Braveheart

Hikaru Nakamura – Magnus Carlsen

Unofficial World Fischerandom Chess Championship match game 6 (45+15); Høvikodden, February 11, 2018

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Position 22

1. e4 e5 2. Nb3 c5 3. Ne3 Nc6 4. h4 h5 5. g3 b5 6. d3 d6 7. Bg2 Be6 8. f4!? Nakamura tries to strike while the iron is hot, and launches an all-out assault which soon turns the Fischerandom algorithm into a shuffle game in which nobody will ever castle. 8. ... exf4 9. gxf4 Nb6 10. c3 c4 11. Nd4 Nxd4 12. cxd4 Be7 13. d5!? Very aggressively, Nakamura leaves to its doom the h4-Pawn to get in return quite an impressive Pawn mass in the centre 13. ... Bd7 14. d4! Qd8! 15. Bd2!? Perhaps White should have gone in for the immediate 15. e5(!) and if, as in the game, 15. ... Bxh4 16. Rf1 Bg3 then 17. e6(!) might have led to wild complications. 15. ... Bxh4 16. Rf1 Bg3 17. e5 h4 18. Rf3!? 18. Nf5 Bxf5 19. Qxf5 Qc8 would have avoided most of the ensuing complications, but it would have obviously made White’s claim for compensation very hard to prove. 18. ... Bc8! “Magnus is trying to employ Nimzowitsch’s legacy of restraining a central Pawn mass, taking into account one of the Pawn pairs is doubled. ‘Chess Praxis’ will certainly be useful for studying Fischerandom too!”, Grandmaster Andrey Alekseevich Deviatkin tweeted.

19. Nf1? What a tremendous mistake! White’s situation was probably not so desperate as his heart rate monitor might indicate, had he played 19. Qe4!? or 19. Qd1! (threatening 20. Rxg3 hxg3 21. Rxh8+ Kxh8 22. Qh5+ Kg8 23. Be4 with an irresistible attack) 19. ... g6! 20. Bb4! still with quite an unclear game. 19. ... Bg4 20. Ra3 b4 21. Rxa7 Qb8. Thus the White Rook’s adventure ended in a cul-de-sac. 22. Ra6. Not for pleasure but for sorrow, as the other way out 22. Rxf7 Kxf7 23. e6+ Bxe6 24. dxe6+ Rxe6 is, as they say, “materially ungrounded”. 22. ... Qb7 23. Nxg3. Or 23. Ra5 c3! 24. bxc3 Nc4 and White can call for another game. 23. ... Qxa6 24. Ne4 c3 25. bxc3 Nc4 26. Bf1 Nxd2 27. Nxd2 Qc8 28. Rh2. And finally the Rook enters into the game! 28. ... bxc3 29. Nc4 Bf3. With the terrific threat of ... Qc8-g4+. 30. Ne3 dxe5 31. fxe5 Qd8 32. Qf5 Bxd5 33. Qf4 Be6 34. Bh3 Rh6! 35. Bxe6 fxe6 36. Ng4 Rg6 37. Rg2 Rf8 38. Qe4 Rf5 39. Nf6+ Rfxf6 0 : 1. What a game! Carlsen striked back with all the pride of a World Chess Champion!

Artwork © Willum Morsch‏ (@WillumTM)

“I was in fighting mood”, a radiant Magnus Carlsen told NRK after the sixth game. Photo: NTB Scanpix.