3rd London Chess Classic 2011 (4)
Nakamura defeats world champion Anand in London Classic Round 4
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 8th December 2011
IM Malcolm Pein examines Hikaru Nakamura's win against World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand in the 4th round of the London Chess Classic. Luke McShane joined Magnus Carlsen in the lead and Nigel Short won his first game at the London Classic in 18 attempts.
Anand and Nakamura at the start of their game. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill. | http://www.rmhphoto.eu
Luke McShane joined world number one Magnus Carlsen in the lead on 8 points from four games after scoring his second win at the 3rd London Chess Classic. McShane defeated David Howell, who blundered in an equal position when he miscalculated a queen sacrifice.
Carlsen drew with Vladimir Kramnik after playing very much in the style of the the former world champion. The Norwegian held a definite edge in a position with rooks and opposite coloured bishops and Kramnik needed all his skill to draw the game by giving up a pawn to exchange the rooks. Nigel Short won a game at the Classic for the first time in eighteen attempts. Short defeated Mickey Adams who seems out of sorts and was slightly worse with the white pieces out of the opening. Short eventually landed both rooks on Adams' first rank and an exchange sacrifice yielded three pawns which gradually advanced to force a win on the 70th move.
The game of the day was a titanic struggle in the sharpest line of the Kings Indian as Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura went all out for the win. Anand went astray from what looked a winning position. The world champion has not won for thirteen games and looks in very bad shape. I have tried to give a few clues in what was a hugely complex game
Scores: Carlsen, McShane 8/4 games, Nakamura 7/4; Kramnik 5/3, Aronian 4/3, Short 3/3 Anand 2/3, Adams 2/4 Howell 2/4
Nakamura has defeated three of the world's best players in this line; Boris Gelfand, Vladimir Kramnik and now the world champion. They have all been remarkable games. Nakamura on Twitter: "Live by the sword and die by the sword. I wonder how many of these games I can play in the KID before I die of a heart attack". Nigel Short once said that even though the King's Indian might be dubious positionally, Black always has counterplay even if he plays imprecisely whereas if White errs, Black's plan leads to mate.
V Anand - H Nakamura
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Ne8 10.c5 f5 11.Nd2 Nf6 12.a4 g5 13.Nc4 h6?!
(Dubious as it loses a tempo later when the h pawn goes to h5 but Nakamura didn't care. 13...f4)
14.f3 f4 15.Ba3 Ng6 16.b5 dxc5 17.Bxc5 Rf7 18.a5 h5 19.b6 g4 20.Nb5
White's queenside attack looks more potent than Black's kingside pawn storm at this stage
20...cxb6 21.axb6 g3 22.Kh1
(Also 22.Rxa7 is strong when22...Rxa7 fails 23.bxa7 Nxe4 24.fxe4 Qh4 25.hxg3 fxg3 26.Rxf7)
22...Bf8 23.d6 a6 24.Nc7 Rb8 25.Na5
(25.h3 Bxh3 26.gxh3 Qd7! Wins)
25...Kh8 26.Bc4 Rg7 27.Ne6?!
(27.Be6 Nd7 Nakamura 28.Bg1 is fine for White)
27...Bxe6 28.Bxe6 gxh2 29.Nc4? Qe8!
The turning point an unusual motif Qe8-b5 causes major problems
Hikaru Nakamura
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Viswanathan Anand
Position after 29...Qe8!
30.Bd5?!
(This bishop is needed near the king 30.Bh3 Qb5 31.d7 Nxd7 32.Bxf8 Rxf8)
30...h4 31.Rf2 h3 32.gxh3 Rc8 33.Ra5 Nh4
Black's attack takes over
34.Kxh2 Nd7 35.Bb4 Rg3 36.Qf1 Qh5 37.Ra3 a5 38.Be1 Rxc4! 39.Bxc4 Bxd6 40.Rxa5 Bc5 41.Be2 Bxb6 42.Rb5 Bd4 43.Bd1 Bxf2 44.Bxf2 Nxf3+ 45.Bxf3 Qxf3 46.Rb1 Rg6 47.Rxb7 Nf6 48.Rb8+ Kh7 49.Rb7+ Kh6 0-1
Hikaru Nakamura
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Viswanathan Anand
Final position after 49...Kh6 and Nxe4 follows
