Van Wely against Nakamura, Photo Cathy Rogers
Today at the NH Rising Stars vs. Experience tournament, Hikaru Nakamura was in trouble against GM Loek Van Wely but managed to navigate to a perpetual.
3432
Caruana vs. Beliavsky
GM Ian Rogers, who posted a report midway through the event, annotates one of the two Team Experience wins, Beliavsky-Caruana (Nielsen also won over Smeets.)
3433
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3!?
"I guess that he didn't expect this," said Beliavsky, "since I have played 4.g3 a thousand times. But I also play 4.a3 sometimes."
4...Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Nb3 Be7?!
A move roundly criticized by Beliavsky, though incredibly Caruana admitted that he simply didn't know what to do in this position. 9...Nc6 is standard.
10.Bf4 d6?
10...Nh5 11.Be3 d6 is the only safe way to play here, although Beliavsky was contemptuous of such maneuvers: "He has lost three tempi - Ba6-b7, Bc5-Be7 and now Nh5. White must be much better, for example after 12.0–0–0 ."
11.Rd1 0–0
Caruana, after long thought, decides to allow the e5 break and hope to survive tactically, rather than capitulate positionally with [11...Nc6 12.Nb5 e5 13.Bg5 with 14.Bxf6 to follow.
12.e5 Nh5 13.Be3 Bg5
14.Qc1!
Even stronger than 14.Rxd6 Qe7 with 'only' an extra pawn.
14...Bxe3 15.Qxe3 Nc6
Again Caruana spent almost half an hour on this move, probably wondering what had gone wrong.
16.Rxd6 Qh4
16...Qe7 17.Be2 gives White an easy win without complications.
17.Rd7! Rab8 18.g3! Qg4 19.h3 Qf5
19...Qg6 20.Bd3 Qh6 21.Qxh6 gxh6 22.Be4 also offers no hope at all.
20.Rxb7!! Rxb7 21.Bg2 Rc7 22.Bxc6 f6
Desperation, but 22...Rxc6 23.Nd4 just loses a piece.
23.Be4! Qxe5
Preferring a quick suicide since 23...Qg5 24.Qxg5 fxg5 25.Nd4 is too ugly to contemplate.
24.f4 Qd6 25.Nb5 1–0