Isle of Man Open: Magnus Carlsen beats Fabiano Caruana

A sudden change of heart

All eyes were on the top board where the fate of the tournament was being decided in the battle between the rating favorites. Caruana has always had a history of giving Carlsen a tough game. This one looked of the same script until Fabi suddenly backtracked with his play.

Fabiano Caruana vs Magnus Carlsen (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

The Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation

Pavel Eljanov explains in depth what Gyula Breyer already saw in 1911 and what became an opening choice of the likes of Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen. The Breyer Variation, which is characterised by the knight retreat to b8.

It looks like things at the top of the chess world are headed back to normal after the apple cart was shaken up and upset in Tbilisi. Carlsen is about to take the tournament with a nice rating points gain, but, of course, he has to get by Nakamura in the last round.

Chasing Magnus

Today Hikaru handily dispatched Emil Sutovsky, who went a step or two too far in his usual hyper-aggressive play right out of the opening. Nakamura seems to be comfortable in Swiss tournaments, more so than when endlessly looking at the same faces in elite round-robins. I wager he would have never dropped out of 2800 if he had to play opens for rent money.

Emil Sutovsky was his usual hyper-aggressive self, but this is not the sort of thing that will intimidate Hikaru Nakamura | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

In his own quiet way Vishy Anand is having himself a decent tournament. No losses and nary a worse position throughout eight rounds of play. Laurent Fressinet went a bit too far with his d4-d5 push, and the rest was a smooth kill by the Former World Champion.

Almost unassuming, Vishy Anand has climbed up the ranks and is now in a tie for third | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Another former champ, Vladimir Kramnik, seems to have put his struggles behind him. Vladimir's win today over Sethuraman was vintage, well, Kramnik. It's a bit too late to get back all the rating points he lost earlier in the tourname n t, and 5½ out of 8 isn't enough to compete for top places, but the event is no longer the disaster it once was.

Of the players who ascended to 6.0/8 today I will also mention Richard Rapport and his win over my old friend Ivan Sokolov. Some clash of styles it was, and in the end the youth and tactical alertness prevailed over the old school and its overambitious positional concepts.

Richard Rapport is a player who runs cold or hot, but never tepid | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Ivan Sokolov vs Richard Rapport (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

Who else is at 6 points? Hou Yifan is! After a strategic bye in Round 5, which broke the ridiculous streak of her being paired with four females in a row, Hou collected herself and was able to go on a three-game winning streak against male GMs. Today's win over Sebastian Bogner was particularly nice, as Hou handled a rooks and opposite-color bishops endgame in textbook fashion. Years ago I studied the games of Shirov and Adams on how to handle such positions, but today's generation of players just plays them perfectly.

Hou Yifan has overcome her initial frustrations and her last three GM opponents are the ones who paid the price | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

By the way, Hou Yifan has already secured top woman's prize, as her competition all suffered setbacks today. I assume Nino Batsiashvili just needed a draw to secure her men GM norm, and she came very close to accomplishing that.

Nino Batsiashvili only needs to appear for her last round game to get a GM norm. Her performance of 2683 after eight rounds is unassailable. | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Gawain Jones vs Nino Batsiashvili (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

Alexandra Kosteniuk doesn't need any norms, she just plays to have a good tournament. Today she didn't shy away from a tactical battle against Alexey Shirov, but it went wrong for her in a couple of critical moments. In the final round she will meet James Tarjan, the intrepid hero who defeated Kramnik earlier in the tournament.

Alexandra Kosteniuk is playing about at her rating, and has had a solid event. | Photo: Chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Alexandra Kosteniuk vs Alexey Shirov (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

And finally, there's Anna Zatonskih, a long time star of the US Women's chess. In the middle of the tournament Anna made big statements by defeating Kosteniuk, and Boris Gelfand! A coveted men’s GM norm seemed within reach, but after today's loss she now must win in the last round in order to get it.

Jeffery Xiong vs Anna Zatonskih (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)

For Jeffery Xiong the tournament is going to be defined by how he does against Mickey Adams tomorrow. Jeffery's scoreline reads a respectable 5 ½/8, but he needs at least a draw to break even in the rating department.

Another game I would have loved to show was a crazy slugfest between two Americans, Var Akobian and Alex Lenderman that ended in a queen sac and perpetual check, but I'm out of room for this report already, so you have to take it under advisement.

Results for round eight (top 30)

Top pairings for round nine

Links

• Official tournament site
• ChessBase Live Broadcast (with many games analyzed)
• Complete standings (Chess-Results)

You can use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.