Tactics Time Chess Newsletter Sinq or Swim

Published: Mon, 08/24/15

Newsletter Issue Sinq or Swim

Tactics Time

Sinq or Swim

A caravan camel gets the urge to dance when he's approaching a bridge over water. ~ Levon Aronian


T

his position comes from the game Levon Aronian vs. Fabiano Caruana, played yesterday at Round 1 of the 3rd Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis.

In the position on the right it is White to move.

Answer below.

Yesterday was the start of the 3rd Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis.

The lineup of players is really amazing

Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) 2816
Hikaru Nakamura (United States) 2814
Anish Giri (Netherlands) 2793
Levon Aronian (Armenia) 2765
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) 2731
Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 2853
Viswanathan Anand (India) 2816
Fabiano Caruana (United States) 2808
Wesley So (United States) 2779
Alexander Grischuk (Russia) 2771

All 5 of yesterday's games ended with decisive results as well, which was also amazing.

Garry Kasparov tweeted

Great day for fighting chess in St Louis! #SinquefieldCup. Provide great conditions for great players and you often get great battles.

Several friends of mine are at the tournament watching, including Life Master Brian Wall, in the Blue Shirt here. (Screen shot taken by DuWayne Langseth)

Joel Johnson quipped, "Brian Douglas Wall - were you standing too close to Magnus? He rarely ever loses - I doubt it is a coincidence".

lol

You can read a good report, and see all of the games from round 1 here: http://www.chess.com/news/five-for-five-in-sinquefield-cup-opening-round-3189

Here is the complete game:

[Event "3rd Sinquefield Cup"]
[Site "St. Louis"]
[Date "2015.08.23"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D37"]
[WhiteElo "2765"]
[BlackElo "2808"]
[Plycount "77"]
[Sourcedate "2015.08.23"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. c5 Ne4 8. Rc1 Nxc3 9. Rxc3 b6 10. c6 Nf6 11. a3 a5 12. Bd3 Ne4 13. Rc2 f6 14. Qe2 Bd6 15. O-O g5 16. Bxd6 Nxd6 17. Re1 a4 18. Nd2 e5 19. e4 f5 20. f3 dxe4 21. fxe4 Ra5 22. exf5 Nxf5 23. Bc4+ Kg7 24. d5 Re8 25. Ne4 Nd4 26. Qh5 Nxc2 27. Nxg5 Bf5 28. Rf1 Qf6 29. Ne6+ Rxe6 30. Rxf5 Qg6 31. dxe6 Qxh5 32. Rxh5 Nd4 33. e7 Ra8 34. Rxe5 Re8 35. Re4 Nf5 36. Be6 Nd6 37. Bd7 Nxe4 38. Bxe8 Kf6 39. Bg6

1-0

You can play through this game here: http://chess-db.com/public/game.jsp?id=13300474.2020009.163105280.28887

Answer:

39. Bg6! clears the e8 square, so that the pawn can make a queen, and attacks the knight on e4 at the same time. Black cannot meet both threats, and resigned. GM Robert Hess called this "A beautiful finish for a fine victory."

Happy Tactics!

Your Friend,