Iron nerves

The game that clinched Magnus Carlsen’s victory in the Gashimov Memorial came, fittingly, in a last-round cliffhanger against his closest rival, Fabiano Caruana. Both players were on 5½ points out of 9 possible, hence a win for either grandmaster would determine the laurels in his favour. A draw, leaving them both tied on 6 points, would have been a reasonable solution, honourable to both sides, but Carlsen is at his most deadly in these tense situations — one of the attributes he has taken from the great psychologist Emanuel Lasker. As it was, Caruana, despite playing with the black pieces, also seemed determined to play for a win, repeating his exploit against Carlsen from the first half of the tournament. Caruana gambitted a pawn, threw caution to the winds and would probably have triumphed against an opponent with lesser defensive skills and more fragile nerves than the world champion.
 
Carlsen-Caruana: Vugar Gashimov Mem, Shamkir 2014; Reversed Grunfeld
 
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 g6 3 g3 Bg7 4 Bg2 c5 5 c3 d5 A bold decision indeed.