7/20/2009 – In an earlier report we told of the 2-0 victory of US GM Hikaru Nakamura in the tiebreak blitz after he and Ruslan Ponomariov had tied for first in the Dondstia San Sebastian Category 18 tournament. Unfortunately owing to a malfunction in the sensor board all the moves of the second game were not recorded. Not to worry: David Llada filmed it all and provides us with a video document of both games.
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This is how the tournament ended, with former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov
and top US grandmaster (on the live rating list) Hikaru Nakamura. The SB tiebreak
scores are not relevant, since in case of a tie two blitz (5 min + 0 sec) deciders
were to be played. In our previous "final
report" we could not give all the moves of the second game, since the
sensor board had stopped broadcasting them. However both games were filmed and
have now been made available by Spanish journalist David Llada on YouTube.
Here Nakamura plays a very nice queen sac: 33.Qxe5 Kf7. The
trick is that after 33...fxe5 34.Bh5+ Rg6 35.Bxg6 is mate, and a very pretty
one at that. 34.Qg3 g4 35.Bxg4 Qc5 36.Bxe6+ and mate to follow:
36...Kxe6 37.Qxg8+ Ke5 38.Rf5+ Kxe4 39.Qg4+ Ke3 40.Rd3#. 1-0. [Click
to replay]
Watch the entire first tiebreak game in this YouTube video
In predatory pose: Hikaru Nakamura before the second game of the tiebreak
Black has been pressing throughout this game, but Ponomariov is okay and can
hold a draw by repetition – which Nakamura offers, since it wins him the
tiebreak and the title. So White deviates – after six seconds of thought,
with a blunder: 41.Rc8+? Can you see why this move loses? 41...Kh7
42.Rc1. 42.Kg1 didn't work any more with the rook on c8 because of
the discovered knight check: 42...Rxg2+ 43.Kxg2 Nd6+ and Black finishes a piece
up. 42...Nd2 43.Rg1 Nf3+ 44.Kg3 Nxg1 and the situattion is
hopeless for White. 0-1. [Click
to replay]
Watch a video of the entire second tiebreak game
Hikaru with the winner's trophy and the winner's Basque
beret
For those readers who are avid Nakamura fans and have been speculating that
some international conspiracy has been preventing us from publishing more pictures
(than just three) of their hero, here's a little present: click on both the
above pictures, both by David Llada, for breath-taking larger vesions.
The games were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess
server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download
the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access.
You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.
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