Nakamura beats Aronian in tiebreaks, wins Berlin Grand Prix

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
2/17/2022 – Hikaru Nakamura defeated Levon Aronian in tiebreaks to win the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin. The hard-fought final match had seen two draws in the classical games. In the two rapid encounters that broke the tie, Nakamura showed better nerves in the last stage of the games to take home the title, 13 Grand Prix points and 24,000 Euros. | Photos: World Chess

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“I don’t panic anymore”

Hikaru NakamuraThe last time Hikaru Nakamura played a classical, rated game was in November 2019, when he lost a 2-game match against Veselin Topalov at the Hamburg leg of the Grand Prix. It was the end of a somewhat disappointing year for him, as he lost 10 rating points despite winning the US Championship with a remarkable 8/11 score ahead of Caruana, Dominguez and So.

In the two years and three months that he stayed away from over-the-board classical tournaments, the 34-year-old became an internet sensation. Nakamura fully embraced the shift of the chess world to the online sphere. His Twitch and YouTube channels are massively popular — just to give an example of his success, a bit over a year ago, on 14 February 2021, his Twitch channel reached a milestone of one million followers.

Nakamura planned to return to the classical circuit at the 2021 Grand Swiss in Riga, but decided to withdraw after Latvian authorities announced a hard lockdown. The grandmaster later received one of the two wildcards offered by FIDE for this year’s Grand Prix series, which prompted criticism to the Internation Federation for having invited an inactive player.

At the first leg in Berlin, Nakamura finished undefeated and grabbed tournament victory after beating an in-form Levon Aronian in a hard-fought final match. Regarding his inactivity, the US grandmaster later noted:

I’ve played more than everybody the last couple of years (smiles).

Known for not mincing words, the 5-time US champion mentioned that he felt he had been lucky in the initial stage of the event, as he “had the best possible group that I could ask for”.

In previous interviews, during the group stage, Nakamura had implied that Etienne Bacrot was the main target for him, Alexander Grischuk and Andrey Esipenko in group A. However, in the end, he got two draws against the Frenchman, who nonetheless finished in last place in the group — in fact, Bacrot lost twice to Esipenko and once to Grischuk.

It was Esipenko who almost knocked out Nakamura in the last round of the double round-robin, when the American held a draw from a clearly inferior position to reach the knockout. In the final match against Aronian, his defensive skills were also a key factor, both in the classical section and the tiebreaks. Aronian had this to say about his opponent’s fighting spirit:

His openings were never his strong point. He got himself in bad positions quite often, but he always fights, so I admire that.

The winner of the event is set to play the third leg of the series, which will also take place in Berlin. When asked whether he will spend a month in Germany waiting for his next tournament, Nakamura said that he will go back home to his “real job”.

As he commented more than once in Berlin, having a high-income career as a streamer has allowed him to be more relaxed at the board. “I don’t panic anymore”, concluded the inactive player who had just won 24,000 Euros and the maximum number of GP points at stake in a hard-fought, elite classical tournament.

Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian had a great tournament nonetheless, as he gained 12.8 Elo points to climb to fourth place in the live ratings list

The tiebreaks

Nakamura’s 2-0 victory in the rapid tiebreakers had a lot to do with avoiding mistakes in technical, simplified positions. Playing white in the first rapid encounter, the eventual winner of the match had a clear advantage at different points in the rook endgame. Inaccuracies by both players had the evaluation alternating between a clear advantage for white and equality. But it was Aronian who made the last mistake.

 
Nakamura vs. Aronian - Rapid game #1

59...f2 loses by force to 60.Rf8 — escaping with the rook to the only available square via 59...Ra3 was the only way to keep the fight going for Black. After 60...Rxb5 61.Rxf2 Rc5 the black king is cut off on the kingside, and White will have no difficulties in pushing his c-pawn to the promotion square.

 

Aronian resigned.

Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian

The final moments of game 1

In a must-win situation, Aronian got an edge with white in game 2. However, beating Nakamura has proven to be a difficult task even for the best in the world, especially in a rapid (or blitz) game. Nakamura defended firmly in another queenless position, prompting Aronian to over-push when the position began to dry up.

 
Aronian vs. Nakamura - Rapid game #2

The white king has almost made its way to its counterpart’s initial square, and is about to get mated. Aronian threw in the towel, as there is no way to prevent mate without making massive material concessions.

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3 Bb7 9.d3 d5 is recently more successful than 9...d6. C88: Closed Ruy Lopez: Anti-Marshall Systems. 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.a4 Nd4 The position is equal. 12.Nbd2 Nxb3 13.Nxb3 Nb4 14.Nxe5 Black must now prevent Na5. Qd5
15.f3 Bd6 A strong pair of Bishops. 16.d4 Rae8 17.axb5 axb5 18.Bd2
With the idea Nd7. 18...Nc6N 18...Bc8!= is superior. Predecessor: 18...Bc8 19.Ng4 h5 20.Nf2 Bf5 21.Rxe8 Rxe8 22.Bxb4 Bxb4 ½-½ (52) Saidashev,A (2397)-Steinkellner,P (2339) ICCF email 2014 19.Bf4! Kh8 19...h6 is more appropriate. 20.Bh2 20.Qd2± 20...Nxe5 21.dxe5 Bxe5 22.Bxe5 Rxe5 23.Rxe5 Qxe5 24.Qd4 Qg5 25.Qc5 Qxc5+ 26.Nxc5± Endgame KRB-KRN Bd5 27.Ra7 c6 27...Rc8 28.Nd3 White is more active. 28.Nd7± Rd8 29.Rc7 28...g6 29.Rc7 Ra8 30.Nb4 To avoid Ra2 Kg7 30...Ra1+ feels stronger. 31.Kh2 Rc1 31.Nxc6 Bxc6 32.Rxc6 KR-KR Rd8 33.g4 33.b4 33...Rd2 34.h4 Better is 34.b4± 34...h5 35.gxh5 gxh5 36.b4 Rd4 37.c3 Rxh4 38.Kg2 Rf4! 39.Kg3 39.Rc5!? 39...Rf5 40.f4 h4+ 41.Kxh4 Hoping for Kg4. Rxf4+ 42.Kg5 Rf3 43.Kg4 Rd3 44.Rc5 Kf6 45.Kf4 Ke6 46.Ke4 Rd8 46...Rh3= 47.Rxb5 47.Re5+ Kd7 48.Rd5+ Ke8 49.Rxd8+ Kxd8 50.Kd4 47...Rd1 47...Rc8 48.Rb6+ Ke7 48.Rb6++- Kd7 49.Rf6 Ke7 50.Rf3 Ke6
51.Rd3! f5+ 52.Kd4 Rb1 53.Re3+ Kf6 54.Re8 f4 55.Rb8 Kf5 56.b5 f3 57.Ke3 White has to play 57.Rf8++- Kg4 58.Ke4 57...Rb3= 58.Kd3 Threatens to win with Kc2. Kg4 59.Kc2 f2? 60.Rf8+- Rxb5 61.Rxf2 Rc5 Weighted Error Value: White=0.42/Black=0. 11 (very precise)
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Nakamura,H2736Aronian,L27721–02022FIDE Grand Prix-I KO 20222.1
Aronian,L2772Nakamura,H27360–12022FIDE Grand Prix-I KO 20222.2

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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