Chess (#1112)

Fabiano Caruana logged the most dominating of performances to take the Second Sinquefield Cup with two rounds to spare. This is billed as the strongest tournament ever, in terms of average rating (2801.7). The six-player, double-round-robin was expected to be very hard-fought but the Italian GM made a mockery of predictions.

He started with a sequence of seven straight wins and came within an ace of making it eight straight before the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, scrambled a draw from an inferior position. Caruana leads with 7.5 from 8 games and is mathematically guaranteed first place. Carlsen is in second on 4.5. Veselin Topalov is on 4. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura are on 3, 3, and 2, respectively. Carlsen may have been distracted by his world title match shenanigans. Aronian is apparently not fully recovered from a recent operation. But nothing can detract from Caruana's awesome performance.

Caruana is American-born, his parents shifted back to Italy when he was 12. The 22-year-old hit a rating performance of 3500-plus that will push him to world no:2. He has played error-free, clinically accurate chess, finding ruthless tactical finishes when on top. He was "lucky" in that he got in strong novelties twice, against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Topalov in the first half.

Carlsen's deadline for signing the title match contract has been extended, reportedly to September 7. It is a complicated situation, with Sochi on the edge of a war zone and Fide too disorganised to shift venue or find alternate sponsors. This sort of brinkmanship is also upsetting for the opponent, who must somehow ignore the distractions.

At the Sharjah Women's Grand Prix, Ju Wenjun leads with 7.5 from 9 games. Hou Yifan is second with 7. She's won the GP overall. It's mathematically impossible for her nearest rival, Koneru Humpy to catch Hou. Humpy is not doing well at Sharjah. She has 4, Dronavalli Harika is on 4.5.

The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY, (Carlsen Vs Caruana, 2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014) is the start of fireworks. 15.Bxf7+!? Kxf7 16.Nxe5+ Kg8 17.Ng6 Qg5! 18.Rf8+ Kh7 19.Nxh8. So far forced, since 19.Rxh8+ Kxg6 20.Nf1 Bg4! 21.hxg4 Rxh8 wins for black.

Now Caruana found 19...Bg4! 20.Qf1 Nd3! 21.Qxd3 Black's counterattack depends on 21.Rxa8 Qe3+ 22.Kh1 Nf2+ 23.Qxf2 Qxf2 24.hxg4 Qxd2 winning. The game continuation was 21...Rxf8 22.hxg4 Qxg4 23.Nf3 Qxg3 24.e5+ Kxh8 25.e6 Bb6+ 26.Kh1 Qg4! 27.Qd6 Rd8! Inviting 28.e7 Rxd6 29.e8Q+ Kh7.

Carlsen cracked after 28.Rd5! 29.Qb8+ Kh7 30.e7 Qh5+ 31.Nh2? Rd1+ The alternative 31.Qh2 Qe8! 32.g4 Rd7 33.Re1 Rxe7 34.Rxe7 Qxe7 35.Qc2+ g6 36.Kg2 Qe6 is also lost. The conclusion was 32.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 33.Nf1 Qxf1+ 34.Kh2 Qg1+ (0-1) Qe3xe7 is coming.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player