Fabiano Caruana suffered a tough loss yesterday against Hikaru Nakamura. He was fighting to survive a completely lost position and it seemed that he had chances to escape. Nakamura was satisfied to get the revenge from the Round 1 loss against Fabi, and disclosed he was preparing the line for more than two hours. (Interview with Hikaru Nakamura)
In the post-game interview with WGM Dina Belenkaya, Fabiano explained he saw a forced draw at some moment, but got ambitious to play for a win. Afterwards he realized it was a tough position to play with Black, and shortly after Nakamura was winning. Replay the game here. “I think he could have finished this game two or three hours ago, but he gave me some hope, which was torture in the end. I don’t know if I ever had a draw, but I guess he missed 42…h3 and after that, it’s very very close to being okay for Black,” added Caruana. See the complete interview below.
More on the Candidates 2022: Hikaru Nakamura: Revenge is sweet! / R9 preview / R8 recap
Featured photo: FIDE/Stev Bonhage
