Hikaru Nakamura justified his wildcard invitation by taking first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Berlin this month. The American grandmaster has become the world’s most popular chess streamer, and had not played a slow game in more than two years. But he looked fresh and relaxed, and evidently the steady practice of elite online speed events have kept his skills sharp.
Facing a rising Russian star, I suspect Nakamura’s eye was quickly drawn to 29 Qb4, hoping to deflect Black’s queen or win the Bb5. But after 29…Qxb4 30 Rxd8+ Qf8! 31 Rxf8+ Kxf8 the endgame is likely to end in a draw. So you keep the idea, shake things up a bit, and see what drops out:
Hikaru Nakamura-Andrey Esipenko
Fide Grand Prix, Berlin 2022
(See left diagram)
29 Bxf6! gxf6 30 Qg4+ This check cracks the defence. Now after 30…Kh8 31 Qb4! the tactic works: 31…Qxb4 32 Rxf8+ and Black can’t block on f8. No better is 30…Kf7 31 Rxd8 Qxd8 32 Qh5+. Kf8 31 Rxd8+ Qxd8 32 Qb4+ Qe7 33 Qxb5 Qxa3 34 Kf2 Qc5 34…Qd6 defends the pawn, but White can turn the screws with Qb5-f5, h4-h5, Kg2 and g3-g4. Sooner or later, Black will have to seek counterplay and abandon the d3-pawn anyway, so Esipenko bites the bullet right away. 35 Qxd3 b5 36 Qc3 Black will lose any pawn endgame, so the queen must back down from any confrontation. Qe7 37 Ke2 Kg7 38 Qd4 Qf7 39 Qg4+ Kh8 40 Qb4 Qe8 41 Qd6 Qf7 42 Qc5 Qe8 43 g4 Kg7 44 h4 Qd7 45 h5 Kg8 46 h6 Black has almost run out of moves altogether, e.g. 46…Kf7 47 Qf5 wins, so Black resigns.
A few rounds later, Nakamura stood well against Grischuk, but he needed a more subtle approach to press his advantage.
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