Gukesh draws with Hikaru Nakamura as challenging opening position tests the best

Gukesh played out a 59-move draw against the reigning World Fischer Random champion Hikaru Nakamura with black pieces as his quest for a win at the first Freestyle Chess tournament of the year continues. Gukesh has so far lost four games in the Weissenhaus tournament and drawn seven games that he has played in classical and rapid time controls. But the draw with black pieces will be particularly heartening for the youngest world champion in the hory of the sport.After being eliminated Fabiano Caruana in the quarter finals, Gukesh is battling to at least finish fifth in the 10-player standings. His first opponent was Nakamura, who he will play with white pieces tomorrow in the second game of their match.
Tuesday’s game — played in position no.360 — was tricky for all players. But the position was particularly complicated for players like Gukesh who had to play with black pieces. The evaluation bar was already showing that white had a slight advantage without a single move being played either player. Such are the intricacies of freestyle chess. So for Gukesh to survive with a draw would be a welcome result.
But for Nakamura too, the draw would be more than acceptable. After the painful defeat to Javiokhir Sindarov in the previous game in tiebreaks on Monday, Nakamura had said that he felt like it was time for him to retire because his mind was not functioning the same way as before. He looked particularly affected the defeat to the young GM from Uzbekan.
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Vincent Keymer, who beat Magnus Carlsen in the first game of the semi-final, pointed out the complexity of the starting position: “That position was incredibly weird. There was so little harmony in the pieces. The knights were in the corners. The king was on d1. So many things! I had no idea whatsoever what’s a good first move to play.”
Uncertainty loomed
This uncertainty was shared all players. At the freestyle events, players are given just 15 minutes to familiarize themselves and plot a way to victory after being revealed the starting position of the day. Position 360 was one of those opening positions where the player with white (and with black too) would need a lot more than the 15-minute window. Interestingly while Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattarov huddled over a board to figure out their first moves with white pieces, players like Gukesh and Carlsen, who were playing with black, preferred to contemplate the position alone.
INTERACTIVE: Gukesh vs Hikaru Nakamura

INTERACTIVE: Magnus Carlsen vs Vincent Keymer

Not that the four-member group study helped in any way.
“I think this is one of the more interesting starting positions we have had so far. All the games went in different directions because the first move of white was unclear. We were discussing it before the game and we didn’t understand how white should be approaching this position. That’s why you saw Hikaru and Vincent went for 1.g4.Nodirbek went for 1.f4, 2.c3 plan. And I was just thinking about my move over the board and went for something that we did not discuss at all which was 1.f3. The move 1.g4 didn’t look like a good move to me. I didn’t really like it when they were suggesting it and Vincent seemed to think that it was a good option,” Caruana said in the confession booth early on in the game as his opponent Javokhir Sindarov thought of his second move in their semi-final.Soon, Carlsen also made a trip of his own to the confession booth to talk about his perplexity at the opening position.Story continues below this ad
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“This starting position seems miles more dangerous for black than any we have seen in the last couple of days. I really didn’t like my first move, knight g6. I was really worried, what if he goes d4? The knight to b3 he played is also very dangerous for me. I didn’t love any of my options there. I chose e5, which looks quite dicey. It feels like a fight for survival now from the very first move itself. I’ll be very happy to have a playable position in five moves. But honestly it doesn’t feel like I will get there,” Carlsen said in the confessional booth.
As a player Carlsen made a name for himself for being one of those rare players who has attempted each one of the 20 first moves possible with white in a game. So it was odd to hear a player of Carlsen’s class talking about being worried about a bad first move and being in a fight for survival as early as two moves.
His defeat to Keymer sets up the exciting prospect of the world No.1 needing a victory on demand in a format that stimulates his mind the most.

Amit Kamath is Assant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. … Read More