By Hikaru Nakamura on 11/2/2009 12:02 PM

Hello everybody! Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy with life (not chess related). This past weekend was also extremely busy as I was up in beautiful Vancouver at a book launch party for Bullet Chess: One Minute To Mate. This will be the subject of a blog shortly, but for now I will give everyone a simple recap of the US Chess League weeks 8 and 9. In week 8 we were paired against the Tennessee Tempo. Unfortunately for the Tempo, they chose to run their two GM lineup when I was not around, so they were huge favourites. However, in typical Tennessee style, (look at them Titans) they also managed to lose when they ran that lineup as FM Mikhailuk came up huge as he crushed GM Shabalov in a classical Sicilian. This time around, the Tempo went with a much softer lineup as they featured Ron Burnett on board 1 and Todd Andrews on board 2 followed by Peter Bereolos and John Bick closing it out. In my game, there is not much to say other than the fact that Burnett clearly was not prepared for the game and went astray...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 10/24/2009 3:45 PM

Hello to everyone once again, my apologies for not blogging recently, but I have been extremely busy on many fronts. A few weeks ago, I finished competing in the European Club Cup Championship. At the start of the tournament, I got off to a rather bumpy start as I lost a marginally worse endgame against Peter Svidler with Black. To be fair, he played the endgame very precisely while my attempts at setting up a fortress failed. After this disappointing loss, I beat a 2400 IM and then followed this up with a draw against Czech Grandmaster, Viktor Laznicka in the Kings Indian. at this point, having scored 2.5/4 I was not doing very well. Luckily, I started to regain my form as I followed this up with a nice wins against GM Sergei Zhigalko (2601) and GM Milos Pavlovic (2533). Having recovered from the bad start, I more or less played a forced drawn line against GM Alexander Grischuk in the last round. Overall, I was more or less satisfied with my play except for the game against Svidler. Thus, I cannot complain as...

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By Hikaru Nakamura on 10/4/2009 10:27 PM

Good morning to everyone out there from Macedonia, where it is approximately 4 AM local time. After having a nearly a perfect September, it is time to return to chess. As most everyone knows, I fell violently ill right from the start in Amsterdam and never recovered. Thankfully, this happened at the end of my long streak of traveling as I am pretty sure I would have gone and dropped more points in any following tournaments ala Ivanchuk. After this long recovery time, I feel quite rested and fresh. Since I noticed some people clamoring for my thoughts on other chess events, I will oblige the fans and talk about some chess for a change!

A few weeks back, there was the 25th anniversary match between Kasparov and Karpov. In general, other than the obvious importance of it having been 25 years since their legendary match in 1984, I did not really see any point as I thoroughly expected Karpov to get thrashed. Having seen and played against Karpov in a few tourneys over the last year, I have nothing but respect...

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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!