Game of the Week #593: H. Nakamura vs F. Caruana

by Merijn van Delft
11/9/2023 – Over the course of their careers, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana have played some epic games against each other. The last one was played in the penultimate round of the Grand Swiss Tournament on the Isle of Man. Nakamura won the game and later qualified for the Candidates. In Game of the Week #593, Merijn Van Delft takes a closer look at this encounter. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

Game of the Week #593

The Grand Swiss is over and was won by Vidit, who scored an amazing 8.5 out of 11, played some fantastic games and became sole first.

But one of the biggest clashes of the tournament was the game between the world number two, Fabiano Caruana, and the world number three, Hikaru Nakamura. They played in the penultimate round, Nakamura had White and the fans were not disappointed. We choose it as our Game of the Week, as it is yet another reminder that opposite coloured bishops are an excellent winning weapon.

Warm-up question: What would you play here with White?

H. Nakamura - F. Caruana, Grand Swiss Tournament, Isle of Man 2023
Position after 19...Re7

This week’s show

In this opening Black opts for active piece play and is not afraid to fight for the initiative from an early stage. One of the many good features of this opening is that Black is often the side which controls the pace of the game.

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Merijn van Delft is an International Master from the Netherlands who lived in Hamburg for many years and is currently based in Amsterdam. After scoring a GM norm in 2017 he is eager for more. His ChessBase show on Wednesday evenings has been running for over ten years now.
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