Advent calendar: December 9

by André Schulz
12/9/2016 – From December 1 to December 24 we invite our readers every day to open a door in our advent calendar. Click and enjoy a little chess treat. Advent calendar, door 9.
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Happy Birthday, Hikaru Nakamura!

Today Hikaru Nakamura celebrates his 29th birthday. He was born on December 9, in Osaka, Japan, his father is Japanese, his mother American. When Hikaru Nakamura was two years old the family moved to the U.S.. At the age of seven he learned to play chess. His stepfather Sunil Weeramantry, a Fide-Master and well-known chess trainer, instructed him.

Sunil Weeramantry (Photo: André Schulz)

At the age of eight Hikaru Nakamura played his first tournament - the beginning of a meteoric rise that evoked memories of Bobby Fischer. When Nakamura was 15 he became the youngest Grandmaster the U.S. had ever had at that time and broke Fischer's record from 1958. In 2004 Nakamura for the first time became U.S. National Champion and in the same year he also played for the first time in the U.S. Olympic team. Since then he has achieved a lot of notable successes and recently he won gold with the U.S. team at the Chess Olympiad 2016 in Baku.

In January 2011 Nakamura was among the top ten in the world and established himself as one of the absolute best players of the world. In October 2015 he had a rating of 2816 and was number two in the world - behind Magnus Carlsen. In his youth Nakamura played a lot of internet chess and he is arguably one of the best - if not the best - bullet players of the world. He also is Chess960 World Champion.

Nakamura is tactically extremely strong and understands complications very quickly. And if the King's Indian did not already exist, it had to be invented for Nakamura.

At the 2009 NH tournament in Amsterdam five young players measured their skills against five established masters. Nakamura was not in particularly good form in that tournament and won only one game - but this game really was something:

Hikaru Nakamura 2009 in Amsterdam (Photo: Calle Erlandsson)

Alexander Beliavsky 2009 in Amsterdam (Photo: Calle Erlandsson)

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,184,21554%2421---
1.d4958,93255%2434---
1.Nf3286,32756%2441---
1.c4184,72256%2443---
1.g319,88456%2427---
1.b314,59854%2428---
1.f45,95348%2377---
1.Nc33,90650%2384---
1.b41,79048%2378---
1.a31,25054%2406---
1.e31,08149%2409---
1.d396950%2378---
1.g467046%2361---
1.h446654%2382---
1.c343951%2425---
1.h328956%2420---
1.a411860%2461---
1.f310047%2427---
1.Nh39267%2511---
1.Na34762%2476---
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Nd2 Ne8 10.b4 f5 11.c5 Nf6 12.f3 f4 13.Nc4 g5 14.a4 Ng6 15.Ba3 Rf7 The typical race in the King's Indian main line: White is faster on the queenside but Black's kingside attack is more powerful - if Black's attack succeeds White is mated. 16.a5 One year later Nakamura had the same position against Gelfand and this game continued: 16.b5 dxc5 17.Bxc5 h5 18.a5 g4 19.b6 g3 20.Kh1 Bf8 21.d6 axb6 22.Bg1 Nh4 23.Re1 Nxg2 24.dxc7 Nxe1 25.Qxe1 g2+ 26.Kxg2 Rg7+ 27.Kh1 Bh3 28.Bf1 Qd3 29.Nxe5 Bxf1 30.Qxf1 Qxc3 31.Rc1 Qxe5 32.c8Q Rxc8 33.Rxc8 Qe6 0-1 (33) Gelfand,B (2761)-Nakamura,H (2708) Bursa 2010 16...h5 17.b5 dxc5 18.b6 18.Bxc5 transposes into the game against Gelfand. 18...g4 In these positions time is everything. Black concentrates only on his attack on the kingside and does not care about his queenside. 19.bxc7 Rxc7 20.Nb5 g3 21.Nxc7 After 21.Qc2!? Ne8 21...Rd7 22.Nxc7 Qh4 23.h3 Bxh3 24.gxh3 Qxh3 does not work because after 25.Bd3 the white queen on c2 protects the white king from being mated on h2. 21...Nxe4 A wild position - and difficult to play. 22.Ne6 The safe move. White usually counts it as success if Black's black-squared bishop vanishes from the board - after all, it then can no longer sacrifice itself on h3. 22.fxe4 Qh4 23.h3 Bxh3 24.gxh3 Qxh3 25.Rf2 gxf2+ 26.Kxf2 Qg3+ with an unclear situation. Black has an attack, the h-pawn is dangerous, the rook a8 is hanging and White threatens to play Bxc5 and Ra2 to strengthen his defense. Not to forget that Black currently is two pieces down. 27.Kf1 f3 28.Nxa8 fxe2+ 29.Qxe2 Nf4 30.Qe3 Qg2+ 31.Ke1 h4 is given as "=" by Houdini 5. 22...Bxe6 23.dxe6 gxh2+ 24.Kxh2 24.Kh1 Ng3+ 24...Qh4+ 25.Kg1 Ng3 26.Bxc5 e4 27.Ra4 Rc8 27...e3 28.Nxe3 Qh1+ 29.Kf2 Qh4 30.Qc2 and the Ng3 has no powerful discovered check. Nf5+ 31.Kg1 Ng3 32.Nf5+- 28.Bxa7 This seems obvious. The bishop flees from the attack while grabbing material. After 28.Nd6= things remain complicated - even though Houdini smiles and evaluates the position as =. exf3 28...e3 29.Bxe3± 28...Rxc5 29.Nxe4± 29.Bxf3 Rxc5 30.e7! 30.Re1 Bc3 31.e7 Qh1+ 32.Kf2 Bxe1+ 33.Qxe1 Rc2+-+ 30...Nxe7 31.Re1 Qh1+ 32.Kf2 Qh4 33.Kg1 with a perpetual.
Which reply did Belyavsky overlook?
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Beliavsky,A2662Nakamura,H27100–12009E97Amsterdam NH Hotels 4th3

 

The NH tournament was played in the Hotel Krasnopolsky (Photo: Jeroen van den Belt)

André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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