Unfinished

Magnus Carlsen – Fabiano Caruana

1st Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour; second leg; Stage 1: Rapid Round Robin; time control: 10 minutes plus 5 seconds per move; Paris, April 7, 2025

rknnqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNNQRBB w FAfa - 0 1

Position #751

1. f4 f5 2. g3 g6 3. a4 a5 4. Nc3 Nd6 5. d4 Nc6 6. e3 Bc4 7. Rf2 Nb4 8. b3 Be6 9. Rd2 Qf7. The opening turned out well for Caruana, who is going to castle a-side with fine play.
10. Nd3 Nxd3 11. Rxd3 c6 12. e4 fxe4 13. Nxe4 Nxe4 14. Bxe4 0-0! 15. 0-0-0! Of course, the heterogeneous castling is strategically sound and tactically challenging!
15. ... Bg4 16. R1d2 e6 17. Rc3 Qe7 18. Kb2 Rab8 19. Bg2 Bf5 20. h3

20. ... g5!? Black does not hesitate to give up a Pawn in order to keep the Bishop in the diagonal.
21. g4 Bg6 22. fxg5? A very hot Pawn. Within a couple of moves, Black’s attack unleashes all its potential. 22. f5! was called for.
22. ... b5! 23. Bh2

23. ... bxa4!! 24. Bxb8 Rxb8 25. h4? And Carlsen continues to play with fire. 25. Rc4! axb3 26. c3! was now the only way to survive.
25. ... Qb4! With the manifest threat of ... a4-a3+.
26. Qg3

26. ... c5? A spontaneous mistake! The right break was 26. ... e5! (27. dxe5 Re8), in fact preventing White’s next move.
27. Rc4! Qb6. Not 27. ... Qxd2 by reason of 28. Qxb8+ Kg7 29. Qe5+ Kg8 30. Qxc5 with overwhelming advantage.
28. h5 axb3 29. cxb3 Bf7? And, finally, Caruana comes to his cupio dissolvi. Correct was 29. ... Be8! 30. Rxc5 Bxd4+ 31. Rxd4 Qxc5 still holding everything together.
30. Rxc5 e5. Now the line as above does not work because of Black’s Rook en prise with check.
31. Bd5 Bxd5 32. Rxd5 exd4 33. Qd3 a4 34. b4 Qxb4+ 35. Ka2 Bg7 36. Rxd7 Qb3+ 37. Qxb3+ axb3+ 38. Kb1 Re8 39. Kb2 Re5 40. Rf2 d3 41. Kxb3 1–0.

However, it wasn’t the chance that brought together two archrivals in a highly creative chess challenge. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess.