Checkmated by a Pawn: Caruana vs Bluebaum at the Candidates

Photo: Frans Peeters / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The black king on g7 is in check, and it is a pawn giving the check. Every square around the king is either covered by a white piece or blocked by a black one. It is checkmate, delivered by the smallest piece on the board.

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Final position, after 28.h6#. The pawn on h6 checks the king. The queen on e8 covers f7, f8, g8 and h8, the pawn on f5 covers g6, and the rook on h1 guards the pawn on h6.

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Fabiano Caruana had lost to Javokhir Sindarov in the round before. In round 5 of the Candidates Tournament he got this finish instead.

Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Matthias Bluebaum FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026, Paphos, Cyprus · Round 5 White: Fabiano Caruana (2795) · Black: Matthias Bluebaum (2698)

Kings on opposite sides

The game began as a Petrov Defence, where Black answers 2.Nf3 with 2...Nf6 instead of defending the e5 pawn.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nc4 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 d5 7.Ne3 c6 8.Bd2 g6 9.f4 Bg7 10.Qf3 Nd7 11.O-O-O Nc5 12.f5 O-O 13.g4 Ne4

White castled on the queenside on move 11. Black castled on the kingside on move 12. When the kings live on opposite sides, each player can throw pawns at the other king without weakening their own. That is what White did, with f5 and g4.

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Position after 13...Ne4, with White to move. White's king is on c1 and Black's is on g8. White's f- and g-pawns are already marching toward the black king.

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Our own Stockfish 16 run, at depth 18, called this roughly equal. Over the next few moves White's h-pawn joined the storm, and the engine slowly moved toward White.

14.Bd3 Re8 15.Bxe4 Rxe4 16.h4 Be5 17.c4 Qb6 18.c3 Qa5 19.h5 g5 20.cxd5 Rf4 21.Qe2 cxd5 22.Kb1

Black goes for the white king

22...Ra4

Black had about ten minutes left for the moves up to move 40. The rook swung to a4 to attack the pawn on a2, next to the white king. It looks active. But our engine marked it as a big mistake: it rated White more than four pawns better after it, up from about two. The engine preferred 22...Qa6.

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Position after 22...Ra4, with White to move. Black's queen and rook point at a2, but the white king on b1 still guards a2, and Black's own kingside pawns have moved forward and left gaps.

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23.c4 Qa6 24.Nxd5 f6 25.Bc3

White calmly brought more pieces into play. The knight took the pawn on d5 and landed in the centre, eyeing f6 and e7. Black answered with 24...f6, putting a pawn on the square the knight wanted.

The queen leaves its post

25...Qxc4

With three and a half minutes left, Black took a pawn. Look at what the queen stopped doing. On a6, it stood on the same row as f6, so it could recapture there. On c4, it could not.

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Position after 25...Qxc4, with White to move. The pawn on f6 is now guarded only by the bishop on e5. That bishop is also blocking the e-file between White's queen on e2 and the square e8.

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Our engine now found a forced checkmate for White.

26.Nxf6+

The knight takes the pawn with check. If the bishop takes back, the bishop leaves e5, and the e-file opens for White's queen.

26...Bxf6 27.Qe8+ Kg7

After 27.Qe8+, Black has only one legal move. The king goes to g7. Now it is your turn. White to play and mate in one.

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Position after 27...Kg7, with White to move. White has a checkmate in one move. Can you find it?

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28.h6#

The h-pawn steps forward and gives check. The king cannot go anywhere, and nothing can take the pawn, because the rook on h1 guards it. Scroll back to the top to see the final position again.

What this game teaches

1. Opposite-side castling means a race. White's pawns went up the kingside while Black tried to attack on the queenside. White's attack arrived first.

2. Every defender has a job. The queen on a6 guarded f6 along the sixth row. When it took a pawn on c4, that job went undone, and 26.Nxf6+ worked at once.

3. A piece can defend by blocking. The bishop on e5 kept White's queen off the e-file just by standing there. When it moved to f6, Qe8+ became possible.

4. Pawns can checkmate too. We usually think of queens and rooks giving checkmate. Here a pawn, backed up by the rook behind it, gave the final blow.

5. Grabbing a pawn in time trouble is risky. Both 22...Ra4 and 25...Qxc4 were played with little time left. Before taking something, ask what your piece stops doing when it leaves.