Eyal: Overall, Nakamura was admirably accurate in this game. It would have been even more accurate, though, to play <...Be7!> a move earlier, following 22.fxg4:

click for larger view

with pretty much the same ideas as in the game after 22...Be7 23.Qxg7, but also with the point that 23.Qe3 wouldn't be better for White, because with the bishop still on f5 Black simply plays 23...Bxg4. A line which may have been particularly tricky to calculate is 22...Be7 23.Qxg7 Rh7 24.Qg8+ Kd7 25.Bxb6 Rxg8 26.Bxc7 and <now> 26...Be4! is strong as an intermediate move, forcing White to choose between giving up the exchange with 27.Bg3 or eventually losing the K-side pawns if the rook moves and black plays 27...Kxc7.

<Nakamura, asked if he was playing his best tournament ever, begs to wait until after the final two rounds - the next one being Kramnik. Nakamura is not sure if his 7...Bg4 is a novelty but he likes it. "The main point is that the pawn is on f3, not f2, so h5 is not under attack later." Nakamura notes that in his game against Svidler his queen on b3 was exposed to a later Rh3 "I was happy when I realised that his pawn was on f3 and this wasn't possible." Nakamura thinks that Nepo should have played 17.exf6 gxf6 18.Bd3 when he thought it would be about equal, even if Black is optically better. "Ian didn't want to play a slow position and wanted to be more aggressive." Nakamura thought that the pawn grab on e5 was correct - "I simply didn't see a clear-cut way for Ian to play so I thought why not go for it? I might just lose but at least i will get some play." "Actually I miscalculated - I thought that after 20.Qg5 I had 20...Bf7 21.Bxg7 Rg8, forgetting about 22.Be5." Nakamura shows the trick 25. Bxb6 Bb4+! - Ian missed this, he said. Nakamura pinpoints 24.Qxg7 as the losing blunder - "after 24.Qe3 Bd5 25.h5 0-0-0 it is a complete mess." "I knew Ian had blundered but I'll take [the point] any way I can get it. 27 Bg3 was better but even so it should be losing for Black, though there is still some hope. After that it goes from worse to lost in just a couple of moves." "I have a reputation as an aggressive player but Ian is if anything more aggressive than me so I thought I should play solidly today and let him [attack]." "I am going to approach the last two games by playing as if this was the first game, or even the way I would if I was -5. It seems that when you try to draw you end up in a long middlegame or endgame so i will just play normally.">

http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tourn...

Has to be that game against Maroczy.

That's funny.

Details can be found in my profile, and voting is taking place in my forum!

LTJ

Because he never played either of them after his defection the next year or any other Soviet player outside of his Candidates matches until Korchnoi vs Yusupov, 1981.

Sounds about right.....lmao

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.