Chess - The Scotsman 24/07/12

By John Henderson
Published on 24/07/2012 00:00

THE world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, looks set for competition for the top spot from within his own generation with both Sergey Karjakin, 22, of Russia and Fabiano Caruana, 20, of Italy beginning to steal his limelight with outstanding performances.

Both tied for first on 6/9 at the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting that ended on Sunday, finishing a half point ahead of the chasing pack of Ruslan Ponomariov, Vladimir Kramnik, Arkadij Naiditsch and Peter Leko. But the bragging rights to his first elite title went to Caruana on tiebreak (winning more games, 5-4) ahead of Karjakin, who only a fortnight ago won the first World Rapid Championship crown ahead of Carlsen.

The latest result from the Italian young gun comes hard on the heels of the bitter disappointment of his second-place finish behind Carlsen at the recent Tal Memorial, where, after beating Kramnik in the penultimate round, he looked all set for victory that was denied by the heartbreak of a last round loss.

There were no mistakes, though, in Dortmund, as he again defeated Kramnik in the penultimate round (no mean feat beating the former world champion in successive penultimate rounds!), and for safe measure followed it up with an emphatic, first-to-finish last round win over Poland’s Mateusz Bartel to claim victory.

F Caruana - V Kramnik

Dortmund Sparkassen, (8)

Ruy Lopez

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 Bc5 5 0–0 d6 6 c3 0–0 7 Nbd2 Ne7 8 d4 exd4 9 cxd4 Bb6 10 b3 d5 11 e5 Ne4 12 Bd3 Bf5 13 Qe2 Nc6 14 Bb2 Nxd2 15 Qxd2 Be4 16 Be2 f6 17 b4 fxe5 18 dxe5 Kh8 19 b5 Ne7 20 Ng5 Ng6 21 g3 Qe7 22 e6 Rf5 23 Nxe4 dxe4 24 Qd7 Raf8 25 Qxe7 Nxe7 26 Ba3 Re8 27 Rad1 h5 28 Rd7 Nd5 29 Rf7 Nf6 30 Bc4 Bc5 31 Bb2 Re7 32 Bd4! Bd6 33 Re1 b6 34 Rf8+ Kh7 35 Rxe4 Rxf2 36 Kxf2 Nxe4+ 37 Kg2 Nc5 38 Ra8 Nxe6 39 Bd3+ Kh6 40 h4 g6 41 Rh8+ Rh7 42 Rg8 Rg7 43 Bxg7+ Kh7 44 Re8 Nxg7 45 Re3 Kh6 46 a4 Kh7 47 Kh3 Kh6 48 Bc2 Kh7 49 g4 hxg4+ 50 Kxg4 Kh6 51 Re2 Bb4 52 Re5 Nh5 53 Re6 1–0