WHILE EVERYBODY DRAWS, NAKA WINS IN ROUNDS 3 AND 4
It seems that players have slowed down a bit after a furious start to the tournament. Because in London Chess Classic – Round 3 and 4 there was “only” one decisive game per round. And both time the hero of the round was Hikaru Nakamura, since he managed to take Anand and Topalov respectively in nice tactical skirmishes.
Since this day time job of my is taking its toll, unfortunatelly I am running somewhat short on time. Therefore I decided to make this post into some sort of “HIGHLIGHTS POST” for rounds 3 and 4 combined.
Which basically means I am shortening my work here under a very convenient excuse. Because although all the other games apart from the Naka games ended in a draw, that doesn’t mean that they were boring.
As the greatest French Expert ever would say here “AU REVOIR, MY FRIEND, AU REVOIR”. There were some games which were typical grandmaster draws ( for instance Caruana – Aronian game from the 4th round), but make sure not to miss both games of Wesley So for instance.
Because yesterday I was quite surprised when So managed to save the draw against Aronian. Whereas today I was quite amazed he managed not to win his game against Giri.
Anyway, the analysis of the games Nakamura – Anand and Topalov – Nakamura follows below. It is interesting that in both games Nakamura’s opponents self destructed to an extent. And his victories are more a result of the opponent going bad in a good position, than Naka outplaying them convincingly.
But then again, the only things that matters is result I guess.
Hint: Click on any move (main line or side line) and the pop -up board will appear.