Welcome everyone to the game between Hikaru Nakamura playing with the black pieces against Domar Raju Gkesh. A very interesting clash between these two players and when they play each other it's always fire on the board in this tournament. Hikaru uh has been having some troubles against GKE.
He lost a game on day one and drew one. Then on day two there were two draws and now coming here he has had one draw in the previous game. This is the second one.
So he would be looking to beat Gesh in one of their encounters. This is his final chance here. And the players are ready.
A handshake here. And off we go. Pawn to E4 by Gesh.
C5 by Hikaru. Knight comes out to F3. G6.
The accelerated dragon. This is going to be great. interesting uh opening that Hikaro is going for.
And queen B6 dangerous move attacking the B2 pawn. The knight comes back, attacks the queen, the queen drops back to D8. Queen D2, knight to F6 and knight C3, defending the pawn on E4.
Now you can go knight G4 here to attack the bishop. And Gesh is ready with bishop F4. Hikaru plays his pawn to D6.
[snorts] And this Maroxi bind setup is quite good for white with control on the D5 square. He plays H3 kicking the knight away. The knight can go back to E5 or F6.
Hikaru comes back to F6 which makes a lot of sense. And Ghes bishop H6. Now that's an interesting move here.
He's basically trying to get rid of this very strong dragon bishop that black has. So, bishop takes H6, queen takes H6, and pawn to A5. Now, A5 A4 is the idea here, trying to get rid of this knight and also soften up the dark squares.
Queen comes back to E3. And now A4 maybe just pushing it here. Yes, he pushes the pawn to A4 and knight to D4.
Oh, he comes back. Knight D2. Very interesting play here by Gesh.
Queen A5 played. The queen is active on this diagonal. Also on the fifth rank, the bishop comes out to E2 and Hikaro now goes queen C5 offering a trade of queens.
On one hand, it's nice to trade queens and get more control on the D4 square, which is what Hikaro will get after taking with the pawn. But on the other hand, now E5 becomes a very dangerous threat in this position. So, knight comes into D4 threatening to give a check on C2 and win the rook.
So, goes king F2. And now the E2 bishop is under pressure. He goes bishop D7 maybe trying to put the bishop on C6 to put pressure on the E4 pawn.
And white pushes pawn to E5. Knight jumps into H5. So the knight is attacking the pawn on F4.
He takes G takes H5 and knight E4. So the C5 pawn is hanging and Hikaru goes B6. Will Gukesh jump in with his knight?
Yes, he does. Rook goes to B8 defending B6. And now B3 played by Gkesh.
Just getting his pawns together. If you take take my rook gets activated here. So bishop F5 played and maybe you can simply go to C3.
He goes back to G3 [cough] and putting pressure on the bishop here. E6 played attacking the knight on D5. Well, you can give a check and actually snatch this pawn on H5.
Well, first Gh takes on F5. And Hikaru must take back with the knight otherwise his structure is absolutely ruined. Check.
King comes up. And now I guess Gesh can simply snatch the pawn on H5 and be a pawn up. It's a healthy extra pawn.
He does it. [snorts] The only thing in in Hikaru's favor is the knight is well placed and he can take control of the open file. He goes knight D4.
And very interesting move because after takes takes he's trying to put pressure here but Gkesh does not care because after ab his rook gets super active here. So Hikaru goes rook A8 trying to make sure that his rook is well placed and now threatens to take on B3. He goes rook D1.
Rook D8 because again if you would have taken twice here my rook would have entered. So he goes rook D8. Both rooks facing off each other.
The tension on B3 growing. Guessh chops off another pawn. Very cool.
And once again, it's not so easy for Hikaru. He goes knight C2. And Gkesh finds a great move.
Rook A B1. A3 played. Now trying to fix the weakness on A2.
Knight comes back to F6 [snorts] and knight to B4. This is a big weakness. Now, important for GKE is to take take and play H4.
But he goes directly H4. And this is a mistake. It's a very subtle mistake, but it's something that is worth analyzing because now rook takes, rook takes, and he can attack the A2 pawn here because his rook is very well placed.
Imagine that you had taken here on D8. Takes takes H4. Knight A2.
Then there is rook A1 and I simply win the pawn. So that's a very small line to show that trading rooks would have been better. He takes takes and knight A2 and Hikaru is back in the game.
H5 Gh is pushing his pawn and Hikaro look at him calculating with his hand there. Knight goes to C3 attacking the rook and Hikaru is like is there a mate? Rook D7.
King F8. H6. [snorts] H7 coming in.
Hikaru goes in. Well Gish goes in with a check. H6 played and now Hikaru's pawn is queening.
Guesh's pawn is queening. Who's faster here is the big question. And once again, Hikaru calculating by the way for Ghook D7 here was a big mistake.
He should have gone rook A1 and the position is equal. But once you give the check, it's a point of no return. Now Hikaru must push the pawn.
He is just calculating if this is fine for him or not. He pushes A2. And now for Gukes, the only chance, by the way, if you play H7, my king goes to G7.
So he goes for a check. King G8. Goes again for a check.
If king F8, it would be a draw. I mean it would be a repetition. So if if black wants to win, he has to calculate king H8.
And now rook takes F7 is a forced mate on H7. But the problem is he takes it. Knight E4 check.
What a beautiful deflection by Hikaru. Takes and now makes a queen. So the knight is away from the H7 square for just one move and he makes a queen.
Incredible. Knight G5. But Gu still has some mating ideas with his knight, rook, and the pawn.
So check, check. There could be a potential perpetual with H7 coming in. The best move now is rook A2 check.
He comes in. King goes up to G3 again. Queen E1 check.
Very important. He finds it. If king H3, then there is queen H1 and then you lose the G2 pawn.
So the king goes to G4 and Hikaru just making sure that the white king shouldn't simply rush away to G6 square. Takes king H5 and now queen E2 check. Very important move.
Oh, he touches the queen but doesn't make the move yet. Nikaru down to 10 seconds on his clock. He goes queen E2 finds the best move.
That's the thing about Hikaru. He's amazing at this calculation. King G6 again finds a beautiful move.
Knight cannot take the queen. It's pinned. So, pawn to F5.
And now very important move takes. King takes and takes queen E5. Amazing chess played here by Hikaru Nakamura.
And uh he has managed to outwit Gh. Rook is calculating here trying to see if there's any perpetual. King comes up to H7 check.
King G8 and King G6 threatening H7 and rook F8 mate. Queen G3 check. King F6 and check.
and king takes C6. Another check and that's over. A smile on the face of Gh.
He was very close there in that game to beating Hikaru. And uh they're just saying to each other that oh I could have given that check on H7 but there was an amazing line which I would want to show you all. Uh but I liked how Hikaro calculated in the end.
Guessh played really well in the opening and middle game and rook takes D8. I think they're calculating that key line where you have to take and I like the fact that both GH and Hikaru are analyzing. I think one of the main things about this event for GEH is that he's taking it as a very big learning experience for himself playing these top guys and uh trying to understand what he can do better.
So not just during the games but even after it he's analyzing with them. Meanwhile for Hikaru that's a very important win that he's gotten back against GKE. So on day one GKE beat Hikaru one and a half half.
On day three, it was Hikaru who beat GKE one and a half half. And on day two, they had a 1-1 draw. So, a very even battle between them at Clutch Chess Champion Showdown.
And uh yeah, G4 somewhere had to be played, says Hikaru. I love the the analysis there. The arbiter very respectful and mindful to let the players finish their analysis.
And uh the next round will begin shortly, but it's now time to show you a very key line that will really really blow your mind. We spoke about how it was important to take on D8 here and then push the pawn to H4 and not push it directly in H4. H4 like in the game that Gkesh did because it allowed Hikaro to take and take on A2 and the rook was here.
However, the interesting point here is that after H4 now knight A2 is met with rook A1. But if you give a check, I go king G3. You take uh you now go rook takes A2.
Imagine now I play rook D1. So I'm coming in. Let's say you go rook B2 with the idea of A2, Rook B1, A1.
I go for a check. King A, King F8. And now a check.
If you come here, it's a mate. So you must go to G7. I go H5 here.
Now I can I can also go first check and then H5. But let's say H5. You go A2.
And now check. King H6. Check.
King G7. Rook H7. King F8.
And now a very important move. H6. And you will see that there is no way to stop the mate for black.
It's beautiful position cuz I'm threatening rook check. King can't come up here. Has to go to E7 and rook E8 mate.
And even if you go here trying to run, there's just no escaping. And that's a mate. So it's a very pretty variation just to show how difficult it is for human beings to understand that taking here was much better than actually just pushing the pawn directly in the game.
After H4 as we just saw knight A2 and knight C3 Ghook K1 to keep the balance but once he moved in here well there was no coming back and he lost the game.
