[Event "Sinquefield Cup 2nd"] [Site "Saint Louis"] [Date "2014.09.03"] [Round "7"] [White "Vachier Lagrave, Maxime"] [Black "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D35"] [WhiteElo "2768"] [BlackElo "2801"] [Annotator "Llewellyn, Alan"] [PlyCount "78"] [EventDate "2014.08.27"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "10"] [EventCountry "USA"] [EventCategory "23"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2014.09.17"] {Maxime Vachier Lagrave is a French Grandmaster, who I have played in the same tournament as, at the Isle of Man Masters. He is one of the Worlds top players but here he meets the current World number 2 Fabiano Caruana and he gets utterly demolished by a deep pawn sacrifice. Fabiano is an Italian American who is currently under the American flag. In this tournament, he played this game in, The Sinquefield Cup, Fabiano played out of his skin brilliantly as he achieved possibly the strongest ever performance in a tournament with 8.5/10 against the worlds best players including Magnus Carlsen who only achieved 5.5/ 10 in 2nd place.} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 {The very old fashioned way of playing this opening.} (3... Bb4 {This move used to be common but when players avoided it and played 3.Nf3 instead of 3.Nc3 it fell out of regular play. The problem is after 3...Bb4 Black gets strong pressure on the Queenside and plenty of counter-play.}) 4. Bf4 {e3 used to be common in this variation but then the theory of blocking in your Bishop on c1 became known and players decided, as White, to try and make their Bishop work as an attacking piece, more usual in the later years of the Queens Gambit:Declined Variations, was for Black to play 3...Nf6 then, for White, to get the dark squared Bishop to g5 undermining the defence of the d5 pawn with 4.Bg5.} Nf6 5. e3 O-O 6. Rc1 Nbd7 7. c5 $6 (7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Nxd5 exd5 9. Bxc7 Bb4+ 10. Ke2 Qe7 $44) 7... Ne4 8. Bd3 f5 9. Nf3 c6 10. Ne5 Nxe5 11. Bxe5 Bf6 12. Bxf6 Qxf6 13. Ne2 e5 14. Qa4 $6 (14. O-O {now was possibly the time to castle.}) 14... Qh4 15. g3 $6 $15 { The f2 pawn was under threat but castling solves the issue effectively.} Qg4 16. Rf1 Ng5 17. Kd2 $6 (17. Ng1 $17) 17... Nf3+ 18. Kc3 Nxh2 {Fabiano has won a pawn but Maxime has counter-play along the open h-file.} 19. Rh1 Nf3 20. Qa5 ({moving the Queen over to the Kingside to swap off Queens just leads to shipping pawns.} 20. Qd1 b6 21. Ng1 exd4+ 22. Kb3 Ne5 23. Qxg4 Nxg4 24. Nh3 dxe3 25. fxe3 Re8 26. cxb6 Rxe3 27. Rcd1 axb6 28. Kc2 Rxg3 29. Rde1 $19) 20... Qg5 21. dxe5 Qe7 22. Nd4 Nxe5 23. b3 $6 $19 {The position is lost for White whatever he does if Black spots 23...b6.} (23. Rh5 b6 24. cxb6 c5 25. Nb5 d4+ 26. exd4 Nxd3 27. Kxd3 Qe4+ 28. Kd2 axb6 29. Qxb6 Re8 30. Nc3 Qxd4+ 31. Kc2 Ba6 32. Kb1 Bc4 33. Rd1 Bxa2+ 34. Kc2 Qxf2+ 35. Rd2 Qf3 36. Rhh2 Rab8 37. Rd3 Qa8 38. Qd6 Bb3+ 39. Kd2 Bc4 40. Kc2 Bxd3+ 41. Qxd3 $19) 23... b6 $3 $19 24. cxb6 c5 $1 25. Nb5 Bb7 $1 26. bxa7 d4+ $1 27. exd4 Nxd3 $1 28. Kxd3 Bxh1 29. Rxc5 $1 (29. Nc7 Qe4+ 30. Kd2 Qxd4+ 31. Ke1 Qe4+ 32. Kf1 (32. Kd2 Rfd8+ 33. Kc3 Qd4+ 34. Kc2 Be4#) 32... Bg2+ 33. Kg1 Bh3 34. f3 Qe2 35. Nxa8 Qg2#) (29. Rxh1 Qe4+ 30. Kd2 Qxh1 $19) 29... Qe4+ 30. Kc4 Qe2+ 31. Kb4 Qd2+ 32. Rc3 Bc6 $1 {The Rook on c3 is pinned to the King by the Black Queen.} 33. a4 Bxb5 34. Kxb5 Qxd4 35. Rc7 Rfd8 ({please ignore the following Computer moves.} 35... Rab8+ $3 36. axb8=Q Rxb8+ 37. Kc6 Qf6+ 38. Kd5 Rd8+ 39. Kc4 Qe6+ 40. Kb4 Qe1+ 41. Rc3 Rd4+ 42. Kb5 Rd5+ 43. Rc5 Rxc5+ 44. Kxc5 Qxa5+ $19) 36. Qb6 Rd5+ 37. Ka6 Rd6 38. a5 $1 Qd3+ 39. Kb7 Qd5+ {White is losing here although it has yet to be proved ie after 40.Ka6 Rxb6+ 41.axb6 Qxb3 42.b7 comes possibly 42...Qa4+ 43.Kb6 Qxa7+ 44. Kc6 Rb8 when 45.Rc8+ fails to the simple 45...Kf7 and White can make no headway.} 0-1 [