The Magnus Show

Hikaru Nakamura – Magnus Carlsen

Unofficial World Fischerandom Chess Championship match game 7 (45+15); Høvikodden, February 12, 2018

rnknqbbr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNKNQBBR w KQkq - 0 1

Position #558

1. f4. After 1. e4 e5 2. f3 f6 3. Nbc3 Bf7 4. Ne3 Ne6 5. Bc4 Bc5 6. Bxe6 Bxe6 7. Ned5 Bxg1 8. Qxg1 d6 9. d4? c6 Black’s got a splendid game, even though later he managed to lose it on time, Zsu. Polgár – Karpov, Clash of the Titans, Lindsborg 2004, match game 3. Another story is 1. d4 f5 (or 1. ... e5 2. dxe5 Qxe5 3. h3 Nbc6 4. Bh2 Qc5 5. e4 f5∞ Spike – Svidler, Livingston Duelle Mensch–Maschine, Mainz 2006, match game 2) 2. e4 fxe4 3. Qxe4 d5 4. Qe1 Nbc6 5. f4 Bf7 6. Nbc3 e6 7. g3 Bh5 8. Be3 Bd6 9. Bh3 Kb8 10. a3 a6 11. Nf2 Rf8 12. Nd3 h6 13. Rg1 g5 with a satisfactory game for Black, Shredder 10 – Radjabov, Livingston Duelle Mensch–Maschine, Mainz 2006, match game 2. 1. ... f6 2. e4 e5 3. fxe5 fxe5 4. Nbc3 Ne6 5. Nd5 c6 6. N5e3 d6 7. g3 Nd7 8. Bh3 0-0-0. “Rook-move-only” castling on the a-side. 9. d3 Kb8 10. Qf2. Black has at least to be careful with White’s Queen + Bishop mating battery on the gl-a7 diagonal. 10. ... Ndc5 11. Nc3 Nd4 12. Ne2 Nxe2+. Stockfish’s 12. ... d5! 13. exd5 Nxc2! 14. Kxc2 cxd5 might be even stronger. 13. Qxe2 d5 14. exd5 cxd5 15. Ng4 d4 16. Bg2? Probably Nakamura didn’t like 16. Qxe5+ Qxe5 17. Nxe5 Bd5 18. 0-0-0 Bxh1 19. Nf7 Be7 (which would have left Black with material advantage), but it was the best he could do. 16. ... Bd6 17. h3 Rc8 18. Bf2 h5 19. Nh2 e4. By now White is with his back to the wall. 20. 0-0. “Un très long petit roque”, writes Europe Échecs editor-in-chief Georges Bertola. 21. ... e3 21. Be1 Ne6 22. Nf3 g5! 23. c3 g4 24. Nxd4 Nxd4 25. cxd4 gxh3 26. Be4 h4 27. Qxe3 Bh7 28. Rf3 Qh5 29. Bf2 Rhf8 30. Rxf8 Rxf8 31. Bxh7 Qxh7 32. g4 h2+ 33. Kh1 Qg8 34. Bxh4 Qxg4 35. Bf2 Qg8 36. Bh4 Qd5+ 37. Qe4 Qf7 38. Qg2 Qf4 39. Bg5 Qxd4 40. Bh6 Re8 41. Rd1

41. ... Qxd3! Probably it’s not the most difficult Queen sacrifice in Magnus’s life, but it’s always sunrise! 42. Rf1 Ka8 43. Rc1 Bb8 44. Qd2 Qe4+ 45. Qg2 Qe1+ 46. Qf1 Qe6 0 : 1. “Weird opening play by Hikaru in the 7th game of [the match]. At the same time, Magnus has obviously got already accustomed to Fischerandom. Perhaps it’s not premature to state that he is clearly being #1 in chess irrespective of the initial setup or time control”, Grandmaster Andrey Alekseevich Deviatkin said.

Artwork © Willum Morsch‏ (@WillumTM)

Magnus Carlsen (right) vs. Hikaru Nakamura (left). Photo: Berit Roald/NTB Scanpix.