♕ 70% OFF Naroditsky and Shankland Method Bundle: https://www.ichess.net/sale/st-louis-special-gms-naroditsky-shankland-saturday/
A few years ago, Nakamura brought in Garry Kasparov for some training, hoping to close the gap on Magnus Carlsen. They worked together for about a year –it didn’t end well.
During the 2011 London Chess Classic, Nakamura was asked about how helpful the partnership was proving and, to the surprise of interviewer Daniel King, Hikaru basically said Kasparov was only useful for his openings. Did they look at middlegames?
Nakamura – “No, like I said, his strength was in openings. You look at middlegames or endgames and I’m quite convinced there are other players who are better than he was.”
Ouch. They split shortly afterwards.
I guess when Hikaru uttered these words he didn’t envisage ever meeting Kasparov in a competitive game. When they did, you can bet those words were still ringing in Garry’s ears.
In St. Louis, they came face to face again. In the rapid tournament, Nakamura was given White. A 77 move draw. On to blitz, Nakamura’s specialty. Hikaru White again. Another draw.
Now it was Kasparov got the White pieces and he wasted no time: h4, h5, g4. Facing a kingside onslaught, Hikaru was happy to force the early exchange of queens. Garry switched his attention to the isolated c-pawn, winning it on move 18. 10 moves later he’d added another pawn to the haul.
Desperate, Nakamura sought salvation in an opposite-colored bishop ending. Down on time, Kasparov had to think fast. GMs in the studio were predicting a draw. 33.h6!
In 5 seconds, Kasparov had found a way to force Black’s king to take the long way to the queenside. Kd4-c5-b6, White created a passed pawn, put his bishop on e7 and it was all over in 44 moves.
How do you rate Kasparov’s endgame now, Hikaru?
Today’s BONUS Webinar:
We’ve got a great bonus webinar for you today. GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Sam Shankland return to look at more of the best games from the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament starring many of the world’s best players including the living legend Garry Kasparov! It starts at 3pm – don’t miss it!
♕ 10 GM SECRETS: https://www.ichess.net/10gmsecrets/
♕ MORE:
http://www.facebook.com/iChessNET/ | http://twitter.com/onlinechessless
