Chess Classic: Nakamura's comeback

Chess Classic Mainz 2009 The 2009 Chess Classic will take place from July 27 to August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. The event includes tournaments and Opens in traditional and Random Chess, with stars like the current World Champion Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian of Armenia, strong Russian junior GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and top German GM Arkadij Naiditsch. Schedule below.

Draws Don’t Count: Exciting Day 2 at Chess960 World Championship

By Johannes Fischer

The second day of the Chess960 World Championship promised exciting chess: While Levon Aronian with 3 out of 3 seemed to be almost certain to play in the final, Hikaru Nakamura, Victor Bologan and Sergei Movsesian all had 1 point and could still cherish hopes for a spot in the final – provided things went right. Things became exciting indeed, but differently than expected.

Grim determination: Hikaru Nakamura on the second day of the Chess960 championship

Nakamura in particular was determined not to repeat the events from the previous day. As a result he invested much more time in the opening, which proved to be a good approach. Aronian was the first to suffer from the “new” Nakamura. The Armenian got nothing out of the opening and made life really difficult for himself when blundering a pawn. Nakamura seized the opportunity, grabbed the pawn and steered the game safely into a won endgame.

Aronian struggling against Nakamura in round four

Meanwhile Bologan suffered from a miscalculation in the opening, which gave his opponent Movsesian a clear advantage. Though Movsesian let some of this advantage slip and gave Bologan more chances than he might have hoped for, Bologan returned the compliment in mutual time trouble, by missing the most stubborn defense and allowing Movsesian to score.

With 1 out of 4 Bologan really had to get going. And that’s exactly what he did by defeating Levon Aronian in a well played game. Meanwhile, Nakamura and Movsesian continued the strange gambit they like to employ in their games. As Nakamura said in the press conference: “Every time we play, the player who has an advantage after the opening, seems to lose.” Which led Movsesisan to remark: “next time I know what I have to do. I will give him the better position.” In Mainz, however, Movsesian lacked this wisdom. He was clearly better after the opening but suddenly Nakamura’s pieces came into play and in an attempt to bail out Movsesian sacrificed a piece to achieve a perpetual. But Nakamura’s king found a way to escape the checks and secured his boss the second win of the day.

GM Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia, rated 2734

Thus, with one round to go, Movsesian and Bologan had 2 out of 5 while Aronian and Nakamura had 3 out of 5. But because Bologan had to play against Nakamura and Movsesian had to play Aronian all four players still had a chance to qualify for the final.

Probably Aronian needs a rush of adrenaline to play his best. At any rate, when his place in the final seemed to be in danger, he suddenly rediscovered the form he had shown on day 1 and scored a fine win against Movsesian. Going back to the form he had shown on day 1 was exactly what Nakamura did not want to do. So he continued to play in the same determined fashion he had shown in the two previous games and won quickly against an overly aggressive Bologan – and “got the job done” as he put it in the press conference.

The two finalists, Aronian and Nakamura, at the press conference

Thus Aronian and Nakamura both finished with 4 out of 6 to qualify for the final while Bologan and Movsesian will fight for place three.

Today, the players did their best to make it difficult to name a clear favorite for the matches. While Aronian dominated day 1 by scoring 3 out of 3 Nakamura did the same on day 2. But if the preliminaries are anything to go by, we can expect a wonderful and exciting final. Twelve games were played in the preliminaries, none ended with a draw. Not to mention the many interesting motifs and fine combinations the spectators saw.

The setup for Chess960 in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz

The final will begin tomorrow, Thursday, 30th July, 18:30. Games will be transmitted live on the Internet – and should not be missed.

All pictures by Christian Bossert for Chess Tigers/Chess Classic

Schedule of remaining events

Links Official web site: in German and in English Event overview Detailled schdeule in PDF: Part one + Part two Daily schedule of events in PDF Registration: FiNet Chess960 Open ORDIX Open Mini FiNet + Mini Ordix Accommodation ChessBase reports Chess Classic 2002, 2003 Chess Classic 2004 + the Carmen Kass story Chess Classic 2005 Chess Classic 2006 Chess Classic 2007 Chess Classic 2008 Chess Classic 2009