Grand Swiss: Caruana finally alone at the top
Round ten was a day of decisive games on the top ten boards in the Isle of Man Grand Swiss, with seven wins and three draws. The top players clearly knew there was no more point in holding back anymore and if they wanted to do something in the tournament, then penultimate round was a crucial milestone. After sharing the lead for 9 rounds of the tournament, World No 2 Fabiano Caruana finished round 10 as the sole player on the top. He defeated the Spaniard David Anton as White and enters the final round with a half-point ahead of the other top players. Chasing Caruana is a pack of seven GMs, which includes the World Champion Magnus Carlsen who, after victory in round nine, has also achieved his 100th game without losing. The final round of the Isle of Man Grand Swiss will see eight top players deciding who will be the winner of the $70,000 first prize and, also, who will win the race for the place in the 2020 Candidates’ tournament. On the first board, Fabiano Caruana was playing as white against David Anton of Spain. In the English opening after a quick exchange of queens, a roughly even position emerged on the board. In 20 moves the opponents reached an endgame with a rook and a knight and seven pawns each. Caruana had a slight edge as of his pieces were more active and positioned more naturally, compared to Anton who had doubled pawns on the c and f-files. The World No 2 opted for a push on the kingside, leaving Black to counterattack on the left flank. Caruana obtained a much better position, making it quite uncomfortable for the Spaniard who offered a move repetition but was refused. As the game progressed Caruana was slightly worse on time, but confidently secured his advantage reached the first time control. With his knight firmly planted on e5, and a pawn on c4 (blocking the progress of black’s c5-b6-c7 pawns), Caruana was freer to engage on the kingside. With his advanced pawns, an active king and a rook and knight who were all threatening the black monarch, Caruana seemed on a path to victory. (Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com) The next few moves brought about the exchange of knights and Black winning a pawn, but at a price of his king being further pushed away from White’s passing pawns. With cutting the board in two with his rook on e6, White could effortlessly advance his pawns supported by the king without any serious threats to them. At this point, Black had just one option at his disposal – to push his own pawns on the queenside and hope for a wonder. In the moves that followed, David Anton finally gave up his rook for White’s pawn on g7, putting everything on the queen promotion of his pawns on the queenside. Caruana was, however, one step ahead – although Black did promote a queen as well, white had the decisive check which was a prelude to a deadly attack. The Spaniard resigned and was, effectively, kicked out of the race for the top. With this win, Fabiano Caruana (who is on 7.5/10) became the sole leader of the tournament with just one round to go. The battle of the slow-starters The board two saw a clash in the Rui Lopez between two slow-starters in the tournament: Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian. Black (Aronian) quickly castled on the kingside and launched an attack in the centre, while White’s king was still on the e-file. This was, however, followed by an exchange of pieces in the centre, including the queens, leaving Aronian with an isolated pawn on d6. The two sides were even: Aronian’s position seemed more natural while Nakamura had a bishop on a3 which was somewhat out of action due to his pawns being in front (a4, b4, and c3). On move 16 Levon Aronian thought for over ten minutes, although the position was pretty forced. Further exchanges of pieces in the centre ensued and the two entered a four-rook endgame. The position was slightly better for white but hardly more. The game ended with both players splitting a point after two and a half hours of play. Carlsen achieves a 100-game streak without a loss The World Champion Magnus Carlsen had a somewhat odd tournament: in the beginning, he was very fortunate to escape loses not without help from his opponents missing winning moves; in the second part he picked up speed and found his rhythm, but his top competitors managed to hold him to a draw. The World Champion was always lurking in the background but was missing a key breakthrough to the very top. In the round 10 game against the 2017 European Champion, Maxim Matlakov, history repeated itself: the two met in the Tata Steel tournament in 2018 when Carlsen also had white pieces and played a very long game in which the World Champion managed to edge a win in the very end. Their encounter in the Isle of Man Grand Swiss followed a somewhat similar scenario. (Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com) Carlsen achieved – according to the computer – a completely winning position well before the 40th move, but Matlakov managed to squeeze out and play on. The game started with a complicated position in the Semi-Slav defence which opened up at one point. Matlakov spent significantly more time, which suggests that he walked into a good preparation by Magnus Carlsen. Black managed to create a protected passed pawn on c3 but had only 12 minutes on his clock with 17 moves to the first time control. With a series of precise moves Carlsen obtained a very comfortable position: he opened up the f-file, directly aiming for the black’s weak spot on f7, and centralized his rooks (on d6 and f4). The situation seemed desperate for Black – with less than two minutes on his clock, Matlakov pushed his c3-pawn forward, but Carlsen took on c2 and then progressed with pressing on black’s weak spot on f7. White then took on f7