Tag: Hikaru Nakamura

Carlsen Wins Tal Memorial

November 25th, 2011 · · -, Games No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

In the final round Carlsen caught Aronian (who he beat on tie-breaks) with a clean victory over Nakamura that looked effortless. The game Svidler v. Kramnik was extremely sharp and interesting, with Svidler finding a queen sacrifice mate to end the game. In the game, Kramnik clearly took risks to create complications, but wound up on the wrong side of them. For all of those detractors out there who call him Drawnik- you really have to hand it to him here, he took a risk… it may not have turned out well for him, but he went for complications.

Next up on the Calendar for the 2800 club is the London Classic- which is my favorite event of the year. It starts December 3rd and lasts for more than a week, so luckily for me I will have something to do on my birthday while I’m stuck in bed with this cast on. As usually, the lineup will feature some of England’s hometown heros, such as micky adams, nigel short, and luke Mcshane who put up a great performance last year. I’m not sure if they’re doing the 3-1 scoring system this year or not, but for the first two years the London Classic has awarded 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.


Tal Memorial Snooze Fest

November 20th, 2011 · · - 4 comments - Tags: , , , , , ,


One nice thing about being bed-ridden with a full leg cylinder cast for six weeks is that now I will be able to follow all of the cool chess events going on for the next month or so. Around the time of my birthday the London Chess Classic will kick off, which is one of the best organized events on the calendar and I can’t wait to watch it live with commentary. At the moment though the Tal Memorial is raging on… sort of. The last two rounds have featured draws on all boards, and the comments on chessbomb have been predictably acerbic. Interestingly, today several player’s achieved potentially winning positions, but later slipped back into drawing lines. When top flight tournaments feature so many draws, spectators understandably become disinterested. This phenomenon seems to be more and more common at elite chess events, prompting new rules regulating when players can agree to a draw and forcing players to fight on even in hopelessly drawn positions…(remember that tournament last year where tiviakov repeated moves 27 times?) Perhaps Fischer Random or Seirawan chess is the future of our game. It seems that opening theory is on the verge of suffocating the life out of the game…

In any case. If you’re interested in watching the games live, a live video feed is available here.

Today I watched the game between Aronian and Nakamura most closely.

Here is a picture of my poor leg in a full cast- ugh- shattered my knee in a bike accident and will be bedridden for a while… at least I still have chess.

Naka Wins!

January 30th, 2011 · · -, Games No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I loved his last game too- starting out with a KID move order and then playing e6 to go for a sharp Benoni, even offering an exchange sacrifice for several moves that Hao never accepted. I was somewhat surprised at the draw agreement on move 22, but I guess that’s common for the last round of a tournament where neither party has anything to gain from playing on.

In any case, what an incredible performance for Naka, finishing +5. When was the last time an american won an elite tournament so convincingly? A good point made by mig over at chess dirt was that with Nakamura putting up such an impressive score, it will force Kramnik and similiar players to reevaluate their approach to these tournaments if they ever expect to win them again. I hope he is right.

Another impressive performance in the tournament was Giri, with his convincing victory against Carlsen and strong performance otherwise, he is a rising contender at the tender age of 16.

Dissappointingly, Shirov finished dead last. I want to go back over some of his games, in particular the Cambridge Springs games he played, and try to find where he went wrong. Not that I expected him to win the event, but finishing behind Smeets is a result I wasn’t expecting from him.

What’s next for Naka? Now he will be firmly entrenched in the top ten at number 7 in the world rankings. While I’m a huge fan of Kamsky’s, I secretly think that Naka perhaps would have a better shot in the upcomming candidates matches now after this performance in Wijk.

Maybe next cycle Naka…

Below, find all 13 games Naka played in Tata-

Naka Leads With One Round to Go!

January 29th, 2011 · · -, Games 2 comments - Tags: , ,

For those who have been following his incredible tournament, Naka’s performance has been extremely entertaining. Tomorrow, he faces Wang Hao with the black pieces and is positioned to take clear first, an incredible feat in such a strong field. Say what you will about Nakamura personally, winning this tournament will induct him into the world’s elite group of players.

His draw today with Kramnik was uneventful and uninteresting, however, his win yesterday against Nepo was a delight to watch. It was a fascinating caro advance, where black was able to win a pawn and hang onto it for dear life. White had some initiative, but Naka demonstrated great technique in securing the full point.

You can follow the last round live tomorrow all over the internet- but I will be watching it on chessbomb-

Naka Loses to Carlsen, Shares Lead with Anand

January 23rd, 2011 · · -, Najdorf, Sicilian Defense No comments - Tags: , ,

After a disappointing loss to Magnus today, Nakamura still shares first play with Anand, who he will face next. There is no question that the second half of Tata will be more difficult for Nakamura than the first half was, but it isn’t so easy to discount his stellar performance. The game between Nakamura and Carlsen today was a Sicilian Najdorf, where Nakamura went wrong with 25…Qa5, when white has a crushing attack which was fantastically executed by Carlsen. While I was watching the game I had an engine running that suggested 26. Nxe6 as winning, however, Carlsen’s move Rdf1 is actually even stronger.

I have to admit, despite the fact that he is arrogant and there are many reasons to dislike him personally, I am cheering for Nakamura in this tournament. He is after all America’s best shot at having an elite player with a future who may hang around in the top ten for a while. Not to discount Kamsky, who I greatly admire and will be cheering for in his appearance at Candidates, but Nakamura lately has been outperforming him considerably.

Naka Wins in Wijk with off-beat Nimzo Gambit

January 22nd, 2011 · · Nimzo-Indian No comments - Tags: ,

Today at Tata, Anand drew his game with Grischuk, and a majority of the other games were decisive. The standings can be found here. By far the most interesting game to my eyes was the L’Ami- Nakamura game, in which Nakamura played the volatile gambit 6…b5 in the Nimzo-Indian. L’Ami declined to accept the gambit, as black gets explosive pressure in return for the pawn, and the game entered very quiet waters. Interestingly, the ending found Nakamura with a knight pair vs L’Ami’s bishop pair, but Nakamura coordinated his knights amazingly well, deep in the open pastures of white’s position, and managed to force resignation. Incidentally, this line in the nimzo was recommended by Andrew Martin in his book “Secret Weapons,” which oddly has a pistol on the cover and which I bought on ebay for three dollars a year ago (it’s now selling for 80 on amazon- go figure.) In any case, how wild to see such a move in high level chess- no question- Nakamura is the most interesting player in Group A. Tomorrow is one of the most exciting games of the tournament- Anand-Carlsen. I can’t wait- I will be watching it live at the Marshall Chess Club while I direct tomorrow’s tournament, checking in between rounds to see whether Anand can teach the kid a lesson about what it takes to be world champion.

In any case, here is Naka’s game-

Magnus Spanked; Nakamura Leads in Wijk aan Zee

January 17th, 2011 · · Games No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , ,

With the first few rounds of Tata (formerly Corus) behind us, there are some unexpected outcomes already in Wijk aan Zee. Love him or hate him, Nakamura is putting up an incredible performance against the world’s elite and leads after the third round with 2.5/3. Today, he managed a win against Shirov in a sharp Ruy Lopez with Bc5. The story of the day though is Anish Giri’s absolute spanking of the wunderkind Magnus. Giri produced a miniature against the world number 1 in fewer than 25 moves with the black pieces. The game was a Grunfeld, in which Carlsen deviated early as he has been doing lately, likely to avoid theory, trying the move 11.Qd2 to sidestep well known forcing lines. The result was a better position for black and the world number 1 toppling his king on move 22. It’s hard to resist the opportunity to take some kind of jab at him concerning his priorities lately, so I will hold my tongue for the moment and see how he does against the rest of the field as the tournament unfolds. An interesting question the FEB guys pondered was whether he would rather win the tournament but lose when he faces Anand, or beat Anand but lose the tournament overall. From the looks of his game today, he will have to work considerable harder to accomplish either. Below, find the three decisive games of the day.

Naka wins in London

December 12th, 2010 · · -, Marshall, Openings No comments - Tags: , , , ,

Nakamura beat Short today in the 5th round of the London Chess Classic in a remarkably tame Marshall Attack, while Carlsen won against Howell and the other games were draws. Nakamura is now one of the front-runners of the tournament, along with Mcshane and Anand. The Bilbao scoring system awards 3 points for a win and only 1 point for a draw, so it differs considerably from the normal chess scoring system, inducing players to fight for wins where perhaps they would otherwise have been content to draw.

Nigel Short played the Marshall Attack, and specifically chose a tricky sideline with 9…e4 (Herman Steiner variation) instead of the mainline 9…Nxd5. One of the themes of this line is black’s thorn pawn on f3. If white captures the pawn straight away with the queen, he falls into a massive attack which I have lost to in blitz. In this game, Nakamura allows the “thorn pawn” to sit there the entire game, never picking it up despite it’s annoying cramping presence. Naturally, he avoids picking it up because he knows that (1) he shouldn’t waste time picking up a dead pawn and (2) by leaving that pawn there it’s almost goading Nigel by pointing out the harmlessness of his plan. Check out the hot trap in the parenthetical.

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Today in London

December 11th, 2010 · · -, Games, same-colored bishops No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

The games this afternoon were not nearly as intense as they have been the last few days, but nonetheless there was still a feast of interesting chess for fans at the London Chess Classic. Short was absolutely steam-rolled by Anand’s kingside pawn storm, giving up a piece to break up the pawn-roller but not finding adequate compensation, and graciously allowing Anand to deliver mate only a few moves later. It saddens me to report that Nakamura lost to Carlsen in a tense Anglo-Dutch. Lately, Nakamura is one of the only top players to regularly whip out the Dutch Leningrad, and as a Dutch fan myself it pains me to see him ground down to a lost bishops of same color ending. Mcshane drew with Adams in a Reti, while Kramnik demonstrated a straight-foward winning plan in the Grunfeld using his passed d-pawn in his game with Howell.

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Backroom Blitz Battle

December 8th, 2010 · · - No comments - Tags: , ,

I always wonder if the top players spend time with one another behind the scenes, fight out their public grudges in private battles. Naturally, chess players are addicted to playing blitz, and if you’re one of the best players in the world, wouldn’t you want to blitz the night away with other top players? I was psyched to find this article about one such bout between carlsen and naka following the Tal Memorial. Arranged informally at the last second, the match went on till 4 a.m., with 40 games played. Hilariously, neither of the players nor anyone present had a board or a clock. After scrambling around and eventually purchasing one from a chess shop in moscow, magnus and naka battled it out. The final tally isn’t revealed, but from the tone of the article I suspect magnus came out on top. The players signed the board afterwords and it will be auctioned off for charity along with the score of the match. Supposedly, one of the players asked that the result be kept a secret. Perhaps someone who was present will secretly post the result on wikileaks for the rest of the world to see. Information wants to be free!

The Anatomy of the French Advance

November 20th, 2010 · · -, Annotated Games, French Advance, French Defense, Games, Openings One comment - Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I have always played the advance against the French, and as a French player myself I have faced the advance many times. Naturally, there is no substitute for learning theory, however, the french advance is a forgiving opening in which an understanding of general principals can help you find the right ideas, even deep into the middle game.

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Wojo’s Weapons: a Catalan themed game collection/tribute

November 10th, 2010 · · -, Book Review, Catalan, Openings One comment - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,


This Book is an interesting addition to the chess books I’ve come across this year. Put out by “Mongoose Press,” it is part opening book, part game collection, part tribute to the late Aleksander Wojtkiewicz (a.k.a. “Wojo”). Referred to as the the “Polish Magician,” Wojo won or tied for first place in over 240 tournaments, averaging over 30 tournament victories a year, or nearly three per month.

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