Leaders Draw, Carlsen Retains Lead in St. Louis
On a day when any number of outcomes were possible, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Magnus Carlsen drew without too many fireworks to remain in the same tournament positions. With one round to go in the first Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Nakamura is now on 3/5 and trails only Carlsen, who is on 3.5/5.
Had Nakamura won today, he would have switched places with Carlsen. Had Carlsen won, he would have clinched the title even before tomorrow's last round. As it turned out, their 32-move draw from the Berlin Defense was the shortest game of the tournament. All other games have at least reached the time control on move 40.
According to Nakamura, the game hinged on Black's plan to attack down the f-file. "Magnus thought he was playing for a win with this ...f4 business," Nakamura said, while demonstrating some of his intentions to invade down the e-file. "I don't think he was aware there are drawbacks."
Nakamura played the novelty 16. g3, giving his unchallenged bishop life but also creating a kingside target.
Later, he contemplated playing on both flanks, perhaps before pushing h4. "I considered doing something on the queenside first, but it looks so superficial. I don't think it does anything."
The overriding theme was to trade the heavy pieces and attempt to grind out a two bishops versus bishop and knight endgame.
After 28...Kg2, Nakamura envisioned the Black queen going to d8, which gives the knight access to f6. From there, the American GM considered maneuvering his bishop to g6 via h5. "I was starting to think I was better at this point," he said. "I didn't see ...Qg6. It is just a good move and it forces a repetition. A draw is a logical result."
"I'm usually not too unhappy with the draw as Black against such strong players," Carlsen said. "I was hoping that he would overpress and he would play for a loss, but obviously he is much too good of a player for that."
On the choice of opening, Nakamura said he did not want to repeat the type of imbalanced position he had yesterday. "I didn't even prepare for the game," he said. "I didn't want to play anything crazy."
After the game, Nakamura answered questions from fans and analyzed the critical moments with GM Ben Finegold and GM Ronen Har-Zvi at the adjacent sports bar that the host club rented out for the weekend. The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis anticipated big crowds this weekend, and that is exactly what they got.
Nakamura explained to commentator Finegold that 25. Kh1 was better than a proactive move like 25. Qe7. There would follow 25...Ne5! 26. Qxc7 fxg3 27. fxg3 Qf2+ 28. Kh1 Nf3 and Black is crushing.
Prior to the round, fans were standing about 10 deep trying to snap a photo of players.
After the round, Carlsen was mobbed by the press, autograph seekers and a documentary film crew. He stopped to talk and to sign the chess paraphernalia; it took him more than 20 minutes to get to the door.
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
