By Chess Tutor William Stewart
The 5th Kings Tournament 2011 is underway in Bazna, Romania, taking place June 11th – 22nd. The 6 player Double-Round Robin with a classic time control features many of the world’s best (Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Nakamura, Radjabov, and Nisipeanu). The favorite for the event must be World #1 Magnus Carlsen, as last year he scored an exceptional performance rating of 2918 with 7.5/10 (5 wins and 5 draws). The ever-dangerous Vassily Ivanchuk must be considered a contender, as he won the event in 2009 and is capable of some truly stunning chess. Hometown favorite Nisipeanu is the lowest-rated participant at 2662, however don’t count him out either as his creative and inspired play is reknown for taking down top players.
Carlsen still has no problem handling Nakamura
Board 1 featured a heavyweight match-up between two of the world’s strongest players, 20 year old Carlsen (Norway) against 23 year old Nakamura (USA). Lately, Carlsen seems to have had no problem handling Nakamura, and this game was no exception. Carlsen opened with d4 and Nakamura responded with an interesting variation bent on attacking white’s king. Carlsen quickly seized control of the center and the initiative. Nakamura’s queenside attack was just too slow, as white bust through on the kingside with 20. h6! Nakamura attempted to defend with the help of complicated tactics, however Carlsen stayed strong and achieved a solid positional victory in 38 moves.
The Board 2 game between Ivanchuk (UKR) and Radjabov (AZE) was quite interesting from a theoretical standpoint. Ivanchuk opened with d4 and Radjabov responded with his typical King’s Indian Defense – leading Ivanchuk to play an aggressive variation of the Four Pawns Attack involving 6. Bg5 and 7. f4. In this kind of set-up black usually attempts to exploit the dark squares behind white’s center however Radjabov chose a different plan involving 7. …c6, 8. …Nc7, and 9. …Ne6 – intending to open the center with c5 and have the opportunity to place the knight on d4. This use of time proved dubious, as white was able to consolidate his large center and easily complete his development. With a strong positional combination starting with 16. f5! and 18. Bxf6!, Ivanchuk clearly achieved a winning positional advantage which he smoothly converted in 35 moves to start the tournament with a W.
The Board 3 game between Nisipeanu (Romania) and Karjakin (Russia) was a short draw, as white forced a 3-fold repetition in 20 moves. The first round went as expected, without upset. It will be interesting to see how Carlsen shakes off the rust, as his last rated event was the Tata Steel tournament in January, 2011. Recently, Nakamura has looked better than ever – coming off a strong victory against Ruslan Ponomariov in their May International Match in St. Louis. It will be exciting to see if Naka can maintain his climb towards 2800.
Sorry I couldn’t do any videos on the game, I’m in rural Oklahoma where the internet just isn’t fast enough for me to upload the videos.
For the original post on the 5th Kings Chess Tournament check out Will’s website.
What a difference between this and the Fide WCC loterry eh?!? pfft..Fide…please go away and die.
Carlsen Nakamura was a tpical game..Naka should play it safe as black but kudos for trying but against this kid..its simply impossible..carlsen has a feel for Naka. Ivanchuk played a crushing game..man..its difficult to tell when Radjabov has been so thouroughly dismantled..Nisipeau was I guess lucky that Karjakin had no imagination today.
This is sooooooo much more fun than watching those lame ass Candidate matches..
This event is considerably stronger than the so-called “Candidates” in Kazan.
That the top four here were not in Kazan is a damning indictment of the horrible mess that Fide has made of the entire World Championship process.
The winner here would be a much stronger challenger to Anand than the one the Fide lottery has thrown up.
The entire Fide leadership should be resigning in shame.