Bilbao, Round 1: Nakamura Beats Carlsen!
Good news, Chicago Cubs fans: anything is possible! In round 1 of the Bilbao Final Masters Hikaru Nakamura finally did something he hadn't done in his entire career: defeat Magnus Carlsen in a game with a classical time control. The game didn't get off to an auspicious start, as Carlsen obtained a very pleasant advantage on the white side of a Fianchetto Dragon, but when Carlsen chose a badly flawed plan Nakamura seized the advantage, increased it, and - most importantly - kept it. Carlsen resigned shortly after the time control was made, and the impossible dream proved possible after all.
That puts Nakamura in first with three points on Bilbao's 3-1-0 scoring system, two points ahead of Sergey Karjakin, Wesley So, Anish Giri, and Wei Yi. The Karjakin-So game was a well-played game where White did most of the pressing but not to the point where Black was in serious trouble, while Giri did have a serious advantage for a while against Wei Yi, but didn't manage to convert.
The games, with reasonably substantive notes to Carlsen-Nakamura, are here. The round 2 pairings are:
- So - Nakamura
- Wei Yi - Carlsen
- Karjakin - Giri
Reader Comments (1)
"‘Capa was a perfect example of the intuitive type of master, who sees that a move is good, but cannot explain why. I recall a story told me by a strong amateur in Mexico, whom Capa once offered to teach. The gentleman was overjoyed and promptly appeared the next day for his lesson. “In the Sicilian Defense”, Capa explained, “after 1 e4 c5 the best move is 2 Ne2.” “Why?” “No importa, it does not matter; it is the best move.” And that was about all that the poor amateur could find out; it was the best move and that was all there was to it. Capa’s judgment was usually right, so this absolute certainty in himself was an invaluable asset."
Capablanca by Reuben Fine on page 3 of The Chess Correspondent, May-June 1942
[DM: A nice story, but the idea of an "intuitive type of master" is somewhere between an exaggeration and nonsense. Some players rely more on calculation and some are more willing to trust their intuition, and some people are more articulate than others, but all great players have a well-formed intuition based on their enormous experience and all can calculate brilliantly. Assuming the story is based in reality, I think Capablanca either didn't feel like trying to explain or didn't think it would be useful to the amateur for him to do so.]