Tal 04: Nakamura hat-tricks and leads

by ChessBase
6/17/2013 – Nakamura played a convincing game against Caruana. A novel idea in the Najdorf was unsuccessfully dealt with by the Italian, and now Hikaru jumps to clear first place after losing his first game. Mamedyarov survived Karjakin's extra material and retains second, along with Gelfand who solidly held Anand. GM Analysis, pictures and standings.

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The Eighth International Tal Memorial Chess Tournament is being held from June, 13 to 24, 2013, with a rest days on June 16 and June 20. The rounds generally start at 15:00h (=3 p.m.) Moscow time, with the first round starting at 6 p.m. and the final round at 1 p.m. Accommodation is in the Ritz-Carlton, Moscow, Tverskaya str. 3, while the event takes place in the in New Technologies Center Digital October, in Moscow. The tournament has ten invited players and is a round robin with time controls of one hour and 40 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds for each move starting from move one. Full information on special rules, regulation, prize money, etc. can be found in our initial report.

Round four report

Round 04 – June 17 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Sergey Karjakin 2782
½-½
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Fabiano Caruana 2774
0-1
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
½-½
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Vishy Anand 2786
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2755

Legendary grandmaster Evgeny Bareev was a guest of honor today.

What does one do when the monsters play on stage? Well, play the Dutch in blitz!

It's all fun and games until your king is stuck in the center...

Andreikin, Dmitry - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½
Andreikin's reverse Sicilian set-up was unorthodox to say the least. However thanks to an early trick threatening checkmate he obtained a slight but nagging edge by virtue of some pressure against his opponent's queenside. Andreikin's follow-up was certainly not the most ambitious as he allowed Carlsen to trade some pieces and even forced him to lock up the kingside which sealed a completely drawn game.

Andreikin tried something unusual, but couldn't break Carlsen's position.

Carlsen was given no chances to complicate the game and push for a win.

Anand, Vishy - Gelfand, Boris ½-½
Just like in the World Championship match, Gelfand relies on his Sveshnikov Sicilian to defend against 1. e4. Anand was able to obtain a small edge with a Rossolimmo set-up, but Black's position remained very solid and after a couple of inexact moves by the World Champion, Gelfand was able simplify into an easily defensible rook endgame and the draw was pact soon afterwards.

Gelfand continues to be extremely solid with the black pieces, and had very few problems holding today against Anand.

I think we have done this before... Gelfand and Anand have played 19 times within the last year in rapid or slower time controls.

Caruana, Fabiano - Nakamura, Hikaru 0-1
The American's handling of the Najdorf was unique and powerful. In the h5 variation of the English attack, Nakamura decided to take the invading knight on d5 with his own knight as opposed to his e6 bishop, an unusual choice. He continued with what seemed like a strange check on h4 which forced Caruana to slightly weaken his kingside. The Italian's queenside response did not yield as much as he wanted, and Nakamura's kingside pressure slowly became uncomfortable for White. Eventually, White's king was impossible to defend and he had to shed material, which at the end still did not safe his king.

Nakamura came well prepared to the game, had original and fresh ideas and takes the lead in the event.

GM Daniel King provides video analysis of Caruana vs Nakamura 

[Event "8th Tal Memorial"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2013.06.17"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Caruana, Fabiano"]
[Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B90"]
[WhiteElo "2774"]
[BlackElo "2784"]
[Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"]
[PlyCount "78"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3
h5 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. Nd5 Nxd5 (10... Bxd5 11. exd5 g6 12. Be2 Qc7 $5 13. c4 a5 $5
{Had already cost a full point for Caruana earlier this year, against
Dominguez in the Thessaloniki Grand Prix, but the Italian did have a good
position out of the opening in that game.}) 11. exd5 Bf5 12. Be2 Rc8 (12... Be7
13. O-O h4 14. Na5 Qc7 15. c4 {was a complex game that Leko eventually won in
Leko-Gelfand 2009}) 13. Rc1 Qh4+ $5 {Hikaru's idea is quite interesting. g3 is
going to prove an attackable weakness which somehow justifies h5 in the set-up,
a move that usually is just a weakening on the kingside once White has castled
on that flank.} 14. g3 (14. Bf2 Qf6 15. O-O {has it's own drawbacks as the
bishop would like to have control over g5.}) 14... Qf6 15. O-O Be7 16. Na5{This is a common move, but usually it forces Black's queen to defend the b7
pawn. With the rook on c7 it feels that Black's position is comfortable enough.
} 16...Rc7
17. Bd3 O-O 18. c4 Bxd3 19. Qxd3 Re8 20. b4 Bf8 21. Rce1 g6 22. Qd2 Qf5 23.
a4 Nf6 24. Bb6 (24. c5 h4 (24... dxc5 25. d6 Rd7 26. bxc5 b6 27. cxb6 Bxd6 {is
unacceptable for Black.}) 25. gxh4 $5 {would have been very messy. It's
unclear why Caruana kept refraining from pushing his pawn to c5.}) 24... Rcc8
25. f4 e4 26. Bd4 Rc7 27. h3 $6 {White starts to weaken his kingside
unnecessarily.} Bg7 28. Qg2 b5 $1 {Powerful and opportunistic. White has
refrained from advancing on the queenside for so long, and has dedicated so
many resources to preventing the e4 pawn from advancing and defending the
kingside, that now his structure is collapsing with a simple pawn break.} 29.
axb5 axb5 30. Bxf6 Bxf6 31. g4 (31. cxb5 Qxd5 {is hopeless for White as
everything that could go wrong in the position has gone wrong. Black has the
better structure, the better minor piece, the better rook activity, the safer
king, the better endgames and White can pretty much resign.}) 31... hxg4 32.
hxg4 Bd4+ 33. Kh2 Qf6 34. Nc6 Bb6 35. g5 Qf5 {Interestingly enough all of
Hikaru's moves are easy to find and natural. This is due that when you obtain
a strong position, the flow of the game comes easily to the player with the
positional advantage.} 36. c5 (36. Qh3 bxc4 37. Qxf5 gxf5 38. Rc1 Kg7 39. Rxc4
f6 {is a terrible position for White, especially because of the exposed
position of his king, but it was the least bad option.}) 36... dxc5 37. Ne5
cxb4 38. d6 Rc3 39. Rxe4 Kg7 {White's getting checkmated. A convincing showing
by Nakamura.} 0-1

 

 

Karjakin, Sergey - Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½-½
Mamedyarov sacrificed two pawns almost immediately out of the opening, and despite his activity any claims for full compensation were highly debatable. Karjakin returned one of the pawns to consolidate his position, but unfortunately for him he was unable to play precise moves after that. He retained the pawn into a difficult to win rook endgame which Mamedyarov was able to hold.

Karjakin had good winning chances today, but alas could not convert.

Mamedyarov survived and quietly moves into a tie for 2nd-3rd.

Morozevich, Alexander - Kramnik, Vladimir ½-½
Kramnik's handling of the Scotch allowed him to obtain a perfectly acceptable position straight out of the opening. Morozevich used plenty of his creativity to try to muddy the position. He eventually obtained a superior pawn structure but Black's passed e-pawn was able to create enough counterplay and forced White to give a perpetual.

Not the tea kettle!?

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Schedule

Round 01 – June 13 2013, 15:00h
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
½-½
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Vishy Anand 2786
0-1
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Boris Gelfand 2755
½-½
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Magnus Carlsen 2864
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
0-1
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Round 02 –June 14 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
½-½
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Vladimir Kramnik 2755
0-1
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Sergey Karjakin 2782
½-½
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Fabiano Caruana 2774
0-1
Boris Gelfand 2755
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
½-½
Vishy Anand 2786
Round 03 – June 15 2013, 15:00h
Vishy Anand 2786
1-0
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Boris Gelfand 2755
½-½
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
Magnus Carlsen 2864
0-1
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
1-0
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Round 04 – June 17 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Sergey Karjakin 2782
½-½
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Fabiano Caruana 2774
0-1
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
½-½
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Vishy Anand 2786
½-½
Boris Gelfand 2755
Round 05 – June 18 2013, 15:00h
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Magnus Carlsen 2864
-
Vishy Anand 2786
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
-
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
-
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Michael Adams 2727
-
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Round 06 – June 19 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
-
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Fabiano Caruana 2774
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
-
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Vishy Anand 2786
-
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Round 07 – June 21 2013, 15:00h
Magnus Carlsen 2864
-
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
-
Boris Gelfand 2755
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
-
Vishy Anand 2786
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
-
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
Sergey Karjakin 2782
-
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Round 08 – June 22 2013, 15:00h
Alexander Morozevich 2760
-
Fabiano Caruana 2774
Dmitry Andreikin 2713
-
Sergey Karjakin 2782
Vishy Anand 2786
-
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
Boris Gelfand 2755
-
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
Magnus Carlsen 2864
-
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
Round 09 – June 23 2013, 13:00h
Hikaru Nakamura 2784
-
Alexander Morozevich 2760
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2753
-
Magnus Carlsen 2864
Vladimir Kramnik 2803
-
Boris Gelfand 2755
Sergey Karjakin 2782
-
Vishy Anand 2786
Fabiano Caruana 2774
-
Dmitry Andreikin 2713

All pictures by Etery Kublashvili

 


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