U.S. GM Hikaru Nakamura, after a long absence from over-the-board competition, has stormed back to snare one of the last two coveted slots on offer in the upcoming Candidates Tournament, the eight-grandmaster chess round-robin that will produce the next challenger to world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
Nakamura and Hungarian GM Richard Rapport emerged with the best cumulative scores in the FIDE Grand Prix tournament series this year, with the third and final leg of the series still wrapping up in Berlin this week. Several other U.S. players, including GMs Sam Shankland, Levon Aronian and Wesley So were in the mix right up until the end.
With two slots still to be determined, at least one other American will be in the Candidates field — world No. 5 Fabiano Caruana, who lost a hard-fought match to Carlsen in 2018.
It’s a well-known rule of thumb in chess that crude, caveman attacks on the enemy king simply don’t work against strong opponents — except, of course, for when they do.
In a must-have game against Russian GM Andrey Esipenko in Berlin, Aronian simply lined up his pieces in a Queen’s Gambit Declined against the castled Black king, blasted open the h-file, and blew up his opponent’s defense in a brutally efficient 23 moves. Esipenko after the game admitted he was doubly handicapped going into the fight: He mistakenly thought he was supposed to play Nakamura when he arrived at the playing hall, and then he proceeded to walk right into a land mine-laden attacking line his opponent had deeply analyzed ahead of time.
After 11. Ng5 g6 12. h4, Black’s 12…c5 is the “principled” response, answering a flank attack with a counter in the center. But it also, according to Aronian, loses on the spot, with only the double-edged 12…Bg7 12. h5 Nxh5 13. Nxh7! Nf4 keeping the game alive.
After 13. h5 h6 (Bg7 14. hxg6 fxg6 15. Nxh7!? [also good is just 15. 0-0-0] Nxh7 16. Bxg6 Nf6 17. Bxe8, and White is better) 14. hxg6! hxg5 15. gxf7+ Kxf7 16. Bg6+ Ke7 17. Qf5!, Aronian has a ferocious attack, already threatening the winning 18. Rh7+! Nxh7 19. Qf7+ Kd6 20. Qxb7 Qd7 21. Qxd5+ Ke7 22. Qxa8.
It’s over after 18. e4 Nc6 (another fun line is 18…Rh8 19. Rxh8 Qxh8 20. Bxg5! Qh1+ 21. Ke2 Qxa1 22. Qe5+ Kd7 [Kd8 23. Qe8+! Kc7 24. Nb5 mate] 23. Bf5+ Kc6 [Kd8 24. Qd6+ and mate next] 24. exd5+ Nxd5 25. Qxd5+ Kc7 26. Bd8 mate) 19. Bxe8 Qxe8? (Kxe8, hoping to hold on, was Black’s last real chance to fight on) 20. Nxd5+! Nxd5 21. Bxg5+ Kd6 22. Qxd5+ Kc7 23. Rh7, and Esipenko resigned ahead of 23…Qf8 24. Bf4+! Qxf4 25. Rxg7+ Kb8 26. Qd7 Qxe4+ 27. Kf1 Ba6+ 28. Kg1 Ne7 29. Rxe7 with an easy win.
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One of the trickier material trade-offs in chess is the value of the queen compared to the rooks. GM Larry Kaufman, in his meticulous analysis of massive game databases, concludes that a pair of rooks can be worth a queen and a pawn — but only when at most one other minor piece is on the board for both sides.
One more game for the Kaufman database came in the recent online rapid “Solidarity Match” played between a group of top Israeli and Ukrainian players, organized in the shadow of Russia’s invasion. Israel narrowly won the two-round, 10-grandmaster team event by a 5½-4½ score, helped by Ukrainian-born Israeli GM Artur Kogan’s upset win of higher-rated Ukrainian GM Zahar Efimenko.
In a King’s Indian Attack, Efimenko as White obtains an early stranglehold on the g-file after both players castle kingside, but when he “wins” the black queen for the rook pair, things start to go sideways for White.
After 29. Qf1 Bd6, White could keep things at least equal with a queen-activating move such as 30. Qc1, but instead goes in for 30. Rg7?! Qxg7 31. Rxg7 Kxg7 32. Bg4 Rg5, when White can already get into trouble in lines like 33. Bxe6?! Re8 34. Bg4 f3+ 35. Kh1 Rxe2 36. Bxf3?? Nxf3 37. Qxe2 Rg1 mate.
Efimenko’s problem is that moves such as 34. e3?!, seeking more scope for his queen, also provides fresh lines of attack for Black’s rooks as well. Soon it is Kogan’s rooks that dominate the g-file, harrying the cornered White king and setting up the piquant finale.
Badly bottled up, White walks right into Black’s winning idea on 41. Kh2 Rg2+ 42. Kh1 Rxb2 (winning the pawn is nice, but it also turns out White will especially miss his b-pawn) 43. Qh4 (see diagram) Rb1+ 44. Kh2 Rbg1 45. Qf2 (a neat semi-zugzwang arises after 45. Qh5+ Kd8 46. h4 Bxf4+ 47. exf4 R8g2+ 48. Kh3 Rg7 49. Kh2 R1g4 50. Qh6 Ke7 — White can only make suicide pawn pushes such as c3-c4 or shuttle his king along the h-file — 51. Kh1 b5! axb5 a4, and if 53. Qa6 to catch the pawn, 53…Rxh4 is mate) Bxf4+ 46. exf4 R8g2+! (giving the two rooks back for the queen, but this time leading to a win) 47. Qxg2 Rxg2+ 48. Kxg2 b5!, and White resigns as he has no pawn on b2 to stop Black’s a-pawn from queening after 49. axb5 a4.
Aronian-Esipenko, FIDE Grand Prix Leg 3, Berlin, March 2022
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd2 b6 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. Qc2 Re8 10. a3 Bf8 11. Ng5 g6 12. h4 c5 13. h5 h6 14. hxg6 hxg5 15. gxf7+ Kxf7 16. Bg6+ Ke7 17. Qf5 Bg7 18. e4 Nc6 19. Bxe8 Qxe8 20. Nxd5+ Nxd5 21. Bxg5+ Kd6 22. Qxd5+ Kc7 23. Rh7 Black resigns.
Efimenko-Kogan, Israel-Ukraine Solidarity Match, March 2022
1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nc6 3. d4 Bf5 4. Bg2 Nb4 5. Na3 e6 6. Nh4 Bg4 7. h3 Bh5 8. O-O Be7 9. Nf3 Nf6 10. c3 Nc6 11. Nc2 O-O 12. Bf4 Ne4 13. Nce1 a5 14. a4 g5 15. Bd2 f5 16. Nd3 Bd6 17. Qc1 f4 18. gxf4 Nxd2 19. Qxd2 gxf4 20. Kh1 Kh8 21. Rg1 Bxf3 22. Bxf3 Qh4 23. Kh2 Ne7 24. Rg4 Qh6 25. Rag1 Nf5 26. Qe1 Nh4 27. Rg5 Be7 28. R5g4 Rf5 29. Qf1 Bd6 30. Rg7 Qxg7 31. Rxg7 Kxg7 32. Bg4 Rg5 33. Kh1 Kf6 34. e3 fxe3 35. fxe3+ Ke7 36. Qe1 Nf5 37. Bxf5 exf5 38. Qh4 Rag8 39. Nf4 Ke8 40. Qe1 Rg3 41. Kh2 Rg2+ 42. Kh1 Rxb2 43. Qh4 Rb1+ 44. Kh2 Rbg1 45. Qf2 Bxf4+ 46. exf4 R8g2+ 47. Qxg2 Rxg2+ 48. Kxg2 b5 White resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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