Fabiano Caruana vs. The French Defense - The French Tournament (Part 2)

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We continue this series with IM Caruana; GM Caruana will make an appearance in the third part of this series! In the tournament we will cover in this article, the 26th Mitropa Cup (2007), Caruana was already rated 2513, but it would take him another two months to achieve his final GM norm to become (at the time) the US's youngest GM. The Mitropa Cup is a friendly European team tournament; its 26th edition was played from May 8 2007 until May 15 2007. At that time, Caruana was already representing Italy because he and his parents saw it best to improve his chess in the European chess circuit, where there's a plethora of chess tournaments. Without further ado, let's see how Caruana's love-hate relationship with the French continued to blossom.

Double French & Single Russian - The Alekhine-Chatard

In round 2, Caruana was up against IM Neubauer, a strong Austrian IM. Neubauer didn't choose to test Caruana on his Winawer turf, so he went for the Classical variation. Caruana wasn't going to play tickle, though! Caruana chose to meet Neubauer's Classical variation with the Alekhine-Chatard, a love child of the world champion Alexander Alekhine and the much less well-known French master, Eugène Chatard. Let's see how Caruana pays tribute to Alekhine and Chatard!

Wow, what a game! Caruana in his recent superGM form has been known to employ brilliant rook lifts, but it's quite something else to see IM Caruana doing it! With such an impressive game, Caruana must have started to feel quite confident.

Rubinstein's Fiercest Supporter

In round 6, Caruana was paired against IM Georg Meier (oh how times have changed!), a life-long Rubinstein player. Did Caruana have anything super aggressive prepared against the ever-equalizing Rubinstein?

Overall, this was a bit of a disappointing game by French-vicious Caruana. Usually a French destroyer, Caruana did not choose to play in his usual swashbuckling manner against the French. Oh well, even champions must rest! C'est la vie.

Ivanchuk's Winawer

In round 8, Caruana was going to finally get to play against the Winawer. The creative GM Vokac, though, goes for a very peculiar variation in the Winawer which has been played by the likes of chess genius Vasyl Ivanchuk. Let's check what IM Caruana had prepared against 4...b6.

What a roller coaster of a game! It is disheartening that Caruana only got a draw out of the game, but, as is commonly known, chess players not only do, but must have a short memory and be able to forget their blunders. On the bright side, at least Caruana didn't lose the game! Perhaps this was a sign of things to come: Caruana was going to be one of the most brilliant defenders of his generation.

Drum roll please! Let's test what you've learned!

Openings

What is the opening continuation that is more commonly played than the Alekhine-Chatard?

How should White meet Black's greed?

Making the best out of a bad situation...

What is Kasparov's weapon against the Blackburne?

What is Nepomniachtchi's (and Dominiguez's) weapon against the Blackburne?

How can White immediately stop Black's plan in this position?

Plan for the middlegame!

Middlegames

Finding the weak pawn...

Knight to d7! Oh no!

Let's go.

Don't let Black escape!

Black's knight must be kept under lock and key...

Look at that king (it doesn't work out!)

Control

Endgames

Be - aggressive - be be - aggressive.

Prophylaxis of the highest order

Jumpity - jump - jump

Don't blow your advantage...

Conclusion

Fabiano Caruana's performance in the 2007 Mitropa Cup is nothing to scoff at: he maintained his 2500+ rating by achieving a 2500+ performance and was the second highest-scoring member of his team, after IM (now GM) Sabino Brunello, who at the time was 17 years old and was also one of Italy's strongest prodigies. Caruana helped his team achieve 2nd place after France's IM-only team and was well on his way to more national and international successes.