Channel Tunnel

Fabiano Caruana – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

1st Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour; second leg; Stage 2: Knockout; Quarterfinal match game 2; time control: 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move; Paris, April 10, 2025

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Position #73

1. c4 c5 2. f4 d6 3. d3 f5 4. Nc3 e6 5. Nc2 Qf7 6. Qf2 0-0 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. e3 Nc7 9. d4

9. ... g5!? A hasty, wild advance, lacking the background of a sound development. It brings to mind an evocative hologram of the ghost of Morphy in Paris: 1. a3 e5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e3 Be6 6. Nf3 Bd6 7. Be2 0-0 8. d4 Nxc3 9. bxc3 e4 10. Nd2 f5 11. f4 g5!? (Anderssen – P. C. Morphy, Paris 1858, match game 6).
10. Bd2 Qg7 11. Nb5 Nxb5 12. cxb5 Ne7 13. dxc5 dxc5 14. Bc3 Qg6 15. a4 Nd5 16. Be5 a6 17. bxa6 bxa6 18. Na3

18. ... Nf6? Finally, Black gets wrapped up in his own developmental scheme. Here 18. ... Bc6 19. Nc4 Be7 was to be preferred, although 20. b3!⩲ would have given Black reason enough to regret his 9th move.
19. Nc4 Be7 20. Bf3 gxf4. 20. ... g4 21. Bb7 Rd8 22. Bc7 would be a triumph of White’s Bishop pair.
21. exf4 Rd8 22. b3 Ne4 23. Qe2 Bc6 24. Bc7

24. ... Bf6. A desperate Exchange sacrifice, trying to delay the inevitable. If 24. ... Rd4 then 25. Ne5 Qe8 26. Nxc6 Qxc6 27. Be5 Rb4 28. Rc4! Rxc4 (28. ... Rxb3? 29. Rxe4!+−) 29. bxc4 with an imposing position for White.
25. Bxe4 Bxe4 26. Bxd8 Rxd8 27. Ne5 Bxe5 28. fxe5 Kh8 29. Rxc5 Qg5 30. Rc3 Qg7 31. Rfc1 Qb7 32. Qf2 1–0. An iron fist in a velvet glove.

Caruana showed a deep understanding of how Fischerandom chess works. Photo: Stev Bonhage/Freestyle Chess.