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Magnus Carlsen vs Hikaru Nakamura
Chess.com Speed Chess Championship (2017/18) (blitz), chess.com INT, rd 4, Jan-03
Formation: King's Indian Attack (A07)  ·  1-0

8
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White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
1-0

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jan-05-18  zborris8: Inside the mind of Namakura:

Magnus admitted that he had been completely outplayed in the opening and middlegames during the earlier phases of the match. Hikaru simply lost the threads of these games. Here, Hikaru's winning position ends in a mouse slip. He said: "I got a winning position and I reached for the knight <29...Nd4> and I grabbed a pawn instead <29...g5>." But <29...Nd4??> is a blunder in the move order: <29...Rd5! 30.Qd1 Nd4 <(P.Doggers)>>. (Interview: Twitch TV 2018 Speed Chess Championships @4:05:35.)

Jan-05-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: < zborris8: Inside the mind of Namakura: Magnus admitted that he had been completely outplayed in the opening and middlegames during the earlier phases of the match. Hikaru simply lost the threads of these games. Here, Hikaru's winning position ends in a mouse slip. He said: "I got a winning position and I reached for the knight <29...Nd4> and I grabbed a pawn instead <29...g5>." But <29...Nd4??> is a blunder in the move order: <29...Rd5! 30.Qd1 Nd4 <(P.Doggers)>>. (Interview: Twitch TV 2018 Speed Chess Championships @4:05:35.)>

So the "mouse slip" caused Nakamura to play a different losing blunder, in other words.

As for Doggers, 29....Rd5 is unplayable. 29....Rb5 30.Qd1 Nd4 (I assume this is what Doggers meant) 31.Ra8 is +1.25 (Stockfish 15 minutes, 36 ply).

Where did Nakamura have a winning position?

Jan-06-18  Sokrates: Great response, <keypusher>, spot on!

Carlsen, btw, is always a hard critic on himself, much harder than his results need him to be. That is the mark of a researcher and a seeker of truth.

Jan-06-18  WorstPlayerEver: <Where did Nakamura have a winning position?>

<keypusher>

The heat of the moment: Naka thought he had a winning position. Reconstruction of Naka's thoughts!

29... Nd4 30. Nxf6+ Bxf6 31. Qxf6


click for larger view

31...Ne2+ 32. Kf1 Nf4 33. Qg7+ Kxg7 34. b8=Q+ Kf6 35. Qd6+ Qxd6 36. Rf7+ Kxf7 37. Rb7+ Kf6 38. Rf7+ Kxf7 39. f3 Rc2 40. Ke1 Qxd3 41. h4 Ng2#

Et voilá!

Jan-06-18  WorstPlayerEver: PS now the reality, 29... Nd4 30. Qg4


click for larger view

Jan-06-18  zborris8: <keypusher where was the win?>

<29...Nd4> is winning at practical depths for either <29...Nd4 30.Nxf6>, or <29...Nd4 30.Qd1>, and <WorstPlayerEver> shows the deeper refutation <30.Qg4! Stockfish depth 22>. But Carlsen's clock had 27sec and Nakamura had 13.8sec on move. Hou1.5/d8: <29...Nd4 30. Qd1 Rb8 31. Nxc5 Nf3+ 32. Kf1 Qxc5 33. Rba1 Nxh2 34.Kg2 -1.51>

Doggers' variation attempts a fortress: <29...Rb5 30. Qd1 Nd4 31. Ra8 Qe6 32. Rxb5 cxb5 33. Nd6 Rf8 34. Rxf8+ Bxf8 35. b8=Q Qxd6 36. Qxd6 Bxd6 37. Qg4 Nf5 38. Qg2 b4>


click for larger view

Jan-06-18  ChessHigherCat: Was Carlsen's offer of the exchange sac sound? It seems like MC played b6 to prepare the fork Nb5, and Naka played c6 to prevent that fork, but what if 22...Rxc3?
Jan-06-18  rogge: Missing a key move happens sometimes in blitz, I've heard.
Jan-06-18  ChessHigherCat: <rogge> Do you mean you think it was sound? I've been playing around with it on WinBoard and it doesn't seem clear to me, but needless to say I'm not the world's best analyst. In this line, black is sunk:

22. b6 Rxc3 23. b7 Nc6 24. Bxc3 Qxc3 25. Qd5+ Kh8 26. Qb3 Qc5 27. Qa4 Rb8 28. Rb5 Qc3 29. Re4 Nd4 30. Qa8 Nc6 31. Rc4 Qe1+ 32. Kg2

Jan-06-18  rogge: I haven't studied the games in detail, just noting that @#$% happens inn blitz games:)
Jan-06-18  rogge: *in, I blame Apple :)
Jan-08-18  circleVIII: <ChessHigherCat> 22. b6 Rxc3 23. Re4 Qc5 24. Bxc3 Qxc3 25. Rc4 Qa5 26. Rxc7 and black looks pretty desperate.

If 26... Nd5 27. Rc4 Nxb6 28. Qc6 Rb8 29. Qe6+ Kh8 30. Rxb6!! and black can safely resign.

So better is 23... Qd5 24. Bxc3 cxb6 and black is probably objectively lost with a very difficult position to play (in a blitz game no less) but it isn't nearly as bad as the first continuation.

Jan-08-18  circleVIII: <ChessHigherCat> as far as your line goes 22. b6 Rxc3 23. b7 Nc6 24. Re4 and I believe white is just crushing black.

So 23... Rxc2 29. b8=Q Rxb8 30. Rxb8+ Kf7 31. Be3 Qxd3 looks pretty good for black.

I don't think 23. b7 is the correct continuation.

Jan-08-18  ChessHigherCat: <circleVIII> Good analysis, thanks, but in the last line I don't think white has to give the bishop: 22. b6 Rxc3 23. b7 Rxc2 24. Be3 Qxd3 25. b8=Q Rxb8 26. Rxb8+ Kf7 27. Rd1 Qa6 28. Rd7

Anyway, it doesn't look like 22...Rxc3 is sound, which is what you'd expect if Carlsen offered it, but you never know.

Jan-08-18  JustAnotherMaster: < Sokrates: Great response, <keypusher>, spot on! Carlsen, btw, is always a hard critic on himself, much harder than his results need him to be. That is the mark of a researcher and a seeker of truth.>

Lets not forget H-Bomb is the Biggest seeker of the EXCUSE ever.

Jan-12-18  zborris8: This is 1|1 Bullet.
Jan-13-18  WorstPlayerEver: <zborris8>

Thanks for the time indications!

Mar-31-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: The passed pawn seems to be winning in all variations at the end. Instead of g5 if Nd4 White has Qg4 which is more than +7 for White:

134: Magnus Carlsen - Hikaru Nakamura 1-0 4.18, Chess.com Speed Chess Championship 2017


click for larger view

Analysis by Stockfish 14.1 3 cores only:

1. +- (6.69): 30...Rc1+ 31.Rxc1 f5 32.Ra8 Rd8 33.Qd1 fxe4 34.dxe4 Qd7 35.Rb1 h5 36.Rxd8+ Qxd8 37.b8Q Qxb8 38.Rxb8+ Kh7 (Gavriel, 31.03.2022)

Also if we use Black's best potential resource instead Rb5 to try and get behind the passed pawn then Qd1 seems very strong:

134: Magnus Carlsen - Hikaru Nakamura 1-0 4.18, Chess.com Speed Chess Championship 2017


click for larger view

Analysis by Stockfish 14.1 3 cores only:

1. +- (2.25): 30...Rf8 31.Ra8 Rxb7 32.Rxf8+ Kxf8 33.Rxb7 Ne7 34.Qa4 Kf7 35.h3 Bf8 36.Qa3 h5 37.Qa8 Qxd3 38.Nxf6 Qd1+ 39.Kg2 Qd6 40.Ne4 Qd5 41.Qa4 Ke6 42.f3

Magnus has strong intuition for passed pawn potential - I think stronger than most other GMs at bullet chess for sure.

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