The Sunday game against Caruana was one such encounter where Anand showed nerves of steel and deep calculation in calling his opponent’s bluff. He accepted Caruana’s pawn sacrifice on the 21st move, and went even bolder and accepted the second pawn on the next move, only to find Caruana’s rook land on the crucial seventh rank, threatening Anand’s queen and checkmate in one move at the same time.>

My first reaction is that the ruling was b.s. and poor Noritsyn was robbed.>

I second your first reaction. What a moron that referee is! Ce n'est pas une dame, c'est une tour. They should have said: Tu n'es pas un arbitre, tu es un pauvre con!

Instead, Stockfish 8 indicates Black can avoid the loss of the pawn and hold it level with 19...Bh6 = or 19...Bd5 =.

Black's game goes from inferior to probably lost with 21...f6?, allowing 22. exf6 Rxe2 23. f7+! ± (+1.68 @ 36 depth, Stockfish 8.)

Instead, Black can maximize resistance and fight on a pawn down with 21...Re6 22. Qf4 h6 23. Rf2 Bh3 ± (+0.91 @ 30 depth, Stockfish 8.)

P.S.: After the self-pin 25...Re5?, White's brilliant 26. Qd4!! +- (+10.36 @ 30 depth, Stockfish 8) is clearly decisive.

Black could have put up more resistance with 25...Qe5 26.Rxe2 Qxc3 27.Re8 Qd4+ 28.Rf2 Qxb4 29.f8=Q+ Qxf8 30.Rfxf8 Rxd3 ± to +- (+1.60 @ 28 depth, Stockfish 8) in the diagram below:

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Two cats are having a race swimming across the English Channel. A french cat "Un deux trois" and an english cat "One two three".

Which cat won?!

The english cat, obviously...

voyager39: Amazing - old man is still sharp at tactics! >

Game of the Year honors go to former World Champion Viswanathan Anand for this sparkling win over Fabiano Caruana at the Sinquefield Cup. This line is sometimes called the King's English, where 6 ... Nb6 is far more common than 6 ... Bc5. 26. Qd4!! is a beautiful move, then 26 ... Re5 27. Rc5 is a nice cross-pin:

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Juniors and students, work out White's winning line at the end. Don't miss the discussion here about Pawn promotion rules.

Some insightful commentary:

<Middlegames with heavy pieces and opposite-color bishops are dangerous, because one player is frequently thinking his attack is mortal and forgets the tragedy his own king may face on the other color squares. Anand masterly traded his g2 bishop for black's Knight while the enemy queen and bishop were in the vicinity of his king. Caruana must have felt that it was too much a risk and therefore White had to be punished. When Anand pushed his pawn with check on the f7 square, Caruana still had a chance to play 23 ... Qxf7! 24. Rxe2 Bxe2 25.Rxf7 Kxf7 26 Rf2+ with a likely draw, or 23. Rxf7 Rxd2 24. Rxd2 Kxf7, again with a probable tablas. But the young didn't see any particular problems with 23 ... Kf8?, and at first sight, White only has problems in this position. Black has mate and queen attacked, how could White save himself, not alone win the game? The answer could only be 24. Bxg7+ and the tragedy on black's dark squares comes before White´s on the light squares. Beautiful game from the ex-world champion!>

<16 ... cxb6 devalues Black's queenside pawn majority. Now Black has more space but White has the bishop pair and a potential pawn majority in the center. On the other hand if Black can make count his greater space, White may be unable to make count his bishop pair or his pawn majority. One reason to think so is that instead of offering a pawn on e5 by 19 ... Bg4 both Anand and Caruana appeared to consider 19 ... Bd5 satisfactory for Black. Caruana's remarks suggested that he had either overlooked something or miscalculated something when he made the pawn sacrifice. GM Seirawan called 26. Qd4!! a beautiful move. The black rook on d8 is overworked. If it has to prevent the coronation of White's f pawn it cannot then take White's queen on d4. Caruana does take the queen a move later but then loses after White crowns the f pawn.>

<The positional laws governing play in the middlegame of chess often look simple and logical. But it takes courage to understand the risks and still go beyond them and create complications and chaos, if one can possess necessary tactical intuition for risk-taking. It is the trademark of tactical geniuses in the history of the game, who were able to create such complications ignoring strict positional laws. However, even in cases where the created complications are unsound in nature, it requires very steady nerves and crystal-clear calculating ability to defend against such attacks and repulse them, defensive abilities which are again not for the faint-hearted. The Sunday game against Caruana was one such encounter where Anand showed nerves of steel and deep calculation in calling his opponent’s bluff. He accepted Caruana’s pawn sacrifice on the 21st move, and went even bolder and accepted the second pawn on the next move, only to find Caruana’s rook land on the crucial seventh rank, threatening Anand’s queen and checkmate in one move at the same time.>