Hikaru Nakamura ( born December 9, 1987) is an American chess grandmaster.
He is a four-time United States Chess Champion, who won the 2011 edition of Tata Steel Group A and represented the United States at five Chess Olympiads, winning two team bronze medals. He has also written a book about bullet chess called Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate.
Wesley So in Sinquefield Cup 2016. Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour.
Sinquefield Cup 2016 starts with a bang! Two out of five games were decisive.
Wesley So beats Hikaru Nakamura in their clash ([replay]) in Round 1 of Sinquefield Cup. Apparently, this was So’s first win over Nakamura in a classical time period game. Meanwhile, Peter Svidler fell victim to Veselin Topalov on the other board. The rest of the games were drawn.
The FIDE Ratings update for the month of August 2016 is out.
There are a lot of changes in the top 10, including MVL‘s jump from number 4 to number 2 after a 21 ELO rating points boost from 2798 to 2819. Let’s find out if he can keep his momentum in the upcoming Sinquefield Cup.
Ding Liren lost 23 ELO points after his loss in his mini match against Alexander Grischuk, among others, and thus slid down from number 8 to number 13.
Anish Giri and Sergey Karjakin lost ground as well after their dismal performances in Bilbao, and thus enabling Wesley So to gain control of the 7th spot.
You’ll find below the top 20 list:
| Rk | Name | Ti. | Fed | Rtg | Gms | B-Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2857 | 10 | 1990 |
| 2 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | g | FRA | 2819 | 11 | 1990 |
| 3 | Kramnik, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2808 | 7 | 1975 |
| 4 | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2807 | 7 | 1992 |
| 5 | Aronian, Levon | g | ARM | 2792 | 0 | 1982 |
| 6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2791 | 10 | 1987 |
| 7 | So, Wesley | g | USA | 2771 | 10 | 1993 |
| 8 | Anand, Viswanathan | g | IND | 2770 | 0 | 1969 |
| 9 | Giri, Anish | g | NED | 2769 | 10 | 1994 |
| 10 | Karjakin, Sergey | g | RUS | 2769 | 10 | 1990 |
| 11 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | g | AZE | 2764 | 0 | 1985 |
| 12 | Topalov, Veselin | g | BUL | 2761 | 0 | 1975 |
| 13 | Ding, Liren | g | CHN | 2755 | 16 | 1992 |
| 14 | Grischuk, Alexander | g | RUS | 2754 | 4 | 1983 |
| 15 | Li, Chao b | g | CHN | 2753 | 9 | 1989 |
| 16 | Harikrishna, P. | g | IND | 2752 | 13 | 1986 |
| 17 | Rapport, Richard | g | HUN | 2752 | 0 | 1996 |
| 18 | Svidler, Peter | g | RUS | 2751 | 4 | 1976 |
| 19 | Gelfand, Boris | g | ISR | 2743 | 6 | 1968 |
| 20 | Navara, David | g | CZE | 2742 | 7 | 1985 |
The Grand Chess Tour 2016 continues with the third leg, the Sinquefield Cup, in Saint Louis in Missouri. Watch the preview video below:
The third leg of Grand Chess Tour 2016, the Singquefield Cup in Saint Louis, Missouri, in the United States, was scheduled to have Vladimir Kramnik among its list of strong participants. But apparently, he withdrew for health reasons. Chess.com:
Kramnik, who was going to make his debut in St. Louis, told Chess.com: “I have had back problems for quite some time already. Since it is getting worse, I just want to use this month to cure it.”
Signs of aging, eh? Nevertheless, Sinquefield Cup will make do without the World No. 3 (according to the live ratings) and carry on with Peter Svidler in his stead.
Thus, the lineup for the Sinquefield Cup 2016 follows:
| Sd. | Name | Country | July Rtg |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fabiano Caruana | United States | 2810 |
| 2 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | France | 2798 |
| 3 | Levon Aronian | Armenia | 2792 |
| 4 | Hikaru Nakamura | United States | 2787 |
| 5 | Anish Giri | Netherlands | 2785 |
| 6 | Ding Liren | China | 2778 |
| 7 | Wesley So | United States | 2770 |
| 8 | Viswanathan Anand | India | 2770 |
| 9 | Veselin Topalov | Bulgaria | 2761 |
| 10 | Peter Svidler | Russia | 2759 |
It was a quiet 10th and final round for Bilbao Masters Final 2016 as the players drew all their three games. Magnus Carlsen was already the clear winner even before the final round started, and the participants were all seemed satisfied with their ranking, thus the draws in Round 10.
Hikaru Nakamura was undefeated during the entire tournament, and with one win against Carlsen in the very first round, he settled for second place.
Wesley So and Wei Yi shared third place. Check out the final ranking below:
| Pos | Name | Fed | Rtg | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2855 | 17 |
| 2 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2787 | 12 |
| 3 | Wei, Yi | CHN | 2696 | 11 |
| 4 | So, Wesley | USA | 2770 | 11 |
| 5 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2773 | 9 |
| 6 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2785 | 7 |
Check out the feature video from Bilbao Chess below:
With one round to go, Bilbao 2016 already saw a winner, as Magnus Carlsen now leads by 5 points against the second placer, Hikaru Nakamura.
Chessbase reports:
Before Bilbao 2016 Magnus Carlsen had never won a game with classical time-control against Anish Giri. But in round nine of the “Masters” in Bilbao he finally did. This win must have been particularly sweet because it helped Carlsen to win the tournament with one round to go. Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Karjakin drew and so did Wei Yi and Wesley So. Before the last round Carlsen now has 16.0/9 and is full five points ahead of Nakamura.
| Pos | Name | Fed | Rtg | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2855 | 16 |
| 2 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2787 | 11 |
| 3 | Wei, Yi | CHN | 2696 | 10 |
| 4 | So, Wesley | USA | 2770 | 10 |
| 5 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2773 | 8 |
| 6 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2785 | 6 |
I still couldn’t imagine how a Fitbit Blaze can help in the development of chess players!
Explain this to me further please?
The defending champion of the tournament, GM Wesley So, finally bags home his first win in this event over his nemesis, Anish Giri, in the eighth round of Bilbao Masters Final 2016.
The game opened with the classic Giuoco Piano. Eventually, they found themselves maneuvering the game with four-knights play leading towards the endgame, until strategic play led Wesley So to be up by a clear pawn by move 46. Anish Giri found himself trapped in a mating net and resigned after white’s 57th move. See diagram of the game below:
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Black to move after 57. Kf4
And thus, here, Giri cannot stop the mate by the next move in either 58. Rg7+ or 58. Nh4+.[replay]
Because of that win, Wesley So is now number 8 in the live ratings ranking, overtaking Anand and Karjakin:
Chess fans, and sports fans in general, call for blood during games in order to spice things up. But that was not the case in Round 7 of Bilbao Chess, when all six players settled for draws.
Bilbao Round 7 saw no change in the relative scores as all the games were drawn. Magnus Carlsen had slight pressure throughout against Wei Yi without ever being objectively much better. Careful calculation saw Wei Yi hold the draw. Hikaru Nakamura looked like he was getting somewhere against Wesley So but in the end the game petered out to a draw. Anish Giri had very little advantage against Sergey Karjakin and they traded to a draw.
As such, we see no movement in the ranking: