Hikaru Nakamura games with Black

Prep against 1 d4 and 1 d4

 

Hikaru wins critical Ruy Lopez game on day 7 to level the score : details inside

Hikaru went for a sharp version of the anti-berlin 4d3. 

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. h3 Nd7 8. Nc4 a5 9. g4 Re8 10. Rg1! a411. Ne3 Bxe3 12. Bxe3 Nf8 13. h4 Qd6 14. Qd2 c5 15. h5 b5 16. Nh4 Qc6 17. Nf5!

www.chess24.com for full coverage 

 

Colle-Zukertort ideas

Colle Zukertort is the system where white decides to fianchetto his dark square bishop b3,Bb2, plays e3,d4 as well as Bd3,Nbd2 and Nf3. Here is what white starts the game with

 

and in a real life game, here's the position for white where f2-f4 is also played.

Remember to play actively with White, setting the board on fire. Use the a1-h8 and b1-h7 diagonals with your bishops. Bring your knights to the kingside.

Like this :

Now lets see full games with this system with the white pieces.

here's another one

and one more example without Qc2/f5 inserted

and a final one with early Rc1 and c4-c5

Berlin Defense rapid games between Nakamura(white) and Carlsen(black) annotated

In this entry, I will analyze Nakamura versus Carlsen game the Ruy Lopez ( Spanish) Berlin Defense with White getting a better opposite bishop ending

  www.chess24.com for full coverage 

 
Great example where White built pressure

Colle Zukertort Yusupov Style Part II: theory against g6,Bg7

and simply your task is to put fire on the board. play the attack from the very beginning don't hold back.

Again, we are exploring the key ideas of this system for White in this second post. Here we will review what to do when Black plays a King's Indian or Fianchetto g6,Bg7. Once again, Nakamura plays this line quite often in blitz and rapid games.

1. Nf3 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. e3 g6 4. b3 Bg7 5. Bb2 O-O 6. Be2  brings the following position

Position After 6Be2

Here White plays more a positional pressure type of game, no direct attack against Black's king.
Notice that the Bishop in c8 has no good squares so typically Black opts for a double fianchetto.
Let's follow a recent game from Hikaru.

Nakamura-Caruana - Magnus Invitational 2020 Game 4.

6... Nbd7 7. O-O b6 8. c4 Bb7 9. Qc2 

Position after 9Qc2

White controls the center and now Caruana tries to prepare e6-e5 by playing e7-e6 and Qe7. but White has an easier play with more space by developing Nb1 to c3 and bringing the rooks in files c and d.

9..e6 10. Nc3 Qe7 11. e4 e5 12. dxe5 dxe5 13.Nd5

Position after 13 Nd5.
Here Black had to take on d5 and White recaptures with c-pawn. Hikaru only needed to draw this game 4 as he was in the lead and his play was influenced by the fact.

The full game is available here with my notes and analysis.


Now for other key ideas you should look at 6..c5 as a major alternative for Black.
And also in the game above , Black can try to get e7-e5 faster without going for the b6,Bb7 second fianchetto. This is a little more active for Black and here how you should meet this plan

7... Re8 8. c4 e5 9.dxe5 Ng4 10. Qc2

Position after 10.Qc2.
Again White puts his queen on c2, defending Bb2 and there's always e3-e4 should Black try Bf5. This allows for rooks to come into play while Black has to figure out where to put her queen.

 10..Ngxe5 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. Nc3 += followed by rook activation.

These lines give a positional plus but for a player going for the King's Indian as Black, this may require patience and careful play to equalize. The ideas are fairly straighforward for White which I think it is the easier side to play.


I will put here the main game Nakamura-Caruana until the 26th move if you don't have a chessboard to replay game.