Zurich Rd1: Caruana errs, Nakamura wins!

Round One

The sponsor and organizer Oleg Skvortsov...

Started the event with a friendly game against Nigel Short

Natalia on photograph duty...

leaving New In Chess editor Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam without anything to do

Anand, Viswanathan ½-½ Kramnik, Vladimir
Once upon a time, maybe five or six years ago, the Queen's Gambit Declined was considered a dubious opening when played with the move order 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 or 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5, mainly because of the Exchange Variation, which was supposed to give White good chances for an advantage... but how theory changes!

A solid draw between the two veterans of the tournament

Rather recently the idea of playing this solid opening for Black has risen in popularity - largely due to the resurgence of an old idea, to trade the dark-squared bishops quickly with a fast Nh5 and then castle on the queenside, as opposed to the kingside. Black's position seems to be very difficult to break and White's normal plans (such as minority attack or a quick kingside expansion) seem to fall short in this set-up. Kramnik had no problems out of the opening against Anand today in this variation and eventually the game was solidly drawn.

During their post-mortem they realized that Caruana had blundered badly!

Caruana, Fabiano 0-1 Nakamura, Hikaru
It is clear that in such a top level tournament a few Najdorfs will be seen, and that is something that is quite welcome! The sharp nature of this opening adds interest to any game. The h3 variation chosen by Caruana is the result of a fashionable trend from a few years back, and although it has relatively died down it is still a very positionally sound idea.

Caruana started out with a nice edge

For the majority of the game, up to about move 35, Caruana held a small advantage. His pieces were just a little better placed, and it was awkward for Black to regain a pawn he had sacrificed to weaken his opponent's structure. However things started to go wrong. Almost out of nowhere Nakamura obtained strong initiative against his opponent's f2 pawn. Things were already going wrong for the Italian player when f2 dropped, but he made things even worse by running into a sudden mating attack. Nakamura is not the type of player to forgive such a situation: his rooks swiftly came down to the second rank and checkmated his opponent.

Nakamura with a wonderful start: a win with black against the highest rated player

Aronian, Levon ½-½ Karjakin, Sergey
A game that could have been so much more! On move 22 Aronian sacrificed a bishop on the kingside, ripping apart his opponent's structure and exposing the enemy king - a common motif for this line of the Meran. Things were heating up and Aronian had a key decision: continue the attack with unclear consequences or take the immediate draw by perpetual. Unfortunately for spectators he took the perpetual in what was arguably a very, very strong attack. Karjakin would have been hard pressed to fend off the threats.

Aronian was surprised on move 14, but he found a good way to continue

A close call! It is unclear how Karjakin planned to defend his king.

Replay Round One Games

Classical 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

With the blitz finished the pairings are as follows in the classical portion of the tournament, which starts tomorrow:

The Rapid portion will be on February 19th.

Schedule of Commentary

Links Official tournament site Classical 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.