The Week in Chess

The first day of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals Benefiting Kiva was won by Hikaru Nakamura 2.5-1.5. This was a day of extremely complicated chess - Nakamura seemed to win in several key areas, his openings went very well and he stayed ahead on the clock while making very few clear errors in positions that were extremely hard to judge. It will be interesting if Carlsen tries to change the type of games they play tomorrow.

Game one perhaps set the tone and was a sharp Najdorf Sicilian with at first Nakamura pressing as white but later Carlsen was better but extremely short of time, the game finished with a repetition. Game two was a sharp Queen's Gambit Vienna where Carlsen seemed to be pressing and then gave up the exchange for a position where he probably assumed only he was pressing. 35.Re4 was a nothing move played in time trouble and indicated Carlsen was short of ideas, it also introduced problems Carlsen couldn't solve and Nakamura's passive rook became active and won the game. Nakamura slightly varied his approach in the Najdorf for game 3 and he built up a very strong position, Carlsen found some very creative ideas to keep his position going and even if the computer points out wins for Nakamura they were hard to find. Carlsen looked disappointed at the end when Nakamura found a way to liquidate his pawns for a draw but most likely this was the right result. Carlsen didn't get much from the opening in his must win game four but a bishops of opposite colours with queens on proved very complex and Carlsen has winning chances but most likely Nakamura held without actually being lost.

Score (best of 7) Nakamura 1-0 Carlsen. Day two of the final Saturday 15th August 2020 3pm BST.