| Apr-23-13 | | dumbgai: Great attack. Mamed resigns because after 40...Nxf1 41. Bf4 the knight is trapped. He can try to defend it with Re8-e1 or Rg8-g1, but then the white pawns roll. |
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| Apr-23-13 | | Hesam7: The real question what is the damage to Caro-Kann in terms of theory. How much if any of Black's opening is now refuted with 16 Nh6! |
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Apr-23-13
 | | tamar: 16 Nxh6 is just a great find by Karjakin.
Houdini (1.5x64) takes forever, over an hour (at three CPU) to put it in plus territory; it was still 0.00 at 26 ply. This is probably why it has not been found before. It changes its evaluation rapidly to positive once 23 Bxg5 has been played, although that line had been recommended in earlier evaluations as equal. Mamedyarov's response looks reasonable,...Re8, ...Bf8, ...Nh7, the only clear diversion Houdini makes is 23...Be7 instead of 23...Kh8 Most likely this will retire the 13...Qb6 line, as the sacrifice works because the Queen has no fast way to return to the King's defense. |
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Apr-24-13
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: I think the whole idea of King side castling for Black in this line needs retiring. The usual pawn sacrifices with g2-g4 posed enough problems already; if White can sac a piece on h6 with no immediate compensation (he doesn't open lines for his Rooks until five moves later), then Black's King needs to return to his old home on c8 where his Queen can watch over him. Unless, of course, we're all "annotating by result," and Black should have forced resignation by move 24. |
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| Apr-24-13 | | rogl: According to ChessBase Leko together with some other Hungarians analyzed 16.Nxh6+ three years ago and he was a little bit miffed that he never got the chance to play it. |
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Apr-24-13
| | tamar: From the site report:
<The Russian GM showed why he is amongst the world’s top 10 as he cruised to a strong victory over the creative player from Azerbaijan, Shakriyar Mamedyarov. Karjakin blitzed out his opening moves including the positional sacrifice 16.Nxh6+! which was prepared by GM Alexander Motylev and other members of Karjakin’s team. According to Peter Leko, he also prepared this move Nh6 with the Hungarian team three years ago, so he was distressed to see it today. After 24 moves Black was already one hour behind on the clock and blundered with 24…Qc7. Sergey recovered his piece with a winning position after 27.Qg3. At the press-conference Shakhriyar said he knew he would lose this game after c3 as it was obvious for him his opponent had prepared everything at home and it would be hard to find the exact defending moves over the board.> |
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| Apr-24-13 | | Eyal: <At the press-conference Shakhriyar said he knew he would lose this game after c3 as it was obvious for him his opponent had prepared everything at home and it would be hard to find the exact defending moves over the board.> Yeah, looks like besides the objective problems for Black there was this psychological blow (among other things, Mamedyarov knew that he was playing not only against Karjakin but against the computer as well). Here's a link to that press conference, btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhzw... Karjakin says there that the position after 18.Bc1 is critical and that 18...Kg7 (instead of Rfe8) is best for Black, although "during the game it's difficult to understand why"... And he also says that he actually didn't remember the home analysis in full, but he did remember that after 18...Rfe8 19.g4 White should be clearly better, and the following attacking moves are very logical and not so difficult to find otb. |
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Apr-24-13
| | tamar: <eyal> Thanks for the link to the press conference. Zug coverage is great, but lacks the replay feature of the Alekhine Memorial. Karjakin immediately pointed to 18...Kg7 as the only hope for Black, so perhaps we will see this variation live on as a drawing tool! 18...Kg7 19 g4 Rh8! 20 c4 Be7 21 g5 hxg5 22 Nxg5 Rag8 might be the idea getting the rooks active and exiting to f8 with the King. White has a sacrifice on e6, but only leading to draws it appears. |
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Apr-26-13
 | | whiteshark: Daniel King illumes us on Karjakin vs Mamedyarov : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHj... |
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| Apr-29-13 | | Naniwazu: For some reason the move 13...Qb6 reminds me of Alekhine vs Lasker, 1934 where Black's queen also gets stranded on the queenside while White demolishes Black's kingside. Larry Christiansen has a funny term for these venturesome ladies: potted plants. |
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| May-01-13 | | Boris Schipkov: My commentary in the Chess Siberia http://www.chessib.com/karjakin-mam... |
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Kibitzing
sac: 16.Nxh6+