Hikaru Nakamura Plays 810 moves in a Chess Game!
IIn a recent Titled Tuesday encounter, GM Hikaru Nakamura played a record-breaking game consisting of 810 moves! Nakamura was up against the 20-year-old American IM Justin Wang in round 4 of the Late Titled Tuesday held on May 13. Even though Hikaru only finished only #13 on the standings, he gave the chess fans a game to remember. This is how it all went down;
Hikaru, with the white pieces, managed to outwit his lower-rated opponent by move 50 itself as he trapped the black queen with 50. Nf3!
Usually you’d see a resignation after a move like 50. Nf3, but Justin Wang had other plans. The 20-year-old IM played the whole game out until he was a move away from the inevitable checkmate. It took Hikaru 10 moves more to clean up the board, leaving only 6 pawns for Black by the lone Black king.
Nakamura, on the other hand, took note of Justin’s intentions and decided to stretch the game for as many moves as he could just “for the memes”, as he puts it.
Nakamura very consciously avoided any repetitions or 50-move-rule draws and ended up with the following position where he had promoted all his remaining 7 pawns. In a game that started with 3 minutes on the clock of each player now saw black with more than 10 minutes as he pre-moved his way to 800 moves.
Following is the position after white played 810. Q8c5, where black, after playing Kb3, finally threw in the towel by hitting the resign button as Hikaru no choice but to checkmate black on the next move, preventing the 50-move-rule draw:
There was evident frustration by some players, pointing out how such games disrupt the flow of the tournament. Because the game lasted over 20 minutes, the rest of the participants were forced to wait for Hikaru and Justin’s game to conclude. Who is to blame for the delay? Justin Wang not resigning in a blatantly lost position? Or Hikaru, for not delivering the checkmate sooner? While it was frustrating for some, the game became an exciting yet hysterical spectacle for the fans!
