| Jul-12-14 | | RubinSteinitz: IMHO, 39. Bd3 was the losing move in this ending. 39. Bf1 would have allowed the king to keep the f3 pawn on the table thus keeping the white pawn chain from crumbling. |
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Jul-12-14
 | | perfidious: In my opinion, this is not the case; for 39....h3+, with destructive force, is coming in any event. After the exchange of the base pawn at f3 for h4, White will have trouble holding on in this ending, though as we saw in the game, the process will take a while. |
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| Jul-12-14 | | kardopov: Bravo Caruana! Time will tell when you are going to be the next person to challeng Carlsen for the crown. Not this year, but perhaps, in the next cycle. |
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Jul-12-14
 | | HeMateMe: should this have been a draw? opposite Bishops? |
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| Jul-12-14 | | Shams: <HeMateMe> Opposite bishops? All four bishops are still on the board in the final position. |
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| Jul-13-14 | | Sokrates: <kardopov: Bravo Caruana! Time will tell when you are going to be the next person to challeng Carlsen for the crown. Not this year, but perhaps, in the next cycle.> Agreed. I'd even claim that Caruana might be the only master who could challenge Carlsen. He has a great score against the champ. |
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| Jul-13-14 | | Sokrates: Re: four bishops endgame, there is a wonderful example: Larsen vs Polugaevsky, 1966 A model game for that constellation IMO. Caruana played this game with great patience. |
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Jul-13-14
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Great four Bishop ending. Almost looks like peeling a banana. After 29.Bxc1, I saw the weak pawns on d5, a2 and b4, but could not see how Black could penetrate. The key threat is ...e5-e4 (possibly as early as move 30), artificially isolating the d5 pawn. White felt that 30.f3 in reply was necessary, and it does threaten e2-e4, solidifying the position and restricting the Bg7. The trouble with 30.f3, even if best, is that ...f5-f4 becomes a major problem, and I wonder if White should have tried to prevent it with 31.e3, but that might only make an eventual ...e5-e4 even stronger. But even after Black gets in 32...f4, which eventually gives the dark-squared Bishop more scope, he still can penetrate only a tiny bit into White's position. 39...h3 helps a lot, but my favorite move of the ending is 44...Bg2!, with the threat of 45...Be7+. However, even after the win of the g-pawn, Black still has trouble outflanking the White King until he retreats with 54.Kg2. To me, this represents a critical moment--could White have kept the Black King out with 54.Bf2?! I am not 100% convinced that White had no alternative defenses even after Black finally turns the corner; nonetheless, this game will find a proud place in Caruana's collection of best games. |
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Jul-13-14
| | An Englishman: Good Evening: What about 39.Bf1,h3+; 40.Kf2,Bh4+; 41.Kg1 as the means of driving the King from the f3 pawn? |
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| Jul-13-14 | | RubinSteinitz: You guys are correct. I didn't probe the position deep enough at first perambulance. :) |
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| Jul-13-14 | | waustad: Updating opening repertoire must be done as something like a batch job, since Caruana's record as black playing the Dutch still is +0=0-2 according to the Opening Explorer. By the time you read this, that may have been changed. |
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| Jul-13-14 | | Laskerschueler: According to Houdini, a crucial moment was 37.g4. White should´ve played 37.gxf4. Anyway, having to play such an endgame against CARUANA is like hell. |
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Jul-13-14
| | HeMateMe: With best play on both sides, is it a draw? It just seems that it should be. |
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| Jul-13-14 | | Ulhumbrus: After 15...Na6!! the knight looks miserably placed but after 16 cd cd it keeps both White's queen and rook out of c7. |
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| Jul-13-14 | | kia0708: 2 bishops vs 2 bishops = long fight |
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Jul-13-14
 | | Domdaniel: White must have thought he had a draw when the Queens came off, but Caruana played the ending beautifully. The final pawn sac to allow his King to penetrate is superb. |
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| Jul-14-14 | | beenthere240: I've always thought (no with a whole lot of evidence) that if white shies away from an 34 challenge to the Dutch, the black player has a pretty good game. Here for some reason the DSB spent a lot of time on e3 (with the pawn still on e2). |
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| May-06-17 | | Finnishplayer: Great ending by Caruana! |
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