More information on the The Showdown is available at the Official Website. One of her most impressive victories was from the black side of a Hedgehog in rapid.ġ. Since blitz and rapid chess are particularly strong points for Hou, she continued to increase her lead with each phase of the match. In Fischer Random, however, Hou evened the score and then soon took over the lead.Īccording to GM Alejandro Ramirez, "Despite never having played Fischer Random in a tournament setting, she showed absolutely dominance over the nuances of development, pawn structure and piece placement in every single game." Here is his game from the White side, defeating a Sicilian Dragon.ġ. One of the highlights of the match was Negi's brilliantly played double victory in basque chess. Here is the final scoreboard for the match: Rxg2 e1=Q) and Black's king makes it f2 to support the pawns' promotion long before White's king can help.īy game 16, Caruana had secured the match victory with two games to spare. Kxa8 Ke5 White's rook is paralyzed by Black's advanced passed pawns (70. Can you find Caruana's winning move, played with only seconds left on the clock?Ħ6.Be4! and Nakamura immediately resigned. The surprise was that Caruana took over in the first blitz game and didn't let up.Ĭaruana admitted, "I was ready to take a draw in the first game" until he saw the key move at the last moment. This isn't a surprise: Nakamura is ranked #1 in the world in FIDE blitz ratings. Nd6 1-0 BlitzĮven though Nakamura was a point behind in match points, commentators GM Yasser Seirawan and WGM Jennifer Shahade still considered him the favorite. The highlight was Caruana's precise positional play to turn a slight advantage into a victory.ġ. He managed 3 points out of the 4 games, going undefeated. RapidĪlthough Nakamura is the higher rated rapid player, Caruana took over the lead in this phase of the match. WGM Jennifer Shahade described this position as "pretty wild" because "both bishops aim at the enemy king".īy the end of the day, Nakamura, the more experienced Fischer Random player, emerged with a one point lead in the match. Here were the starting positions that gained the most votes: White then adopts a formation with pawns on c4 and e4 and Black curls up in a Hedgehog. These structures arise when the black c-pawn is exchanged early on for the white d-pawn (as in the Sicilian Defence). Twitter followers of given eight possibilities chosen by Kasparov himself, ranging from "traditional" to "very chaotic", to vote on. An understanding of Hedgehog structures is an essential component in any chessplayer’s knowledge. It is also often referred to as Chess960 because there are 960 possible starting positions. Qe6+ Kh7 1/2-1/2įor the Fischer Random rounds, the organizers allowed viewers at home to participate by choosing the starting positions.įischer Random: The starting positions of the pieces on the back rank are randomized. With the white pieces, Caruana also seemed to have an advantage until Nakamura uncorked 21.e4!?, a positional pawn sacrifice to activate his pieces. An understanding of Hedgehog structures is an essential component in any chessplayer’s knowledge. Caruana missed this continuation and instead played 13.Ne7, allowing Nakamura to equalize.
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