St. Louis Rapid & Blitz: Nakamura grabs the lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
8/14/2021 – Yet another action-packed day at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament saw Hikaru Nakamura grabbing the sole lead before entering the blitz section of the event. Nakamura beat Fabiano Caruana in their all-important direct encounter to leapfrog him in the standings table. The top scorer on Friday was Richard Rapport, who is now sharing second place with Caruana. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

ChessBase 18 - Mega package ChessBase 18 - Mega package

Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

More...

Rapport beats Caruana and Xiong

Known for his fearless, offbeat style, Richard Rapport is a feared player in the chess world’s elite. Currently ranked 11th in the world, the Hungarian is one of nine ‘regular’ players in this year’s Grand Chess Tour. Rapport tied for fifth at the Paris leg of the tour, and we expect to see him playing the Sinquefield Cup, the last event of this year’s series starting on Tuesday.

On the final day of the rapid section in Saint Louis, Rapport kicked off with a win over former sole leader Fabiano Caruana. Rapport had the black pieces, and survived what seemed to be a devastating attack out of a Sicilian.

 

This certainly looks like a winning position for White, who not only has created a strong bind right next to his opponent’s king but is also up material.

But Rapport is not one to go down easy, as he continued to create practical problems for his famed rival. Caruana slowly started to lose the thread while not finding a way to break through. After agreeing to give up his two rooks for Black’s queen, he found himself in an equal — and sharp — position.

 

To make matters worse, Caruana blundered with 50.cxb4, allowing 50...Rxb4 51.Qd5 Rxb3 and the rooks are lethal along the a and b-files. Caruana played 52.g6, giving way to 52...Ra3#.

It was a demonstration of how tough it can be to convert an advantage when facing a tough defender like Rapport, even for a player of Caruana’s calibre. (In the diagrammed position, 50.c4 would have kept the balance).

 

All games from round 7

Richard Rapport

Richard Rapport | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Round 8 saw Rapport getting a second consecutive victory, while Caruana bounced back from his previous defeat by beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a brilliant showing of positional understanding. Meanwhile, Peter Svidler regained a fifty-percent score by beating Leinier Dominguez with the black pieces.

Out of an Italian, it was Dominguez who got a clear advantage in the middlegame, but Svidler’s tactical alertness allowed him to turn the tables.

 

Note that Black cannot capture the rook on f7 due to e8, queening. Svidler found an elegant solution: 45...Be3+ 46.Rxe3 Rc4+ and White cannot block with 47.Re4, since allowing that rook to be exchanged would also lose the rook on f7 (e8 is no longer protected).

 

Here 47.Kf5 would have kept the game going, while Dominguez’s 47.Bd4 was a blunder — after 47...Rxd4+ 48.Ke5 Rxe3+ 49.Kxd4 Kxf7 50.Kxe3, Black gets a winning pawn endgame.

 

The immediate 50...Kxe7 would spoil everything for Black, as White saves the draw either with 51.g3 or 51.g4. However, Svidler is not one to miss these endgame nuances — the 8-time Russian champion played 50...h4 and went on to score an important victory.

 

All games from round 8

Leinier Dominguez, Peter Svidler

Leinier Dominguez resigns his game against Peter Svidler | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Hikaru Nakamura had also beaten Dominguez in the day’s first round, and after drawing Wesley So with black in round 8, he was paired up against Caruana in the most attractive encounter of the rapid section’s final round.

Playing white, Nakamura outplayed the second highest-rated player in the world from a slightly superior endgame.

 

Black’s 26...b4 was not the best move in the position. White slowly but surely tightened the screws around his opponent’s uncoordinated position, combining threats along the eighth rank and against the pawn weaknesses. It was a fine technical showing by Nakamura, who secured a crucial 43-move victory to go into the blitz section as the sole leader — and the only player to remain undefeated in Saint Louis.

 

All games from round 9

Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana

A crucial victory for Hikaru Nakamura | Photo: Lennart Ootes


Final standings - Rapid (Win = 2 points; Draw = 1 point)

 


Links


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.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register

Keshava Keshava 8/20/2021 01:26
"Just because you find some doctors that like masks ..." is a straw man. The majority of doctors in the relevant field - which is Public Health - agree with the experts at the CDC and the WHO. Stop trolling with your dis-information.
ref:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html
ref:
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-mask
GrayRazorback GrayRazorback 8/18/2021 01:56
If you are unaware as you claim, then one wonders why you don't do some research. Just because doctors that don't agree with your point of view need to have their license revoked is ridiculous. For every link you post showing why I should wear a mask, I can post links to studies that show masks to be ineffective in stopping the spread of virus infections. Just because you find some doctors that like masks does not mean the issue is fact. All you are doing now is claiming your doctors and studies are smarter than the ones I find.
Keshava Keshava 8/17/2021 07:34
@GrayRazorback, I am not aware of any doctors who are specialists in public health (which is the relevant specialty) who are spreading such misinformation. However, any doctor spreading any kind of Covid mis-information is in danger of having their medical license revoked.
ref:
https://calmatters.org/health/2021/02/conspiracy-theory-doctor-surrenders-medical-license/
GrayRazorback GrayRazorback 8/17/2021 01:09
I guess all the doctors and scientist that say masks do nothing to stop the virus are just "random people on the Internet"
Michael Jones Michael Jones 8/15/2021 04:34
@tom_70 The size of the virus would only be relevant if it could float around by itself. It can't: it is only transported on the particles expelled when an infected person exhales or sneezes, which are large enough to be stopped by a mask. To correct your analogy, it's like trying to keep mosquitoes out of your yard by putting up a chain link fence, when the mosquitoes are glued to a rhinoceros.

But hey, I suppose all the doctors and scientists who say masks are effective at reducing the spread of the virus must be wrong, and all the random people on the internet who say they aren't must be right...
Keshava Keshava 8/15/2021 07:11
@tom_70,
The mask is more to protect others from our un-knowing spreading of the virus. The virus is attached to the airborne spray from sneezes and coughs and even talking. The more airborne droplets that a person ingests the more chances they have of contracting the disease and even if they contract the disease a greater quantity of virus can make them sicker. If a person talks, sneezes or coughs into a mask then there is less spray becoming airborne. Thus it is a mitigating strategy overall not a guarantee that anyone won't ingest any virus at all. To emphasize, the masks mitigate the amount of airborne droplets which the virus is attached to.
ref:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/06/21/880832213/yes-wearing-masks-helps-heres-why
tom_70 tom_70 8/15/2021 04:41
@Michael Jones, It is disturbing to think that such intelligent people don't understand how utterly useless a mask is against Covid. The gap between the strands on your average cloth mask are anywhere between about 50-200 microns wide. The Coronavirus itself is about .1 micron wide.
It's like trying to keep mosquitoes out of your yard by putting up a chain link fence. But hey, whatever makes everyone feel better.
Babelsky Babelsky 8/15/2021 03:01
Chess is victorious against Covid 19 pandemic,congratulation chess players.
Michael Jones Michael Jones 8/15/2021 02:43
@tom70 Yes, it's terrible that the best chess players in the world are sensible enough to take basic precautions during a pandemic, isn't it?
tom_70 tom_70 8/15/2021 02:25
Seeing these great players with these grotesque and unnecessary face diapers is so disturbing.
1