Zurich Rapid and playoff: Nakamura clinches!

Rapids

Viswanathan Anand came into the rapid portion with a relatively comfortable lead; one full point over Hikaru Nakamura, and a full three points ahead of the bottom three players: Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian.

The beautiful city of Zurich

The organizers, Natalia and Oleg Skvortsov, ready to get this show on the road

Round One

The first fight was a solid one for the Indian player. Playing black against Kramnik he chose to use a sort of reversed Pirc/King's Indian Attack, After any trades the players reached an endgame that was clearly drawn. Unusually, Karjakin-Aronian was also a KIA. (King's Indian Attack, not the car). Aronian's exchange sacrifice might have been enough for a draw in classical chess, but in rapid it was clear that Karjakin was facing real practical problems. He could not cope and Aronian won a nice game. Caruana also sacrificed an exchange against Nakamura, but here the American defended very nicely against the threats and proved that his material advantage was winning!

A solid draw to start the day for the leader

Aronian outplayed Karjakin in complications

Nakamura started with an important win when Caruana lost patience

Some seats might have been available during the classic portion, but definitely not for the rapid!

Round Two

Three decisive games! What more can you hope from the rapid battles? Nakamura-Kramnik shows how quickly things can change in this time control. The American was outplaying his opponent, but he overestimated his chances; when he 'won" a pawn it was already clear that Black had become too active. One more mistake and Kramnik brought the point home Caruana-Karjakin was an example of the same: in a completely winning position Karjakin had two choices: block with the bishop and win, or get mated. Let's just say he did not block with the bishop. Aronian-Anand was a thing of beauty. A powerful pawn sacrifice exposed Black's king in the Meran and Aronian won with a brilliant attack.

Nakamura felt pressure to keep winning, but Kramnik had his own ideas!

A word of encouragement from family never hurts!

Round Three

Kramnik again turned around a worse position when he defeated Aronian. A serious mistake by the Armenian not only destroyed his own positional advantage that he had nurtured for many moves, but gave his opponent the win. Anand-Caruana was extremely one-sided. Playing for a win the Italian chose a version of the Modern defense that somehow landed his knight on g4. This knight was trapped by move 20 and by move 22 Caruana had resigned. Karjakin-Nakamura was actually just a solid draw, the exception rather than the rule in this time control!

Oops! Caruana got crushed on round three against Anand

Anand still kept his lead going into round four

Round Four

Kramnik at this point had 2.5/3 in the rapid, but still trailed Anand by a full point, same as Nakamura. The crucial duel was then the match Nakamura-Anand. The American played great. He pushed his advantage with an advancing c-pawn that always looked like it was hanging, but somehow was always tactically defended. Anand took the fantastic decision of sacrificing his queen for a rook and a bishop, trying to hold a fortress.

While this was happening Karjakin got an easily winning position against Kramnik by shutting out his opponent's bishop on g7. It was simply dead, unable to participate in the battle on the queenside! And yet Kramnik showed how resilient he can be! By some miracle Kramnik held the position and even had a win, but time trouble started to kick in. After missing the winning shot Kramnik started erring and Karjaking regained his winning advantage.

Caruana and Aronian finished in a draw in the most classical way: a king vs. king final position!

Nakamura had to try to break Anand's defenses... and he did so successfully! His excellent f5 break and the attack with his queen and knight was just sufficient to collapse his opponent's fortress.

Round Five

In the fifth round of the rapid games, Vladimir Kramnik finished his comeback with yet another win, defeating Sergey Karjakin in emphatic fashion. A superb effort, but not quite enough to catch up to the two leaders Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura, both of whom drew their final games. The end the tournament tied for first, and will decide the title in a blitz playoff. 

Replay Rapid Games

Armageddon

There was a bit of uncertainty prior to the start of the playoff, since the official site displayed tiebreak scores, suggesting there would be none. Shortly before the last rapid game was over, the playoff was confirmed and here too it was not clear the shape it would take as the clocks on the video feed showed times suggesting a normal blitz game, possibly more than one. Finally the chief arbiter came over, switched the clock that now displayed five minutes for White, and four for Black. The conclusion was clear: Armageddon!

Nakamura always with some caffeine in hand

Nakamura strolled in and sat at the black pieces, followed by Anand who sat at the white side. The game started and the Indian immediately went on the attack in a QGD with Bf4 by responding to 7...Nh5 attacking the bishop with Be5 and g4. Although White tried to 'shove his opponent off the board' with aggressive kingside pawn advances, Black kept his cool and ripped open the queenside for a counterattack to take advantage of the king still stuck in the center. Punishment came swiftly and Hikaru Nakamura avenged his classical loss by snatching the title right at the finish line.

And they are off, for the title!

Though he won't be happy for having come in second in the classical part of the tournament, the event had always been designed to reward play in all time controls, and with his win Hikaru Nakamura has already started the year with two spectacular wins, first at the Gibraltar Open and now the Zurich Chess Challenge.

As to Vishy Anand, despite being edged out in the photo finish, he cannot but feel good about a great tournament throughout, effectively wiping away the poor result at Grenke, and setting a positive tone for the season ahead.

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili

Combined Final Score

Rapid Final Standings

Classical Final Standings

Note: Games played in the Classical will count for double

Blitz Final Standings

Note: Blitz points do not count for the final tally

Schedule

Links Official tournament site Classical games in PGN Rapid games in PGN All Blitz games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.