March 23, 2009 • General
Hello to everyone out there. I do apologize for taking such a long absence from blogging, however I have been busy of late with many other projects. I do not plan to take such a long break in the future though and will try to blog as often as there is relevant news pertaining to chess.
Austrian League:
Unfortunately, I never could quite get my feet on the ground during the Austrian League. I think in large part this was due to my lack of recovery time after flying in. On most of the days, I was usually asleep until about an hour before the games and this affected me adversely. Overall, the first two legs were quite forgettable and I played anything but inspiring chess. This time around though, I started off quite well with a nice win over Gyimesi in the first game. In the second game against GM Miroshnichenko from Ukraine, I first obtained a winning position, then a losing position, then a winning position again! However, due to some very bad time pressure I missed a win in two and lost. It cannot be understated how much this game affected me the following day when I walked into some preparation by GM Gustafsson and was simply lost with White after 15 moves! This was simple a disaster of epic proportions and one which I don’t hope to repeat. In the final round I was black against the Hungarian GM Ruck. There are really very few comments that I can use to describe this game other than that it was a game where none of my moves make much sense unless one has studied the games of Suttles. In the end, I found a way to grind an endgame to somewhat salvage the damage. In the end my final result was 5 wins, 5 losses?? and 1 draw. I shedded quite a few points along the way, but alas such is life. The one bright spot was that my team Husek Wien ended up winning the league overall due to our massive 5.5-.5 score in the final match. Overall my result was quite mediocre, but I think more than playing badly it was simply all the wear and tear of traveling and not having enough time to recover.
Dos Hermanas:
For the 10th year, ICC ran a form of the Dos Hermanas internet chess tournament. Originally, as I recall, the winner of the online event (before computer programs) got an invitation to the actual event in Spain which no longer exists anymore. Therefore, it has simply turned into a blitz tournament. In past years, there has been rampant cheating and it always seems that the top players never win. As such, I was not planning to play this year, but a friend convinced me to at least take a shot. In typical fashion, much like last year, I lost to someone who I ordinarily would not lose to. Although I’m sure that many people would love to hear who I think may or may not have cheated, I will stay away from such gossip as I’m not 100% convinced about it unlike the past few years when it seemed rather obvious to me. There really is little else to say other than that I am not going to play this tournament in future years due to inability to prove or disprove one’s ability to cheat.
Upcoming Events:
My next event will be the French League at the end of April, and I will do my best to have better results there than I had in Austria! I will also be in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada from July 20-22 for the Canadian Youth Chess Festival (http://monroi.com/2009-canadian-youth-chess-championship-home.html)
Other notable events which I have planned are the NH Rising Stars event from August 19th-September 1st along with the European Club Cup Championship in Macedonia in early October. Last but not least, I will be playing in a prestigious category 19 (2700 average) round robin in London during December. Until next time!
Vienna, 23.3.09
Hikaru Nakamura
January 27, 2009 • General
Today I started my defense of the Gibraltar Telecom Open which I won last year in spectacular fashion. Coming off of a few stressful weeks, it is nice to be back in Gibraltar where the lovely weather and friendly people are always a welcome sight for me. In the first round game, I played the young Polish FM, Arkadiusz Leniart with Black. The game started fairly routinely out of the opening until he had a seizure and decided to try and play the hero. The whole Bh6 idea with Ng5 was a beginners try at a hopeful mate. I was able to defend quite easily and the game wasn’t much of a challenge. A good start is just what I needed, and I will check back in tomorrow for all the eager fans.
January 05, 2009 • General
In the 5th game of the tournament I got black against GM Lie and chose to play a modern/pirc. The position was fine for me, but choosing to play Bg4 in conjunction with Nd7,Rc8 and c5 was probably inaccurate. Afterwards he found the very strong idea of 16.b4 followed by 17.Na2!. After a long variation of moves, he ended up a pawn, but the position is probably equal still due to the everlasting weakness on c2. A justified result probably would have been a draw here, but Lie went badly astray with 25.Bg5 Re8 26.exf5 gxf5 27.f4?? which allowed the very strong 27…Ng6 after which he is just losing. With Peter losing to Magnus, this made the whole situation complicated. Many people have wondered why I took a draw with Magnus in the last round.
My general strategy was to avoid much risk and head for blitz if necessary. As it turned out, Peter would go on to beat Kjetil which left the latter with the score of 0/6 and led to a three way tiebreak. In the first game I was simply not ready for blitz and used way too much time before the game even really got started. This led to me getting a horrendous position before Peter blundered when we were both in time pressure by allowing me to pick off his a4 pawn with 30…a5! . I probably had some drawing chances here, but due to the time disadvantage I had, I missed a nice tactical shot with 38. Ra8 followed by 39. Qe7. In the second tiebreak game, Peter chose to play into the Ruy against Magnus and got another bad position with little counterplay as they went into the endgame. He slowly got ground down and lost. This left me in the very unpleasant situation of having to win with White against Magnus in the final blitz game. Magnus again chose to play the Slav against me but with 4…dxc4. I chose to play the 5.e4 variation because the situation dictated that I needed to play for a win and although I normally would have played the 5.a4 lines with 6.e3 and 7.Bxc4, I figured that creating a messy position was a better choice. The ensuing position is very complicated and although I was down two pawns, it was much easier for me to play. I have seen various comments suggesting that I was not in fact winning. However, I was up about 10 seconds when I went wrong with 34.Bxh6. After 34.Rf6! Kc7 (Kb7) then I have a very big advantage after 35.Ra2. When you consider the time in this position too, it should be winning with all the threats looming on d5/f7/h6. Alas, once queens came off, I might still be able to play for a win, but I’m not the one with the obvious moves anymore. As is, I completely panicked and blundered horribly by sacrificing a piece.
In conclusion, I am not disappointed with my games against Kjetil or Magnus as I felt I played very well overall. However, I am far from pleased with my games against Peter as I played badly in all three of the games. Perhaps I should have played for a win in the final game against Magnus, but I felt that blitz should be favourable for me. Unfortunately, whether it is due to taking classical chess far more seriously or just a lack of blitz on ICC or anywhere else, I seem to be quite a bit slower than I used to be. Overall, I came here with very low expectations due to my lack of preparation, sickness and personal problems. So I am quite pleased that I had two winning positions against the number four player in the world. In the future, I just have to find a way to play well against Peter as I now have a nice score of .5/4.
Today I will play Kjetil in the match format and hopefully I can pull it together and win. After a long day yesterday, my goal is simply to just forget and try to play good chess on the final day. I will also take this opportunity to announce that I will be playing in the Canadian Open from July 11-19, 2009 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that I am currently spending most of my time in Europe and New York right now, not Vancouver.
January 04, 2009 • General
Once again, just like in Cap D’Agde, I got off the snide by playing a solid game against Magnus with Black in the third round. Overall, I felt that the whole Nh4 idea with g4, Qe3 and f4 was slightly too optimistic. After the more natural 18.Nd4 Qe5 19. Qe3 Rae8 the position might be slightly better for White. However, the ensuing endgame was still roughly equal until Magnus went for the risky 40.Nd1. After 40.f5 g5 41. f6!? the position remains very complicated. However after 40.Nd1 Bd5 41.Nc3 Rd4 Magnus made the final blunder with 42.Kg3? After 42.Re3 Rxf4 43. Kg3 Rcf8 44.Nxd5 cxd5 45. Rxd5 the game should end in a draw. The position is already very bad for Magnus, but 43. Nxd5 loses on the spot. Later on, Svidler suggested 44. Re3 Re8! 45.Kf2 Rxf4 46. Ke2, but after 46…Rxe3 47.Kxe3 Rxg4 48. Nxd5 cxd5 49.Rxd5 c3 and White is probably losing in the endgame. Overall, it wasn’t my best game ever, but I played very solidly and avoided ever getting into any trouble with Black.
In round 4, I had white against Svidler. After the debacle yesterday, my goal was to try and play relatively quietly with very few complications. As it turned out, Peter surprised me by choosing the Cherbanenko Slav with 4…a6. Sadly, after a few more natural moves, I confused the move order by playing 8.Be2 first instead of 8.Nd2 followed by 9.Be2. Peter then chose to play 8…Ne4 which is a very strong and completely equalizing move. The next critical point came on move 15 when I went for the ambitious g4 as opposed to the standard 15.Qd2; however, after 15…Re8 16. 0-0-0 h5 Black has the very simple plan of Nf8-e6 and probably a small advantage. In game we reached an interesting position after my critical pawn sacrifice with 22.g5!? In reality, this pawn sacrifice is actually probably losing, but it seemed like the most logical choice considering the game situation. After 22…Qxg5 23.0-0-0 Rae8 was definitely a blunder. After 23…Rf5 24.Rg1 Qf6 25.Rhg2 Bf7, it is hard to see how I can obtain any real compensation for the pawn sacrifice. In the game though, after 24.Rdg1 Bf7, for some reason I hallucinated and overlooked the rather obvious 25.Nxf4 Bh6 26.Rg4 after which either Rh1 or Qh2 follow. As is, the game continuation with 25. Rg4 led to a more or less forced draw. As is, it was a justified result since we both made blunders.
Overall, it was definitely a successful day as I remain in the hunt to make the finals. Today, I will try my best just like the past two days and we shall see what happens. I will also put up some annotations on a few games from this tournament after it ends. Until I check back tomorrow, I hope everyone has a great Sunday.
January 03, 2009 • General
Hello to everyone. As I have just finished my preparation for today’s second round games, I will take this opportunity to make a few brief remarks about my two games yesterday. In the first game I was black against GM Peter Svidler. Surprisingly, we have only played once despite crossing paths at several different paths. In that game back in 2002 i(wow have 6 1/2 years really gone by that quickly?) n the Dominican Republic. In that game I was black and made the ill-advised choice of the Najdorf and got crushed by a very strong novelty. This time around, I made a much better opening choice by playing the Caro Kann. Peter surprised me with the interesting 8.Na3!? After a couple of moves I obtained a very nice position and was equal until I blundered badly with 14…a6? If I had simply played Bc5, I probably would have been able to draw with relative ease. Alas, after the very strong 15.c4 I went astray quickly and lost horribly.
In the second game I had white against Kjetil Lie who is coming off a phenomenal performance in the Olympiad. In this game, I chose to play an unsound pawn sacrifice with the very early a3-b4 in the English. The one other time I played this variation (Nakamura-Wojtkiewicz, 2004) the gambit was declined. However, this time around Kjetil (I cannot pronounce the name remotely near how it is supposed to sound) showed no fear and grabbed the pawn. I suspect that at some point he was quite a bit better, but due to a shortage of time and uncertainty as to whether to play for a win or a draw he played a little too passively and fell victim of a very powerful attack after 19.d4 Bxd4 20.Nd5. I have yet to analyze this position with rybka, but it is definitely difficult to play if you are A)short of time and B)not a computer. Objectively, I am sure that there is an adequate defense and Black is winning, but it seemed like the right idea considering the circumstances. Kjetil was unable to find this defense and lost to my very strong kingside attack.
So going into the second day, I currently have 1/2. Overall, it was not the score I was hoping for, but that is life. I suspect that what irks me more about it is that 1 move is really the only difference between the desired result and what I have now. However, this tournament reminds me in many ways of Cap D’Agde as I also played there after a long break of 6 weeks. In the first round there, I lost horrendously to Radjabov when I overlooked an obvious tactic. That tournament didn’t turn out too badly for me, so I hope that the same holds true for me here. Today I am Black against Carlsen and white against Svidler, so I will definitely have to play some more enthusiastic chess than I did yesterday. If not, then it’s unlikely I’ll be playing for a shot at winning this rapid tournament.
