Tal 04: Nakamura hat-tricks and leads

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

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 

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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All pictures by Etery Kublashvili

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.