Leonard Barden on chess

Chess: Caruana lining up another title shot after eclipsing Carlsen at Wijk

The US world No 2 finished two points clear of the Norwegian on 10/13 and is now the favourite to win the candidates in March

Fabiano Caruana has set down an impressive marker for a 2020 campaign which could take the US world No 2 to a second shot at Magnus Carlsen’s world crown. Caruana simply ran away with the elite Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee tournament, finishing two points clear of the Norwegian with 10/13, a points total previously achieved at Wijk by only Garry Kasparov and Carlsen himself. This was his most eye-catching win.

The gap between the top two in the live ratings shrank by 30 points during Wijk, so that Carlsen’s dream of reaching a 2900 rating is on the back burner for the time being.

The world champion said: “My game has been in a rut for a while now. For a few months I’ve played fairly poorly in classical with little energy, so I need to break and regroup so that I can be back.” It seems likely that Carlsen’s return will be at the Grenke Classic in Karlsruhe, Germany, an event where he and Caruana met last year and may well do so again.

Caruana has reduced his ratings gap to Carlsen to 21 points. He is less than 10 points away from his own highest ever rating, achieved in 2014 in the wake of his historic 7/7 Sinquefield Cup streak, and has reaffirmed his status as the third highest rated player in chess history after Carlsen and Kasparov.

It could all have been quietly planned. Caruana’s 2019 performances were modest in relation to 2018 when he won the candidates and tied the title match, and he follows the historical pattern of Vasily Smyslov, Boris Spassky and Viktor Korchnoi, who all recovered from a near-miss of the global crown to make a second ascent at the next championship cycle.

Before Wijk, Caruana and China’s Ding Liren were joint favourites to win the candidates at Ekaterinburg, Russia, in March. Caruana is now ahead, and that could suit Carlsen, since the American is inferior to the Chinese GM in rapid and blitz. Fide, the global chess body, has announced that Carlsen’s next title defence will be over 14 games rather than 12, in an effort to reduce the chances of it going to a speed chess tie-break. The prize fund will also be doubled, to €2m.

Apart from Caruana, the most significant Wijk performance, though a negative one, was by Alireza Firouzja, aged 16, who has been viewed as a coming champion with an exciting style reminiscent of the legendary Mikhail Tal. Firouzja led Wijk after seven rounds, then nosedived, finished on 50%, and was outplayed by the four most experienced GMs, Carlsen, Caruana, Vishy Anand and Wesley So.

This week the action moved to Gibraltar, the world’s strongest annual open, which ended on Thursday. There was a shock winner in the final as the No 22 seed, David Paravyan, a little-known 21-year-old Russian GM, defeated China’s Wang Hao for the first major success of his career.

Two games at Gibraltar stood out. The Indian prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, aged 14 and the second youngest to reach a 2600 rating, scored his biggest scalp yet against the former Fide world champion Veselin Topalov. In truth, though, the loser was well below form.

In the annual Battle of the Sexes, played on a giant board, the women’s team scored their fastest ever win: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 f5? 4 d3 fxe4 5 dxe4 Nf6 6 Ng5 Qe7 7 Bf7+ Kd8 8 Ne6+ 1-0. Afterwards it emerged that the GM who chose 3…f5? is the husband of the women’s team captain.

3656 1\ Bc3! h2 2 Ba5! Kxa7 3 Bc7 mate (by Ellis Ridley, Illustrated Sydney News 1890). Edward Winter’s always interesting and informative Chess Notes website quotes and sources this deceptive miniature.