The Week in Chess

Daniil Dubov beat Hikaru Nakamura 2.5-1.5 to level up the final and take the Abbey Rapid Challenge final into a third and final day on 3rd June.

Just like Nakamura the day before Dubov got off to an ideal start winning with the black pieces. Nakamura played the Alapin against Dubov's Sicilian and gradually drifted into a worse position and by move 30 his position was desperate, Nakamura tried sacrificing a pawn but Dubov brought the game home confidently. It's starting to look like losing the first game in this format, especially with white is extremely hard to come back from. Dubov played the English, and the players followed Ding-Nakamura for a while and pieces were traded off for a draw. Dubov played the Sicilian again (or the reverse English as Dubov dryly called it and secured a comfortable draw in a heavy piece endgame. The final game Dubov played 1.d4 and Nakamura played a Leningrad Dutch. Dubov much like in his failed attempt against Karjakin tried to shut things down for a draw rather than try and exploit his opponent's risky opening and it really could have backfired as Nakamura was close to winning between moves 24 and 28 but by move 31 the crisis was more or less over and after 37.e4 d4 (other moves are equal now white is a lot better) and Dubov drew and won the match.

Final deciding day Wednesday 3rd June 2020.