Yesterday I had a wonderful experience annotating the games from the final round of the Gashimov Memorial online for the chess.com server with the fellow GM Simon Williams. The accent was naturally put on the decisive game of the event between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. The world champion played a brilliant game and achieved an easily won position. However, Black kept on playing.
Was Caruana simply reluctant to resign due to the frustration, or did he have something deeper on his mind?
Check out for yourselves:
A game that I liked (ChessBase 12)
[Event "Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2014"]
[Site "Shamkir"]
[Date "2014.04.30"]
[Round "10"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2881"]
[BlackElo "2783"]
[Annotator "Bojkov, Dejan"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "3R4/2P3bk/q5r1/1N2n2p/4Q3/2P4P/6B1/6K1 w - - 0 47"]
[PlyCount "5"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]
[EventCountry "AZE"]
{[%cal Ge6a6]} {The pawn is unstoppable, hite is two pawns ahead, his king is
secure. Nevertheless, Caruana have just played the move 46...Qe6-a6. Was it
just a desperation, or as Simon thought, Fabiano was preparing mentally for
the resignation?} 47. c8=Q Qa1+ {The last desperate check. Where will the king
go?} 48. Kf2 $1 {Played instantly. The world champion knows his busyness!} ({
What would be more natural than the retreat-} 48. Kh2 {Diagram [#] Black is
completely tied up and his pieces are scattered around, correct? This move
however will activate devilish trap number one:} Nf3+ $3 {[%csl Yh2][%cal
Ra1g1,Rg7e5,Rg6g1] When suddenly it is Black who wins!} 49. Qxf3 ({In the line
} 49. Bxf3 Qg1# {[%csl Rg1][%cal Rg6g1,Ra1g1] it is the pinned rook which
helps.}) 49... Be5+ {with checkmate on the next move.}) 48... Qb2+ {One more
desperate (useless) check?} 49. Ke1 $1 {Nope. This was one more devilish trick.
} ({Devilish trick number two is revealed in the line:} 49. Qe2 $4 {[%csl Rh7]
[%cal Re4h7] Diagram [#]} Rxg2+ $1 {The rook is free!} 50. Kxg2 Qxe2+ 51. Kh1 (
51. Kg3 Qf3+ 52. Kh2 Qf2+ {would lead to the same.}) 51... Qf1+ 52. Kh2 Nf3+
53. Kg3 Be5# {Checkmate! The moral of the story is to always ask yourself the
simple question: "What does my opponent want?"}) 1-0
Was Caruana simply reluctant to resign due to the frustration, or did he have something deeper on his mind?
Check out for yourselves:
[Event "Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2014"]
[Site "Shamkir"]
[Date "2014.04.30"]
[Round "10"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2881"]
[BlackElo "2783"]
[Annotator "Bojkov, Dejan"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "3R4/2P3bk/q5r1/1N2n2p/4Q3/2P4P/6B1/6K1 w - - 0 47"]
[PlyCount "5"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]
[EventCountry "AZE"]
{[%cal Ge6a6]} {The pawn is unstoppable, hite is two pawns ahead, his king is
secure. Nevertheless, Caruana have just played the move 46...Qe6-a6. Was it
just a desperation, or as Simon thought, Fabiano was preparing mentally for
the resignation?} 47. c8=Q Qa1+ {The last desperate check. Where will the king
go?} 48. Kf2 $1 {Played instantly. The world champion knows his busyness!} ({
What would be more natural than the retreat-} 48. Kh2 {Diagram [#] Black is
completely tied up and his pieces are scattered around, correct? This move
however will activate devilish trap number one:} Nf3+ $3 {[%csl Yh2][%cal
Ra1g1,Rg7e5,Rg6g1] When suddenly it is Black who wins!} 49. Qxf3 ({In the line
} 49. Bxf3 Qg1# {[%csl Rg1][%cal Rg6g1,Ra1g1] it is the pinned rook which
helps.}) 49... Be5+ {with checkmate on the next move.}) 48... Qb2+ {One more
desperate (useless) check?} 49. Ke1 $1 {Nope. This was one more devilish trick.
} ({Devilish trick number two is revealed in the line:} 49. Qe2 $4 {[%csl Rh7]
[%cal Re4h7] Diagram [#]} Rxg2+ $1 {The rook is free!} 50. Kxg2 Qxe2+ 51. Kh1 (
51. Kg3 Qf3+ 52. Kh2 Qf2+ {would lead to the same.}) 51... Qf1+ 52. Kh2 Nf3+
53. Kg3 Be5# {Checkmate! The moral of the story is to always ask yourself the
simple question: "What does my opponent want?"}) 1-0
1 comment:
As long as there are tricks, it is worth continuing to play. I have lost totally won games and won totally lost games in the final moments. I wish it weren't so, but we are human. I usually resign only when there are no more tricks left.
Post a Comment