“Stonking Performance” For Nakamura At London's Super Rapidplay Open

GM Hikaru Nakamura whipped the field at the London Chess Classic Super Rapidplay Open held over the weekend. The American GM won the two-day tournament with a stunning 9.5 score.

He only conceded a draw to English GM Matthew Sadler and won his other nine games. That's what you call an outstanding performance for Hikaru Nakamura, who dominated the “Super Rapidplay Open,” the first event of the London Chess Classic, and clinched the £8,000 (€10,155 / $12,548) first prize.

Anish Giri of the Netherlands did well too with a sole second place behind Nakamura. Three of the other top GMs who will be playing the main event of the London Chess Classic later this week ended in the group of 8 points: Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik.

They shared third place with Nigel Short, Aleksandr Lenderman, Eric Hansen, Daniel Naroditsky, Nick Pert, Alon Greenfeld and Simon Williams.

The main organizer tweeted:

@GMHikaru absolutely stonking performance @londonchess2014 9.5/10 in Super6Rapid beats Adams Giri Caruana Anand just Sadler got a draw!

— Malcolm Pein (@TelegraphChess) December 7, 2014

It's a rare thing to see top GMs playing an open event, although this is exactly what happened at the Qatar Masters too. If it's the start of a trend, few chess fans will complain!

The London Chess Classic always had a strong emphasis on youth, and so it was both a nice and logical gesture to pair all six top GMs against junior (U18) players in the first round on Saturday.

Five players won with expected ease, but Hikaru Nakamura met pretty decent resistance and needed his GM endgame technique to win:

A not so easy first round for Nakamura! | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.

In the second round it was Vishy Anand who was in danger of dropping his first half-point. His opponent Daniel Prill, a young German player rated 2193, played a fine game and reached an equal rook ending until the following happened. (Please note that the annotations in this report were provided by John Saunders, the press officer in London.)

In round three, two big names were in serious trouble, but both turned lost positions into a win. First Mickey Adams:

Fabiano Caruana won a pawn in the opening and then another one, but allowed his opponent Ali Mortazavi to set up a dangerous attack. At some point White missed a nice win.

In round four, finally some minor upsets were seen. Polish IM Jacek Stopa drew Anand, Uzbek GM Jahongir Vakhidov drew Adams and Jon Speelman beat Loek van Wely (not that much of an upset considering the fact that Speelman is a former Candidates’ semi-finalist).

Nakamura was almost on the wrong side of a huge upset in round five. He played the Scandinavian but wasn't paying attention in the opening and dropped a piece as early as move 8! However, the American GM kept on playing and even won.

In round six, the first round on Sunday, Nakamura was finally stopped. It was English GM Matthew Sadler, the enormously talented grandmaster who returned to regular tournament chess a few years ago, who had his opponent on the ropes but let his advantage slip away.

In the same round Giri got sweet revenge for his loss against Kramnik in Qatar, using a remarkable opening setup.

Giri and Caruana were still on 100 percent but drew on board one in round seven. Nakamura and McShane joined them in first place as they beat Adams and Agdestein respectively. The Norwegian GM missed a devilish trick which you can try to find yourself:

At that point there were four leaders: Nakamura, Giri, McShane and Caruana. Nakamura won his last three games (finishing with 4/4 after his draw with Sadler) and, needless to say, that was more than enough to clinch victory! After beating Giri he faced Caruana:

In the last round the only player who could still stop Nakamura was Anand. The Indian GM was the only player on 8/9, half a point behind the leader. Going for White's h-pawn was a winning attempt that completely backfired, and so Nakamura also won that last game, which he started with 1.b3, just like in the first round.

Super Rapidplay Open | Final Standings (Top 30)

(Full final standings here)

The rapid tournament was a 10-round Swiss played on Saturday and Sunday, with five rounds each day. The time control was 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment.  Last year the London Chess Classic's main event was a rapid tournament, when Nakamura also won.

I offered draws to my opponents in the @londonchess2014 but they would have none of it!

— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) December 7, 2014

Finished second in the London rapid, beat some juicy opponents, lost to the winner Hikaru and won a bunch of rating. #londonchess

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) December 7, 2014

Equal 3rd (sixth on tie-break) with 8/10 behind Nakamura, Giri, Caruana, Anand and Kramnik. Not bad for an old man.

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) December 7, 2014

John Saunders provided some statistics:

“The PGN file of games played on the top ten boards, 100 in all, shows that only 17 of these top-end encounters ended in draws. 83% decisive games is enough to make any tournament organiser or armchair spectator salivate. The titled player count shows that 34 GMs, 40 IMs and 30 with lower titles, took part, from 48 different countries, with 266 from England, followed by 16 from France and 14 from Norway. 405 players took part in total: 821 white wins, 234 draws and 757 black wins, making 1,812 in all and 87% decisive games.” 

On Monday evening the elite group of six players will take part in a blitz tournament that will determine the drawing of colors for the main event, which will be held Wednesday-Sunday, Dec. 10-14. This year it's five rounds of classical chess.