Hikaru Nakamura games against Maxime Vachier Lagrave : Speed Chess Championship 2020

 

official site : http://www.chess.com

Live Speed Chess Final Hikaru Nakamura versus Maxime Vachier Lagrave

chess.com official site

Nakamura second win in the Najdorf : Rapid Skilling Open chess24

 the players

the site www.chess24.com

the game with annotated ( Nakamura win against Sicilian Najdorf)

Nakamura wins against MVL's Najdorf Day 2 Game 1

the players  on www.chess24.com

enjoying coffee most probably

and the game

MVL beats Nakamura Day 1

the players 

 the game

Champions tour #chess24 live games here

official site:

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live games replay with Carlsen,Nakamura,Firoujza,Giri,etc

London System with 2 Bf4 : tips and traps for White

 Carlsen,Nakamura,Naroditsky all play the London System, either with White or with Black.

Here we cover

1d4 Nf6 2 Bf4 e6 3 e3 b6

1d4 d5 2 Bf4 e6 3 e3 Nf6

1d4 Nf6 2 Bf4 g6 3Nc3!? d5

Hikaru Nakamura against Alireza Firouzja

 Hikaru won the Speed Chess Championship today on chess.com

He just signed with TSM https://tsm.gg/ 

White to play (Hikaru is White, Alireza Firouzja is Black)

Replay here

He just signed with TSM https://tsm.gg/  

Berlin Wall destroyed: Hikaru Nakamura wins in 22 moves against Magnus Carlsen day 3 chess24.com finals

 Berlin Wall is the position after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 in the www.chess24.com finals.

Hikaru chose anti-berlin 4 d3 on which Carlsen plays the most popular and active 4..Bc5 

6. Nbd2 O-O (6..Bg4 was played by Carlsen before)  7. Qe2

White hasn't decided where his king will castle

7..Re8 8. Nc4 Nd7 9. Bd2 b5 10. Ne3 Nf8 11. h4 Ne6? (11..a5 was safer) 

White to play , what did Magnus miss with Black ? I am sure he intended 12..Nd4 but white has 13Nf7! Ne2 14Nd8 with  2 pawns up

12. Nxe5 a5? 13. Qh5! g6 14. Qf3 f6 15. Nxc6! Qd7 16. Qxf6 Qxc6 17. Bc3 

Position after 17 Bc3!

White threatens 18 Qh8+ and h7, and has already 3 pawns for the piece. White can continue the attack with h4-h5 as well as 0-0-0 followed by d3-d4

17...Rf8 18. Qh8+ Kf7 19. Qxh7+ Ke8 20. Qxg6+ Kd7 21. d4 b4 22. dxc5 1-0

very convincing win by Hikaru today in the berlin 

Hikaru Nakamura wins against Danil Dubov on Magnus Final Tour tournament

 Hikaru Nakamura played a quite instructive game against Daniil Dubov and scored a key win in his match.

This is a rapid game played online in the chess24.com chess24 Magnus Finals tournament, in August 2020.

The Sveshnikov Variation has become very popular in master level chess

Hikaru is White, and Dubov is Black.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7

Nakamura continued with 10Bf6

They reached the following position after Black played 19..Qe8 to prevent b4-b5

White has a passed pawn on the b column and played 20 Be2. Dubov started counterplay with f7-f5 which is standard in this sicilian opening.

Eventually, they reached the following with white to play 

Hikaru played 31 Ne3! the best move of the game. It deprives black from the bishop pair and targets the d6 pawn. Also the knight will jump to c4-a5-c6 which will be hard to defend against, as the dark square bishop is weaker than White's knight

and here is the final key moment, White to Play

Here Hikaru played 38 Rdc1! with the idea Nc6. Black tried 38..Bf4. Hikaru continued 39 Qc8+ Rd8 40 Qxd8 queen sacrifice with advantage but either 39 Qc7 or 39Nc6 was winning on the spot .

Here's the full replay

and the game notation (PGN)

[Event "Carlsen Tour Final 2020"]

[Site "chess24.com INT"]

[Date "2020.08.10"]

[Round "1.23"]

[White "Nakamura, Hikaru"]

[Black "Dubov, Daniil"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "B33"]

[WhiteElo "2736"]

[BlackElo "2699"]

 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4

cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6

Bxf6 11. c3 Rb8 12. Nc2 Bg5 13. a4 bxa4 14. Ncb4 Nxb4 15. cxb4 Bd7 16. Bxa6 O-O

17. b3 axb3 18. Qxb3 Kh8 19. O-O Qe8 20. Be2 f5 21. exf5 Bxf5 22. b5 Be6 23.

Ra6 Qf7 24. Bc4 Rfd8 25. Rd1 e4 26. b6 Rf8 27. Ra2 Bd8 28. Rb2 Qh5 29. Qc2 Bf5

30. Qd2 Be6 31. Ne3 Bxc4 32. Nxc4 Bf6 33. Rbb1 Rfd8 34. b7 d5 35. Na5 Be5 36.

g3 Qg6 37. Qc2 Rd6 38. Rdc1 Bf4 39. Qc8+ Rd8 40. Qxd8+ Rxd8 41. Rc8 Qe8 42.

Rxd8 Qxd8 43. gxf4 1-0

Nakamura-Dubov Chessable chess24.com GroupA analysis

Round 10 : Hikaru wins against Dubov and qualifies on June 22, 2020.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 O-O 8. Bb3 Re8 9. f4 d6 10. Qf3 Bd7 11. O-O Ng4 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. Bd2 d5 14. f5 Ne5 15. Qf2 e6 16. f6 Ng4 17. Qf3 Qxf6 18. Qxg4 Qd4+ 19. Rf2 f5 20. Qf3 fxe4 21. Qf7+ Kh8 22. Qxd7 Rad8 23. Qxc6 Rf8 24. Be1 Qe3 25. Qxe6 Bd4 26. Nxd5 Qe2 27. Qe5+ 1-0

Great Attacking skills by Hikaru who deviated from previous games with 9.f2-f4!?

Dubov-Nakamura Round 10: Chessable Group A

also available

Previous Game on this opening: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/lindores-abbey-rapid-challenge-2020-final-8/3/3/4

Novelty prepared by GM Riazantsev, " Game 4 was actually a very important moment, and first of all I want to praise my friend and coach Sasha Riazantsev, who managed, while I was losing like an idiot with White, to come up with this completely new idea of c5, so it was just prepared by him between the games and I think he did a brilliant job"

chess24.com Dubov Interview Lindores Abbey with links to sicilian dragon opening

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