Nakamura-Karjakin: a really deep tactic. #chess

Yesterday, I couldn't watch round 3 of the Tal Memorial, firstly because I was out at my firm's family fun day (a roaring success: the weather demons held off, it was a perfect afternoon for everyone) followed by my son arriving back from university, and a family meal for his return, my birthday and Father's Day.

I have not had time to play through the shock-of-day loss by Magnus Carlsen vs Fabiano Caruana (the main shock being he lost in what Chessvibes say is a drawn rook endgame- that's what I want to (try to) study, but Naka's fine victory over Karjakin was the game which caught my eye ( I haven't looked at the others, but am pleased for Vishy too).

This position caught my eye; white to play.

What would I do? I think ten times out of ten I would play 1 Bc6, the move Naka played the first time this position came up- I don't know whether this was because it was in time pressure, so repeated (Sergey couldn't avoid repeating) or because he didn't see the incredibly deep line at first. I would never have seen it, and had this been a Cordingley puzzle, I would have assessed it as fiendish: Bg8!!/Rg1 skewer as a motif would not have come to mind.

So, 1 f4!! gf 2 g5+! and only after 2…Kg5 is on the board, I can 'see' 3 Bg8!!- had the position after 2…Kg5 been a Cordngley, then I would have assessed it as nice, maybe even easy.

As it is, I assess it as fantastic, beautiful. I am reminded of a quote by Rustam Kazimdzhanov in one of his excellent Chessbase DVDs (on tactics) where he stresses the importance of having optimistic imagination when seeking out tactics. I might have looked at 1 f4, for which 2 g5 is the only follow up, but I would have stopped (not being optimistic nor imaginative) after 2… Kg5.

Posted with Blogsy