NH Chess Tournament 2010 (Blitz Playoff)
Nakamura blitzes Giri
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 26th August 2010
Anish Giri must have feared the worst when Hikaru Nakamura forced a blitz playoff for an Amber place. Malcolm Pein looks at what happened.
Today we will look at the Rapid Chess playoff between Hikaru Nakamura and the teenage prodigy Anish Giri which took place at the conclusion of the NH Hotels Rising Stars v Veterans tournament at Amsterdam.
At stake was a place in the 2011 Amber Rapid and Blindfold tournament in Monaco which has a €192,000 prize fund. The tournament is supported by Joop van Oosterom's Association Max Euwe, who traditionally invite only the world's leading players plus the winner of the Amsterdam tournament.
The final scores were:
Experience team individual scores :
Gelfand 7/10
Svidler 5½
Nielsen 4
van Wely 4
Ljubojevic 3½
Total 24
Rising Stars individual scores:
Giri 6
Nakamura 6
Caruana 5
Howell 4½
So 4½
Total 26
Nakamura is an accomplished and very experienced speed chess player and was probably a bit too fast for Giri. In game one Giri fell into a positional trap but fought back and was even better until he missed the strength of an exchange sacrifice. He must have lost on time as he can fight on with 40...Kc6 at the end.
H Nakamura (2729) - A Giri
5th NH Tournament Playoff Amsterdam (1)
1.d4 d5 2.Bg5
(The Pseudo Trompovsky as played by Julian Hodgson, Michael Adams and Tony Miles with great success)
2...c6 3.e3 h6 4.Bf4 Bf5 5.c4 e6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Qb3! Qb6?!
(7...Qc8)
8.c5! Qxb3 9.axb3 a6 10.b4
(White has a favourable endgame as he can attack Black's pawn structure with b4-b5)
10...Nh5 11.Bc7 Nd7 12.b5! cxb5 13.Nxb5 Rc8 14.Nd6+ Bxd6 15.Bxd6 Nhf6 16.f3 Nb8
(Black has to lose time in order to connect his rooks as castling is impossible)
17.Ne2 Kd7 18.Nc3 Ne8 19.Bf4 Nc6 20.Na4 Ke7 21.Kd2 f6 22.g4 Bg6 23.Kc3
(23.Nb6)
23...e5! 24.Bg3 Nc7 25.h4 Rcd8 26.f4?! Be4 27.Rh2 exd4+ 28.exd4 Nb5+ 29.Bxb5 axb5 30.Nb6 b4+ 31.Kb3 Nxd4+ 32.Kxb4 Nc2+
(32...Nc6+)
33.Rxc2! Bxc2 34.Ra7 f5 35.Rxb7+ Ke6 36.Kc3 Bb1 37.Kd4 fxg4 38.b4
(These well supported pawns are hard to stop)
38...Rhe8 39.c6 Kd6 40.c7 1-0
Anish Giri
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Hikaru Nakamura
Position after 40.c7 now Kc6! 41.cxd8(Q) Rxd8 42.Rxg7 Kxb6
A Giri - H Nakamura
Catalan
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 c6 7.0-0 0-0 8.Qc2 b6 9.Rd1 Ba6 10.b3 Nbd7 11.Bf4 Rc8 12.Nc3 c5 13.dxc5 Bxc5 14.a3 b5 15.b4
Hikaru Nakamura
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Anish Giri
Position after 15.b4
15...Bxf2+ 16.Kxf2 Rxc4
(Threat Rxc3 Qxc3 Ne4+)
17.Rd3 e5 18.Bg5
(18.Nxe5 Nxe5 19.Bxe5 Ng4+)
18...e4 19.Rxd5 Qb6+ 20.Kf1 Nxd5 21.Nxd5 Rxc2 22.Nxb6 exf3 23.Nxd7 fxg2+ 24.Kf2 Re8 25.Be3 Bc8 26.Nc5 Bg4 0-1
