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Fabiano Caruana in Yekaterinburg
Photo:
Pavel Lisitsyn / picture alliance / dpa / Sputnik
Vice world champion Fabiano Caruana surprised at the resumption of the World Cup candidates tournament, which was interrupted for almost 15 months due to the corona pandemic.
In a Sicilian variant with the white pieces, he sacrificed three pawns and a bishop to put his opponent Maxime Vachier-Lagrave under pressure.
The Frenchman, who had been in the lead so far, initially mastered the difficulty and defended himself tough for a long time.
Then he screwed up in the endgame, in which he only had one knight and pawn against Caruana's rook and pawn.
After nearly six and a half hours of play, Vachier-Lagrave resigned.
After the eighth of 14 rounds, the Russian Jan Nepomnjaschtschi, who drew against the Dutch Anish Giri, is now alone in front with five points.
Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave share second place.
At the beginning of the second half, Vachier-Lagrave and Nepomniachtchi led the tournament.
We are looking for an opponent for Magnus Carlsen
During the second part of the Candidates Tournament between 19 and 28 April in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the opponent of long-time chess world champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway will be sought between eight world-class players.
The first seven of 14 rounds took place about a year ago, when the tournament was interrupted because of the corona pandemic.
In the Candidates Tournament, the everyone-against-everyone principle applies, all participants twice on top of each other.
An overview of the schedule, results and participants can be found here.
ngo / dpa