Caruana Wins Again In The Kings Tournament
...and once again, no one else does. With two rounds to go in the Kings Tournament, Fabiano Caruana has already clinched at least a tie for first place. He defeated Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces in a complicated, offbeat Sicilian, while Wang Hao and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu drew a short Petroff. (Not a non-game, as far as I can tell. White had a little pressure, but by the end Black had neutralized it for good, and the draw was appropriate.)
Ponomariov sacrificed the exchange against Caruana, and while it looked inadequate at first glance (and afterwards too, checking with the computer), his initiative did lead to enough of a stumble from Caruana to give him (Ponomariov) the chance to equalize - but no more. He didn't succeed, and after 26.Bxf6? Re1+ 27.Kh2? Rxd1 28.Bxe8 Rxd5 Caruana was simply winning. (26.Bxe8 Qxc3 27.Bb5 was worse for White but still tenable.) He could have been more effective in realizing his advantage, but even so he kept sufficient control to collect the point.
Caruana has 4.5 points out of 6 games, ahead of Nisipeanu (3.5/7), Ponomariov (3/7), and Wang Hao and Teimour Radjabov (who had the bye this round), both of whom have 2.5/6. Another half a point by Caruana clinches clear first, while +1 in his last two games puts him over 2800 and, to my mind, probably guarantees him a wildcard in the next Candidates.
Reader Comments (3)
"+1 in his last two games puts him [Caruana] over 2800 and, to my mind, probably guarantees him a wildcard in the next Candidates."
I guess Caruana's Russian connections aren't strong enough, even if he has worked a lot with Russian coaches. russiachess.org has this (Google-translated): "Assistant to the FIDE President Berik Balgabaev said in the microblog Twitter, that the Bulgarian Chess Federation withdrew its bid to host the tournament contenders, and now the competition will be held in Russia's Khanty-Mansiysk." Participants of the candidates event are named "and a nominee from Russia, which will now assess the RCF".
The Bulgarian Chess Federation withdrew their bid probably means that, even with an extended deadline (until yesterday) they couldn't provide a bank guarantee. Now the (still difficult) wildcard choice is probably between Grischuk and Svidler. BTW interesting that such news from the FIDE Congress in Tallinn got little to no attention from western chess media - while Kasparov's bid for FIDE president was very prominently mentioned.
[DM: Too bad.]
Definitely too bad for Caruana. It looks like he had his chance in the previous tournament but wasn't able to pull it off. Maybe he can continue to improve and make the next round but you never know.
I just noticed the Caruana lost to Wang Hao who was black in a Petroff. It doesn't look like he'll make 2800 now although unless he loses and Hao wins, it appears that he will win the tournament.