Zombieland

John B. Henderson • April 10, 2023

Coming back from the dead (the Losers Bracket), Champions Chess Tour commentator GM Robert Hess described Hikaru Nakamura's performance in the Chessable Masters to be  “half man, half zombie” as he resoundingly beat Fabiano Caruana over two sets to claim victory in the Grand Final on Friday.


Earlier in the competition, Caruana defied the odds by consigning Nakamura to the Losers Bracket. But the speed maven-turned-influencer staged a remarkable comeback by first beating Magnus Carlsen, and then the perfect revenge over Caruana, by beating him in two sets in what proved to be a pulsating final that contained seven decisive games, no draws(!), and remarkably six Black wins.

All four games of the first set proved to be decisive, with the match dramatical going Nakamura's way 3-1 as he took the psychological edge with the only White win of the contest - and by bravely deploying a popular street-fighting gambit - that proved to be an ideal springboard to go on to also win the second set 2-1 to take home the title and $30,00 first prize plus gain 150 tour points.


Caruana receives $20,000 and 100 tour points for finishing second. Both finalists, as well as Carlsen, earn spots in Division I of the next CCT event in May for finishing in the top three.


En route to taking the title, Nakamura delighted the online fans by also bringing back from the dead the club player’s favourite of the Smith-Morra Gambit for the only White win of the contest! In the mid-1960s and early 70s, leading amateur Ken Smith from Dallas, a noted poker player, championed the cause of 1 e4 c5 2 d4 cxd4 3 c3!?, so much so that it soon became rechristened as the “Smith-Morra Gambit” - formerly known just as the Morra Gambit before - in books and magazines.


But he got no respect whatsoever at the top level with it. Smith lost three miserable games with it in his only major international tournament, San Antonio 1972, and when one of his opponents met 1 e4 with 1…e6, annotator Bent Larsen in the official tournament book gave the move a question mark and called it out as being a mistake because everyone knows against Smith that 1…c5 “wins a pawn.”


Though seldom seen anymore in top grandmaster praxis, nevertheless, the gambit is still alive and kicking, especially at club level, and reinforced even more so after the publication of IM Marc Esserman’s best-selling blockbuster Mayhem in the Morra (Quality Chess, 2012), which was subsequently turned into a Chessable video opening course of the same name.

GM Hikaru Nakamura - GM Fabiano Caruana

Chessable Masters Grand Final, (4.4)

Sicilian, Smith-Morra Gambit

1.e4 c5 2.d4!? With Nakamura needing only a draw to advance to a rematch, the Smith-Morra Gambit must have come as a big psychological shock for Caruana. 2...cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 Paradoxically, more usual at grandmaster level you can expect to see a bit of reverse psychology at play by declining the Smith-Morra Gambit with 3...Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 and a straight transposition into the more common c3 Sicilian. 4.Nxc3 e6 5.Nf3 a6 6.Bf4 The Smith-Morra proper set-up, as beloved by club players, would be 6.Bc4 followed by Qe2, 0-0 and Rd1 etc. But with 6.Bf4, Nakamura is looking for a little twist by avoiding some of the more usual defences against the gambit with 6.Bc4. 6...Nc6 7.Be2 d6 8.O-O Be7 9.Qb3 e5 As typical in the Smith-Morra, it is just not easy for Black to complete his development. After 9...Nf6 10.Rfd1 Qc7 11.Qa3 all but forces now 11...e5 but with wild complications, such as 12.Bg5!? d5 13.Bxf6!? Bxa3 14.Nxd5 Qa5 15.Bxg7 Bxb2 16.Rab1 Qxa2 17.Nf6+ Ke7 18.Nd5+ Ke8 19.Nf6+ and a draw. So early doors, Caruana has to be alert to such moments. 10.Be3 Nf6 11.Bb6 It's always a good rule of thumb in the Smith-Morra to chase and harass the Black queen! 11...Qd7 12.Rfd1 O-O 13.Rac1 h6 Looking to avoid any later Ng5 awkwardness - but it creates another awkwardness. 14.Nh4! Not just eyeing up the juicy f5 outpost, but also a possible Ng6 moment. 14...Qe8 An awkward move to have to make, but somehow Caruana has to complete his development. And by now, it is clear that Nakamura has more than enough compensation for his pawn. 15.Ng6 Be6 16.Bc4 fxg6 17.Bxe6+ Kh7 18.Nd5?! At first sight, the most tempting move to make, but in reality, it just helps to ease Black's position. Better was 18.Be3! Rb8 19.f3 looking to prepare Nd5. 18...Bd8 19.Nxf6+ Rxf6 Caruana has at least managed to unravel his position. 20.Bd5 Rb8?! Caruana missed the key move. After 20...Bxb6! 21.Qxb6 Rb8 White is in trouble with ...Nd4 looming large, that all but forces 22.Bxc6 bxc6 23.Qxc6 Qf7! and, suddenly, Black is on top, as White has to lose a pawn either on f2, b2 or a2. 21.Be3 Be7 22.Qa4 Rc8 23.Rc3! With the powerful bishop-pair, more mobile rooks and active queen, Namamura begins to take control of the position that sees Caruana lash out in frustration. 23...g5 24.Rdc1 g4 25.b4 More to the (full!) point was 25.Bxc6! bxc6 26.Rxc6 a5 27.Qc2! where, long-term, the ending looks really grim for Black. 25...Qg6 26.Bxc6 More logical looked 26.b5!? axb5 27.Qxb5 and it is not easy to see how Black avoids losing the b-pawn and then have to worry about the a-pawn storming up the board. 26...bxc6 27.Rxc6 Rcf8?! Perhaps understandable, given the match situation, with Carauana needing to win, but for the purists out there, safer was 27...Rxc6 28.Qxc6 d5! 29.Qxd5 Bxb4 30.Rc8 Qf7! that looks to  be petering out to a draw. 28.Qc2 h5 The only logical follow-up, given the match situation - Caruana has to go 'all-in'. 29.Rxa6 h4 30.Ra7 Better was 30.Rc6 g3 31.hxg3 hxg3 32.fxg3 Qxg3 33.Rc3! and Black is in trouble with Qe2 and Rc8 coming. 30...R6f7 The rather obvious move was 30...g3! 31.Rxe7 gxf2+ 32.Kf1 h3 33.g3 Rf3 34.Qe2! where 34...Qxe4 is well met by 35.Rxg7+! Kh8 36.Rg5 R3f7 37.Rh5+ Kg8 38.Rg5+ Kh8 39.Rh5+ and a draw. But with the rook retreat, Caruana is just trying to keep the game alive rather than see it petering out to a draw. 31.Qe2 g3 32.f3 gxh2+ 33.Kh1It was also "safe" to take with 33.Kxh2 as Black looks to have nothing better other than the forced sequence 33...Rxf3 34.gxf3 Qg3+ 35.Kh1 Qh3+ 36.Qh2 Qxf3+ 37.Qg2 Qxe3 38.Rg1 Bg5! 39.Rxg7+! Kxg7 40.Qxg5+ Qxg5 41.Rxg5+ Kh6 42.Rg2 Rf1+ 43.Rg1 Rf2 44.a4 Ra2 and a draw. 33...h3 34.Rcc7 Qe6?? Blundering the game away. Carauna had to accept the inevitable and 34...hxg2+ 35.Qxg2 Rxf3 36.Qxg6+ Kxg6 37.Rxe7 Rxe3 38.Rxg7+ Kf6 39.Rgd7 Rxe4 40.Rxd6+ Kg5 41.Rg7+ Kf5 42.b5 Rb4 43.Rd2 Rb1+ 44.Kxh2 where, once again, the game is petering out to a draw. But ending with a sore loss just gifts Nakamura a big psychological edge heading into the two-game second-set play-off for the title. 35.g3 Kh8 36.Kxh2 d5 (see diagram) 37.Rxe7! Caruana's position now crumbles. 37...Rxe7 38.Rxe7 Qxe7 39.Bc5 The rest is now academic, as a wily Nakamura liquidates down to an easily winning Q+P endgame. 39...Qf7 40.Bxf8 Qxf8 41.exd5 Qxb4 42.Qxe5 Qd2+ 43.Kxh3 Qd3 44.Qe8+1-0

And Caruana resigns with 45.Qe4+ trading queens.

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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