf7+ Kh8 34. Nf6 Qc1+ 35. Kg2 Qc6+ 36. e4 Bxf6 37. Qxf6+ Kh7 38. Qf7+ Kh8 39. Qg6 1 : 0. (Leonard Barden, The Guardian, October 3, 2014).