Khanty-Mansiysk R3: ganan Caruana y Svidler

[Event "KM FIDE GP 2015"] [Site "Khanty-Mansiysk RUS"] [Date "2015.05.16"] [Round "3"] [White "Caruana, F."] [Black "Tomashevsky, E."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D15"] [WhiteElo "2803"] [BlackElo "2749"] [Annotator "Ramriez Alvarez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "81"] [EventDate "2015.05.13"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. a4 {the ...a6 line is so Solid, it has prompted White to try everything under the sun. The idea that Caruana plays is somewhat obscure but had been considered before.} e6 6. Bf4 { Tomashevsky had faced this twice before: a draw against Indjic and a loss to Nakamura last year.} a5 7. e3 Be7 8. g4 $5 {This, however, is totally new. The g4 moves combines something from the Shirov/Shabalov attack in the Semi-Slav, but with the bonus that the bishop on c1 made it out of the pawn chain. How good this is will require more tests. The pawn here cannot be taken.} Na6 (8... Nxg4 9. Rg1 Nf6 (9... h5 10. h3 f5 {is much sillier than it is in the Shirov/ Shabalov variation.} 11. hxg4 $18) 10. Rxg7 $16) 9. g5 Nd7 (9... Nh5 10. Be5 { looks pleasant for White, but maybe it is better than what happened in the game.}) 10. h4 Nb4 11. Be2 b6 12. h5 Bb7 13. cxd5 {Closing the center is logical, but perhaps not completely necessary in this position.} exd5 14. Qd2 f5 $5 {Perhaps Tomashevsky was starting to feel the nooze in this position, as he was quickly running out of moves and of space. However I don't like the idea of opening up the g-file and weakening the e6 square.} 15. gxf6 Bxf6 16. h6 g6 17. e4 $1 {Opening the position against the enemy king.} dxe4 $6 (17... O-O $1 18. e5 Be7 {is the computer recommendation.}) 18. Nxe4 O-O 19. O-O-O Nd5 (19... b5 $1 {This move was very important. It is multi-purpose: Black takes control of c4, it allows the knight to go to b6 and it threatens the pawn on a4 in some variation. The pawn itself is immune on b5 as it would open up the bishop on b7.}) 20. Bg3 Ba6 21. Bxa6 Rxa6 22. Rhe1 Ra8 23. Kb1 Be7 24. Qd3 $14 {White has some nice position pluses now. Black's king is permanently weak and he can attack the c6 square.} Rf5 25. Ne5 Qc8 26. Nc3 (26. Qc4 $1 Nxe5 27. dxe5 Qe6 28. Nd6 $16) 26... Nxc3+ 27. Qxc3 Nxe5 28. Qb3+ {A fancy intermediate that probably was not as good as just taking directly.} (28. dxe5 Qe6 29. Rd6 $1 Bxd6 30. exd6 Qf6 31. Qxc6 {was devastating. Caruana might have underestimated the exchange sacrifice.}) 28... Rf7 29. dxe5 Qf5+ 30. Ka2 Bb4 $2 (30... Qg4 $1 {With the idea of Rf3 in case of e6 was the best chance of holding, but the position might still be lost.}) 31. e6 Re7 32. Bh4 {The blockade is lifted and the rest is easy.} Ree8 33. e7+ Qf7 34. Re6 b5 35. Rd8 {The computer doesn't like this move, but who cares.} bxa4 36. Qe3 Bxe7 37. Rxa8 Rxa8 38. Bxe7 {It's just up a piece now. The pawns are too weak to count as compensation.} Re8 39. Ka1 a3 40. bxa3 Qf5 41. Qc3 {A brilliant game from Caruana, not afraid to get into a messy position.} 1-0