Rest Day at Wijk

Nothing to watch today from Wijk because it's a rest day.
I wonder if it's cold over there like it is here.
It's 8 degree Fahrenheit (equals to -13 degree celsius) over at my place.
I'm staying in the office. Maybe will just order delivery food for lunch.

It was a lot of fun to watch Wijk this year because a lot of young players are playing.
The thing about them is that, they are eager to explore and like to take the risk.
The older generations like Anand and Kramnik, played each other for too many times already and they knew already after the 16th or 17th moves, there is no win and they immediately settle for a draw. It's still useful for amateur or enthusiast like me to study their games for opening prep.

I was following Carlsen-Naka yesterday on chessdom's live online board (on this blog) and it was a lot of fun.
The obvious moves in the opening that I would have not played would be
9. g4
I would most probably castle (0-0) right away after Black casted.
Daniel King also mentioned that Black should have played 8. ..Be6 rather than ..0-0.
I think I would have too. Normally as Black, I would wait for White to castle before I decide to castle. Sometimes, I would wait for too long before castling - which is happening in a few of my games right now on Chess.com (which is causing me a lot of troubles).
But being an enthusiast, sometimes, I love the pressure of defending since it develops my defensive skills.

I also saw the Black's idea of Nc4,Na3+ but might have not played 18. Ka1
Maybe I would wait until Black actually plays ..Nc4 before moving the King - and normally it's already too late by then. And that's why I'm still at my stage right now (hehe!)

I think GM Navara sugested 24. Qf1 instead of Qg3 - and this was suggested by a chess engine and is very hard to be found by human on chess board. I thought, Kasparov or Kramnik might have found this - or if not, Fisher would. It was an interesting move indeed.

For me, I would reward 25. Bc1 as the move of the game because it solved White's problem right away. White can attack with full-force after that.

Even though I saw that 28. ..Qxd5 was wrong because it will limit the Queen's movement and it allows 29. Bxh6, I did not see the whole continuation and I wasn't sure that White can win because I thought he's a tempo behind because he still needs to play c3 to defend the Knight in d4 and this will give Black time to save his King. Turns out, White does not even have to defend the Knight.

For that reason, I applauded Carlsen from the seat of my comfy chair at my home, even though he could not hear it. At least if he stumbled upon this article somehow, he can still acknowledge it.

You can review the game below courtesy of Chess.com and Daniel's King analysis follows in 2 parts, courtesy of Playchess.com