 "Hikaru Nakamura faces a must-win situation in Game 2 of the blockbuster final against Magnus Carlsen in the Freestyle Chess Tour event in Paris. Image credit: Freestyle Chess")
Magnus Carlsen capitalised on a blunder by Hikaru Nakamura to seize the lead in the final of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour event in Paris on Saturday while Arjun Erigaisi collected his third victory in four games to inch closer to the fifth spot. The penultimate day of the Paris leg of the inaugural Grand Slam Tour witnessed all four games ending on a decisive note, with Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi also winning their games besides Carlsen and Erigaisi.
In the dream showdown between two of the world’s top players, Nakamura fought back impressively in the middle game while playing with black pieces and was handling every curveball that the world No 1 sent his way. However, Nakamura committed a blunder in what would prove to be his final move of the evening, undoing all of his hard work in the process.
How Nakamura served Carlsen a victory on a platter
The American GM left his King unguarded by advancing his bishop (Ba2), towards the second rank, where he had also positioned a rook in order to keep Carlsen’s King in check. The Norwegian GM immediately responded by moving his own bishop aside (Bf8+) to give Nakamura a check with his rook.
Nakamura’s expressed changed within seconds after the move as he realised his blunder, and was left ashen-faced as he shook hands with Carlsen, realising there was little hope for him to wriggle away to safety from this position.
Arjun, who had lost to Nakamura in the quarter-finals, continued his solid run after defeating Nepomniachtchi in their 5th-8th place classification match. The world No 4, playing with black pieces, bossed the second half of Game 1 against Vachier-Lagrave and eventually defeated the French Grandmaster in 41 moves.
And in the third-place playoff witnessed a rematch between Caruana and Vincent Keymer – finalists in the Weissenhaus leg of the Grand Slam Tour in which the latter was crowned champion.
In what was the longest game of the evening, Keymer fought hard while playing with white pieces but couldn’t stop the American GM from closing in on his King with his Queen and a rook, eventually accepting defeat in 66 moves.