Written and annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.
This was the first game to finish and was brilliant to watch. Aronian smashed Caruana’s position when there was a tremendous amount of tension in the center. Caruana released it too early; the Armenian saw his opportunity and sacrificed a full rook! His devastating continuation with a quiet move, Rf1, was sufficient to topple the American’s defenses and Caruana lost soon after.