Nakamura- Carlsen Game 2 Final Magnus Carlsen Invitational

After losing the first game, Hikaru wins the second game in a positional game where he put pressure on Carlsen right from the beginning. I would say that Hikaru with White played in a Carlsen style.

[White "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[ECO "D37"]


1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 O-O 6. e3 Nbd7 7. c5

Clearly Hikaru is trying to put pressure on the queenside with 7.c5!? in the Queen's Gambit opening. Magnus replied with 7..Nh5 to capture the dark square bishop. All of this is theory and Hikaru revealed he drew Grischuk years ago with Black in a long game.

Key moment #2

Here Magnus has played 26..Nb8. What is the right plan for white ?

Hikaru understood this position, and remembered how Grischuk played against him as the pawn structure was the same.

Hikaru played 27 Nc1! which is to me the key move in the entire game. The knight on e2 is not doing much and  Black is passive without any counterplay : White is repositioning his knight on d3 on which he can go to b4 to attack the c6 pawn or go to e5 being supported by the other knight. This is typically what Magnus does against his opponents but here he is on the defending end.

Key moment #3

This is the last key moment of the game. Magnus played 35..Qf5 proposing to play the knight ending. 

Hikaru goes for it and played 36 Qf5. How should black recapture ? in the game Magnus played 36..ef5?? which  loses after 37 Kf3 as pawn endings with knights exchanged are lost for him. Magnus was hopeing 37..f6 would help but white simply takes and repositions his knight via Nf3-e5 with all pawn and king endings winning for White.

The key was to play 36..gf5! followed by 37..Ng6 attacking h4. Black should be able to hold.

GM Hikaru Nakamura

full replay with annotations here  chessbase replay link with pgn file