When both players hate their Rooks! Caruana – Bassem, Nations Cup 2020

GM Swapnil Dhopade

Headcoach - Chess Pathshala

When both players hate their rooks!

GM Caruana vs. GM Bassem, Online Nations cup 2020

Pic Credit - fide.com

Pic Credit - Chessbase India

Hello dear readers!

As chess players when we begin our journey, we are always taught the importance of each piece through the below points system. 

But later on, we witness some magnificent sacrifices in the games of Grandmasters’ which denies this points system table.

In this article, we will two such amazing positional sacrifices in the game Fabiano Caruana vs. Amin Bassem, Online Nations Cup 2020.

Let us check out the game – 

6.h3!?-An interesting rare line by Caruana.

Exchanging the knight on c5 immediately was a dubious decision by Caruana.

Black to play. Can you find the move played by Bassem?

21.Qd2 - a nice idea by Caruana - preparing the exchange on queens.

Find the best move for white!

I hope you liked the article and learnt something from the analysis and comments to the game.  See you soon in the next article! All the best. Take care!