Las
Vegas
National
Open
07

Nakamura -
Gonzalez

Let's pay our respects to Mr. Nakamura for winning this tournament. This was the 6th and last round and IM Gonzalez still had a perfect score. Nakamura, earlier in the game, moved his king from the kingside to the queenside in a manner some described as petrosianesque. Okay, maybe that was astonishingly profound but the advantage remained unclear. I will pick up the play here where one side has an advantage, and we will see how the master turns it into a win. Nakamura's played 80. Qc5+. By just looking at the position above, you'd surmise that white needs to further squeeze the black king in the corner and advance one or both passed pawns on the queenside, waiting for the right moment to simplify. Gonzalez opted for 80... Ka6, avoiding a simplification on c8. Let's take a look: 80... Ka8 81. Qc8+ Qc8 ( 81...Rb8 82. Qa6 mate ) 82. Rc8+ Ka7 83. Rc5 Rd7 84. Ra5+ and life is beautiful for white. Alright, so we have 81. Re2 Rb6 82. Re7 Qb8 83. Qf2 Rb7? 84.Re6+ and Gonzalez resigned.[ diagram 2 ].


Consider 84... Rb6, then exchanges occur with 85.Rb6+ Qb6 86. Qb6+ Kb6 87. f6. Very pretty. What can black play instead of 83... Rb7? Nothing much really... 84...Rf6 85. Qe2+ Kb6 86. Qb5 mate. And 83...Qd6 84. Qe2+ Rb5 85. Qb5 mate. It seems that Nakamura had a lockdown on this position.