Chipmunk Chess
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
It was not surprising to see the world's top two rated players, Magnus Carlsen
of Norway and Levon Aronian of Armenia, sharing a lead at the 74th
Tata Steel Chess Tournament at the Dutch coastal town of Wijk aan Zee. They
amassed a 5.5-2.5 score and with five rounds to go, we can expect a dramatic
finish.
But it was one single move that drew the attention away from the world's finest
players. Since it created so many holes in white's position, the move could
only have been invented by a chipmunk.
Six moves into the game Hikaru Nakamura-David Navara, the top-rated American
grandmaster dented his position with a strange pawn move. He didn't create a
crater, but the gap was big enough for a little chipmunk. You see these holes
in the lawn and you never know how many chipmunks there are digging until the
house collapses.
How to deal with chipmunk holes? You can plug them up, but the beasts usually
pop them up somewhere else. Navara, the Czech grandmaster, chose the wait-and-see
approach. After all, he controlled most of the central squares. But Nakamura's
hibernation was short-lived. He opened the f-file, fixed his weaknesses and
engaged in the modern tactical warfare, threatening Navara from a distance.
His bishops were reaching far on the long diagonals and his heavy pieces settled
on the only open file on the kingside. By move 17, he finally crossed the Rubicon
into Navara's territory. The Czech made one mistake and by move 25 his position
went downhill. Nakamura finished the game with a knight sacrifice.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.
Original
column here – Copyright
Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and aggregated blog founded
by Arianna Huffington and others, featuring various news sources and columnists.
The site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet and liberal/progressive
alternative to conservative news websites. It offers coverage of politics, media,
business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and
comedy. It is a top destination for news, blogs, and original content. The Huffington
Post has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site
each month. According to Nielsen NetRatings, the site has around 13 million
unique visitors per month (number for March 2010); according to Google Analytics
the number is 22 million uniques per month.
