US Champ wins match 4.5-1.5
"Duelo de los Jovenes Prodigios"
Dec. 9-14 – Cuernavaca, Estado de Morelos, Mexico
Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos
The match between Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Karjakin in Cuernavaca, Mexico
ended in total triumph for the 17-year-old American. The match victory had already
been locked up, but Nakamura wasn't through. He won the last game of this challenge
match against Sergey Karjakin to win with an overpowering 4.5-1.5 score. It was
particularly impressive considering that the match started just three days after
Nakamura won the US title in San Diego.
The win will likely push Nakamura into the top 50 players in the world on the
next FIDE list. In an interview last year he said he wanted to see if he could
make it into the top 100! Now he has set his aim at reaching the 2700 mark in
a year's time. His next event is the open in Gibraltar at the start of February.
Many are wondering why Nakamura isn't in the Corus Wijk aan Zee B Group, where
he would be a natural fit for their youth movement. But that's one we have to
leave for the organizers.
Nakamura receives his prize from the University rector.
We spoke to Nakamura when he arrived back home in White Plains, NY (about an
hour north of New York City). He was happy to be back home after a long time
on the road, except for the weather change. From the famous year-round 70°F of
Cuernavaca he landed in New York's coldest day of the winter so far, well below
freezing.
Of
course Nakamura was happy with the result of the match, calling it incredible
considering how he went in without any particular preparation. He agreed with
the opinion of GM Marcel Sisniega, who was writing the daily bulletins, that
he was coming out worse in the opening in the first half of the match. Nakamura
said his goal was to avoid Karjakin's preparation and sharp positions in general
when possible. "Karjakin's style is tactical and active, so I thought I'd
play more positionally. I like tactics too, but I wanted to get him out of his
game."
This worked out overall, and Karjakin admitted that he wasn't prepared for
anything they played in the first three games. But Nakamura walked right into
Karjakin's preparation in game four and came close to a loss. He said he'd been
lucky that he'd played an inferior line because Karjakin had almost certainly
looked at the main lines with Ponomariov. Game five he called his best of the
match. Game six is also worth a look. Karjakin grabbed a poisoned pawn and soon
Nakamura's knights dominated the board, leading to a won endgame.
Nakamura credited the organizers with an excellent job. The accommodations
were good, and to his relief the food wasn't too spicy! He said he was hoping
to face some 2700 competition in 2005 and said that he wouldn't change his aggressive
style. "Maybe I'd try to be a little more solid with black, but what's
the point of playing to draw? How does that help you improve?"
Nakamura and his mother Carolyn.
Nakamura said the level of the games was well below his best efforts from the
US Championship. Considering Karjakin's devastating form in other events this
year, the result, and the spotty quality of the games, is something of a surprise.
But there is no doubt that these two will meet many more times in the future
and we can only hope the games are so entertaining.
The players with their mothers and all the organizers.
Before the closing ceremony the players agreed to play a casual series of rapid
games, which to the surprise of everyone ended up 4-0 in favor of Karjakin.
If that weren't enough chess, Karjakin gave a mini-simultaneous exhibition against
the organizing committee and a local businessman. Our congratulations and thanks
to the organizers for the photographs and bulletins.
An impromptu rapid match. The pressure's off, let's have some fun!
