Nakamura rock solid… wins 2015 Gibraltar!
GM Hikaru Nakamura is riding high off of his recent win in Gibraltar, Spain. The 27-year is a bit more mellow in his demeanor, but his play is still high-octane. At the Gibraltar Masters, he bolted out of the gate with six straight wins including a creative queen romp against Jovana Vojinovic and a crucial win over Veselin Topalov. That was enough to ward off any competitors including David Howell who held Nakamura to a draw and stopped his six-game winning streak.
In the next round, Nakamura clinched his second Gibraltar win with a draw against India’s Pentala Harikrishna while Howell was trying to win against Hou Yifan to force a tiebreak. Turns out that Howell almost lost… or should have lost! Nevertheless, Nakamura got a well-deserved win vaulting him back into the position as America’s #1 player.
All Games (Masters): https://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/pgn/masters/masters_all.pgn
There was a slight tremor in the chess world when Wesley So overtook Hikaru Nakamura after his strong performance at Tata Steel in Wijk aan Zee. Being the top player can sometimes be a big deal and many players fight tooth and nail for that position. Nevertheless, Nakamura entered Gibraltar with the goal of playing “good chess” and didn’t make too much of the new rivalry. Currently #6 on the live list at 2792, he will enter the U.S. Championships coming up in March, fully aware that the world will be watching this budding rivalry.
Life is good… Hikaru Nakamura and fiancé Maria De Rosa
Photos by Sophia Triay.
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Video gibraltarchesscongress.com.
For those of you how think you understand chess, watch analysis of Vojinovic-Nakamura…
Video by Kingcrusher (YouTube).
Oh interesting game, well often times when on chess.com they ask me, what do I think of kingkrushers videos? I believe hes doing the best he can with what he has LEARNED with Traditional theories, however clearly by this video there is a bit of uncertainty in his analysis if u just listen to it. Daaim of course its an Ultramodern-like structure , you know that! lol Ultimately this type of style will remove the old chess, I believe that’s also clear. I see the traditionalist likes the Ultraword “TRICKY” hehehe, funny stuff. oh UM at the BUFFALO PUBLIC LIBRARY JUST HAVIN FUN, IN REAL LIFE.