Hi all, I have a very interesting game to show you which I consider maybe one
of Nakamura's most outrageous chess openings ever played in the Tradewise
Gibraltar tournament which is currently being played 27th of Januray 2015.
His opponents is women Grandmaster Jovana Vojinovic is a Woman Grandmaster
about 2300 FIDE - d4 was played and Nakamura chose the Dutch defense the
backdrop of this is in the Tatar Steel recently both Caruana and Magnus
Carlsen played the Dutch in two games there and they both lost with black and
yeah the Dutch Defense hasn't had a fantastic reputation - i think a lot of
club players do play it but a lot of players are cynical because it creates a
lot of weaknesses - with weaknesses you're kind of inviting the opponent to show
off their tactical skills and prowess and things like king safety as well come
into it - so the Dutch Defense - a risky opening it does do some kind of trade
it's what Magnus Carlsen considers sometimes the flank openings are the
most aggressive way to play for a win and sometimes when you play more more
solid defenses it's often ends more in draw and a draw it's more likely but
this is a very fighting statement from Nakamura - the Dutch defense - and we have
this anti Dutch system Bg5 being played and usually black avoids Nf6
- usually g6 or h6 here is common but this is the third most popular move
according to (Chessbase) Live book - c6. I've had a nasty experience myself personally
against Nf6 - white just doubled the pawns and it can get very
very unpleasant just structurally and with d5 compromised this can be very
unpleasant for White controlling d5 so this move is much more flexible avoids any
structural issue with Nf6 and avoiding more beaten paths - we see now e3
We are already into 65 games here on (Chessbase) LiveBook only, and now black playing
a bit like a computer from 1970 trying for that b2 pawn
there's a certain logic to it that the bishop has left base - it has left c1 so
b2 is there to be attacked but isn't it a poison pawn?! - We see the b2 pawn
being regarded as a 'poison' pawn in many different opening systems - most notably
the Sicilian defense - the 'Poisoned Pawn' variation - well often you know White is
getting crushing attacks - we see here Nd2 and Nakamura hasn't got any
pieces developed - this really is starting to be an outrage if he takes here - he's
not developing any pieces but on the other hand yeah it's not going to be
Nf6 - unless he wants a dent in his structure but maybe g6 and Bishop g7
you would have thought - but here already with Nd2 the Queen is subject to
further harassment with Nc4 - Nakamura takes the b2 pawn - rook b1 and he
doesn't go so far as to take on a2 here - that will be I think pushing it too
much - here's a variation I checked out earlier - if Qxa2 - he played
Queen c3 - but if Qxa2 then I think White has a strong move in Nc4 and
black is in grave danger here not able to get the Queen back over here
a5 Square denied - say Qa4 and White has a very very good move here in e4
which allows Bd2 in some cases so say taking then we see big trouble for
the Queen in fact here Qb5 there's always Nd6 check and Qb4 doesn't
help here Bd2 and the Queen is going into that by force so that's a way
of losing the Queen quickly basically to take on a2 - no he doesn't go that far
Nakamura pins the knight and still has that possibility of getting
the Queen back maybe to d8 exists. Now we see white lashing out - this might not be
technically the best move. White lashes out here trying to maybe rip open some
lines - it's the classical recipe if your opponent's behind in development - you want
to open up some lines and get to the King. The King is it's not yet committed to
casting. In fact casting on either side is a bit tricky with all these pieces in
the way. Well these two and these two (The Queenside Knight and Bishop - and the Kingside Knight and Bishop). So nothing has really developed here
It's really quite outrageous at the moment g4 was played and the Queen moves
again and there's a subtle threat in maybe taking and hitting g5 or something
to do with g5 but it's also protecting f5 but at the moment the
Queen's protecting g4 so that's not really a big deal either gxf5 is
played Queen takes f5 now the bishop is hit. It's protected and also this makes
way for possibility of Bh3 so immediately we see in a moving the
'd' pawn here - Bh3 is a skewer so Nakamura plays Qa5 - yes it's a strange game
this one - one of the top players in the world flouting opening principles of
development just moving his Queen taking on b2 doing all this stuff here. Hasn't
white made any visible progress ?! Some lines are open but
where are the attacking points?! Where are the exploitable weaknesses in black's
position at the moment ?! Not entirely easy to see where they are
Or will they be created soon?! We see this move Nh3 so white has
a massive lead in development. It seems visually I think even this Bishop is
doing something even though it's at base the rooks doing something - it's tying
down pieces. We see now g6 - committing to g6 seems a little bit
outrageous as well. It's a target - it's actually surely - that is an exploitable
weakness here where things like h5 Nf4 Rg1 putting pressure on g6 for h5
So isn't this a concern?! White targets the g6 pawn with Bd3 - Would
you really try this at home this opening?! Maybe it's something to try in blitz - I
have to try it in blitz sometime. It looks a little bit on the cheeky
side. It has to be said. We see now the move d6 which is maybe you could consider
prophylaxis against h5 because if h5 here we could actually just do the
forcing move Bxh3 and it seems this should dissuade White but
even if we follow this through with white losing a piece my analysis shows
actually this is really dangerous black already even if we lose the piece
because it's only the Queen which is out here this this kind of thing here looks
to be on the verge of disaster - Rxb7 for example and White's got
good compensation and technically is better so maybe that sort of thing
should have been really considered just to punish Nakamura - his cheekiness
just moving his Queen - you know exploits the B file pressure and the Kings not
going anywhere here - this is this looks like a very promising position
Furthermore white has Rg3 on the cards and pushing with g7 so it
seems you know - Is black really in the position to even have this prophylaxis
move d6?! Is this really prophylaxis or bluff about Bxh3
and Queen takes g5?! There's just so much pressure but White's on the safe
side plays Qf3 so now if if h5 Bishop takes we can take with the Queen
and come to c8 so yes isn't this a problem
h5 now for black surely ?! Very calm move now Knight d7 black wants to play
Nf6 without any structural damage. ok we see h5 oh dear things seem to be
getting nasty now - now we see Ndf6 - letting a pawn go - but it does develop
some of black's pieces here - hxg6 - hxg6 - you see the rook's automatically
developed on its initial square .. bishop takes and now the King is getting a bit
safer - Kd8 - it's like two principles of development are being
ticked off here - king safety and piece activity - development on the original
square - they've been ticked off here black seems to be getting a playable
position - furthermore with the King coming to c7 then that will mean the
bishops is freer - the safeguard of b7 - we see Bf4 Kc7 and how can we say
now that white is better - it seems that black is actually doing
okay ... if there's no real concrete threats and this is the thing about chess
concrete threats and not just the way position looks it is often more
important. What concrete threats does white have ?! White plays Ng5 offering an
exchange of rooks - Nakamura takes this rook - Queen takes and now a concrete threat
Bh6 hitting g5 and threatening white with structural damage - if the
knight moves Bxf4 (doubling pawns) - so the Queen just protects g5 and we see
now Bd7 - that's made possible as the King's protecting b7 - the rook is now
active - Bishop goes to d3 and now we see Nd5 threatening things like taking
or Nc3 to hit the rook. White has weaknesses - losing that b2 pawn -
that c3 square is weak - the knight is still pinned - we see Ne6+ which is a
trade of that Knight for this Bishop. Bxe6 Bxh6 takes but now Nc3
hitting the rook. The rook goes to a1 and now we see Qb4 which
threatens things like Qb2 - also pinned the pawn so c5 might also be
interesting later - Kf1 - letting that pawn go - it was very difficult to do
anything about that pawn in the light of Qb2 - the King is actually letting
the rook potentially come to e1 - it's a bit of a tricky position to handle after
Qb2 - the rook has got e1 now But it's let the a2 pawn go which
creates basically an automatic threat - a long-term threat of this 'a' pawn that's
greedy - basically Black's got a passed 'a' pawn here.
Also the Knight has been hit as well by the way
so actually Rd1 protecting the knight is played - Nc3 hitting the
rook again. Re1 - this is very annoying
now Nakamura takes on h6 - okay he moves the bishop now so the 'a' pawn is
ready to run and this pawn you might think - Can we at least try and attack
this one?! It's not really worth it here there's an extra attack on the knight. If
Qg7 black just can continue with a5 not caring about you e7 because there's
Nd5 hitting the Queen and hitting d2 so that's not even a vulnerable pawn -
the e7 pawn here - so white plays f3 and black makes his intention clear - a5
just try and Queen the pawn - Kf2 a4 Qg5 - white seems helpless and
with this move has conceded a weakness of the last move - that h8 square -
which black takes up - The rook doesn't necessarily need to be behind the pawn
here Rh2+ is a very tasty threat now - Qg3
defending against Rh2 - Nd5 hitting the knight on d2 - Rd1
and now we see a very powerful move c5. White's center is being torn apart with this
move if dxc5 is played then Qxc5 is
very tasty looking on e3 Nc4 maybe we can just kick the
knight with b5 for example. So black seems to be in a very commanding position here
with the passed 'a' pawn - huge central pressure - great pieces - there are no bad pieces
Bc4 was played another concrete threat - Nc3
hitting the rook - Re1 and now b5 and white had enough of this game - the center
is crumbling here at minimum - the bishop hasn't got any great squares here d5 is
covered by the knight. On Bf7 there's just for example cxd4 looks good
white's center just crumbling. Black has still got the 'a' pawn. White
resigned here so this is arguably one of Nakamura's most outrageous openings that
I've personally seen - must be in the top 10 or top 5 at least - if not the most
outrageous of his modern Grandmaster level games - what
an opening! - What do you think about this game?! Comments or questions on YouTube
thanks very much