A Study in Scarlet

Fabiano Caruana – Gawain Christopher B. Jones
4th Isle of Man International Chess Tournament; Douglas, September 29, 2017
Spanish Game C78

Finally, most things in Douglas have been “normalized”, even without the help of Harry Potter’s magic. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. c3 d6 8. a4 Rb8 9. d4 Bb6 10. a5 Ba7 11. h3 0-0 12. Be3 Ra8 13. Re1 h6 14. Nbd2 exd4 15. cxd4 Nb4 16. e5! Jones must have felt a powerful blow on his front teeth! Caruana’s novelty decisively improves on 16. d5 Bxe3 17. Rxe3 c5 18. dxc6 Nxc6 19. e5 Nxe5 20. Nxe5 dxe5 21. Rxe5 Ra7 and Black laboriously managed to consolidate, Grandelius – Jones, 61st Spanish Team Chess Championship (División de Honor), Linares 2017. 16. ... Nfd5 17. Ne4 Nxe3 18. Rxe3 Bb7 19. e6! Nd5 20. exf7+ Kh8 21. Re1 Rxf7 22. Rc1 Rc8

23. Nfg5! Another deadly blow! 23. ... Rf5? Clearly not 23. ... hxg5?? because of 24. Qh5+ Kg8 25. Nxg5 and wins. 23. ... Re7 seems to be the most critical defence, but Jones obviously ran into a prepared variation, and I think Caruana was well ready to give mate! Whatever it is, it seems to me that after 23. ... Re7 24. Qg4! White’s attack is awesome enough. 24. Ne6! Qd7 25. Qg4 Qf7 26. Rxc7! Rxc7 27. Nxd6 Rxf2 28. Nxc7! Qf6 29. Nxd5 Qxd4 30. Qxd4 Bxd4 31. Re4! Ba7 32. Nb6! 1 : 0. What a massacre.