Chess: Hikaru Nakamura’s lesson

By Eric Morrow

Kasimdzhanov v. Nakamura, 2007



In 2003 at the age of 15 Hikaru Nakamura became the youngest grandmaster in US history, beating Bobby Fisher’s record by three months. Since then, the chess world has expected of him Fisher like success. This year at the age of 21 Nakamura has lived up to those expectations, winning tournament after tournament. One of those tournaments was the US Chess Championship, which he won for the second time.

This week’s position is from Nakamura’s 2007 game against Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Kasimdzhanov is white; Nakamura, black. Nakamura reinforces a pin that generates a winning endgame. With this hint mind please try to find black’s best move. In addition, please try to find the key ideas behind this move.

White’s bishop at f1 is pinned by black’s rook and under attack by black’s bishop. White’s knight protects its bishop and holds white position together – for now.

Nakamura untangles Kasimdzhanov’s position by advancing his g4 pawn to g3. This accentuates the pressure of the pin. Black also threatens to next move its king and unpin its knight. The black knight then could attack the f2 square with the g3 pawn and attack white’s knight, which would undermine the white knight’s defense of its bishop.

The other key idea behind the g3 move is illustrated if white’s f2 pawn takes the g3 pawn, which is what Kasimdzhanov played. In response, Nakamura’s bishop captures white’s bishop on f1. If white’s knight recovers the piece and captures the black bishop, black’s pawn at e4 advances to e3.

Black threatens to advance its e3 pawn to e2, winning the knight and gaining a new queen. White has no defense, except to give up its rook by moving it to c6. Even then, black can decline the rook offer and move its rook to e1 followed by a knight hop to e4 after white’s rook moves to c2.

Kasimdzhanov saw this and instead of capturing black’s bishop on f1 with his knight, he moved his king to f2. The loss of the bishop was too much, however. He resigned two moves later.

Returning to the position after g3, white’s best reply is to advance its b4 pawn to b5. The pawn then would support its rook on c6, which offers a rook trade that would equalize the position. Hence, black moves its rook to e1. Black is still winning and the key ideas behind the g3 move are still in the air.

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