[Nimzovich Attack, made popular recently again due to Svidler's win over Kramnik (2005) and Karjakin's win over Gelfand and Kramnik in Tal Memorial (2010). It allows opposite-side castling thus more aggressive white game.]

8. ...b6

[This is Wang Hao's patent tried before in game with Nakamura in Norway earlier this year.]

11. Nf5

[This Nakamura knight manouvre is not particularly beneficial to white.]

12. Ng3

[New move with intention to attack bishop from h5. Nakamura played 12. h4.]

16. ...gxh5?

[Clearly a positional error but done with intention. This is how Wang Hao plays for better or worse.]

19. Kg7?!

[Another misterious move only Wang Hao knows what for. White is now clearly with very serious advantage.]

23. ...f5

[Suicidal attack that should have been the beginning of the end for black but exactly opposite happened.]

24. Bb3?

[Caruana's misterious move that is a serious waste of time which allows black to regroup the defence of his king.]

25. Rh3

[This move makes sense but it was better to play 25. Rxd8 Rxd8, 26. Rd1 Ba6, 27. Qe1 Rd6, 28. Rxd6 cxd6, 29. Qd1 and white has clear advantage in ending due to exposed black king. Obviously g3 would stop any black plans on the queenside and black would have a hard time to save the game with his broken pawns on white squares. I would estimate this position likely lost for black.]

27. ...c5?!
28. Rh1?

[Yet another error by Caruana. It was much better to play 28. gxh5 and pawn cannot be taken since 28. ...Qxh5?? 29. Bf7 immediately decides the game.]

28. ...f3?

[Wang just wants to complicate the game as he would be in serious danger of losing if only Caruana could make at least few moves without errors.]

29. Qc4?

[The last chance to keep serious advantage: 29. gxh5 Kxh5, 30. Bf7+ Kg4, 31. Qf1 Kf5, 32. Qh3+ Ke5, 33. h5 Kd6, 34. Qg3+ Kd7, 35. Rd1 Kc8, 36. Rxd8+ Kxd8, 37. Bc4 a5, 38. b3! looks hopeless for black.]

32. Re1?!

[32. gxh5 is certainly safer with likely draw.]

37. fxg3?

[Natural but also decisive error. 37. Qg7 gxf2, 38. Re5 Qxe5, 39. Qxe5+ Kg4, 40. Qe4 Kg3, 41 Qg6 Kh2, 42. Qc2 with repetition/perpetual. This is surely not easy to calculate but this necessity is the consequence of bad 32nd move of white which set the stage for the error in 37th move.]

39. Qg7

[Hopeless, white is lost either way but this cannot help since black king easily escapes.]

42. ...Rd3?!

[42. ...f1Q is stronger. But white is lost either way.]

43. Qg2

[This is completely hopeless but the game is lost anyway.

In the sequel the game is finished with simple tactics with white paralized to the first rank.]

==========

Absolutely horrid game by Caruana. He missed likely win and kept on missing varius natural moves until he boxed himself into "hard to find" draw which of course he could not find.

Wonder if either player noticed the shot 27 Rd3 after 26...Rxd8

click for larger view

It is made possible by the awkward placement of the Black King and Queen, so if 27...exd3 28 Qe6+ Kg7 29 Qe7+ leads to mate.

if 27...Rxd3 28 cxd3 e3 29 fxe3 fxe3 30 Qf1 Qg7 31 Qf4 Qe7 32 Bf7+!

click for larger view

White ends up a pawn ahead because of 32...Qxf7 33 Qg5#

A similar tactic occurs after 27...Qf8 28 Bf7+! when all captures are bad, and 28...Kg7 29 Qxh5 is winning for White.

After that he had nothing but draw and he missed that as well.

When I was younger and played competetive chess when somebody pulled some horrid move like 16th move of Wang Hao then I would make my business to punish that with utmost energy I had.

In this case Caruana played some very confusing chess. You could say the position is messy and one can make a mistake BUT he made not one, not two, not three but 6-7 mistakes. With so many mistakes one cannot do anything. How in the world can you allow 32. ...hxg4 to black? There were two-three different instances he could have taken that lousy h5 pawn and yet he allowed that pawn to become a battering ram for promotion.

To my amazement I saw black winning the game. I could not believe it. Then I go over the game and see numerous hard-to-explain errors by white.

Again, how do you allow 32....hxg4 to black?
How is it possible to allow that move to take place? This is such a conceptual blunder by white.

He could have taken that h5 pawn at least three times:

28. gxh5 (with serious advantage)
29. gxh5 (most likely winning move!)
32. gxh5 (the last chance with easily obtainable draw)

Every one of these moves is more than obvious.

And he succeeded. I don't think Caruana ever dreamed he would lose this game. In the postmortem, Hao thought White was lost, but Caruana showed a drawing line which checks out completely.

Hao: After (36) Qxa7, I thought White was lost.
Caruana: It can't be so bad after Qa7
Hao: (36...)g3
Caruana: I think I should at least have a draw here with (37 Qe7)
Hao: (37...)gf2 (38)Re5
Caruana: Take (38...Qxe5 39 Qxe5+) and (38...)Kg4 (39)Qe4+ Kg3 (40) Qg6+ Kh2 so I guess it is just perpetual (41 Qc2)

click for larger view

This is a very fundamental straight/brute-force attack which seems very dangerous. It requires extreme precision by black.

Yes, in postmortem he saw the win and he saw the draw. Yet, it the game he went the worst possible way and lost.

[Here the danger for white was that black Qg6 attacks g4 pawn and pins the pawn on c2.]

32. ...Qf6
33. Qxf6 Kxf6
34. cxb3

24. Bb3?

and when he was able to bring

29. Qc4?

he had nothing more than a draw.

While he was constantly calculating queen intrusion he simply forgot the pawn on g4. This is psychological loss. He made a score of errors but all of his errors are connected with the single concept (focus on Qc4 and disregard for g4 pawn) so this is like a concept blunder that caused numerous errors.

Once you have figured out that weakness, with your immense 'wisdom', by all means sell this knowledge to the highest bidder.

<....He might be a fraud protected by prep and good form but I'm not sure yet.>