Third eye

Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi – Fabiano Caruana

1st World Fischerandom Chess Championship; Final for Third Place; match game 3; Høvikodden, November 1, 2019

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Position 729

Nepomniachtchi took advantage of today’s two “slow rapid” games, winning one and drawing the other, but nothing is lost for Caruana, who will certainly do his best on tomorrow’s rapid and blitz games. 1. e4 Nf6 2. d3 d5 3. e5 Nd7 4. f4 Ndb6 5. Nb3 e6 6. Nf3 c5 7. c4 d4 8. Nfd2 Na4 9. Ne4 a5 10. f5 Bc6 11. Nbd2 Ncb6 12. Bxa4 Nxa4 13. Bg3

13. ... Ra6? Apparently no one is interested in castling, so both have to think about where to hide their monarchs. White’s King is obviously heading for c2, and probably Black’s King ought to settle with 13. ... Ka7!? 14. Kc2 Be7, for if 15. b3, as in the game, there could follow 15. ... Nc3 16. Nxc3 dxc3 17. Nb1 h5 18. h4 Rd8 19. Nxc3 Rd4 with fair compensation for the Pawn. Caruana goes instead for a more ambitious “non-castling attacking mode” which miserably fails on strategic and tactical grounds. 14. Kc2 Rb6 15. b3 Nc3 16. Nxc3 dxc3 17. Nb1 h5 18. h4 a4 19. Nxc3 Qe8 20. Qf2 Ra6 21. Rhe1 Ka8 22. Qxc5 Be7 23. Qf2 Bb4 24. Red1 Qd8 25. Rdb1 Qa5 26. Nxa4 Bxa4 27. bxa4 Bc5 28. Qf3 Qxa4+ 29. Kd2 Rb8 30. Rb5 Rb6 31. Qd1 Qxd1+ 32. Rxd1 Rxb5 33. cxb5 exf5 34. Rc1 b6 35. Rc4 Rd8 36. Kc3 Kb7 37. d4 Bf8 38. a4 Rd7 39. Bf4 Be7 40. g3 Bd8 41. Rc6 Bc7 42. Kc4 Rd8 43. d5 Ra8 44. Kb3 Re8 45. d6 Bd8 46. Kc4 Rg8 47. d7 Be7 48. e6 1 : 0.

Caruana and Nepomniachtchi are doing their very best to draw the public’s attention to their extremely hard-fought final for third place. Photo © Maria Alekseevna Emelianova.