Cover Story / Nakamura, Krush are champs
The photos over the previous four pages are placed in their
finishing order. See the crosstables on pages 26 and 27.
WIM Iryna Zenyuk FM Alisa Melekhina
spectators for contraband sneaked upstairs to watch during his breaks. “I don’t play chess but I was really excited,” he said. “I got really nervous. When I come back for the Karpov match (versus Seirawan) I’m going to join the club. I have to learn now.” Both champions got there through fast
starts. Nakamura’s tournament began with the standard format for round-robin tournaments. Starting with a win as white against GM Robert Hess, he proceeded to draw as black and win as white for the first six rounds. The second half of the tournament was nearly the inverse, as he could only muster draws as white but won as black, until that streak ended with a final-round win as white (against GM Yasser Seirawan, which put the tour- nament out of reach for Kamsky). Despite the early results suggesting otherwise, Nakamura took the initiative even as black and thought himself better in the early contests that petered out into draws. He explained his strategy: “With black,
you sort of have to change your style if you’re trying to win. You have to make your opponent uncomfortable.” He was able to do so on both sides of the board, starting with the surprise Evans Gambit in round one against Hess. “I just felt like trying something new,” Nakamura said of the choice. “Lately I’ve been look- ing at some ancient games from a few hundred years before I was born. I thought, ‘If someone like Nigel Short can play it, why can’t I?’” The game became a prelude to superior
preparation by Nakamura throughout the event. He was quick to credit his longtime second, Kris Littlejohn, who was at his side for the entire championship. Hess, whose aversion to studying open- ing theory is well-known, tried the simplification 9. ... Ba3 to give back the pawn and free his queenside. Hess said he considered a more standard move like 9. ... b6, but wanted to play a more off- beat move to get Nakamura out of his preparation. “If it was later in the tourna- ment, I would have played that game a lot differently,” Hess said. “I lost because he completely outplayed me. Part of being rusty is second-guessing your move choice.” Hess just finished his first year
WGM Camilla Baginskaite WGM Tatev Abrahamyan
at Yale University and only played in two tournaments during his freshman year. GM Alejandro Ramirez, the only cham-
pionship rookie, faced Nakamura in round two. After having his attack repulsed, Ramirez’s pieces took up defensive forti- fications until the champion broke through on the d-file. Ramirez ditched the Exchange to escape with a draw, as Nakamura’s king could not find shelter from the dark-square attack. Later in the post-mortem, Nakamura found a win, and as became a pattern, was very open about his disappointment in only obtain- ing a half-point. Round three offered some chessic fire-
works. GM Ray Robson, formerly the youngest-ever U.S. championship player (and youngest in 2012 as well) did not shy away from Nakamura’s notoriety as an attacker. Robson played the Sicilian Dragon and soon faced a four-pawn pha- lanx. He picked them off one-by-one but had to give a little material back to fend off the pressure and trade queens. But the chaos continued. Both players had knights reach the other side of the board. Naka- mura engaged his rooks while Robson focused on promoting the most advanced of his tripled e-pawns. Both players got their wish, but Robson’s extra queen was not enough to win, as Nakamura deftly hid his king long enough for the rooks to win. Nakamura won the second-place best game prize of $1,000 for his willingness to walk the plank.
Sicilian Defense, Dragon Variation, Yugoslav Attack (B76) GM Hikaru Nakamura (2775) GM Ray Robson (2614) 2012 U.S. Championship (3) Notes by GM Ray Robson
Facing Hikaru for the first time ever was
bound to be interesting and exciting for me, as he has been a player I have looked up to since I was young. I had had a bad start with 1
⁄2 /2, so I was hoping to start my come-
back with a decent result in this game. 1. e4 This was the first small surprise. Naka-
mura had already played 1. e4 in his first
round, but nowadays he usually chooses not to advance his king’s pawn on the first move. I was actually more worried about e4 as I felt I didn't have any solid lines to rely on in this game.
1. ... c5 Besides the Sicilian I sometimes play
the French, but I decided to go with the opening which I have played more often.
2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 The Dragon. Perhaps it seems strange
to play such a sharp opening against a dangerous opponent like Hikaru, but I thought I actually had more chances of getting a decent position with this than with the Scheveningen or Classical Sicil- ian (the other two lines I have played), since I didn’t feel well enough prepared there.
6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 Nc6 8. Qd2 0-0 9. g4 A small surprise. This move seems to
have experienced a revival at the top level lately. White simply wants to delay castling and continue with h2-h4, so Black cannot continue normally. 9. g4 also has the benefit of preventing ... d6- d5 due to g4-g5.
9. ... Be6 The other main line is 9. ... Nxd4 fol-
lowed by 10. ... Be6, but releasing the tension favors White. For example, White cannot continue with 10. h4 here because of 10. ... d5!
10. Nxe6 This is an obvious move, but for a long
time it wasn’t considered a very good one. It was thought that the pawn on e6 was- n’t really such a big weakness, and that it helped control the center. Recently some resources have been found for White, and now 9. g4 is usually played in connection with 10. Nxe6. 10. h4 d5 should be good for Black. The old main line was 10. 0-0-0 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Qa5, which is considered fine for Black.
10. ... fxe6 11. 0-0-0 Ne5 12. Be2 Qc8 I had actually already had this position
against Bartosz Socko at the Aeroflot Open. He decided to play Bh6, and even-
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