2017 Champions Showdown

The Saint Louis Chess Club hosted the Champions Showdown 2017, November 9-14 2017. An original format where the top 3 American players and World Champion Magnus Carlsen play against 4 opponents in 10 rapid games and 20 blitz games.

Inspired by the second rapid game between Alexander Grischuk and Fabiano Caruana, the position below shows how Fabiano could have put the board on fire and won the game in a few moves!

Position after 41. Qxa7

The game continued with 41. … – Ne2 and a draw concluded on move 81.
Had black played 41. … – g3, white would have lost immediately in a spectacular way.

42. Qxb6 (if the knight moves from h2, white immediately loses material) – Qh3!! Threatening 2 checkmates at once on g2 and h2.

43. gxh3 – g2# mating even without the queen!
or 43. Qf2 covering the checkmate on g2, but … Qxh2+ deviating the bishop, wins the game as white can’t prevent the capture of the white queen followed by a promotion on the next move.

Beautiful, isn’t it?