By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/28/2008 10:31 AM

Hello again everyone! I did not have a chance to post a blog yesterday as I was out exploring Montreal for the first time since I arrived on Sunday. I spent much of the morning walking along various paths of the Mont Royal which has some great  natural beauty and spectacular views. After going up the Mont Royal, I went to Old Montreal and walked along some of the nice streets and shops which are quite crowded with tourists. One of the interesting things I find about Montreal is that it very much reminds me of France with both the language as well as the whole atmosphere and culture. This is why despite absolutely loving Montreal, I doubt I could ever live here as it is just too reminiscent of Europe. Considering that I almost exclusively play in Europe these days, it is nice to not be in the same sort of area as that in which my profession is spent. This is probably why I will end up staying in Vancouver, BC instead of coming back to the east coast.

Onto the rounds! In round 3 I was paired against IM Thomas...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/26/2008 12:43 PM

Before, I get right into this post, I'd like to start off by offering my apologies for posting blogs the day after the round. Unfortunately, after the round ends, I am usually quite tired, so I come back to the house, eat dinner and then spend the rest of the evening playing pool or just listening to some great people speak some excellent French. Therefore, it is unlikely I will be posting after rounds end. Yesterday, I was paired against American GM Varuzhan Akobian. I first remember seeing Akobian pop up on the American chess scene around 2001-2002. It was during this time that he emigrated from Armenia to the US and chose to live in Los Angeles. Akobian stalled somewhat after his big run during that time, but due to some good results (Gibraltar,Australia) he has improved his rating significantly to the 2600+ mark. During these past years, we have had many matchups with the overall score being +1 for him from 5 games. The lone decisive game was in the Imre Konig Memorial way back in 2002. Since then we have...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/25/2008 9:03 AM

Well, hmm, where to start? I arrived in Montreal the afternoon before yesterday on a surprisingly short flight from New York (1 1/2 hours). Overall the first day was nice as I am staying with the Charbonneau's, his great sisters and mum who I have not seen in years. So I had a pretty good day to start, but that was before the tournament began. Yesterday, I was paired with Black against fellow American Grandmaster and current US Champion Yury Shulman. Although I was feeling good for most of the day, I proceeded to play the game like a total beginner. It started when I simply forgot a move order in the opening by playing 9...0-0? instead of 9...Nfd7 which was correct. Unfortunately for me, Yury found the right idea by playing 10.Nd2 Nfd7 11.Nd3! The point being that unlike the main variation with 9...Nfd7 10.Nd3 dxc4 where I am up a pawn, here the knight on d2 protects c4. However, despite my horrible mistake, I proceeded to find some play with 10...b5 11.c5 e5!?. Later on, I got a slightly worse position and was...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/17/2008 7:24 PM

Ohaio gozaimasu from Japan! The tournament reached its finale yesterday as I won again to finish on 7/7. Overall, I did not have to face anyone particularly strong as the second highest ranked player, FM Akira Watanabe 2356 (Japan's Number 1) did not win his sixth round game to force a penultimate showdown. Therefore, I cruised and probably am sitting right at 2700 Fide now. I'll just wait to see what the actual numbers are come October. For now though, I am going to shift my focus to the Montreal International Round Robin since it is my last rated event before the October Fide rating list. In general though, I find that paying too much attention to ratings (Live Top Ratings in particular) is quite a distraction and not worth the stress or effort to look. My attitude is just to play every game one at a time and see where you end up in the end. I would like to once again extend my thanks to Ms. Watai the head of the Japanese Chess Association for inviting me for the 3rd year in a row. Although the competition itself...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/16/2008 5:56 PM

So I won both of my games yesterday to remain perfect with a score of 6/6. Very shortly I will be playing the 7th and final round which I hope to win for obvious reasons. Japan has been another fun and interesting experience for me although the more I come here, the more it seems less and less exotic of a travel destination. That being said, I will always enjoy coming back to my homeland and look forward to it each and every year. The only downside (note to travelers) is that the weather has always been in the mid-high 80's with extreme humidity which makes the 20 minute walk to the playing site rather less than enjoyable to say the least. However, such is life and so far it doesn't seem to be affecting my play. Since I haven't done much with this website recently, there are several updates to report. On the "homepage" there is the What's New tab with all the most recent news on me. I have also changed the events page slightly so that it now is in a calendar format which I hope makes it slightly more lively. Another...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/15/2008 4:40 PM

Hello again to all the readers in the blogosphere world. Since there is no live coverage of the tournament I am playing here in Japan, (quite a rarity for me these days ) I will catch everyone up on my results. So far I am 4/4 having played no one particularly strong thus far, but I will probably have to beat a couple of masters today, so anything is possible. The tournament itself is 7 rounds so there are two rounds today (Japan is 13 hours ahead of the US, 16 hours ahead of Vancouver) and then one round tomorrow. Hopefully I can continue to play well and win. Until next time, adieu.

Hikaru

By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/13/2008 11:00 PM

Greetings from hot and humid Japan. I will now confirm that I will be playing in the US Chess League for the Seattle Sluggers in the 2008 edition. Last year, I played for the New York Knights. We had some memorable matches and I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. Despite my rather mediocre performance throughout, the team did reasonably well before we lost to Boston in the semifinals. The main reason I have decided to play for Seattle as opposed to New York is the fact that I am residing in Vancouver right now, so it makes sense to play for Seattle which is only a few hours away. This year, I will try to do better than last year and I look forward to having a good result and Go Sluggers!

Cheers,
Hikaru!

By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/12/2008 11:03 PM

Hello everyone! I haven't blogged in some time, so I will give some general updates on my plans for the future.Obviously, my most recent tournaments were in Mianz, Germany where I won the Fischer Random tournament. Overall, I felt like I played very well for the first part of the tournament first 6-7 rounds, then I fell apart. Despite being in great condition these days, I think that the fact that I was unable to get on the time zone definitely had some effect on me. From the very first day there I started falling asleep around 6-7 PM and waking up at 1 or 2 AM. Throughout the whole tournament this held true as I would play my games and then promptly fall asleep immediately. On some level this almost certainly affected me, but alas I'll get back to the tournament itself. The first truly bad game I played was against GM Evgenij Najer who I have played quite a few times in the past although none of the games were within the last two years. In the game itself, I was worse out of the opening, then dropped a pawn for...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 7/27/2008 11:40 AM

Hello again everyone! For the first time in several months, I have actually been following some chess tournaments over the past week and a half, so I will start with my observations on Biel. Obviously Carlsen is the big favourite due to his recent results as well as the opposition of the field. Overall his play has been ok, although not quite what I would expect from someone who is supposed to be number 2 going on number 1 in the world as he got lucky to beat Pelletier and ridiculously lucky against Bacrot in a close to losing position. Carlsen aside, Alekseev seems to be playing solidly as does Dominguez as they are cruising along to see who finishes 2nd. And then there are the other 3. Onischuk seems to be playing reasonably well although losing R+N vs R to Dominguez is disappointing to say the least. Bacrot is having another up and down tournament as he started off horrifically but has bounced back with two straight wins. Pelletier on the other hand is just having a terrible tournament. Yannick is a nice guy,...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 7/19/2008 8:59 PM

Hello again everyone! Sorry for not posting anything for such a long period of time, but I have been very busy with life. As of right now, I have not played any chess tournaments since the wretched National Open. Having said that, I cannot complain with my current 2697 rating and number 31. My next tournaments as planned right now will be in Mainz, (Rapid+Fischer Random) Japan, and a reasonably strong round robin tournament in Montreal. Hopefully I can continue to play well and improve my world ranking (crossing fingers). I would also like to give a shout out to a friend of mine, Ylon Schwartz, who has reached the final table of the World Series of Poker in November. Good luck, and may the Schwartz be with you! Till next time, over and out!