Bilbao Masters 2016 - Round 1 Video Recap

Opening: B20: Sicilian: Keres variation (2.Ne2)

Player(s): Carlsen, Nakamura

IM John Watson recaps Round 1. When I saw "black wins" I had to rub my eyes, clean the specs and look again. Komodo 10 had evaluation at -m7 but you know, it ain't over until it is over. But then, all of sudden, it was there! Nakamura, after 12 losses and 18 draws, beat - soundly - Magnus Carlsen in a classical game. Today is an important day for the American ace, who finally managed to overcome what many thought be a psychological issue. Hikaru played it down about this achievement during the interview, saying "Obviously winning against Magnus is very nice... but it's not that big of a deal". Well, maybe, but we're pretty sure Nakamura was feeling pretty good. The socials got flooded by tweets and FB posts about this amazing result. Susan Polgar's tweet was quite amusing: "To borrow a famous line from tennis legend Gerulaitis: 'And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Nakamura 13 times in a row!". The game was pretty tense, with Magnus trying to discombobulate his opponent in the opening, going apparently for a closed Sicilian, only to revert - with a rather odd move order - to an open Sicilian, which though was not Nakamura's loved Najdorf. Carlsen played aggressively, pushing Nakamura into his half of the field. But the world champion missed a simple reply to his apparently good move 21.g5. Nakamura played the little pawn move e6, and from there on Magnus realized he was in trouble. Hikaru was able to play precise and sharp moves, giving the Norwegian no chances to recover. Wei Yi, the Chinese prodigy, drew an interesting game against Giri, with a thrilling endgame, full of opportunities for both sides. Karjakin and So drew a good game. Nakamura is the early leader with 3 points, with all the rest of the gang with 1 point. Tomorrow Round 2 at 10am EDT - 16:00 CEDT.