Why is Fabiano Caruana Dominating the Strongest Chess Tournament Ever?

Yesterday in chess class, one of my students asked me, “How is it possible for Fabiano Caruana to play chess so well?” I answered her by saying that it is a,”Combination of talent, passion for chess, hard work and experience.” When another child asked me about his experience, I explained that, “It takes learning from thousands of losses to become any good at chess.” I then set up the position below in which Torres Chess and Music Academy coach Emory Tate provides a valuable learning moment to the young Fabiano Caruana.

Here is the game in its entirety:

[Event “Tournament ‘New York Masters'”]
[Site “New York (USA)”]
[Date “2003”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Caruana Fabiano (ITA)”]
[Black “Tate Emory (USA)”]
[Result “0-1”]
[Eco “B22”]
[Annotator “Chris Torres”]
[Source “Chris’ Portable Treasury of Chess Games”]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 exd5 5.d4 c4 {Emory Tate chose a different path in his fine victory over Mechem.}
( 5…Nc6 6.Nbd2 Be6 7.Bd3 c4 8.Bc2 b5 9.Nf1 Bd6 10.Ng3 Nf6 11.Nf5
Bxf5 12.Bxf5 Qe7+ 13.Qe2 Ne4 14.Ng5 Nxg5 15.Bxg5 f6 16.Be3 g6
17.Bc2 O-O 18.Qf3 Qf7 19.O-O b4 20.Bf4 Bxf4 21.Qxf4 bxc3 22.bxc3
Rab8 23.Rab1 Rxb1 24.Rxb1 Qe6 25.Kf1 {…0-1, Mechem P – Tate Emory (USA) 2370 , Illinois 1996 It (open)}
) 6.Be2 ( 6.b3 cxb3 7.axb3 Bd6 8.Bd3 Ne7 9.Nbd2 Bf5 10.Nf1 O-O
11.Ne3 Bxd3 12.Qxd3 Qd7 13.O-O Nbc6 14.Ba3 f5 15.Bxd6 Qxd6 16.c4
f4 17.Ng4 Ng6 18.Rfe1 Rae8 19.h4 Qd7 20.Rxe8 Rxe8 21.h5 Nge7
22.Nge5 dxc4 23.bxc4 Nxe5 24.Nxe5 Qf5 25.Rxa7 Qxh5 {…1-0, Rublevsky Sergei (RUS) 2683 – Simonian Hrair (ARM) 2473 , Warsaw 12/18/2010 Ch Europe (active)}
) Bd6 7.O-O a6 ( 7…Ne7 8.b3 cxb3 9.axb3 Nbc6 10.c4 O-O 11.Nc3
Be6 12.Bg5 Qd7 13.Bh4 Rfe8 14.c5 Bc7 15.Nb5 Bg4 16.Nxc7 Qxc7
17.Bg3 Qd7 18.Ne5 Bxe2 19.Qxe2 Nxe5 20.dxe5 Nc6 21.f4 d4 22.Qc4
Qe6 23.Qxe6 fxe6 24.Rfd1 Red8 25.Ra4 a6 26.Rd3 Rd5 27.b4 {…0-1, Chakurira S (ZIM) 2171 – Lautier Joel (FRA) 2365 , Adelaide 1988 Ch World (juniors) (under 20)}
) 8.Ne5 {+0.07 CAP} ( 8.b3 cxb3 9.axb3 Ne7 ( 9…Nf6 10.Bb5+
{+0.48 CAP} ) 10.Re1 O-O 11.Ba3 Nbc6 12.Bd3 Ng6 13.Bxd6 Qxd6
14.Bxg6 hxg6 15.Ra2 Bf5 16.Rae2 Rac8 17.Re3 a5 18.Nbd2 b5 19.Ne5
b4 20.Nxc6 Rxc6 21.c4 a4 22.c5 Qf6 23.bxa4 Qxd4 24.Nb3 Qxd1 25.Rxd1
Ra8 26.a5 Bc2 27.Rxd5 Re6 {…1/2-1/2, Timmermans Ivo (NED) 2247 – Pavlovic Milos (SRB) 2531 , Vlissingen 8/ 6/2011 It (open)}
) ( 8.Re1 Ne7 9.b3 cxb3 10.axb3 Nbc6 11.Bd3 O-O 12.Ng5 g6 13.h4
h5 14.Nd2 Bg4 15.Qc2 Rc8 16.Qb2 Qd7 17.Ngf3 Nf5 18.c4 Rfe8 19.Ne5
Bxe5 20.dxe5 Nxh4 21.cxd5 Qxd5 22.Ne4 Qxd3 23.Nf6+ Kh8 24.Nxe8
Be6 25.Nd6 Nd4 26.Be3 Ndf3+ 27.Kh1 Nxe1 {…0-1, Flaquer Luis (DOM) 2274 – Stanojoski Zvonko (MKD) 2485 , Khanty Mansyisk 9/23/2010 Olympiad}
) Ne7 {This move deserves more attention and is yet another invention by Emory Tate.}
9.Bf3 Nbc6 10.Re1 O-O 11.b3 cxb3 12.axb3 Be6 13.Bg5 Qc7 14.Bxe7
Nxe7 15.Qd2 Rac8 16.h3 {This move unnecessarily creates weakness around white’s king.}
Ng6 {The only thing Emopry doesn’t like about his position is Fabiano’s knight on e5, so he is fixing that.}
17.Nxg6 hxg6 {Black’s position is now better.} 18.Qg5 {?} {
Fabiano makes a strategic and tactical error. The strategic mistake is
attacking when he is not in a superior position. Emory will show us how to
punish the tactical mistake of placing the queen on g5.} Bf4
{!} {The queen is a dead woman walking.} 19.Qh4 g5 {!} 20.Qh5
g6 21.Qh6 g4 {!} {And that my friends is how it’s done! Once again, Emory Tate uses creativity and precise tactics to bust his opponent.}
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