Game Of The Day

This "Game Of The DAy" was played between Hikaru Nakamura Vs Alexander Grischuk where Hikaru managed to avoid threading some risky manouvre against a tactical sacrifice made by Alexander.

I post this game here for our learning experience so that we could learn something from this game. Also, it is quite interesting to note that there are difference of opinion commented by chess enthusiasts.

Hikaru Nakamura vs Alexander Grischuk
"Nak on Wood" (game of the day Jan-23-11)
Tata Steel 2011  -  Queen's Gambit Declined: Ragozin Defense (D38)  ·  1-0

Comments Given By Chess Enthusiasts:

Jan-15-11 BobCrisp: Maybe 18...Bxg4 wasn't objectively that much worse than trying to tough it out, but it seems symptomatc of a certain laxity in 's approach to chess.

Jan-15-11 OneArmedScissor: anymore live games?

Jan-15-11 chancho: Looks like Naka is getting mighty comfortable playing in these high level events.

Jan-15-11 Open Defence: well played by Nakamura

Jan-15-11 KKDEREK: Great, Naka!

Jan-15-11 Open Defence: im curious to see if the commentators thought the line with Bxg4 was the best, cant imagine it was, opened up too many lines for Whites heavy pieces (Queen and Rooks) and even if it was objectively ok, you would have to calculate really well to play it and Grischuk's follow up moves seem to show he had not....

Jan-15-11 Marmot PFL: Ponomariov also blunder in time trouble and old Anand will trap his queen

Jan-15-11 kingscrusher: I guess Kxc3 and Nxc4 - and the knight is well prepared to stop black's f pawn. The White king can herd the a-pawn.

Jan-15-11 chessgames.com: Thanks to everybody for stopping by today and participating in the first round broadcast of the Tata Steel tournament. We hope you come back at 7:30am (USA/Eastern) tomorrow for the next round.

Jan-15-11 Open Defence: refill my drink and i see White is winning...

Jan-15-11 ketchuplover: How does he stop the f pawn?

Jan-15-11 kingscrusher: Wow! Congrats - very gutsy play by Naka! Fantastic for chess!

Jan-15-11 Marmot PFL: Nakamura need this win, as he has not beaten any top players recently other than Kramnik

Jan-15-11 SamAtoms1980: Naka ippon, baby.

Jan-15-11 jmactas: This is easy now that black's pawn structure is a wreck, white can queen the a pawn.

Jan-15-11 Marmot PFL: Trading queens was just awful.

Jan-15-11 Open Defence: engines might give White a big plus here...

Jan-15-11 An Englishman: Good Evening: I resign; I have no idea what's going on here.

Jan-15-11 madlydeeply: There are always checkmate threats with Q+N Naka is going to wear him out

Jan-15-11 kingscrusher: White has 32. Qe4 here - centralising the Queen quite powerfully.

Jan-15-11 Marmot PFL: White gets the rooks off but also loses pc3. with just rook pawns left i seriously doubt he can win.

Jan-15-11 madlydeeply: Ha rook sac i love it Naka is such a brawler!

Jan-15-11 SamAtoms1980: And here comes the show of NINJUTSU

Jan-15-11 kingscrusher: Wow Wow Wow! Nf5+ trick!! Nice one! Missed that completely!

Jan-15-11 waustad: tactical blitz we'll never keep up

Jan-23-11 Check It Out: Okay, so it's a Ragozin/Nimzo-Indian hybrid. And 18...Bxg4 was not best. That knight on d4 looked very strong. And, 27.Qf3 maybe wasn't so great; I still liked it. 33.Qb8 was a stronger move than 33.Qh2, which hurt black. After the queen exchange, it's game over. Nakamura plays some fun stuff!

Jan-23-11 Check It Out: This game started as a Nimzo-Indian but morphed into a Ragozin. Which move determined the name? The opening is probably all book - I haven't read any comments yet - but Nakamura's kingside attack sure developed quickly after the tempo earning 15.f3 followed by the g- and h-pawn pushes. Black's 18...Bxg4 piece sac for two pawns plus a knight check tempo seems warranted. I don't know if there was a better computer checked move in that position.

The move that really stood out to me, however, was 27.Qf3; now, I know that 28.Rxg7 has more bling, but it seems to me Nakamura had to see all the way to move 32 or even 33 and determine that he wouldn't run in to any funky queen-check tactics. I say that because 27.Qf3 ignores the volatile queenside situation created by 26...b4.

Now that I've made my observations, off to read the commentary, where I'm sure all the answers lie!

Jan-19-11 katar: 16.g4 is prophylaxis against ...Nh5. Suppose 16.0-0 Nh5 and Black exchanges half of White's devastating bishop pair and Black survived the worst. Also, 16.g4 is in accord with the classical maxim that White's preponderance and control in the center justifies a flank move g4. Very much in the style of Botvinnik, IMO. Grischuk sacked a piece for 2 pawns to avoid getting slowly crushed under a direct attack on the kingside. 21...Ne5+ is an accurate move, forcing White to exchange the other bishop else a black knight settles in on d3. BTW I listened to Svidler's live commentary and he thought very highly of 16.g4.

Jan-17-11 Atking: Or may be to confuse the issue before White's play become more and more obvious.

Jan-16-11 sofouuk: <16 g4? looks like an attack with an aim which is out of proportion to this slight advantage. The attack is unsound, then>

such devastating logic

Jan-16-11 Eyal:

It’s not "random", though almost certainly not objectively best – he should probably have tried to set up a blockade by 18…h5 19.g5 Nd7, to meet g6 by ...f6. At this stage Black is in an uncomfortable position, seriously cramped for space, and it’s not easy for him to come up with a constructive plan, while the advancing pawn mass on the K-side looks menacing. The sac tries to directly refute White’s play on the K-side and show it was too weakening, but doesn’t manage to do it (though Black’s game can be improved at several later points) – as several commentators (like Ivan Sokolov, Shipov, Yermolinsky on ICC) have noted, it looks like White’s aggressive setup - 15.g4! 16.Kf2! - is also very sound positionally.

Jan-16-11 Ulhumbrus: After 15...Nf6 White may have a slight advantage overall because of the bishop pair, but 16 g4? looks like an attack with an aim which is out of proportion to this slight advantage. The attack is unsound, then. Suppose that Black follows Lasker's recommendation ( in his book "Common sense in chess") to disregard it entirely, to bring up his reserves and to do the slightest necessary to answer White's threats. One possible sequence is 16...Bd7 17 Kf2 Rac8 18 h4 Ba4 19 Qb1 Qa3 20 g5 Nh5 21 gxh6 Nxf4 22 gxf4 Rxc3 21 hxg7 Rfc8. I suspect that Nakamura was lucky to win this game instead of losing it, and that Grischuk did not find the right way to disregard the attack and develop his pieces.

Jan-16-11 Penguincw: This has to best game for Round 1 in this tournament.

Jan-16-11 hedgeh0g: Can anyone explain the random sacrifice on move 18?

Jan-16-11 Eyal: Btw, one might think at first glance that the idea of 28.Rxg7+! is to follow up with 29.Nf5+ & 30.Nxe3 - but in fact, that would allow Black to draw with 29...Qxf5! 30.Qxf5 Re2+ and White has either to allow perpetual or to give up the queen: 31.Kf3 R8e3+ 32.Kf4 (32.Kg4 Re4+ 33.Kh5 Re5) 32...Rf2+.

Jan-15-11 Eyal: Yeah, 21...Qh5 22.Qf5! Ne5++ 23.Kg2/g3 is in White's favor - Black is forced into a queen exchange, which reduces his attacking chances.

Jan-15-11 SatelliteDan: I guess white K just walks away.

Jan-15-11 SatelliteDan: Then 22..Ne5++

Jan-15-11 plang: There is a 4 Nf3 line in the Nimzo - the Ragozin is a "hybrid" line which is considered as part of the Queens Gambit though, as this game shows, there is overlap with the Nimzo-Indian.

Jan-15-11 Eyal: 22.Qf5.

The Ragozin is a QGD/Nimzo-Indian hybrid; I think it needs all the first 4 moves of this game (in whatever order) to count as such. For example, 4...c5 instead of d5 would lead to the "Three Knights" variation of the Nimzo-Indian.

Jan-15-11 SatelliteDan: How does white answer 21..Qh5?

Jan-15-11 refutor: i think the Nf3 makes the difference

Jan-15-11 swr: How do you distinguish between QGD Ragozin and the Nimzo-Indian?

Jan-15-11 Ezzy: Nakamura turned the screw today, after letting Grischuk 'off the hook' at the Tal Memorial.

Grischuk is much better than this. What's going on!

Jan-15-11 Eyal:

Indeed - there was nothing "wild-west" about Nakamura's play in this game. His play in the opening was aggressive but very sound positionally, and then he defended accurately against Grischuk's attack (or attempts at attack - he never really managed to get anything serious going) following the piece sac.

Jan-15-11 Jim Bartle: But wasn't it Grischuk who sacrificed the piece?

Jan-15-11   cionics: It seems Nakamura started this tournament with guns ablazin'! I wonder if this wild-west style of play is going to hold up against Carlsen, Anand and Kramnik?

Jan-15-11 SetNoEscapeOn: He's here to stay.

Jan-15-11 Penguincw: Nice try Grischuk. You get white against Maxime Vachier- Lagrave tomorrow.

Jan-15-11 plang: 's approach to chess.>

This seems a little extreme. This is Grischuk's first loss in awhile.

He may have thought that White's attack with g5 was very dangerous and that ..Bxg4 offerred the best practical chance.

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