2014 Sinquefield Cup - Favourites crash and burn

The third round of the 2014 Sinquefield Cup saw the three games in which the rating favourites went down in a screaming heap. While wins by Topalov over Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave over Aronian were newsworthy enough, it was Caruana's win over Carlsen which has really set the tournament alight.
Once again Carlsen tried an offbeat opening line (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4), which posed little problems for Caruana. At move 15 Carlsen then played a piece sacrifice, but when the smoke cleared, Caruana had a comfortable advantage. He maintined this edge simply aiming his pieces at the white king, and while looking for counter play, Carlsen played the wrong move in a line he previously calculated, and lost a few moves later.
The win by Caruana leaves him 1.5 points clear after only 3 rounds. Aronian and Vachier-Lagrave are on 1.5 points, while Carlsen, Nakamura and Topalov are all back on 1.


Carlsen,Magnus (2877) - Caruana,Fabiano (2801) [C24]
2nd Sinquefield Cup 2014 Saint Louis USA (3.1), 29.08.2014