Chess - The Scotsman 11/05/2012

SOME top chess players have a prolific game output, virtually living out of a suitcase, commuting from event to evemt. In the old times it was Savielly Tartakower; 40 and 30 years ago Bent Larsen and Britain’s first grandmaster Tony Miles; and more recently, there’s been Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk.

You might call such players chess junkies, but that would be unfair as in most cases they perform at a high level with few setbacks. The latest is Italy’s Fabiano Caruana with his eye-catching sequence of tournaments with hardly a break. The world No8, aged 19, had already played more games in March and April than the rest of the top 10 grandmasters combined.

Caruana joined the elite club (those normally in the top 10) in February when he tied second with the world No1 Magnus Carlsen at Wijk aan Zee. After that most GMs would have headed for a well deserved rest, but not Caruana – filled with the vigour of youth, he played in the Aeroflot Open, Reykjavik Open, European Individual Championship, followed by the Russian and Italian Team Championships.

He’s now the top seed in the 20th Sigeman & Co. tournament that’s just got underway in Malmo, Sweden. The eight-player field also includes Peter Leko (Hungary), Li Chao (China), Anish Giri (Holland), and Swedish quartette of Emanuel Berg, Hans Tikkanen, Jonny Hector and Nils Grandelius.

F Caruana - A Giri

20th Sigeman & Co., (1)

Ruy Lopez

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 Bc5 5 c3 0–0 6 0–0 d6 7 h3 Ne7 8 d4 Bb6 9 Re1 c6 10 Bd3 Ng6 11 Be3 Re8 12 Nbd2 h6 13 Qc2 Bd7 14 Rad1 Bc7 15 dxe5 Nxe5 16 Nxe5 dxe5 17 Bf1 Qe7 18 b4 Red8 19 a4 Be6 20 a5 Nd7 21 Ra1 b6 22 a6 Nf8 23 Nf3 Ng6 24 g3 Bd6 25 Red1 Rac8 26 Rd2 Bc7 27 Rad1 Rxd2 28 Rxd2 Rd8 29 h4 Nf8 30 Rxd8 Qxd8 31 Nd2 Qc8 32 Qa4 Bd6 33 Nc4 Bxc4 34 Bxc4 b5 35 Qd1 Be7 36 Bb3 Ne6 37 Qg4! Kf8 38 Qf5 Bf6 39 g4 Ke8 40 g5 hxg5 41 hxg5 1–0