Critics of Chess960 say that the bishops in the corner are just plain bad, because they get exchanged off early resulting in dull games....
Well I think Hikaru and Levon think otherwise! In the first two games of the match between Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian, both bishops were in the corner. The bishops did not get exchanged off for a long time and they produced very interesting games!
SP579 Nakamura v Aronian move 6 white to play
SP579 Aronian v Nakamura move 9 white to play
Look at the different approaches to the opening
taken by both players, excellent stuff!
taken by both players, excellent stuff!
In game two Aronian had white and tried the idea to damage blacks kingside pawn structure with 3.Bxf6 leaving Nakamura's bishop entombed in the corner by two pawns. What did Nakamura do? He just spent the tempo playing g6 and f5 to free his bishop in the corner and went on to win the game!
Big picture question for this SP. Is queenside castling a possibility, even though we did not see it in these two games?
Big picture question for this SP. Is queenside castling a possibility, even though we did not see it in these two games?
The last two games in the match also started with four corner Bishops. - Mark
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