Candidates R02: Nakamura implodes, Karjakin strikes!

The 2016 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament is a 14-round event, which determines the next Challenger to Magnus Carlsen's title, is taking place in Moscow from March 10–30. Eight players, including six of the World’s top-ten rated grandmasters. The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The guaranteed prize fund is US $420,000.

Candidates Round two: Nakamura implodes, Karjakin strikes!

Report from Moscow by IM Sagar Shah

It was the last day of the Aeroflot Open 2016. After seven hours of intense chess Boris Gelfand won his game against Rinat Jumabayev and finished joint first at the event along with Evgeniy Najer. At the closing ceremony I approached Gelfand with a request. “Boris, I would like to do an interview with you for the ChessBase newspage. Will you have some time tomorrow?” Boris thought for a few seconds, “Tomorrow is the blitz event and I have to leave immediately after it ends. How about we find some time during the Candidates? I will be commentating on the first two days at least, and we can work something out.” I agreed, fully aware that at the Candidates it might be very difficult to get hold of him. After all there are always dignitaries coming to the tournament hall and a player like Boris is always in great demand. Yet, I hoped that this interview would take place, as Gelfand’s knowledge, skills and honest opinions about chess could help every aspiring player.

Come 12th of March and the second round of the Candidates just got underway. I went to the press room to set up my laptop and other stuff. We were 15 minutes into the game and the Israeli number one barged into the press room. “Let’s do the interview”, he said. It was overwhelming in a way! Here was a guy who was not only was a strong chess player but had great human qualities like keeping his word.

The interview consists of 58 minutes of chess discussions with Boris on varied topics that
will benefit many chess players. The interview will be published on the website soon.

The reason for writing such an elaborate introduction about the interview was the sheer co-incidence of two of the games having quite a substantial connection with Gelfand’s games of the Aeroflot Open – the biggest one being Levon Aronian versus Vishy Anand, where the Armenian number one played the same novelty that Gelfand had essayed on 6th of March 2016 in his game against Boris Grachev.

Five games had reached this position before and everyone had played 8.Nc3. Boris Gelfand played
8.Nd2!? in his game against Grachev, and the same idea was picked up by Levon Aronian.

This position between Sergey Karjakin and Hikaru Nakamura is the same that was
reached between Gelfand and Martirosyan from the second round of the Aeroflot Open.

Moral of the story: Top players follow the games of other top players and grab onto any new idea or improvements they can learn from them.

Levon Aronian – Anand Viswanathan 0.5-0.5

Aronian faced grave pressure in the first round against Anish Giri when the latter employed the 5.Bf4 variation in the Queen’s Gambit Declined. The Armenian thought that it was a good idea to try this same line with the white pieces. However, Anand was quite clever in the opening and instead of committing his dark-squared bishop, he started with 4…Nbd7. Both the players were armed to the teeth with home preparation. Also they were very well aware of the recent game between Boris Gelfand and Boris Grachev from the Aeroflot Open 2016. Anand found the important manoeuvre Ba6-b5-a4 at the key moment and Aronian couldn’t really press with the white pieces. In the final position Vishy was a pawn up, but thanks to the opposite coloured bishop endgame there was nothing much to play for.

It is always nice to know what is the difference between playing 4…Nbd7 and 4…Be7? Apart from reserving the option of developing the bishop to any other square apart from e7, this move also leads to the concrete line starting with 5…dxc4 and 6…b5 that was played by Vishy Anand in this game.

You can always bank on Vishy Anand to be well prepared in the lines that he plays

“19.Qe1 may not be a move that I had prepared, but I always have a feeling of déjà vu when I see a position and think that this is something that I have worked on at home!” (Levon Aronian after the second round).

Fabiano Caruana – Anish Giri 0.5-0.5

Two of the youngest participants of the Candidates locked horns against each other in the fashionable line of the Anti-Berlin Defence. Fashionable, because Vishy Anand had played the same line against Veselin Topalov in the first round and had emerged victorious. Both the players had at least some experience in this opening. Fabiano had played a game against Topalov at the Sinquefield Cup 2015 with the black pieces, while Anish’s good friend Dutch GM Benjamin Bok already had three games in that line. Caruana’s direct Qd1 without inserting a4 move was a novelty. Anish’s reaction was quite provocative. He allowed the white pawn to come to e6. It seemed as if Caruana had some pressure on the position, but his time was just too low for him to take any sort of calculated risks. In the end he settled for the most natural moves and the game ended in a draw.

If Caruana would have managed his time better might well have seen another decisive result today

Anish Giri definitely seems to have come to Moscow in a fighting mood

The analysis session was highly entertaining. Fabiano: “This was too deep for me.”
Anish: “A few more press conferences with me and you will start considering such moves!”

Sergey Karjakin – Hikaru Nakamura 1-0

It would not be inappropriate to say that Sergey Karjakin simply outplayed Hikaru Nakamura today. The Russian, who had the white pieces, slowly increased his pressure. As Vladimir Kramnik, who was in the commentary box during round two, rightly pointed out: “Black must do something pretty soon or else he would simply have to suffer for the rest of the game.” And Nakamura is definitely not a player who likes to suffer. He sacrificed his knight on g3 and calculated that he would win back the piece along with interest. Turns out that Karjakin had seen one move further and Nakamura ended up with a knight less! In the end there was nothing to be done. With a complete piece down, Hikaru had to resign.

In this position Nakamura took on g3. What exactly was his idea and
how is it refuted. Try to see if you can play like Karjakin to win the game!

Things didn’t work out so well for Hikaru today. But it is a long event.
With twelve rounds to go he can surely make a comeback.

Seeing one move further – Sergey Karjakin joins the leader with a round two win

A huge smile is natural, when your husband wins! Galiya Kamalova,
wife of Sergey, came to the tournament hall at the end of the game

Video analysis of Karjakin vs Nakamura by GM Daniel King

Peter Svidler – Veselin Topalov 0.5-0.5

What is more boring than the Berlin endgame? The Nxe5 symmetrical pawn structure line in the Berlin! Svidler tried a line in which Alexander Areshchenko had beaten Etienne Bacrot from the white side. But Topalov was pretty well prepared and after a few accurate moves, the players shook hands and a draw was agreed. After Topalov’s loss yesterday it is surprising that Peter didn’t press harder with the white pieces. But it is a long tournament and one can understand that the players are just getting into the groove.

What do you do when your games ends in an hour from the start? Pose for pictures…

….or kibitz live games with friends. Here you see Ilya Merenzon, CEO of Agon, Arkady Dvorkovich,
an economist who was a Deputy Prime Minister in Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet,
Peter Svidler and Mark Glukhovsky, Chairman of the RCF Management board.

It was a pleasure to see Vladimir Kramnik in the commentary room and the players
too were happy to see their friend and rival! Here Levon Aronian greets the big Vlad

Indian chess supporters follow Vishy wherever he goes!

Bird’s eye view of the press center and the live games big screen

Anna Burtasova, who conducts interviews with top grandmasters and dignitaries
at the venue, is a WGM, chess journalist and the producer of Chesscast broadcasts

Pictures by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India,

Table

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