[Sport] Carlsen iguala la final ante Nakamura

[#Steeven.™]

Magnus Carlsen equaled the score (1-1) in the final of the last tournament of the circuit that bears his name, endowed with $ 300,000 in prizes (255 thousand euros), after winning the second of the seven scheduled races against Hikaru Nakamura. The world champion began losing and achieved the victory (3,5,2,5) in the sixth game, second of the tiebreaker. The third sleeve will be played tomorrow from 4:00 p.m. and can be followed on the MARCA channel on YouTube.

When he suffered more pressure, with an adverse score and a rival playing the counter and giving up taking advantage with the white pieces, Carlsen showed his best game and the necessary calm after being on the edge of the abyss. He saved, using a tennis simile, a match ball and although it was not brilliantly - the position was not for it - if effectively. Carlsen is clearly the best in the world in games at normal pace (90 + 30) and fast (15 + 10): in lightning (3 + 2 or 5 minutes), the number one is Nakamura. This one, with his tactical chess, with a great instinct to know how to navigate the seas of tactical complications, is one of the few great masters who forces the world champion to be very, very concentrated, apart from giving him added motivation. They are encounters loaded with psychological nuances, which makes them very attractive from all points of view.

 

In the first game, Carlsen played with the white pieces as if he were Nakamura. On the attack, sacrificing material, as if wanting to show his adversary that he had no problem in taking the fight to his land. A strategy that in view of the development of the game was not fortunate since the Norwegian was always in tow, with less time, and was left with less tower and without real possibilities of aspiring to something positive. At one point, according to the computers, he had a choice of tables, but with so little time it was almost impossible for a human player to see, even if he was the world champion.

The afternoon started badly for Carlsen, who in the second set with the black pieces the tie in just 14 movements with a variant tabletop of the Berlin defense against the Spanish Apertura. Nakamura's plan was to add without risking and if he achieved that same result in the third game, his chances of winning the second round would be close to 90%. Carlsen was only worth the victory in the third game and opted for a maneuvering approach, of patience, with fighting on both flanks. The American came to have an advantage, however, it was not a position he likes the most and he gave the initiative to his rival. It was not a huge advantage for any other chess player, enough for Carlsen to even the score.

The fourth game was assumed to be an exchange of blows. It was not so. Nakamura, in an unusual event, repeated the same line as the second one and the fight concluded in the distribution of the point in, again, 14 movements. Exact copy that in a face-to-face competition and not online would surely have deserved a call to attention to the two participants.

 

The American gave up trying to fight for the victory with the white pieces -an advantage among super-elite players- and in the fifth -first tiebreaker in the 5 + 3- modality, he did not manage to disturb Carlsen at any time before getting the distribution of the point in 75 movements. Everything was decided in the sixth game. Nakamura, against the same opening of the 2nd and 4th, played more incisively.
What happened is that far from causing Carlsen's mistake, it was he who made a decisive mistake that ended up costing him the point and the second set.

His nerves played a trick on him and that is that giving up the advantage of the white pieces twice is, a priori, losing opportunities against the world champion, as happened at the end. It could, as an exception, have turned out well. There was none and Nakamura will have to continue complicating the games everything and more if he wants to win 4 sets against Carlsen. Very difficult mission with this format, although not impossible.