Hikaru Nakamura beat Levon Aronian 2:0 in tiebreaks to clinch victory in the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix, putting him in pole position in the race to pick up one of the two Candidates Tournament spots available through the Grand Prix series. It was a remarkable return after two years away from classical chess for Hikaru, who finished unbeaten and more than justified his wild card spot. The final tiebreak games were nervous, with Levon missing chances to draw the first game before Hikaru defended a tough position in the second well to wrap up victory.
You can replay all the games from the knockout stages of the 1st leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix series using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from Raluca Sgircea and Arturs Neiksans.
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When Hikaru Nakamura got FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich’s nomination as a wild card for the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix series it proved controversial. 2016 World Championship Challenger Sergey Karjakin was the highest profile name to question giving the spot to an “inactive” player, given Hikaru hadn’t played a game of classical chess in over two years.
As Hikaru pointed out, however, that over-the-board inactivity was combined with being the most active elite chess player anywhere, if you counted online chess.
I think all these events, the ones that I played with Magnus, Levon and so forth, they’re all good, but obviously playing every day I think keeps you sharper. The question is whether you can still play the openings reasonably well or not, that’s the sacrifice you make when you play, but I think just practically speaking I’ve played more than anybody over the last couple of years, and I think it definitely helped, for sure.
Sergey picked up on Hikaru's comments.
Hikaru played classical chess as if he’d never been away and, one huge scare against Andrey Esipenko in the last group game aside, he avoided serious trouble. He won three games, drew seven and lost none, gaining 14 rating points. Whatever happened in the tiebreaks the event would have been a success, but with the play switching to rapid and potentially blitz chess Hikaru became the favourite — and it was a billing he lived up to!
With White in the first rapid game, Hikaru won the opening battle and emerged with a significant advantage.
Levon here won the pawn back with mass exchanges on e5, but at the cost of trading down into a tricky endgame. In the play that followed Hikaru converted that pressure into an extra pawn in a rook endgame, but he wasn’t happy with how he played after that and Levon had a great chance to save the game.
Levon Aronian's play wasn't quite as bold as his shirt | photo: World Chess
He seemed to have done the hard work when 46…Rd8? threw it away.
The move was made with one second to spare, though Levon thought for no less than 17 seconds. That allowed 47.Rxb5, while as Grandmaster Boris Avrukh notes, a move like 46…Rh3! should instead hold the position together. In that case taking the pawn on b5 allows Rxc3 and an easy draw. White can’t defend the c3-pawn with Kd4 first since Rh4+ will drive the king away. There’s no way for White to make progress.
As it turned out, that wouldn’t be Levon’s last chance. 57.Ke3 (57.Rf8+!) let the win slip, but the defence was very tricky.
The only move to draw is 59…Ra3!, while the flashy and more "logical" 59…f2 was in fact losing to 60.Rf8 Rxb5 61.Rxf2 and White had a theoretical win.
Hikaru summed up:
Tricky endgame, when all’s said and done, but I found a way to win it and obviously that was very important because the second game would have been completely different otherwise.
Hikaru finally clinched victory in the endgame | photo: World Chess
The second tiebreak game was a return to the overall pattern of the match of Levon winning the opening battle and retaining long-term pressure.
The position looked good, but winning it would require some extreme precision from White and a significant helping hand from Black. Neither was forthcoming, with the players both feeling the way the game went summed up their performance in the tournament. Levon praised Hikaru’s defence and lamented his own missed chances.
[Hikaru’s] openings were never his strong point, he got himself in bad positions quite often, but he always fights, so I admire that and he’s defending pretty well, as the first game showed. He defended a difficult position, even got reasonable counterplay. I think I need to work on my technique of playing better in better positions. That’s my conclusion out of this…
This has been a problem and the day before yesterday, also yesterday, I think my positions were pretty good and I just let the advantage disappear, so I need to cherish the advantage more.
Levon and Hikaru discussed the game afterwards | photo: World Chess
Hikaru commented:
I honestly felt that the 2nd rapid game sort of epitomised the difference between now and before, in that I got this position that wasn’t great, but I still just kept making moves, and I think in the past if I had this position against Levon, you go back to 2019, I think there’s probably at least a 50% chance if not more that I’d lose that game, even after winning the 1st one.
Levon failed to keep a grip on the position and soon it was Hikaru who had emerged with an extra pawn in a rook endgame.
The hyperactive white king meant the position was roughly level and Levon even still had some faint chances of weaving a mating net, but the much more likely outcome of pushing for a win was what happened in the game — the white king went from being the hunter to the prey, with 50…Rh8! a fitting final move of the event.
Levon could stop mate with 51.Re3, but after 53…Kh7+ 52.Re8 Rb8+ he’d lose the rook. Instead he simply resigned.
Hikaru Nakamura had shown that over-the-board and online chess weren't so different after all | photo: World Chess
That means that Hikaru Nakamura leads the Grand Prix standings after the first leg with a maximum 13 points.
Levon Aronian is also excellently placed, however, since each player will compete in two of the three Grand Prix legs, and the combined scores are what counts.
The top two players join Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Sergey Karjakin, Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana in qualifying for the Candidates Tournament.
When Hikaru was asked if he’d play the Candidates or, potentially, give his spot to someone else, he responded:
None of that’s on my mind. It’s only one tournament, and even though I won this event I think if I finish last in my group or something I won’t qualify, so I think it’s way too early to even think about such things.
Life is good for Hikaru, who commented of the change from 2019, “just in general I’m a lot happier now than I was”. He was proud of a curious record dating back to then.
I’m very proud of the fact I haven’t lost a rapid or blitz game in a very, very long time. I think the last one I lost was probably to Alireza in 2019. Like I said before, you try to find good moves, and I think the main difference is that I didn’t really feel any pressure. Even today I was just playing, and I could definitely tell that for Levon he was quite a bit more nervous than I was, so I think nerves play a role.
Hikaru in fact last lost to Magnus in the tiebreaks of the 2019 World Blitz Championship, though he hasn’t exactly played a lot of over-the-board chess since. He was unbeaten in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz (the Chess960 was another story, but also unrated) and didn’t lose a game in the World Rapid and Blitz in Warsaw before he had to drop out on the final day after testing positive.
Levon and Hikaru will both be playing the 3rd leg of the Grand Prix in Berlin, but Levon will also be right be action in the Airthings Masters | photo: World Chess
Hikaru and Levon will be back in action in the 3rd leg of the Grand Prix series, starting March 22 back in Berlin, but before that the 2nd leg will take place in the Serbian capital of Belgrade from March 1st. We’ll be covering that live here on chess24 with Jan Gustafsson and Peter Svidler commentating, while Anish Giri will be the top seed.
There’s no need to wait 12 days for top chess action, however, since World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen tops the field for the Airthings Masters, the 1st event on the $1.6 million 2nd edition of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The action kicks off at 18:00 CET on Saturday February 19th and you don’t want to miss it!
Watch the Airthings Masters live here on chess24 from 18:00 CET on Saturday!
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