Saturday 6 September 2014

Caruana slows down, but wins the tournament anyway.

The 2014 Sinqufield Cup continues to give this blogger plenty to write about. Although all 3 round 9 games ended in draws, there was enough thrills and spills to keep everyone interested.
After yesterdays draw with Carlsen, Caruana looked like he had another point in the bag against Nakamrua. However he missed a forcing sequence starting with an exchange sacrifice, and quickly his winning position became a drawn one. Probably a disappointment for Caruana, but he is consoled by the fact he has already captured first place, as well as having a TPR of 3162!
Lev Aronian is not having the best tournament, although he did draw with Carlsen today. He did this despite being 3 pawns down in a rook and pawn ending, as he reached a position (the Vancura position) where the extra pawns (on the h file) did not matter. While he and Carlsen knew what was going on, the extra material confused various chess engines who proudly proclaimed that the position was totally winning for Carlsen.
The game between Vachier-Lagrave and Topalov stayed pretty even throughout, and the players split the point at move 41.

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