By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/25/2009 1:31 PM

Greetings to everyone out there from beautiful and sunny Seattle as the extended summer continues out here. Unfortunately, I have been quite busy since my last blog which is why I have slowed down considerably on my postings. However, true to form for the fans, I am going to try and add more information in general. Here goes nothing, hope everyone enjoys the reading!

UW 16 USC 13

Last Saturday, I went to the Huskies-Trojans game with my good pal, Elston "Troy" Cloy II. Shockingly enough, despite having gone to a couple pro football games as well as a zillion hockey and baseball games, I had never gone to a college football game. Due to my close proximity to the university district and village, it made sense to jump at this opportunity especially as the Trojans were in town for the biggest game of the season. Since I had made it quite well known that I was planning to go to the game, I chatted briefly with my friend IM John Donaldson (also a player and manager of the San Francisco Mechanics in the...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/17/2009 6:24 PM

For those of you who have been following my blog, I mentioned a phone interview which I did with a reporter from Pacific Citizen. The article has now been published and here is a link to it.

http://www.pacificcitizen.org/site/details/tabid/55/selectmoduleid/373/ArticleID/417/reftab/36/title/No_Fear_Chess/Default.aspx

That is all for now. I will probably go spend my afternoon over at the par 3 golf course since the sun has returned and I need to work on my short game. Have a great weekend everyone, and GOOOOOO WASHINGTON HUSKIES!!!

 

By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/17/2009 12:50 AM

Greetings on an unfortunately, rainy evening here in Seattle. Sadly, today broke the streak of eight days in a row of perfect sunny skies without a cloud in sight. Alas, I guess this is a sad sign that summer is nearing an end for us west coasters. Oh well, such is life. Before I dive right into the US Chess League match tonight, I would like to take the opportunity to mention what I have been up to since the last time I blogged. If it was not for the dedicated fans both here and on ICC, I would not be as successful or motivated as I currently am. So once again, I would like to thank everyone for their continued good wishes. Here in Seattle, when the weather is so great, it becomes impossible to stay indoors and glued to a computer. As such, I spent most of the weekend down in Belltown which tends to be one of the more popular areas when it comes to nightlife. I went to this restaurant Imo near Pioneer Square which is a quaint little Korean restaurant with karaoke and this alcoholic beverage called soju. It...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/11/2009 4:24 PM

There are several other quick notes which I would like to add before the weekend comes around and I simply vanish into thin air as expected. First of all, I would like to confirm my participation in the BN Bank Blitz in Oslo, Norway this upcoming November. I first heard about this event back at the end of the NH Rising Stars event, but held off on any firm decisions until I was fully recovered health wise. Having decided that I am not playing the world cup due to the scheduling conflict with the tournament in London, this event will fit nicely into my schedule. As I have no tournaments scheduled between mid October until London in December, this should be a good warm up event for me, and I look forward to it. From Norway, I will probably go to London and see some friends there until the tournament gets started on the 7th of December. Second, I have also decided to teach the very talented Seattle junior Michael Lee. Having seen his play over the past few years, Michael is one of the more talented juniors I have...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/11/2009 2:47 PM

Hello to everyone out there once again! In an effort to start branching out, I am going to blog about all things which are of interest as opposed to simply chess-related events. For anyone who is expecting nothing but hardcore chess news, this certainly is not the place to be! During my downtime here in Seattle, I will probably be spending the vast majority of my time blogging about my lovely adventures in the Northwest.

 

After I went for a nice walk around Green Lake  on Wednesday, I was interviewed by Pacific Citizen which is an asian publication based out of Los Angeles, California. The interview was pretty interesting, although the questions start seeming similar after a while. I am not sure when the piece will be published, but I suspect it will be sometime within the next week. So stay tuned!

Yesterday was certainly a lot more interesting as I ventured out to Endfest 18 at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington. The process of simply getting out there was interesting in itself as there was a lot of traffic in downtown Seattle and on the interstate too. Alas, we all got there safe and sound after a lot of traffic arriving around 5 PM. The venue was very nice as the amphitheatre itself is an outdoor concert venue with both seats and a lawn for people to sit on and enjoy the show. The main attraction for the event were Blink182 and Weezer. Having been a teenager in the late 90s and early 2000s, I was quite familiar with their music. Nevertheless, I found the two opening bands to be quite good as well. Chester French and Taking Back Sunday definitely fulfilled my expectations, although I thought the lead singer for Chester French could have done a better job if he was not trying to be a Napoleon Dynamite look alike.

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/9/2009 7:36 PM

Good evening to everyone who is on the east coast! Fortunately for me, I am out here on the west coast where it is nothing but sunny skies and lovely girls all around. Before I get into the whole match last night, I would also like to clarify one thing for those who are not aware. Last night, I know there was chatter about where I am currently living. Right now, I am living in Seattle, Washington and NOT Vancouver,BC.Without further ado, onto the chess which is what most people are more interested in.

Nakamura-Kacheishvili, US Chess League, 9.8.09

 

1.b3! A rather suspicious opening move. Last year I employed 1.g3, but I felt that this year I should try something completely different. 1...d5 A very sound and practical move. 2.Bb2 c5 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nf3 g6!? (Diagram 1)



In this position, I considered several moves. Having played this opening quite a few times on ICC, I was just debating whether to take on f6 or play something a little bit more standard like c4 or d4. In the end, I decided that avoiding anything resembling chess would be preferable. Therefore, I went...5.Bxf6!? exf6 6.c3 Bd6! This is much better than the conventional 6...Bg7 after which I close the diagonal with 7.d4 and have a small advantage. 7.d4 0-0 8.Nbd2 Be6 9.a3 f5 (Diagram 2)

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/7/2009 9:59 PM

This is going to be another short blog as I arrived in Seattle yesterday. Having gotten my apartment in order with the exception of internet, I am enjoying myself thus far. Overall, I have mostly recovered although I still have some slight throat problems even now. Tomorrow, I will be making my debut in the US Chess League, so I will definitely attempt to blog after the game/match. GO SLUGGERS!

By Hikaru Nakamura on 9/2/2009 5:42 AM

Once again, this blog will be extremely short. I would just like to let everyone know, I will be headed to the doctor today to try and figure out what in the world has struck me since I have been sick for close to two whole weeks now. When I am settled in Seattle early next week, I'll let everyone know about my general thoughts regarding the NH disaster and everything else.

By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/21/2009 11:48 PM

I will recap rounds 1-5 when we hit the rest day, but for now just a few quick comments on my first two rounds. In the first round game against GM Ljubojevic, we reached a very bizarre middlegame in which I was probably a bit worse. However, I was able to outplay my opponent towards the end of time control and reached a winning endgame only to simply hallucinate and forget where the White bishop ended up. This led to a draw. In the second round, I once again obtained a very promising position against GM van Wely after two inaccuries in the middlegame. With time control looming, I simply blundered horribly allowing a very cute e4-e3-e2 trick which led to an endgame in which Black has a fortress. What can I say about the first two games? I felt that I have played very well in general, but I am getting tired at critical points in the game. This probably has something to do with my health which has been steadily going downhill since the first day I arrived. Alas, I will now go back to sleep until the round.

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 8/16/2009 5:41 AM

Greetings to everyone from Japan once again. It seems that despite my best efforts to set certain time schedules for blogging, I end up doing it sooner than planned. Therefore, without further ado, I present a recap of the past week and all its wild adventures which were to be had. Enjoy!

Day 1: "Arrival"

Early Tuesday afternoon, I arrived at Tokyo Narita International Airport after a long 14 hour flight from Newark. Fortunately, due to all my traveling, I really did not feel like this was anything particularly surprising. For the first five hours of the flight, I slept like a baby so there really is nothing to mention there. After that, I spent the next two hours charging up my computer and then studying some chess for the tournament here in Japan. After I got bored by this, I chose to turn on the entertainment system and spent time admiring how much better movies were in the old days, having re-watched To Catch A Thief (Alfred Hitchcock) and Diamonds Are Forever (Who doesn't love Sean Connery?)....

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