Corus Rd 7: Nakamura shreds Shirov's Sicilian Sveshnikov

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  • Corus Rd 7: Nakamura shreds Shirov's Sicilian Sveshnikov

    In round 7 of the Corus group A, Nakamura shreds to pieces the Sicilian Sveshnikov of Shirov, to move to second place with Carlssen with 5 points, just half a point behind Shirov.

    Nakamuras win is very important as he inflicts Shirov's first (?) loss in the tournament, in the process declaring himself as the most exciting Grandmaster and one of the title contenders of this years Corus group A tournament.

    This game reached new grounds after Nakamura's 13.Ncd5 intending to dislodge the imposing Black Nd4 with c3. The question in this game is whose king is safer? Nakamura's castled king or Shirov's King in the middle?

    The game became double edge and complicated. There was no time to take a pawn on b2.

    Shirov's idea, to let his king run from e8 to the queenside, reminds me of a former world champion, Ponomariov, who let his king run from the kingside to the queenside but did not succeed! This is the point of Shirov's 24. ...Rg7. He must have rejected the idea of a kingside castling in order to immeidately launch his kingside attack.

    At this point, i prefer 24. ...00 followed by Kh8 and f5.

    After Shirov won a pawn with a fantistic knight check on h3, Nakamura first removed the b7 pawn and prevent the black king from seeking shelter on the queenside, then proceded to point the rook to Black king.

    What is funny is that as the Black king rush to the queenside, the white pawns on the queenside rush forward to give him as welcome threat. The time used by Black was used by Nakamura to create threats on the queenside and on the d file.

    Nakamura's g3 is impressive as White open the f file for Rf6, unmindful of the resulting weakening of his kingside, as there is currently no perceivable immediate threats. After Rf6, Nakamura just needed 8 more moves to force resignation of the irresistible force (Short!)

    Nakamura has 3 wins and 4 draws.

    And so in round 7, Nakamura became the new irresistible force !!!
    Last edited by Erwin Casareno; Sunday, 24th January, 2010, 01:00 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Corus Rd 7: Nakamura shreds Shirov's Sicilian Sveshnikov

    Kramnik denied Short the full point in a Q ending which led to stalemate traps. Short had a 3-1 pawn majority on the K side but Kramnik managed to pester Nigel's King. Vlad's King looked useless on h8, which turned out to be the essence of his defence!

    Ivanchuk appeared to blunder a Q for Rook against Carlsen and he resigned after his counterplay fizzled out.

    Wesley So defeated Reinderman today to go +2. Robson finally lost in the C group. Great stories in progress!

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