Carlsen strikes down Caruana and closes in on Abdusattórov with five rounds to go

It was a very frustrating outcome for the fans: Fabiano Caruana fell into a tactical trap when his fight with Magnus Carlsen was shaping up to be exciting.

The Norwegian thus achieves his second consecutive victory (before him he suffered two consecutive defeats) and is still not ruled out of first prize at the Tata Festival in Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands).

With five rounds to go after the break on Monday, the Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattórov continues to lead alone, with 1.5 points more than the still world champion.

Caruana's mistake squeaks a lot when it is made by someone who has been runner-up in the world (in 2018) and who is still among the top five.

But it is better understood if you know what happened to the American on Saturday night: he had a winning ladies final against Iran's Parham Maghsoodloo, but had to settle for a draw after seven and a half hours of grueling fighting.

In this type of situation it is not easy to know what is more negative, physical fatigue or echoes of disgust.

In any case, it is fair to point out that Carlsen set out to win the game with the black pieces, choosing a double-edged variation in the Spanish Opening (created by Ruy López in the 15th century), where all three results are equally probable.

His opponents in the last five rounds will be the three Indian powerhouses, Maghsoodloo and American Wesley So.

Gukesh, Saturday in Wijk aan ZeeLennart Ootes/Tata Chess

And that means that Abdusattorov, whose white draw against Armenian-American Levon Aronian today barely had a history, can't feel very confident about the chances of the Scandinavian catching up.

Above all, because the prodigious Indians are not very fine.

It seemed that Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (17 years old) did, but today he threw away a more than reasonable position against the Romanian of Hungarian origin Richard Rapport.

Dommaraju Gukesh (16) seems totally unknown: today he had a very clear advantage against Maghsoodloo, but suddenly he was lost;

However, the Persian also paid for his almost eight hours on Saturday against Caruana, and committed suicide.

And also fell, after wasting a lot of advantage, Arjun Erigaisi (19) against the Dutch Jorden van Foreest.

Round eight (Sunday, 2:00 p.m.):

So – Ding, draw;

Giri-Keymer, draw;

Abdusattórov – Aronian, draws;

Van Foreest-Erigaisi, 1-0;

Rapport-Praggnanandhaa, 1-0;

Caruana-Carlsen, 0-1;

Gukesh – Maghsoodloo, 1-0.

Classification:

1st Abdusattórov 6 points;

2nd-3rd Giri and So 5;

4th-7th Praggnanandhaa, Carlsen, Caruana and Aronian 4.5;

8th Ding 4;

9th-10th Maghsoodloo and Rapport 3.5;

11th-13th Erigaisi, Van Foreest and Gukesh 3;

14th Keymer 2.5.

Round 9 (Tuesday, 2:00 p.m.):

Maghsoodloo – So;

Carlsen–Gukesh;

Praggnanandhaa-Caruana;

Erigaisi–Rapport;

Aronian-Van Foreest;

Keymer-Abdusattorov;

Ding-Giri.

Subscribe to

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber