73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011 (10)
Nakamura and Anand share the lead after 10
IM Malcolm Pein - Friday 28th January 2011
Malcolm Pein looks at Nakamura's win against Vachier-Lagrave and Anand's win against Shirov that took them into the lead after 10 rounds.
Hikaru Nakamura against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Photo © | http://www.tatasteelchess.com
Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura regained the joint lead on 7/10 with three to play of the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee. As Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik were held to draws with black, the world champion and the US number one were ruthless with white. Magnus Carlsen lost to the Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi and has 5.5/10.
In Group B Luke McShane lost to Zahar Efimenko but remains in contention just half a point behind Wesley So.
H Nakamura - M Vachier-Lagrave
Gruenfeld Exchange
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bd3 b6 12.Qd2 e5 13.Bg5
(This seems to lose a tempo but as Black is about to be weakened on the dark squares, removing the queen from the defence of f6 makes sense in some lines)
13...Qd7 14.Bh6 Bb7
(14...Bxh6 15.Qxh6 f6 16.f4 Qg7 17.Qh4 is good for White, Gelfand v Kamsky 2009)
15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.d5 f5 17.f3 Rf7
(17...f4 18.g3 g5 looks more solid)
18.exf5! c4
(18...Qxd5 19.fxg6 Rd7 20.Qg5 Qxd3 21.Qxe5+ Kg8 is not so clear but 18...Qxd5 19.Qe3 gxf5 20.Qg5+ Kh8 21.Bxf5 looks good for White)
19.Bc2 gxf5 20.Rad1 f4 21.g3! Qd6 22.gxf4 exf4 23.Kh1
(Nakamura's pieces are much better placed for kingside action)
23...Re8 24.Rg1+ Kf8 25.Be4 Bc8 26.Nd4 Qf6 27.Ne6+ Bxe6 28.dxe6 Qxe6 29.Bd5 Qh3 30.Bxf7 Qxf3+ 31.Rg2 Kxf7 32.Qd7+ Kf6 33.Qg7+ 1-0
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
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Hikaru Nakamura
Final position after 33.Qg7+
Anand and Shirov played a Queen's Gambit Cambridge Springs Variation that started the same as Aronian - Shirov from the previous day. The variation gets its name as it was used several times at Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania in 1904.
V Anand - A Shirov
Queen's Gambit Cambridge Springs
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qd2 Bb4 9.Rc1 h6 10.Bh4 c5 11.Bc4 11...Nxc3
(11...N7b6 or 11...cxd4 Aronian-Shirov round 9 the day before)
12.bxc3 Ba3 13.Rb1 a6 14.Be2 0-0 15.0-0 b5 16.c4 Bb4
(After 16...Qxd2 17.Nxd2 the bishop is stuck on a3 and b5 is attacked)
17.Qc2 Bb7 18.Rfd1 bxc4
(18...Rac8 19.d5!?)
19.dxc5! Nxc5 20.Rd4!
(Forceful play, White's rooks are first into the game)
20...Rab8 21.Ne5
(Threat Nxc4 winning material)
21...Bd5 22.Be7 Rfe8 23.Bd6 Rbd8?
(23...Rb7)
24.Bh5!
Alexei Shirov
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Viswanathan Anand
Position after 24.Bh5!
24...Rxd6
(24...g6 25.Bxg6)
25.Bxf7+ Kf8 26.Bxe8 1-0
Scores: 1-2 Nakamura (USA), Anand (India) 7/10; 3-4 Aronian (Armenia), Kramnik (Russia)6.5; 5-7 Carlsen (Norway), Vachier-Lagrave (France), Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 5.5; 8-10 Giri (Holland), Ponomariov (Ukraine), Wang Hao (China)5; 11 Smeets 3.5; 12 L'Ami (Holland) 3; 13-14 Shirov (Spain), Grischuk (Russia) 2.5;
