Vishy’s disciples

IM Malcolm Pein October 24, 2023

MAGNUS Carlsen’s hopes of defending the Qatar Masters title disappeared when he lost with the white pieces to Indian GM Karthikeyan Murali in the seventh round, his second loss at the event. Carlsen made a risky sacrifice of a pawn in the Ruy Lopez, before missing chances to equalise and then blundering.
With one to play, Carlsen was a point behind leader Arjun Erigaisi of India, who had reached 6.5/8.
The group of players half a point behind comprised: the Uzbek trio of Nodirbek Yakuboev, Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov; the two Indians, who have defeated Carlsen, Karthikeyan and S L Narayanan, plus Hikaru Nakamura.
Nakamura appeared almost gleeful in his nightly summary online, commenting: “This is the future for him. The Indians are coming for him. It’s going to be one Indian after another, all the disciples of Vishy!”
Nakamura stayed in the hunt with this win over another Indian grandmaster:

H Nakamura – V Pranav
Queen’s Indian

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Nb3 Nc6 10.f3 0–0
(10...Be7 11.Bf4 0–0 12.0–0–0 Rc8 13.g4 shows the worth of White’s 10th move; his attack is well under way)
11.Nxc5 bxc5 12.Be3 d6
(White has two bishops and more space. If 12...Nd4 13.Qf2 e5 14.b4 d6 15.Bd3 is pleasant for White; his queenside pawns might advance later)
13.Bd3 Rc8 14.0–0 Re8?! 15.Rfd1 Qe7 16.Qf2 Ne5 17.Be2 Ba6 18.b3 Red8 19.h3 (Preparing to evict the Black knight with f2–f4)
19...Nc6

20.b4! cxb4 21.axb4 Nxb4 (Bad, but allowing b4–b5 is worse)
22.Ra4 d5 23.Rb1 Nc2 24.e5 Ne8 25.Bc1 (Black’s bishop is en prise and he has to extricate his knight. Not 25.Rxa6? Nxe3 26.Qxe3 d4)
25...d4 26.Ne4 Rc6 27.Bg5 f6 28.Bh4 (28.exf6 gxf6 29.Bd3 fxg5 30.Qxc2 was also good)
28...Ne3 29.Rba1 Bxc4 30.exf6 gxf6 31.Rxa7 Rd7 32.Ra8?! (Or 32.Nxf6+ Nxf6 33.Rxd7 Qxd7 34.Bxf6 Nf5 35.g4 Nd6 36.Bxd4)
32...Kf7 33.f4 Bxe2 34.Qxe2 Rd5 (Preventing Qh5+)
35.Bf2 Nc4? (Better 35...Rc7 36.Bxe3 dxe3 37.Kh2)
36.Bxd4! Ncd6 (If 36...Rxd4 37.Qh5+ Kf8 38.Rxe8+ Qxe8 39.Qh6+ Kf7 40.Qxh7+ Kf8 41.Ra7)
37.R8a7 Nb7

For today’s puzzle, how did Nakamura end resistance?

Show Answer

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