Tuesday, August 25, 2020

My blitz game against Hikaru Nakamura Aug 2020- Scandinavian

 got the privilege to play in a Hikaru arena and got faced with GM Hikaru Nakamura himself in a blitz 3 minutes for each player.

needless to say, I lost but this is quite an instructive loss I think.

[White "thechesscorner64"][Black "Hikaru"][WhiteElo "2402"][BlackElo "3218"]

[Result "0-1"][ECO "B01"][Date "2020.08.22"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d4 c5

here Hikaru surprised me with 4..c5. The best answer is 5 Nc3 to develop a piece followed by Bf4. I played 5c4 and 6 d5 which is ok.

 5. c4 Qd8 6. d5 g6 7. Nc3 Bg4 8. Be2 Bg7 9. h3 Bxf3 10. Bxf3 Nbd7 11. O-O O-O 12. Bf4

we reached the following position with Black to play.


Here Nakamura uncorked 12..Ne8!An excellent idea ! Black plans to relocate knight from e8 to d6. from there, Black will play Ra8-b8 and a6-b5 creating pressure on my queenside pawn. This move opens the diagonal h8-a1 for the bishop on g7. 

I suggest to replay the moves in the app below.




We reached the following position after 17..Nf6, White to play 

it was time to start white's counterplay on the kingside with f4-f5, starting with 18 f4! instead I played 18 Rfe1 and Black started to put further pressure

18..b5 19. cxb5 axb5 20. Rad1 b4 21. Na4 Black to play


Hikaru played 21..c4 and I cannot capture the pawn as I need to protect the knight on a4. I had to play 22Qf4! attacking b4 if he pushes the c pawn further. Instead I played 22 Re3 and 22.c3 give Black a large advantage which Black converted without trouble.

Here's the replay from 21 Na4



Final position after 31..c2!


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