Cover Story / Nakamura, Krush are champs
a simple draw.) 45. Ke1 Nxa2 46. Rxe2 Nc1 47. Rf2+ Ke8 and all the pawns come off the board.
38. Kf2 Rc1 39. Rh7 Rc2+ 40. Kg3? Hikaru played this practically instantly,
but this could have thrown the win away. Instead, 40. Ke3 was the right move. After 40. ... Nc3 41. Ne5! Black is completely lost. 41. ... Nd1+ 42. Kf4 Rf2+ 43. Kg4 Ne3+ 44. Kh3 and White wins.
40. ... Rc3+? Unfortunately I was playing on the
increment here, and at the last second I made this stupid move. 40. ... Nc3! The key point is that 41. Nxe7 isn’t a threat due to 41. ... Be5+, and so I can just bring my knight back into play. 41. Rhxe7+ Probably best; (41. Rxa7 Nd5 Here Black is not in any danger, and so White should try to find a draw; 41. Nxe7?? Be5+ 42. Kg4 Rg2+ 43. Kh4 Rh2+ 44. Kg5 Rxh7) 41. ... Bxe7 42. Rxe7+ Kf8 43. Rxa7 Ne2+ (43. ... Nxa2 should also draw, but 43. ... Ne2+ is simpler.) 44. Kg4 Rc3! Black has enough counterplay to draw, for instance: 45. Ne5 Rg3+ 46. Kh4 g5+ 47. Kh5 Nf4+ 48. Kh6 e3 49. Ra4 e2 50. Re4 Rg1 51. Nf3 Rf1 52. Kxg5 Rxf3 53. c6 Nd5 54. Rxe2 and the game should be drawn.
41. Kg4 Now I realized that I was completely
lost. I couldn't find any reasonable moves, but I didn’t want to resign and so played ...
41. ... e3 42. Nxe7 e2 Here I was expecting a normal contin-
uation like Rb8+, when White will stop the pawn on e2 and win easily. When I saw Hikaru hovering his hand above the knight I got excited, and then he played it!
43. Nd5!! Two exclams just for the idea. 43. Rb8+
Kd7 44. Nxg6+ Kc6 45. Re8 and White wins was the mundane way to go.
43. ... Rg3+ 44. Kf4 Bg5+ I had seen that 44. ... Be5+ would lose
to 45. Kxe5 followed by 45. ... Re3+ 46. Kd6, but I didn't believe that it could work with the bishop on the board.
45. Ke5 e1=Q+ 46. Kd6 A great position. Black has an extra
queen, but is completely lost against the threats of Rh8+ and Rb8+. It’s funny because the position looks like a study, but isn’t. Unfortunately I had to be on the wrong side. (Nakamura said part of his training with Kasparov involved studies, so this position should have made him right at home.—M.K.)
46. ... Bf4+ ... or 46. ... Rf3 47. Rb8+ Bd8 48. Nc7+
and Black gets mated. 46. ... Be7+ would be best if Black had a few more pieces, but here after 47. Rhxe7+ Qxe7+ 48. Rxe7+ Black is in a completely lost ending.
47. Nxf4 Rd3+ ... or 47. ... Qd2+ 48. Nd5 and the
knight comes back and guards every- thing.
48. Nxd3 Qg3+ 49. Ne5, Black resigned. Round four produced a drawn opposite-
colored bishop against Onischuk, who was never able to seriously contend for the title, despite some good fortune in his opening game. Facing GM Alex Stripun- sky as black, Onischuk registered an 11-move win after his opponent abruptly hung a piece. With a black queen on g5 and White’s queen’s bishop at home, Stripunsky played the discovered attack 11. d3. “I had mixed feelings,” Onischuk said. “At first I thought I was losing because I could not take on c1 for some reason.” White resigned instead of wait- ing for the free bishop to be captured. The game became tied for the third-shortest decisive game in U.S. championship his- tory (IM Kamran Shirazi’s five-move debacle to IM Jack Peters in 1984 remains the ignominious standard-bearer). Onis- chuk said he felt sympathy for his friend —the two are close enough that they went to dinner the previous night even after the pairings were announced. Onischuk went on a walk with Stripunsky after the game to try to ameliorate his friend’s despair. Stripunsky partially recovered but fal- tered late to finish tied for last. The next round Nakamura scored a
pivotal win against the co-leader GM Gre- gory Kaidanov. Besides the win against Kamsky, Kaidanov had one other win and two draws to share first after four rounds with 3/4. Playing in his 18th con- secutive championship and still seeking his first title, Kaidanov got a passive posi- tion and shuffled his knight back and forth for much of the middlegame. Naka- mura broke through with another king march. This time his king made it all the way to the eighth rank. Kaidanov’s pieces were paralyzed and he resigned. Several times during the game, Naka-
mura could be seen wincing and putting his hand on his chest. After complaining to the arbiters of chest pains, Nakamura was advised to seek immediate treat- ment, but he insisted on finishing the game without offering a draw. As soon as it ended, he asked Littlejohn to take him to the hospital. After a long night waiting in the emergency room, Nakamura said he was fit to continue without any seri-
ous problems. “I felt bad all game,” Naka- mura said. “But ultimately I thought, ‘Chess is my living. If I’m going to die, I might as well do it playing chess.” This is the second year in a row that the cham- pion had health issues. In a different tournament situation, last year Kamsky chose to make a quick draw and left the playing hall for medical reasons, but he was also able to continue without issue. “That’s the nature of any competitive thing,” Nakamura said. “Even when you’re not feeling your best, you have to go out there and compete.” On little rest, Nakamura allowed Kam-
sky to catch up after drawing round six against GM Varuzhan Akobian and round seven against GM Yury Shulman. Naka- mura has still never defeated Shulman at the U.S. championship (his lone win was in Las Vegas), but it is not for a lack of try- ing. He played 101 moves, all the way to king versus king. The champion then won by a tempo
against Stripunsky. The obscure ending of five passed pawns versus a rook capti vated the competitors—more than half the grandmasters joined in watching the post- mortem between the players. “White’s winning, no Black’s winning, no White’s winning,” Seirawan said.
Who’s winning? GM Alexander Stripunsky (2562) GM Hikaru Nakamura (2775) 2012 U.S. Championship (8)
63. b5 Rb8! 63. ... Ra8? stops the pawns but fails
to improve Black’s chances of liquidating them. The text counterintuitively allows the pawns to each advance one rank far- ther, but this allows the black king to help.
64. g5
No better is 64. a7 Ra8 65. b6 Kc6 66. e6 Kxb6 67. d7 Kc7 68. Kxf3 Kd6.
64. ... Rxb5 65. g6 An immediate kind advance does not
help.
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