Fabiano Caruana vs. The French Defense - Dr. Tarrasch in the House (Part 3)

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In Part 2 of this series, we watched how IM Caruana had a very reasonable performance at the 26th Mitropa Cup. As was mentioned, that tournament ended on May 15, 2007, and 4 days later, on May 19, 2007, Caruana would find himself at the Capo d'Orso op, where he again sought to show the world what he was made of. It should be noted that in this article, we will cover Caruana's Tarrasch phase - for reasons Caruana and only a select few others know, he decided to use the Tarrasch as his main weapon against the French for some time between 2007-2008. Let's see what Caruana makes of his newly forged Tarrasch sword. Before that, though, I will present some pros and cons of the Tarrasch as compared to the Paulsen:

Pros and Cons of the Tarrasch

Pros

1. Aims to completely solidify the White center, especially with c3 and also possibly with f4
2. Protects e4 in a safer way as Bb4 is no longer possible (due to c3)
3. Leaves the g1-knight with more freedom as it could, and does in some lines, develop to e2

Cons

1. Loses time as the d2-knight is in a pretty bad spot as compared to its placement on c3 in the Paulsen, so White will have to spend a tempo to get it to a better square
2. Blocks the c1-bishop
3. Blocks the White queen (from protecting d4)

Castling Into It

As we have come to know, Caruana can be an absolute attacking menace. Amid calm draws, for example, the one we saw against Meier in Part 2, Caruana can suddenly be transmogrified into Tal. In the
Capo d'Orso op, which - spoilers! - Caruana finished first in, he trotted out his newly minted Tarrasch.

Any non-Caruana who would take a look at the position on move 9 would be quite terrified of Black's attack. However, even young Caruana understood the Leela-esque attacking power that was deeply embedded in the White position. With powerful, precise, and dynamic moves, Caruana was able to show that it was in fact the Black king that was in danger and not his.

Taluana

This game and the third game (The Tarrasch Ruy Lopez) took place at the Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament, an international chess tournament held in the Netherlands. In that fateful year, 2007, Caruana was able to clinch first place and continue his resounding successes. Let's see how he played in round 5 of that tournament.

Caruana's chessboard aggression continued to blossom, culminating in this long, attacking masterpiece - Not a traditional Tal game, but a very nice attack that gave Caruana a better endgame, which he duly converted with his amazing technical skills.

The Tarrasch Ruy Lopez

In round 8, the penultimate round, of the aforementioned Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament, Caruana was already among the leaders, but he desperately needed a win to separate him from the pack. Does anyone dare doubt Caruana's Tarrasch (with some Ruy Lopez sprinkled in)?

With this win, Caruana went into the final round a half point ahead of the field (7/8 for Caruana and 6.5/8 for the rest of the field). After a quick draw with his future long-time second, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, he finished the tournament with 7.5/9, which was enough for Caruana to finish in first place on tiebreaks. World, watch out for Fabi!

The Beginning of a Fierce Rivalry

In their first ever encounter, Caruana and Hou play a spectacularly topsy-turvy game. Played in 2008, this game showed that Caruana was still going to stick to his Tarrasch guns. Oh, what guns they were!

Hou let Caruana off the hook in the opening and Caruana kept finding nice positional ideas to increase the pressure. However, Caruana in turn could not capitalize on his advantage and missed some stunning moves that would've netted him the victory. All in all, a draw was a fair result!

And now...let's test!

Openings

Light-square control means dark-square weaknesses...

A crazy opening line!

That king on d7 looks tasty.

Relocate

Black's king is feeling left out

The Tarrasch knights remains unhappy...

Pick!

Middlegames

Finish him!

Only one move

A missed brilliancy

To accept or not to accept?

What can White do?

Can we make use of the pin?

A move with a million threats

Endgames

A simple 1-2 to get us started

Converting the win

Finish him, part 2

Black looks dangerously close...

Conclusion

Caruana's results in this part of the series would leave the reader wondering why he wasn't playing the Tarrasch since the beginning of his career. However, one must not give way to the salient confounding variable that is Caruana's incredible burgeoning strength. Was it the Tarrasch that gave Caruana these splendid results, or was it Caruana himself? We'll answer this question in the fourth part of this series where we continue to take a look at Caruana's incredible French-destroying journey.