6th Tal Memorial 2011 (7)
Tal Memorial finally sees decisive game in Round 7
IM Malcolm Pein - Friday 25th November 2011
Malcolm Pein looks in detail at Vassily Ivanchuk's defeat of Hikaru Nakamura in Round 7 after three rounds of draws.
Hikaru Nakamura struggled in Round 7. Photo © | http://www.russiachess.org
Sooner or later someone had to lose a game at the Tal Memorial and after three rounds of draws Hikaru Nakamura was the fall guy as he was outfoxed by Vasily Ivanchuk in the opening and never recovered. Nakamura has lost twice with white against the Gruenfeld and he was in trouble as early as move ten, after embarking on an adventure in the opening that broke the cardinal rule of 'don't move a piece twice in the opening'. He actually broke the rule twice and with his king in the middle, Nakamura declined an exchange sacrifice and was soon slightly worse. In the middlegame, Ivanchuk made excellent use of his queenside pawn majority and finished with an elegant coup de grace which is today's puzzle. Ivanchuk joined Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergei Karjakin and Levon Aronian in the lead on 4/7.
H Nakamura - V Ivanchuk
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0-0 6.Rc1 dxc4 7.Bxc4 Nbd7 8.Nb5?! c6 9.Bc7 Qe8 10.Nc3 e5!
Vassily Ivanchuk
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Hikaru Nakamura
Position after 10...e5!
11.dxe5
(Black has good play after 11.Bd6 exd4 12.Bxf8 Qxf8 13.Qxd4 Nc5 14.Qh4 b5 15.Be2 b4 16.Nd1 Nce4 Threat g5 winning the queen or 11.Bd6 exd4 12.Bxf8 dxc3 13.Bxg7 cxb2 14.Rb1 Kxg7 15.Rxb2 Qe4)
11...Nxe5 12.Be2 Bf5 13.Nf3 Nxf3+ 14.Bxf3 Rc8 15.Bg3 Ne4 16.Bxe4 Bxe4 17.0-0 Rd8 18.Qa4 Bd3 19.Rfd1 b5 20.Qa5
(20.Qxa7 b4 21.Na4 Be2 22.Re1 Bb5 23.b3 was possibly better )
20...Rd7 21.Rd2 Qe7 22.Rcd1 Rfd8 23.a3 h5 24.h3 h4 25.Bh2 Kh7 26.Bc7 Rxc7 27.Rxd3 Rxd3 28.Rxd3 Bf6 29.Rd2 Rd7 30.Rc2 Qe6 31.Qb4 a5! 32.Qf4
(32.Qxa5 Qb3 33.Re2 Rd3 Threat Bxc3 bxc3 Qd1+)
32...Kg7 33.Rc1 a4
Vassily Ivanchuk
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Hikaru Nakamura
Position after 33...a4
(33...Qb3!)
34.Qb4 Rd3 35.Rc2? Qb3 36.Qxb3 axb3 37.Rc1 Bxc3 38.bxc3 c5 39.Kf1 c4 40.Ke2
Vassily Ivanchuk
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Hikaru Nakamura
Position after 40.Ke2; Black to play and win.
Answer 40...Rxc3! 0-1
41.Rxc3 b2 promotes
