2015 World Chess Cup: Round #5

Today’s first game of the quarterfinals was all about Pavel Eljanov. The Ukrainian upended the American star with a display of powerful play from a Catalan. Hikaru Nakamura, from which kinetic energy radiates in his play, tried to catch his opponent napping. On 15…Bh7!? white had a bit more play in the center. Eljanov uncorked 20.Nxb7! ultimately giving up two minor pieces for a rook and two pawns.

The problem with Nakamura’s pieces was the mobility. The knight and bishop were not able to work harmoniously until it came to stopping the a-pawn. Eljanov played 31.Rab2! seizing the b-file and his rooks were soon pillaging the queenside. While black was running out of the moves, the white king made a sudden dash to weave a mating net around the black king. Eljanov missed mate a couple of times, but it was a superb show of creativity and power play. Nakamura will be forced to win and if he does so, he will get the new nickname “The Comeback Kid”.

In Mamedyarov-Karjakin, the Azeri crowd was anticipating another fallen black king, but the Russian fought and fought and fought staving off what appeared to be a certain loss. After torturing Karjakin for hours, Shakh played 69.f3? giving black a chance to get the pawns off the board. Then he let the trapped black rook out of prison and the game flat-lined to 0.00. The support for Mamedyarov is increasing and the President of Azerbaijan Chess Federation Elman Rustamov weighed in,

“The main reason of my coming today is to support Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. I met him before the game and wished him success in the upcoming match. I really wanted him to know that we believe in him and all of us really want him to gain success in this tournament, though I understand this is a very hard tournament and that the best players in the world play here. Everyone wants to succeed in this World Cup, so the competition is very tough”.

Will Shakh come through?

Not the game of the day, but fireworks expected tomorrow and Wei Yi-Svidler!
Photos by FIDE.