Hikaru Nakamura is now back to being the world no. 1 in both rapid and blitz chess after defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2:0 in tiebreaks to reach the final of the last FIDE Grand Prix and overtake Magnus Carlsen on the rating list. He’ll take on Wesley So, who also scored a 2:0 win over Amin Tabatabaei, but in fact both losing semi-finalists had great chances to clinch victory, with Amin close to winning in both games.
Hikaru Nakamura's 2:0 tiebreak win over Shakhriyar Mamedeyarov made him rapid world no. 1 | photo: World Chess
You can replay all the games from the knockout stages of the final leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix using the selector below.
And here’s Peter Svidler and Jan Gustafsson’s live commentary on the semi-final tiebreaks.
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Both FIDE Grand Prix tiebreaks finished 2:0, though it was anything but easy for the winners.
It was hard to imagine Wesley So would have too much trouble reaching the final after winning the first classical game, but he suddenly lost the second game after a disastrous one-move blunder. He commented after the tiebreaks were over:
First I’d like to say great match to my opponent! I had to give my all, it was very tough. Hopefully one day he’ll be as strong as Alireza and get there one day. Yesterday I made the worst blunder of the year, basically. I don’t recall ever blundering something like that, although that’s the nature of chess, the nature of the game. Mistakes happen.
The first rapid game was also tough for Wesley, with Amin revealing that his second Hans Niemann had given him some tips on the Jobava London, an opening system on which Hans has produced a Chessable course. Wesley quipped:
Now I know who the traitor is, Hans Niemann! I’ll probably play him in the US Championship this year — he’s very strong and improving.
Wesley confessed to having totally missed 10.Ne4!, “a great shot, and after that basically White has almost a winning position”.
Of course Black can’t take the knight due to checkmate on d8, so that it has to be allowed to reach d6. That proved to be a major thorn in Black’s side, but after 19.Ra3?! (19.Bxh6!) Amin was impressed by Wesley’s response.
He felt Wesley showed his “great understanding in endgames” by not defending the a6-pawn but going for 19…Nf5! 20.Bc5 h5! 21.Rxa6 Ra8 when it turned out that, despite White temporarily still having an extra pawn, it was Black who had all the chances.
Wesley So was in trouble, but his fightback brought victory | photo: World Chess
The final mistake came on move 31.
Amin decided to give up the d-pawn to try and push his a-pawn, but after 31.Bb6? Nxd6 32.a5 it turned out that Black was simply winning, as Wesley smoothly went on to prove.
That meant that once again Amin was playing catch-up, this time with the black pieces, but once again he got real chances. He played the King’s Indian Defence and when he got to play 13…f5! he had everything he could have hoped for out of the opening.
Amin Tabatabaei has enhanced his reputation during the FIDE Grand Prix | photo: World Chess
There were lots of twists and turns ahead, but the critical moment perhaps came after 33.Rg3.
It turns out the move to keep an advantage was 33…Kg7!, when 34.Bh3 could be met by 34…h5. It was hard to foresee why that was so much better than playing 33…h5?! immediately, but we got the demonstration in the game.
Wesley was able to play 34.Ra3! a6 35.Rb3! b5 36.Ra3! Bc8
And now 37.Bxb5! won a crucial pawn and left White an exchange up, since after 37…axb5 38.Ra8! the c8-bishop is lost. If the king was on g7 this wouldn’t have been an option.
The position after that little tactic was drawn, but a draw was no use to Amin and he went on to lose after trying to generate some chances.
“Overall I’m thrilled with my result”, said Amin, while Wesley will now face a Hikaru Nakamura who he noted is, “getting back to his old 2800 level form”.
Nakamura-Mamedyarov was as entertaining as you would expect | photo: World Chess
Hikaru Nakamura noted that his preparation for tiebreaks against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov hadn’t been too strenuous:
All I did was just watch movies all morning. I didn’t want to do any preparation, so I was just watching movies, relaxing.
As he also noted, however, being able to relax at the chessboard, as he feels he can now since his day job is streaming, can be a big asset. Hikaru is up to world no. 11 again in classical chess, while he’s also now not just the blitz world no. 1, but the rapid world no. 1 on the live rating list as well!
Hikaru put his victory down to the first game:
I think the first one obviously was the match, basically. It was very complicated. I tried to be too creative, I think this 8.exd4 and 14.g4 and all this stuff was probably way too much.
The computer agrees that 14.g4?! was asking too much of the position, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was also feeling good, which was why he didn’t take the draw by repetition that he could have on move 31. Hikaru then felt that 35…Rxg4+, which Shakh played with under a minute on the clock, was a practical mistake.
He explained:
Suddenly the rook gets trapped, and then you’ve no easy moves, and with a minute on the clock it’s just too hard to play.
Shakh also had some regrets — “it was better to draw if I don’t see how to win, as it’s a position where if you don’t win you will lose” — but at least objectively speaking it turns out it was a winning move for Black!
After 36.Kf1 best was the immediate 36…Qd7!, supporting the rook, taking control of the f5-square, and threatening Qh3+ or Qg4 if the rook moves.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov correctly played on for a win, but lived to regret it | photo: World Chess
Instead in the game after 36…Nc4!? 37.Re6! Qd7 (37…Re4! was time to bail out at the cost of a pawn) 38.c6! bxc6? it was all over.
Hikaru took the chance to play 39.Nc5! Qc7 40.Bc1! (taking away the f4-square from the black queen and rook) 40…Kh6 41.Qf5! and Black resigned.
It’s no longer just that the g4-rook is trapped, since Bxg5 and Rxc6 are other killer ideas in the air.
Hikaru Nakamura and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov after the match | photo: World Chess
That meant Mamedyarov had to win the second game on demand and, like Amin, he put up a good fight.
Here Shakh went for 17.Nxc6! bxc6 18.Bxc6, later commenting:
In classical chess I never would take the c6-pawn, but in rapid and blitz I think it’s ok. It will be some different position to play for a win, but it was also a big mistake.
In fact he’d played objectively the best move in the position, and Hikaru also defended it from a practical point of view.
It’s a must-win game. It’s imbalanced. I thought it was the right choice… I expected Shakh to take on c6 and I think with the match situation it was right.
The problem, however, was that after a couple of inaccuracies White’s advantage fizzled out, until it was Hikaru on top. He only needed a draw, but as with Wesley, he went on to win. 34…Bc5! was a crusher.
35.Rxc5 Re1# ends the game, but otherwise there’s no defence against Bg2 checkmate. Rather than give some spite checks, Shakh simply resigned.
Mamedyarov noted an unusual fact about his performance:
I think I’m the only chess player in the Grand Prix not to lose one game. I played all draws and won one game — I played very solid chess in the Grand Prix!
He did indeed draw all six of his classical games in Belgrade, while in Berlin he made five draws and scored one win against Vincent Keymer. Shakh was full of praise for his opponent:
Finally I want to congratulate Hikaru and Richard Rapport and wish them all the best in the Candidates, because it was a very good tournament, it was very nice to see Hikaru back at chess. Ok, for me it was not beautiful, not very good, to lose to him in the final games, but he played very good and he deserves to play in the Candidates.
For Hikaru, meanwhile, his job is not quite done in Berlin!
It just means I have to go and prepare. It’s kind of annoying, because for some days now my mind is somewhere else, but that’s life!
Hikaru Nakamura, who has also dropped out of the upcoming America Cup: "My mind is somewhere else" | photo: World Chess
If he needs an incentive for the classical games against Wesley So there’s the fact that he’s just 2.2 rating points behind 10th place Anish Giri on the live rating list. Ending the Grand Prix series as the rapid and blitz no. 1 and back in the Top 10 would be the cherry on the cake of an already hugely successful performance.
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