Hikaru Nakamura served the best surprise in the most crucial final round, took all the marbles from Fabiano Caruana and crowned himself king of the 2023 Norway Chess championship Friday in Stavenger, Norway.
The 35-year-old Nakamura, the second oldest gladiator in the tournament, essayed the seldom-used Fried Liver Attack variation of the Italian Game, Two Knights defense to completely befuddle his American compatriot.
All moves were heavily researched and automatic for Nakamura, playing white, who took gambit pawns in the first eight moves and appeared to have a cramped position until Caruana blundered on the 17th, a pawn push to the f5 square.
That was all Nakamura needed as he ran away with the title in an epic, come-from-behind fashion, as well as the more important World No. 2 live ranking and a step closer to challenging for the world title.
The victory was worth three points in the modified scoring system used by the Norwegian organizers who put up 2.5 million krones (around $234,000) in prize money. Nakamura bagged $75,000 for the effort. He tallied 16.5 points and edged Caruana by the slimmest margins, just one-half point.
It was a very sorry loss for Caruana who led from the opening round until the eighth, even beating semi-retired ex-world champion Magnus Carlsen in the opener.
“I played this variation in 2009. I think Fabiano wasn’t aware that I played this variation. He was playing for Italy at that time,” said Nakamura. “I think it’s fun to pull out some of these games back, specially some of these old variations and he was completely unaware.”
In complete blitzkrieg fashion, Nakamura blurted out variations of the opening and was completely in control over seemingly complicated and tactical positions, his third win against no losses. Nakamura gained 12.2 Elo rating points and has a 2787 Elo rating, six points ahead of Caruana.
Erstwhile world No. 2 Alireza Firouzja absorbed his third loss to unheralded Aryan Tari and dropped to No. 6. Norwegian wonder and national hero Magnus Carlsen kept his No. 1 rank despite losing 18.3 points. He has not won a single classical game, lost one and drew eight, earning points in the armageddon tiebreaks.
Carlsen finished sixth overall with 11.5 points. Full-blooded Filipino Wesley So, who lost in the Armageddon to rising Indian star Dommaraju Gukesh, finished ahead at fifth with 12.5 points.
Gukesh, 17 years old, took solo third place with 14.5 points, while Anish Giri of the Netherlands ended at fourth with 13 points.
Final Standings:
16.5 — Nakamura
16 — Caruana
14.5 — Gukesh
13 — Giri
12.5 — So
11.5 — Carlsen
11 — Mamedyarov
10.5 — Firouzja
9 — Abdusattorov
6 — Tari
