Aronian defeats Nakamura in first round of Tata Steel

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74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2012 (1)

Aronian defeats Nakamura in first round of Tata Steel

IM Malcolm Pein - Wednesday 18th January 2012

IM Malcolm Pein looks at Levon Aronian's first round victory over Hikaru Nakamura.

Levon Aronian Photo ©

Levon Aronian Photo © | http://www.chessvista.com

Matthew Sadler engineered a great escape and salvaged a draw against Tania Sachdev as both sides missed tactical points in the time scramble. Sadler is on 1.5/2 in Group C of the Tata Steel at Wijk aan Zee. In Group A, Levon Aronian is the only player on 2/, with three young players; Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri on 1.5.

Aronian defeated Hikaru Nakamura who described himself as being 'on tilt', a poker term, going into the event. Nakamura has lost his reverse and neutral gears of late and played the aggressive Leningrad Dutch. Aronian sacrificed his queen for rook bishop and pawn but chances were equal until Nakamura went astray in a position he should have held comfortably. Caruana defeated Sergey Karjakin after winning rook for bishop in the middlegame. Converting rook and bishop v bishop and knight, when the bishops are of opposite colour is often difficult. The finish is today's puzzle.

Hikaru Nakamura

Levon Aronian

Position after 41.Nxf4

L Aronian - H Nakamura

41...Rd6

(The safest course was 41...Rxf4 42.gxf4 Qxf4 43.Bb7 Nf6 44.h3 Ne4 45.Bxe4 Qxe4 Black should draw this comfortably. White cannot safeguard his king and launch an attack with his rooks simultaneously. 46.R7c3 Qe5 47.Rg3 h5)

42.Be6 Rd1+ 43.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 44.Kg2 Nf6

(44...Kg7)

45.Rxe7

White's position is impregnable but Nakamura should still survive

45...Qe1 46.Rf7 Qe4+ 47.f3 Qd4

(47...Qe5)

48.Kh3! Qe5

(48...Qb2)

49.Kh4! Qd4 50.Bg4!

This rearrangement is very strong. The knight comes to e6

Hikaru Nakamura