Magnus Carlsen has seen off his rivals, at least for the moment. Following his early elimination from the World Cup in Tbilisi the 26-year-old world champion made the bold decision to travel to Douglas for the Chess.com Isle of Man Open. He left behind his normal entourage of parents, manager and trainer but brought his girlfriend, Synne Christin Larsen.

Carlsen led all the way, used some offbeat openings like 1…g6 and 1…b6, won several creative games, made a trip to the top of Snaefell, the Isle’s highest point and captured the £50,000 first prize with an unbeaten 7.5/9, half a point ahead of Hikaru Nakamura of the US and India’s Vishy Anand. It was the Norwegian’s first victory in a classical tournament for more than a year.

Carlsen’s lead in the live ratings has now jumped from a meagre 10 points a few months ago to a healthy 36 ahead of his closest rival, Levon Aronian, the World Cup winner. There were still a few blemishes. He was in danger of defeat in round two against Eugene Perelshteyn of the US and had the worse of a draw as White against India’s Gujrathi Vidit. But his incisive wins against Ukraine’s Pavel Eljanov and Fabiano Caruana of the US had the stamp of greatness.

The former world champion Vlad Kramnik had a dreadful start where he lost to the US veteran James Tarjan, as featured in last week’s puzzle, but the Russian fought back with a finishing spurt to 6.5/9 and a last-round win over England’s Gawain Jones.

That result capped a below-par tournament for the English grandmasters. Michael Adams joined Kramnik and others in a tie for fourth but Jones, David Howell and Nigel Short dropped rating points. The trio are struggling to achieve consistency at the elite 2700 level.

The No1 woman, Hou Yifan, as at Gibraltar where she made a bizarre final-round protest, began Isle of Man with a run of female opponents and lost to one of them. This time her response was shrewder. She took a half-point bye, returned invigorated to defeat her male opponents and made sure of the £6,000 women’s award with a round to spare.

Fabiano Caruana had beaten Gawain Jones in the previous round with some impressive prep, finding a nuance at move 19 in a sharp variation of the Ruy Lopez. Carlsen opted for 14…Re8 and a more solid approach, was surprised by 15 g4!? and worked out the counter 15…Qe7 and 16…Nd8, guarding f7, though the machines prefer 15…Qd7, ready to sac on g4, or the complex 15…exd4 16 cxd4 Nb4 17 g5 c5!

As played, Caruana stood slightly better against Carlsen but began to lose the thread with 22 Bc2? where 22 Nf5 Bxf5 23 exf5 Qc7 24 Nh4 is unclear. Soon the weak a5 pawn dropped while Carlsen’s powerful 26…d5! and 27…Bb8! opened up the game for Black’s attacking army. Short of time, Caruana collapsed as 32…Ng5! prepared the decisive tactic featured in this week’s puzzle.

Fabiano Caruana v Magnus Carlsen

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 c3 d6 8 a4 Rb8 9 d4 Bb6 10 a5 Ba7 11 h3 O-O 12 Be3 Ra8 13 Re1 h6 14 Nbd2 Re8 15 g4!? Qe7 16 Nf1 Nd8!? 17 Ng3 c5 18 Qd2 c4 19 Bc2 Nh7 20 b4 cxb3 21 Bxb3 Be6 22 Bc2? Rc8 23 Bd3 Nb7 24 Rec1 Qd8 25 Qb2 Nxa5 26 Nd2 d5! 27 Re1 Bb8! 28 exd5 Bxd5 29 Bf5 Rc6 30 Qa3 Nb7 31 Rad1 exd4 32 Bxd4 Ng5! 33 c4 Rxe1+ 34 Rxe1 Be6 35 Qe3? see puzzle diagram

3515 35...Bf4! when if 36 Qxf4 Nxh3+ and Nxf4 or 36 Qd3 Bxd2 37 Qxd2 Nf3+ wins the queen.