Showdown in STL: World class Basque Chess

Vote for the starting positions! See below!

Basque chess

Nakamura vs. Caruana

What could be better than the two top American players, both Top 10, playing a game of
chess? The answer is two games at the same time! That's what Basque Chess is.

The Basque chess games started with some exciting developments. It is difficult to juggle two games of chess at the same time, especially against such strong opposition. In the Nakamura vs. Caruana game, Nakamura, the number one player in America, essayed the Trompowsky opening; however, it was not successful at all. Fabi gained a big initiative with the black pieces with a timely break in the center. This left Hikaru’s dark squares in a shambles, his king weak and his position in serious danger. In an uncharacteristic sequence, Fabiano let go of most of his advantage by playing relatively meek chess. An aggressive approach would have given him a massive advantage. Hikaru regained control of the position, simplified some pieces, and headed towards a draw.

One of the curiosities of Basque chess is that more often than not, the players are on different
boards since when it is their turn on one board, it is usually the turn of their rival on the other

In Caruana vs. Nakamura, it was the black side that went on the aggression with an early Nh4 and f5 ripping apart the kingside. It is likely that this was not very well founded positionally, and Hikaru’s position was questionable. Just when it seemed that things were going south for him, he found a fantastic resource with e4!? sacrificing a full pawn simply to activate his pieces. Caruana did not react in the best way, and Black even had chances to gain an advantage at a critical juncture. Hikaru’s materialistic approach was almost punished when his weak king saw itself in danger, but Fabiano’s moves were not accurate enough, and he had to content himself with a draw by perpetual check.

Hou Yifan vs. Parimarjan Negi

Hou Yifan brings a nice gender balance to the fun event. The no. 1 woman is actually higher
rated than her Top 100 opponent, Parimarjan Negi.

Excellent play today from the young player from India! In his game with white, Negi showed excellent mastery of the Dragon positions despite Hou Yifan’s early deviation with a strange but interesting Re8. Negi simply rammed his h-pawn down the board and created real problems for his opponent. The game was very complicated, but perhaps the crucial mistake came with the move 20...Nd5. After White castled, Black’s bishop on h5 was too weak, and that spelled disaster.

It wasn't the best start for the world no. 1 female

In her game with white, Yifan was simply too optimistic. An exchange sacrifice by Negi was met with a countersacrifice of a full piece, leaving the material balance two pieces vs. a rook. White’s a-pawn was simply not enough, and slowly but surely Negi took over the initiative and his extra material won him the game. Negi is the clear leader with 2-0!

Parimarjan Negi (right) is the second youngest grandmaster in history

Text by Nicole Halpin / Photos by Austin Fuller

Vote for the starting positions

The @CCSCSL Twitter account is running a promotion/poll on Twitter where followers may vote for the starting positions—selected by Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63), of all four games of Fischer Random Chess during Showdown in St. Louis (#STLShowdown). These games will be played on Friday Nov. 13th @ 1pm.

There is a 5-minute video that will be posted to saintlouischessclub.org & uschesschamps.com where Garry fully explains the positions and why they were chosen. In addition, there are individual clips of each voting segment, that will be posted on Facebook to drive viewers to Twitter.

Here are the scheduled polling times, along with the options:

Game 1 Voting: Nov. 12 from 8am to Noon CST

Position 1

or

Position 2

Game 2 Voting: Nov. 12 from Noon - 4pm CST

Position 3

or

Position 4

Game 3 Voting: Nov. 12 from 4pm - 8pm CST

Position 5

or

Position 6

Game 4 Voting: Nov. 13 from 8am - Noon CST

Position 7

or

Position 8

The voting results will be revealed at the beginning of the games on Friday, and on Twitter. Everyone is encouraged to have fun with this! Please vote, retweet, and use the above-mentioned @tags and #tags.

Vote at the St Louis Chess Club Twitter channel