2012 U.S. Championships News

Blitz is a dangerous game. The balancing act of time pressure, putting aggression on your opponent and not blundering anything is extremely tricky. Hikaru Nakamura is considered by many to be the best blitz player in the World, and if not that, at least top three. However, Fabiano Caruana had something to say about this - and even though he was not the favorite going into the last day of the Showdown in Saint Louis, he proved that he can play with the best of the best.

Fabiano Caruana vs. Hikaru Nakamura

Caruana dealt the first blow in game one. After a beautiful deflection early in the game, Black emerged up a pawn and had excellent winning chances. Nakamura kept holding on, and in the chaos of the time scramble even managed to get some chances to hold on. However, he failed to see the path, and Caurana’s passed pawns were too much for him to handle.

It was clear that Caruana wasn’t satisfied with just one win. He came in strong in the second game as well, getting a decisive advantage but failing to see the killing shot. His king became very weak, and again in a game that was decided in the final seconds, Nakamura took a perpetual after missing a key win.

The third game was all about Black yet again. Caruana’s position was already superior from the opening, and in a very fine positional style, specially for a three minute game, he simply blew Nakamura off the board. The final winning tactic was nice.

Nakamura came back in game four. Caruana’s was overzealous in his pawn grab, and in what should have been a drawish knight endgame, he ended up trapping his own minor piece. Nakamura’s king came over to the queenside, collected the stranded knight, and won the game.

The fifth blitz game came with a bit of a controversy. In a superior position, Caruana tried to promote his pawn. He pushed it to the eighth rank, and went to grab a queen. Unfortunately, he accidentally hit the clock before replacing the pawn. Nakamura claimed illegal move but Tony Rich, the arbiter, ruled that since it was an unintentional clock touch that the game should go on. At the end Nakamura held his own in a difficult position and drew the game.

Nakamura played strangely in the sixth game. In a must win position, he simply crumbled as Caruana’s knights galloped all over the board. Nakamura’s bishops never had any activity and they died entombed. With that win Caruana cemented his victory in the match!

White tried to win an opposite colored bishop in the seventh game, but Caruana would not let go of his position and ended up drawing after 151 moves!

Caruana missed a tactical blow in the eighth game that gave Nakamura a final win, but it was all over by then. Caruana takes the Saint Louis Showdown!

Parimargan Negi vs. Hou Yifan

The final blitz day was truly tragic for Negi. He was unable to convert many strong advantages and even lost on time once in a winning position.

Yifan started strong with an unexpected novelty in the main position of the Sicilian Dragon. She was better through most of the game, but Negi held on.

The Indian player clearly outplayed his counterpart in game two. His strong position in the queen and bishop endgame was sufficient for a huge advantage, but in severe time trouble he collapsed and blundered into a simply losing pawn endgame.

Negi was quite lucky to draw the third game, however, as Yifan should have converted in that game. Her pawns on the queenside were very strong and Negi survived by a miracle in the final endgame.

In the fourth game, Negi was up a piece. He had tricked Hou Yifan nicely and had a totally winning position. However, disaster occurred. In time pressure he confused himself, made things difficult, and instead of accepting a draw he thought too long and lost on time!

After two draws, Negi was able to take game seven for some consolation prize, but the match was certainly over by then. Despite Hou Yifan’s crushing victory, it was probably a closer match than what the score dictates.

Congratulations to the winners, Hou Yifan and Fabiano Caruana!

Fischer Random chess has been a controversial chess variant for some time. With the semi-random way the game starts (there are positions that cannot be played as they give White too big of an advantage), it is impossible to predict exactly how the games will begin and therefore it is impossible to have any kind of theoretical knowledge. Even though the players had eight positions to study before the match - four of which they would play - it was almost an unanimous approach not to calculate variations before the match started. One could be driven crazy analyzing so many positions from the very first moves!

The afternoon started well for Fabiano Caruana. In his first game of the day he was black against Hikaru Nakamura, and the #1 player in America decided to sacrifice a pawn with the White pieces. His superior piece coordination always gave him plenty of compensation, but slowly he let go of the requirements of the positions and allowed Black to untangle. An opposite color bishop endgame was reached and Caruana took game number one with some precise calculation to promote his pawns.

Things improved dramatically for Hikaru in the next two games. From the opening Black’s position was already more pleasant than his opponent’s, and going into the middlegame Black’s fabulous bishop on d4 gave Caruana serious headaches. The sidelined knight on a4 was a poor counterpart for such a magnificent piece, and although Caruana was by no means lost yet it was a poor position for him. A blunder cost White his f2 pawn, and after that Hikaru steamrolled his way to victory.

Game three was similar. Caruana’s opening left him in a desperate position early in the game, and White’s tactic with Bb7+!? was enough to win a pawn, but according to Fabiano, Hikaru did not even need to do that to gain the advantage. White entered an endgame up a pawn after the tactical exchanges, and it was all suffering for Caruana. To his credit he managed to almost equalize the game at a point, had he found a very specific sequence, but he did not manage to and eventually White’s extra pawn was enough for a full point.

In the last game of the day Caruana’s opening was again insufficient. He found himself in a passive position, but very cleverly he jettisoned a pawn to gain counterplay. Black found himself with an extra pawn and the advantage, but White’s activity was not easy to deal with. Hikaru took the day 2.5-1.5 and now leads by one point.

Yesterday was a rough day for Hou Yifan, who started her Showdown in Saint Louis with a 0-2 loss. However, she showed today why she is the top female player in the planet with an incredible comeback. Despite never having played Fischer Random in a tournament setting, she showed absolutely dominance over the nuances of development, pawn structure and piece placement in every single game. The story was very similar in the first three games: Hou Yifan was able to obtain a better position from the opening strategically, gaining an advantage in space. After this Parimarjan Negi found himself in difficult positions, eating away at his clock in attempt to find any kind of useful plans or moves to liberate his position. Hou Yifan was in no mood to led his opponent out of her binds, and she capitalized her advantages three times in a row with marvelous execution.

After a 0-3 start Negi finally pulled himself together and established a good position with the black pieces, which somehow resembled some kind of symmetrical English from normal chess. It was clear that Black had a very slight pull in the position, but the locked nature of the situation made a draw the most likely result. Negi overpressed, and he found himself in some trouble after he was forced to put his knight in the atrocious a8 square. Hou Yifan missed a winning shot at the end, but despite this the draw was good enough for a 3.5-0.5 score in the Fischer Random chess and an overall lead of 3.5-2.5 going into the rapids of day three.

Fabiano Caruana remarked after the day was over the “It's taken us hundreds of years to understand just the normal starting position in chess so I don't think that an extra ten or fifteen minutes is going to help me over the board." It simply shows you how complex chess can be, and how complex chess 960 is even for top players!