King’s Road

Nikita Kirillovich Vitiugov – Fabiano Caruana
5th GRENKE Chess Classic; Baden-Baden, April 9, 2019
Russian Defence C43

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. dxe5 d5 5. Nbd2 Qd7!? Caruana adopts another arrangement of his recent concert in Berlin: 5. ... Nxd2 6. Bxd2 Be7 7. Bd3 c5 8. c3 Nc6 9. 0-0 Bg4 10. Re1 Qd7 11. h3 Bh5 12. Bf4 Qe6 13. a3 0-0 14. b4 h6 15. Bg3 b6 which proved to be satisfactory as well, Grischuk – Caruana, Candidates Tournament, Berlin 2018. 6. Bd3 Nc5 7. Be2 g6 8. Nb3 Ne6 9. Be3 c5 10. Ng5. Vitiugov, who was unbeaten so far, had to win at all costs, so no wonder he ended up pushing too hard. 10. ... b6 11. Nxe6 fxe6 12. a4 Bb7 13. 0-0 Nc6 14. f4 Bh6 15. a5 Ne7 16. Bg4 d4 17. Bc1 0-0 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. “The American thought Vitiugov should have played c2-c3 at some point to not allow ... d5-d4 so easily and that after 27. ... Bc6 Black’s position was already almost impossible to hold on to”, Woman International Master Fiona Steil-Antoni wrote in her daily report. 28. Bxf5 gxf5 29. Be3

29. ... Rd3. It’s impressive the easiness how Black dominated the board. 30. Rac1 Ra8 31. Qh4 Qxh4 32. Nxh4 c4 33. Kf2 Bf8 34. Nf3 Bd5 35. Nd4 Bc5. Threatening ... Bc5xd4 followed by ... b5-b4. 36. Nxf5? Mistakes come easy when you’re in big trouble. 37. ... Ba3! 37. Nxh6+ Kg7 38. f5 Bxc1 39. Bxc1 Rxc3 40. f6+ Kg6 0 : 1. Fabiano Caruana presented himself in the best of fashion and proved to be a worthy challenger to Magnus Carlsen. Coming soon in London.

Nikita Kirillovich Vitiugov (left) vs. Fabiano Caruana (right). Photo: Georgios Souleidis/GRENKE Chess Classic.