London Rd2: Leko beats Ivanchuk, Nakamura bounces right back

[Event "FIDE Grand Prix - London 2012"] [Site "London"] [Date "2012.09.22"] [Round "2"] [White "Adams, Michael"] [Black "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B19"] [WhiteElo "2722"] [BlackElo "2729"] [Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"] [PlyCount "97"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [EventCountry "ENG"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nf6 { Already a very unusual and provocative move. The main idea for black is to prevent Ne5 by playing Nd7, and only then developing the knight to f6. White doesn't hesitate in taking advantage of this situation, but this is not the first time Mamedyarov employs this mover order. He beat Harikrishna at the Olympiad with it.} 8. Ne5 Bh7 9. Bd3 (9. Bc4 e6 10. Qe2 Nd5 11. Qh5 Qc7 {was the Harikrishna game, and Black ended up being very solid.}) 9... Nbd7 10. f4 ( 10. Bxh7 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Qa5+ 12. Kf1 Nxh7 {has been tested by Dreev who scored a draw against Istratescu.}) 10... e6 11. Bxh7 Nxh7 12. Be3 Be7 {We're out of theory and it's not hard to guess what is going on. Black has a solid position but White is pushing his pawns trying to 'storm the barricades' and on top of that has a nice spatial plus. A standard strategical battle.} 13. Qf3 Qa5+ 14. c3 Nhf6 15. h5 {Black has a difficult choice in castiling. If he chooses the kingside, he will quickly be under fire with a move such as f5. If he chooses the queenside, it is unclear how he is going to defend his f7 pawn. For now, he decides it is best to put some pressure on the White position before making any rash decisions.} Qb5 16. O-O-O Nd5 $5 {White has the option of keeping Black's king in the center, but with Black's strong queen on b5 and knight on d7 he can be sure the center will be kept closed.} 17. Bd2 Nxe5 18. dxe5 { Adams played this move, so it must have a reason for existing, but more natural to me seemed to open the f-file. Of course this would allow a potential c5 break, but now I don't see how White will make much progress.} O-O-O 19. b3 Nb6 20. Qe2 {The endgame is slightly unpleasant for Black because of White's space advantage. Pushing the g-pawn forward will net him weaknesses and eventually an edge. Also, white is playing Mamedyarov. Whoever heard of Mamedyarov willingly defending a worse endgame (except for yesterday's game!)} Rd3 $5 {If I could put more !!!s and ???s I would. This move is wild, crazy and unnecessary to a point. Black sacrifices a full rook for what seems like a fleeting attack, but Mamedyarov has this under control.} 21. c4 {If White doesn't accept, the doubling on the d-file will actually give black an edge.} Qa6 22. Qxd3 Qxa2 {White is being threatened with Ba3 checkmate. There are two ways to protect against this, blocking with b4 (before or after c5) and moving the rook on d1.} 23. c5 (23. b4 $2 Rd8 24. Qc2 Qa1+ 25. Qb1 Qa3+ 26. Qb2 Qxg3 $17 {This knight hanging is the point of Black's attack. Once the knight is regained Black is not down that much material, and he still retains strong pressure.}) (23. Rde1 Rd8 24. Qc3 a5 $1 25. Ne4 (25. Nf1 Bb4 26. Qc2 Qa1+ 27. Qb1 Qxb1+ 28. Kxb1 Bxd2 29. Re4 $14 {Black has a lot of positional plus, but White is up the exchange after all.}) 25... Ba3+ 26. Kd1 $13) (23. Rdg1 $5 $13) 23... Bxc5 24. b4 Nc4 {forced.} (24... Rd8 25. Qc2 Qa1+ 26. Qb1 Qa3+ 27. Qb2 Qxg3 28. bxc5 {simply does not work.}) 25. Qb1 {Forced} (25. Qc3 $2 Rd8 $1 26. bxc5 Rd3 $19 {White can't defend b2 and the attack crashes through.}) 25... Qa3+ 26. Kc2 Qxg3 27. Qb3 Qxb3+ 28. Kxb3 Nxd2+ 29. Rxd2 {After a wild wild sequence we have this endgame in which Black must be slightly worse. Although normally having two pawns for an exchange is a good thing, here those pawns are far behind and the rooks have a lot of targets. However, Shakhriyar is able to easily hold this endgame after some explosive fireworks.} Be3 30. Rd3 Bb6 (30... Bxf4 31. Rf1 Bxe5 32. Rxf7 {Gives White too much activity.}) 31. Rg3 Rg8 32. Rd1 Bd8 33. b5 {This pawn sacrifice really seems more threatening than it is. After this Black has little to worry about.} cxb5 34. Rc3+ Kb8 35. Rd7 Rf8 36. Rg3 {Mickeys brilliant plan has only one flaw. White is threatening to win by taking on g7, and it seems unstoppable, unfortunately the rook on d7 has no space on the 7th rank.} Kc8 37. Rd1 Rg8 38. Rc3+ Kb8 39. Rd7 Rf8 {An intermediate move before a funny repetition.} 40. Kb4 a6 41. Rg3 Kc8 42. Rd1 Rg8 43. Rc3+ Kb8 44. Rd7 Rf8 45. Rg3 Kc8 46. Rd1 Rg8 47. Rc3+ Kb8 48. Rd7 Rf8 49. Rg3 {The Computers like trying on with g4, but it seems like that wouldn't win either. A very hard fought game where both players played very precisely after deciding that they wanted to play some rough chess. Bravo!} 1/2-1/2