After losing his first 2 games, Curuana has won 3 straight. His victims include Victor Korchnoi and Mickey Adams!
Adams,Mi (2734) – Caruana,F (2640) [C03]
Dresden Olympiad, GER (5), 17.11.2008
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.Bd3 c5 7.c3 b6 8.Qe2 a5 9.a4 Ba6 10.Bxa6 Nxa6 11.0–0 Nc7 12.Re1 Nb8 13.Nb3 Nc6 14.Be3 c4 15.Nc1 b5 16.axb5 Nxb5 17.Qc2 Nba7 18.g3 Nc8 19.h4 h6 20.Ne2 Nb6 21.h5 a4 22.Nh2 Kd7 23.f4 Kc7 24.f5 Bg5 25.Nf4 Ne7 26.fxe6 Bxf4 27.Bxf4 fxe6 28.Rf1 Qd7 29.Rf2 Raf8 30.Raf1 Qe8 31.Qe2 Rf5 32.g4 Rf7 33.Bc1 Rhf8 34.Nf3 Nd7 35.Qc2 Nb6 36.Kg2 Qb5 37.Nh4 Qb3 38.Qh7 Rxf2+ 39.Rxf2 Rxf2+ 40.Kxf2 Kd7 41.Nf3 a3 42.bxa3 Na4 43.Bd2 Nxc3 44.Bxc3 Qxc3 45.Qb1 Kc7 46.a4 Nc6 47.Qg6 Qb2+ 48.Kg3 c3 49.Ne1 Qe2 50.Nc2 Kb6 51.a5+ Kxa5 52.Qxe6 Qd3+ 53.Kf4 Qe4+ 54.Kg3 Qd3+ 55.Kf4 Qxc2 56.Qxd5+ Kb4 57.Qc5+ Kb3 58.Qd5+ Kb2 59.Qb5+ Qb3 60.Qxc6 c2 61.Qg2 Qb4 62.Kf5 Qxd4 63.Qe2 Kc3 64.Qe1+ Qd2 0–1
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Nice game from Caruana against a top GM like Adams , the young Fabiano is very good lately and very promising for the future ,that is nice for our Italian friends , good luck to him , cheers
Beating Adams is quiet something for sure.
But the way Mickey played this game leaves me speechless.
If white was an average club player, I’d say, well maybe the french is not your opening…
But a +2700 GM with 20 years experience playing with so little positional understanding of this structure is unbelievable.
a4 is a really weird move in this structure and if he plays a4, he has to continue (better sooner than later) with b3 and Ba3 to trade the dark squared bishops.
but Mickey just played with his bishop along the c1-h6 diagonal where it has absolutly nothing to do.
white game really looks like a weak engine playing, with 0 understanding of the position and slowly getting crushed on the queenside without any resistance.
Once again, strong game from Caruana, congratulations Fabiano!
But really poor game from Adams.
This will be the firat and the last time Caruana crushes me in his life, Ja!
to anonymous 10:55:00 AM CST:
It’s hard to understand why you criticise Adams’ play so much. It seems he had a slight advantage through the game until he allowed Caruana too much counterplay (obviously overlooking …Qb3).
In this variation it’s difficult to avoid a trade of light-square bishops, but on the other hand Black’s play is rather slow and his kingside is vulnerable to Nf1-g3-h5 or (as Adams played h4-h5). It is unusual to acquiese to a bishop trade so easily in conjunction with a4, but shouldn’t be considered terrible. Usually White plays a4 and Bb5, and Black continues with …Qc8 and …Nc6, eventually trading on b5.
In fact a4 was surprisingly useful in this position since it dramatically slowed down Black’s queenside play. Caruana probably rushed in too early with …b5, and because Adams could hold …a4 Black’s counterplay looked much less concrete than White’s kingside play. It was very interesting to reroute the knight to b6 in order to play …a4 when Black has a clear strucutral advantage on the queenside. Later Adams had a very comfortable position with strong play on the kingside. However, in mutual time trouble he overlooked the great resource …Qb3. He still has some chances to hold but after Qh7? it appears there would be no way back. Caruana played extremely strongly with …Kd7, …Na4! (probably Adam’s missed this) and some subtle endgame play. It was a tough game, and your criticism seems entirely unfounded. Perhaps Adams played a bit innocuously, but not badly in any way and things were going fine until he played Nh4? (allowing …Qb3!; Kg3 would be better).
Breaking news: Topalov -Kamsky
16-28 Feb 2009,Sofia ,Bulgaria
Good luck both of them!
Sorry for Off-topic…
Caruana is two years younger than Carlsen. Same super talent. WC a possibilty in future.