Caruana was mid-interview. Then came the Abdusattorov crowd.

Round 7 in Samarkand belonged to Uzbekistan. The hosts beat China 3–1, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov took down former world champion Ding Liren on board one.

Fabiano Caruana had just drawn his own game when WFM Adriana Palao of ChessFam stopped him for an interview. It didn’t stay quiet for long. Fans and cameras chasing Abdusattorov swept through, and the clip opens with a plea to the crowd: “Sorry, we’re in the middle of an interview.”

Caruana carried on. Here’s what he said.

“It really comes down to this match”

How is the match looking for the US?

“Actually, I’m not sure. Wesley is in trouble, but he might hold the game. And I think Awonder should win. If all the results go in our favor, then we win two and a half. Otherwise, we might not win the match.”

How is the team atmosphere?

“It’s been very friendly. We’re enjoying the time together. Unfortunately, some of us haven’t been in the best form, so that’s the only thing that’s not going perfectly. Of course, we’re still trailing, but Uzbekistan is winning all their matches, and we still have a chance if we win this. So it really comes down to this match, I think.”

“An uphill battle”

Wesley told us the goal was gold, and that after a few results you’d be happy with the podium. How do you see it?

“I think it’s still a bit too early to say. Of course, a podium finish is always good. But considering our starting rank, we were aiming for gold. At the moment it is an uphill battle. We will have to first win this match, then play Uzbekistan, and then also win that match. Considering the form they’re in, that isn’t going to be easy at all. Certainly we’re underdogs, but I think we’ll still keep fighting.”

The game

Caruana had Black against Armenia’s Haik Martirosyan, and chose a line his teammate Levon Aronian had played, and got into trouble with, earlier in the event.

“The position was normal from the opening, and I think Haik was very well prepared. Everything he did up to this point was very quick. I didn’t expect this line. He is not an e4 player, so for him to be so well prepared, I wasn’t expecting it.”

From there the pieces came off. “From this moment on it was not too interesting anymore. A draw was 100%.”

Were you aiming to win?

“I wanted to get a fight, but I didn’t think a draw would be a bad result. We said our two white games were very important. If we could score points on those boards, then probably we would be able to win the match.”

Faith in Wesley

“The only question is if we’ll actually draw on the second board. If Wesley can hold that position, and I do have faith, because he’s one of the best defenders in the world for sure, then we should be doing very well. But it’s not a guarantee. His position is very close to lost, I think.”

It went the way Caruana feared. Wesley So came close to holding a difficult rook-and-pawn endgame but couldn’t save it. Awonder Liang won on board four, and the match finished 2–2.

Uzbekistan kept winning. They took gold on home soil four rounds later, with India second and Germany third. The US, the top seed, left Samarkand without a medal.

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