The Last First Time

Magnus Carlsen – Fabiano Caruana

1st Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour; second leg; Stage 2: Knockout; Semifinal match game 2; time control: 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move; Paris, April 12, 2025

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Position #4

1. c4 c5 2. b3 b6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Ne6 5. Qd2 Nf6 6. Ne3 Re8 7. Bb2 Bb7 8. f3 Bf4?! The Black dark-squared Bishop goes from the a-side to the h-side looking for something to target, but the whole journey takes a little too much time. 8. ... d5! seems a more direct way to equilibrium.
9. g3 Bh6 10. N1g2 g6. Finally, fianchettoing the Bishop.

11. h4! Qb8 12. g4 Bg7 13. h5 Bh6. Otherwise there follows h5-h6.
14. 0-0-0 Bg5 15. Bc2 Nf4 16. Nxf4 Qxf4 17. Nf1 Qxd2+ 18. Nxd2 e5 19. Kb1 Re6

20. h6! Keeping Black bottled up.
20. ... 0-0 21. e4 d6 22. b4 Nd7 23. Ka1 Rc8 24. Bb3 Rf6

It’s finally time to break through:
25. c5! Ba6. Both 26. ... bxc5 and 26. ... dxc5 would be met by 27. Nc4 with prompt invasion by the Knight.
26. Bc4 Nb8? Black was already very short of time, and inevitably committed mistakes. Here 26. ... Bb7! was called for, so as to reply to 27. Bb3 with 27. ... Ba6, offering to repeat moves.
27. b5! Rxc5 28. bxa6 Bxd2 29. Rxd2 Rxc4 30. Bxe5! Re6. The Bishop is obviously taboo because of the back rank mate at d8.
31. Bxd6 Nxa6

32. Bb8!? The simple doubling of the Rooks, with 32. Rhd1, should suffice, but Carlsen is irresistibly tempted by the tricky text move, which fell like a thundernbolt on Caruana.
32. ... Re8? The cool 32. ... Kf8!! would hold everything together, for if 33. Bxa7 Black can reply with 33. ... Rc7 without fear of being checkmated.
33. Bxa7 b5 34. Bd4 Nc7 35. Bf6 Ne6 36. Rhd1 Ra4 37. Rd3 g5 38. R1d2 b4 39. Kb1 Rea8 40. Be7 Re8 41. Bf6 Rea8 42. Rb2 R4a6 43. Rdb3 Nf8 44. Bxg5 1–0.