Hikaru Nakamura vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | FULL ARMAGEDDON Game in the Semi-Finals

and here they are ready for the final game in the semi-finals this one will decide who goes to the final it's going to be momodyarov or it's going to be hikaru nakamura hikaru nakamura with a draw will be in the final he has to win with the white pieces and five minutes on the clock and here we are here we are and it's all about speed it's going to be fast it's going to be furious pieces are going to fly towards the end of this game for sure but meanwhile my major of taking a slower approach this is a very common tactic in armageddon chess you just keep as many pieces on the board and hope that your extra minute will pay off towards the end because winning on the winning on time winning on the clock is just as viable as winning on position and slow start one set of pawns been exchanged both sides castling what do you think of anchor yeah in a way i mean i i do approve of this strategy i mean i've seen it done countless of times and it was very effective you just get a position preferably one with an endgame which you know you can maneuver you can play a lot a lot of moves and it will all come down to the clock and but we do know that hikaru is a beast with the clock with the mouse and he's fantastic with pre-moves and uh shakurya perhaps not as strong there yeah he did say shakuriya just in the last few months he has come back to online chess after several years away he's not as experienced with this thing with the mouse and it's all about mouth skills later on if it gets down to one minute each nakamura will win if the position is balanced on the board but right now white uh mamadyarov he's actually increased his time advantage look at the clock one minute and 20 seconds up on the clock and um white now has the option of jumping into the center with his knight he takes it um nakamura's bishops look good but the rest of black's position a bit suspect and he does have to retreat with his knight it looks like a great position on the board and the clock for mahmoud so far yeah i agree with you they there david um i think this is really really nice especially because hikaru has been forced to sound the retreat and now well okay it's very very logical play by mama jaroff offering to trade of pieces and of course you can see that hikaru actually keeps the bishop on i mean was that a wise choice to keep the bishops or it would be simplifying the position just easier to handle especially with the time deficit yeah i'm very surprised by nakamura dropping back with the black bishop there that black bishop that has just moved he's blocked in by his own pawns it's a bad piece maybe he could have taken it off and tried to survive the reason white is better here is because white has a dominant knight in the center of the board anchored by a pawn with the last move white is preparing to line up both of his rooks on an open line on okay also he breaks the pin that knight was previously paralyzed it couldn't move because that black bishop was attacking things now that night heading into uh more promising squares and nakamura he's just trying to swap things off he's playing ultra solid defensive mode right now but he had the chance to swap things off and he he refused to do that but now he's desperately trying to do that but i mean i'm just looking at the clock situation well the time difference has narrowed and shakaria has to take a decision quickly because otherwise his position will be nothing home to write about because remember hikaru has draw odds the game must finish in a win for shakarya mama jaroff he has to go through to the final and i really don't like what has happened for mama jaroff over the last couple of moves white knight the pride and joy of his position the most beautiful piece in white's uh in white's army it's just been traded off black has been able to swap that piece and now look at the clock situation as well it's about to level itself out and uh white not only has he been forced to trade his best piece no more time advantage nakamura showing why he is regarded as a speed demon and now retreating the queen that looks like the wrong direction for white yeah and completely the wrong direction and uh things are certainly going wrong for mama jarof okay he retreats his bishop so he attacks the pawn bishop and the bishop retreats and now he's being forced to make a defensive move on the left in order to blunt the power of the black light square bishop but okay hikari is in his element these moves are natural you know now he's opening up a line and looking at the clock situation while hikaru is still lower on the clock and that's something that that shakurya can actually play on but okay hikaru he's winning a pawn black has just won a central pawn with his knight nakamura is in full control and uh it did take him a bit of time but he's a pawn up not that much lower on the clock anymore only a few seconds down this is full retreat mode for mahmoud he's messed around too much with his knight too much with it that rook there pawn out for nakamura this one is it's getting close already it's completely winning for black the position it's completely slipped through his fingers and uh okay well of course the clock is definitely going to be something that mama jarv can hope for so i'm expecting him just to make natural moves he just has to keep uh now he has to go into hustle mode by hustle mode i mean start pushing the black pieces back um can you do this in a safe way it's not easy black brooks both of them were targeting white's bishop that white bishop had to be defended mabajorov stepped forward with his rook the only thing i can see going wrong for nakamura is the fact that the black king is slightly exposed some pawns have have moved in front of it and white had a threat there black's rook stepping back meanwhile nice nice blitz type of move you protect all your pieces that rook stepping back to a very solid square and uh again the time difference keeps narrowing now my majority is just under two minutes but so has hikaru okay well this is i like i like this move you know you're going to lose anyway your position is worse on the board so why not just throw everything into the air and uh okay the position is liven up white sacrificed a piece and that was what you liked ivanka and now okay white did get two pawns for the piece and now he's going towards the black king things are slowly starting to turn black's king not entirely safe white's rook super active and that's what you need to do you need to take risks you need to make your opponent's position hard to play it doesn't matter about the objective evaluation right now black's king looks nice and safe protected by the bishop but suddenly look at the dark square diagonal towards the black king white needs to get his queen onto that diagonal and it's almost checkmate um nakamura is still in control still doing fine but suddenly counter chances for mama yeah and uh i agree you know i actually quite like mama jara's position now especially lots of practical chances i really like this philosophy over protect your weaknesses and now is it the time to go forward you have to try yes you'd absolutely how are you going to do it are you going to do it with pawns are you going to perhaps doing it with pieces i like what you've done yeah beautiful beautiful so now the white work on the right is getting ready to maneuver itself to attack the queen and there is now a mouse hole for the white queen to escape to if she is attacked yeah and white does step forward with his queen there mamadorov he has upped the pace over the last dozen moves and look at the kings white's king is safer than black's king temporarily at least um and often that is the deciding factor when it comes down to these mad time scrambles when both sides have 30 seconds left on the clock meanwhile though nakamura bringing his rook across threatening to drop that rook down and attack the white queen and uh yeah but mama jarvis says no way and look how he's coordinating all his pieces so far there is no active threats and now the advance finally happens hikaru under a lot of danger okay but wow a big mistake by mama jarov he didn't realize that black's knight was about to jump forward attacking the white queen and threatening a fork white had to give up a rook so now white is down a whole rook for only three pawns it's still not game over still some chances because black's king is a bit open but nakamura all he needs to do is trade rooks and trade queens and the game is over mama jarov he has to hope he gets a trick in to checkmate the black king or play for time those are the only remaining hopes black is completely winning in position right now and okay white pushing pawns this is desperation from mahmoud look at his facial expressions he knows he's losing um but it's just about setting that final trap and he's continuing to advance his pawns black's bishop did grab a pawn there but you couldn't take it because white's bishop was attacked and nakamura leaning back he knows he's winning that's his body language when he's confident he's getting the queens off the board he's got 40 seconds that's enough time to win with an extra rook mahmoud about to resign there we go nakamura wins wow we're going to have a final with magnus carlsen and hikaru nakamura for the first time the american is in a final and the meltwater champions chess tour

Channel: chess24.5

Views: 88,837

Rating: 4.9205956 out of 5

Keywords: chess, chess24, Hikaru Nakamura, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Hikaru Nakamura vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ARMAGEDDON Game

Id: wxZ-Cxv67jc

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021