A Nail In The Coffin! – Nakamura vs Dubov | Chessable Masters

A Nail In The Coffin! – Nakamura vs Dubov | Chessable Masters

Opening: Sicilian Accelerated Dragon
Title: A Nail In The Coffin! – Nakamura vs Dubov | Chessable Masters

Hello Chess Friends and Welcome to the Channel.I’m back with a fantastic game played yesterday at the Chessable Masters. Nakamura vs Dubov is a game that Nakamura must win or he is out from the tournament and that Dubov can’t lose or he risks to be the one not passing the cut. It was a beautiful decisive game, let’s get started.

[Event “2020-chessable-masters”]
[Site ”
[Date “2020.06.22”]
[Round “10”]
[White “Nakamura, Hikaru”]
[Black “Dubov, Daniil”]
[Result “1-0”]

1. e4 c5 {the Sicilian Defense} 2. Nf3 Nc6 {and now instead of the open
sicilian or the Rossolimo attack, here comes} 3. Nc3 g6 {it’s becoming a sort
of accelerated dragon where white, having already played Nc3, can’t push the
c-pawn for the Maroczy bind. This is the same setup that Nakamura and Dubov
played 3 times at the Lindores Abbey in the final match: two draws and 1
victory for Dubov with the Black pieces.} 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 {
if Qd2 there is the annoying Ng4. And it’s a good idea for Black to play Nf6
before d6} 7. Bc4 {preventing the d5 push} O-O 8. Bb3 {with the bishop now
protected and shielding the unprotected b2 pawn. The players are following
their previous 3 games and Dubov continues to do so with} Re8 {line that
Stockfish doesn’t like much but that in practical play scores very well for
Black. The main continuation was d6, transposing to the Dragon and the second
most played idea is a5. Here Nakamura deviates from their previous games where
he played Nxc6 or h3} 9. f4 d6 {only 2 games in database and not among
grandmasters} 10. Qf3 {is a novelty and the game is now original. Another
option is to prepare this move with h3, preventing the annoying Bg4 that will
force the queen back to f2. But then probably the Black bishop would like to
come back to d7 where it stands better. So more or less it’s the same loss of
time} Bd7 {and in fact Dubov doesn’t annoy the queen with Bg4} 11. O-O Ng4 12.
Nxc6 bxc6 13. Bd2 d5 14. f5 {what to do now? If white is able to open the
f-file and to clear the diagonal for the bishop is game over. More than that
there is the Knight under attack. That’s why Dubov retreats the Knight to} (14.
exd5 cxd5 15. Nxd5 {Black recaptures the pawn with Bxb2}) 14… Ne5 {with tempo
} (14… gxf5 {is just a bit better. Because the pawn is protected by the
bishop white must recapture with the e-pawn and the f-file is still closed} 15.
exf5 Nf6 {now it seems that everything is under control. But white has many
some aggressive plans in his pocket. Qg3, Bh6 is one of them. Re1 and then
doubling the rooks on the e-file agains the weak e7 pawn is another one}) 15.
Qf2 e6 16. f6 {in Italy we say that white just put a nail in the coffin. From
castle to coffin, you can imagine how dangerous is a pawn controlling g7} Ng4
17. Qf3 {how to recapture? If} Qxf6 {but the Knight is lost} (17… Nxf6 18. e5
Ne4 19. Nxe4 dxe4 20. Qxf7+ Kh8 {with a clear advantage for white. Problem is
that Nxf6 is the best move. Dubov blunders}) 18. Qxg4 Qd4+ 19. Rf2 f5 20. Qf3
fxe4 {Qe2 solves all the problems. Well the only problem is Re8, new pieces
attacking the pinned rook. But Nakamura goes pacman} 21. Qf7+ Kh8 22. Qxd7 Rad8
23. Qxc6 Rf8 {is the second mistake because there is} (23… e3 {is the move
to play but white is still plus 4} 24. Bxe3 Qxe3 25. Raf1) 24. Be1 Qe3 25. Qxe6
Bd4 26. Nxd5 Qe2 27. Qe5+ {is a fork and a winning deflection} Bxe5 {the rook
isn’t pinned anymore and can capture the rook} 28. Rxe2 1-0

After the 3 games in Lindores, Nakamura made his home work and came out with a different, more vicious plan to attack Dubov’s accelerated dragon and here is the result. Nakamura is in with Grischuk, Dubov is out for the tie-break. A dramatic final round group A. I hope that you liked the game and if you did, please don’t forget to subscribe to the channel. So we can watch together new great games. For now, thank you very much for watchign and see youy soon. Goodbye

Photos by:
Lennart Ootes
FIDE Master and Professional Photographer
You can follow him here:
@LennartOotes

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