Nakamura Beats Adams, Moves To 3rd Place In London

GM Hikaru Nakamura climbed two places in the leaderboard thanks to a win against English number one GM Michael Adams in the penultimate round of the London Chess Classic.

The games Anand-Giri and Kramnik-Caruana ended in draws. Like round four, the final round on Sunday will be played at 2 p.m. GMT, in which leaders Giri and Kramnik will meet at the board.

Photo © John Saunders.

The old quip “I have never beaten a healthy opponent” has been attributed to several old masters (Edward Winter makes a strong case for either Bird or Burn), but whoever said it first — it still rings true, doesn't it? Every time you beat someone, they have a reason for it, and it's never... that you might actually be a better player!

At the same time, top GMs rarely complain about health issues. They consider it part of the game, part of life, and you have to deal with it.

Round four of the London Chess Classic has just started. | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.

During his round three press conference, Mickey Adams spoke with a very different voice, and during round four he grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket several times. The English GM is suffering from an annoying cold, and that can't be good for his chess.

Hikaru Nakamura, however, makes an excellent impression. He feels at home in London and is playing entertaining chess.

“It's important that the game is enjoyable,” he paraphrased one of Nigel Short's recent tweets, while sitting next to the English GM at the press conference.

On Saturday the American number one played an excellent game and gave his sniffling opponent not much of a chance. Toying with the move order in a Queen's Gambit, he provoked Adams to go for a dubious pawn push in the center, and ended up with an extra pawn. The rook ending seemed drawish, but is in fact quite hard to defend for Black. 

Here's the game, with instructive annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov:

Kramnik and Caruana played a Grünfeld and quickly reached a typical Grünfeld ending — although with three minor pieces and two rooks each, that should probably be considered a queenless middlegame.

During the game Kramnik thought he was better, but he couldn't find a good way to prove it: “I thought I should be better because I have stabilized, but it's not easy.”

Caruana found the important maneuver Bf5-e4-d5, and all the tactics that involved sacrificing the a2 pawn were in Black's favor, so Kramnik went for a forcing line that led to a position with rooks and opposite-colored bishops. Having arrived there, he noticed that only Black could be better and so he decided to trade the rooks as well, and shake hands.

Anand and Giri also drew their game, a Queen's Gambit Accepted according to the Chessbase program, but perhaps this line is more like a Vienna? In any case, the position after the opening seemed promising for White.

“We liked your play — up till a certain point!” said Nigel Short to Anand at the press conference.

"Me too!" said the five-time world champion.

Anand had to make an important choice on move 21, and based on a miscalculation, he chose the wrong plan. After that he was the one who had to equalize, which he did with accurate play.

2014 London Chess Classic | Round 4 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	1	2	3	4	5	6	Score	Perf
1	Kramnik, Vladimir	2769			3	1	1	1	6	2874
2	Giri, Anish	2768			1	1	3	1	6	2874
3	Nakamura, Hikaru	2775	0	1		1	3		5	2769
4	Anand, Viswanathan	2793	1	1	1			1	4	2786
5	Adams, Michael	2745	1	0	0			3	4	2697
6	Caruana, Fabiano	2829	1	1		1	0		3	2681