Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Game of the Year?

I had not seen this until SMH chess columnist Peter Parr showed it to me yesterday. Could this be the 2007 game of the year (if there was such an award)?

Here is American superstar Hikaru Nakamura producing a truly stunning attacking masterpiece. The sacrifice just came out of nowhere. Just imagine yourself playing like this! If I could play like this, I would die happy.

Magistral D'Escacs in Barcelona
Krasenkow, M.
Nakamura, H.
A14

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 a5 7. Nc3 c6 8. d4 Nbd7 9. Qc2 b6 10. e4 Ba6 11. Nd2 c5 12. exd5 cxd4 13. Nb5 exd5 14. Nxd4 Rc8 15. Re1 b5 16. Bb2 Re8 17. Qd1 bxc4 18. bxc4 Qb6 19. Rb1 dxc4 20. Nc6 Rxc6 21. Bxf6 Krasenkow must now be feeling good about himself! He was about to be shocked.

Position after 21. Bxf6

21...Qxf2+ 22. Kxf2 Bc5+ 23. Kf3 Rxf6+ 24. Kg4 Ne5+ 25. Kg5 Rg6+ 26. Kh5 f6 27. Rxe5 Rxe5+ 28. Kh4 Bc8 0-1 There is no stopping Rg6-h6 mate.

Kavalek has an annotated version of the above game here. Fittingly, Nakamura won the Magistral D'Escacs tournament in Barcelona with a score of 7 from nine.

No comments: