Foundation

Magnus Carlsen – Hikaru Nakamura

Unofficial World Fischerandom Chess Championship match game 1 (45+15); Høvikodden, February 9, 2018

nnqrbbkr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNQRBBKR w KQkq - 0 1

Position 42

The starting position for today’s first two games is 42. Both the a-Pawns are undefended, but it’s quite easy to castle on both sides: “King-move-only” castling on the a-side, and “Rook-move-only” castling on the h-side. Well, it could have gone worse. 1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nc2 Nb6 4. e3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. d4 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Nc6 8. Nxd5 Rxd5 9. Nf3 Qd8 10. Rxd5 Qxd5 11. a3 Bd6 12. Be2 0-0 13. 0-0. Harmony is totally restored in both positions. White can rely at most on a very slight edge. 13. ... Ne7 14. Bc3 Ba4 15. Qb1 Rc8 16. Rc1 Ng6 17. h3 b6 18. Bd3 Be7 19. Be4 Qd7

20. Ne5 Nxe5 21. Bxe5 Rxc1+ 22. Qxc1 Qd1+ 23. Qxd1 Bxd1 24. Bc6 Bb3 25. Kf1 Bf6 26. Bxf6 Bc4+ 27. Ke1 gxf6 28. Kd2 Kf8 29. Kc3 Bf1 30. f4 Ke7 31. Kd4 Kd6 32. Bf3 f5 33. e4 fxe4 34. Kxe4 f5+ 35. Kd4 h6 36. b4 Bb5 37. g4 Bf1 38. gxf5 exf5 39. h4 Bb5 40. Bd1 Bd7 41. Bb3 Bc8 42. Bc2 Be6 43. Bb1 Bc8 44. Bd3 Bd7 45. Kc4 Kc6 46. Bf1 Be6+ 47. Kd4 Kd6 48. Bg2 Bc8 49. Bd5 Bd7 50. Bb7 Be6 ½ : ½. “[...] game 1 is being more or less a warm-up, I suppose. In game 2, I expect Nakamura to go for something more complicated as White”, Grandmaster Andrey Alekseevich Deviatkin tweeted.

The moment when the players get to see the starting position of the first two games. Photo & caption: Chess in Tweets‏ (@ChessClassic).

“Shockingly normal, because very soon the position resembled a classic one. It only took five or six moves to normalise everything”, Magnus Carlsen told NTB afterwards. “But probably it depends upon the given starting position. More exciting games will be coming!”.

Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg making the first move in the first game of the unofficial World Fischerandom Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen (left) and Hikaru Nakamura (right). Photo: Thomas Rud/Budstikka.