Treasure Isle

熊奕韬 (Jeffery Xióng) – Eesha Karavade
5th Isle of Man International Chess Tournament; Douglas, October 20, 2018
Caro-Kann Defence B12

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. dxc5 e6 5. Nf3 Bxc5 6. a3 Ne7 7. Bd3 Ng6 8. 0-0 0-0. A recent reference is 8. ... Nc6 9. b4 Bb6 10. Bb2 Nf4 11. c4 Nxd3 12. Qxd3 dxc4 13. Qxc4 Ne7(?) 14. Nc3 Bd7 15. Qg4 Bc6 16. Rad1 Qc7 17. Ng5! with powerful initiative, Karjakin – Topalov, 4th Gashimov Memorial, Şəmkir 2017. 9. Ng5 Be7 10. Qh5 Bxg5 11. Bxg5 Qc7!? It is an improvement over 11. ... Qb6? 12. Be7? (much stronger was 12. Nd2! to be followed by Nd2-f3) 12. ... Re8 13. Bd6 Bd7 14. Nc3 f5 which yet did not lead to anything special for White (who, however, could have done better), Hoolt – Sargsyan, 19th European Women’s Individual Chess Championship, Vysoké Tatry 2018. 12. Nc3 Nc6? If 12. ... Qxe5 then 13. Rae1 eventually followed by Re1-e3-h3 with obvious compensation for the Pawn. From Back’s standpoint, however, that was probably the “best of all possible worlds”. 13. f4! Nd4. If 13. ... h6 then 14. Bxh6! gxh6 15. Nb5 Qb6+ 17. Kh1 Nce7 18. Nd6 with a crushing attack. 14. Rae1! h6

15. Bf6! White brilliantly demolishes his opponent’s card castle. 15. ... gxf6 16. exf6 Nf5. There ain’t no use in this, but 16. ... Qd8 loses as well because of 17. Bxg6 Qxf6 18. Bd3! followed by the Rook lift to e3 or e5. 17. Bxf5 exf5 18. Nxd5 Qc5+ 19. Re3. Finally! 19. ... Rd8 (20. ... Kh7 21. b4!+−) 20. Qxh6 Qf8 21. Ne7+! 1 : 0.