Strangelove

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu – Hikaru Nakamura
8th Chess World Cup; match game 1; Khanty-Mansiysk, September 13, 2019
Catalan Opening E06

The elimination of Hikaru Nakamura from the Chess World Cup 2019 is one of the big surprises of Round Two, as it matured in the first game already, when he was upset by Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu’s flashy (but far from winning) Queen sacrifice, which may vaguely resemble “Pawn e5 takes f6” by Andor Arnoldovich Lilienthal. 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. c4 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. g3 0-0 6. Bg2 dxc4 7. Ne5 Qd6 8. 0-0 Qa6 9. a4 Nc6. If 9. ... Rd8 there may follow 10. Nb5 Ne8 11. Qc2 Nc6 12. Qxc4 Nxd4 13. Be3 Nf5 14. Bc5 Bxc5 15. Qxc5 Qb6 16. Qxb6 axb6 17. Rfd1⩲ G. Meier – Nisipeanu, 46th Sparkassen Chess Meeting, Dortmund 2018. 10. Nb5 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Rd8 12. exf6!? If nothing else, Nisipeanu’s computer–prepared novelty — objectively more ambitious than 12. Qc2 Nd5 13. Qxc4 c6 14. Nd6 Qxc4 15. Nxc4 b6 16. Bd2 Ba6 17. Rfc1 ½ : ½ Efimenko – Kravtsiv, 84th Ukrainian Chess Championship, Lviv 2015 — will have a destabilising effect on Nakamura’s judgement. 12. ... Rxd1 13. Rxd1 Bd6 14. Bf4

14. ... e5? The losing move. 14. ... Qa5! 15. Bd2 (15. Nxd6 cxd6 16. Bxd6 Bd7!? 17. Bxb7 Re8 18. Be7 Qc7∞) 15. ... Qb6 may well lead to a draw by repetition of moves. 15. Nxd6! cxd6. The pointe is 15. ... exf4 16. Ne8! with the double threat of Rd1-d8 and Ne8xc7. 16. Bxe5 Qa5 17. Rxd6+− Bg4 18. Bc3 Qc7 19. Rad1 g6 20. Bxb7 Rf8 21. Bf3 Bxf3 22. exf3 h5 23. Kg2 Re8 24. h4 Qc8 25. a5 a6 26. Rd7 Qa8 27. R1d6 Rc8 28. Bd4 c3 29. bxc3 Re8 30. Bb6 1 : 0.