By Hikaru on 3/26/2008 6:13 PM

Hello everyone, I have been rather swamped with work (when I am not playing 1-min games on ICC) so I won't be posting any of my games just yet. However, I played rather mediocre chess in the French League on the whole. In the first game I drew Etienne Bacrot with white. The 2nd game I swindled Vladimir Baklan with black in an Alekhine and drew. And in the 3rd game I beat French GM Andrei Sokolov with white. At some point tomorrow I will probably post a game or two from the event with annotations. Au Revior, et au bientot!

By Hikaru on 3/21/2008 7:41 PM

I have now been in Nice, France for the past two days. Oddly enough, this happens to be the first trip abroad that I have made alone which makes for an interesting and new experience. Originally, I thought I would be staying in Monaco and would have gone and gambled away my life's savings at the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo; however, as it turned out I ended up in Nice instead. The area itself is quite pleasant with a nice ocean breeze and plenty of scenery. Yesterday, I actually ended up walking over to the playing site for the Melody Amber tournament and spoke briefly with some of the players and journalists. Nothing really shocking happened, although it appeared that the game Karjakin-Van Wely was more or less losing from the start according to Topalov and Leko.

Today, I decided to relax and went out and took a few pictures. Other than that, I didn't really do much besides preparing for my game against Bacrot tomorrow. In a few hours I will catch a train to Marseille and will at ... Read More »

By Hikaru on 3/17/2008 12:25 PM

So, nothing much to really report on since my last post. I have pretty much been going about life as usual studying chess and playing transwarp in preparation for France. Yesterday, I actually noticed a rather amusing drawing of myself on a website. 

http://czharina.deviantart.com/art/Hikaru-Nakamura-80128083

By Hikaru on 3/11/2008 6:49 AM

 

This past Sunday on March 9, 2008, I attended a commemoration event for what would have been Bobby Fischer's 65th birthday. The event took place at the Marshall Chess Club from 1 PM till about 5 PM. Much of the first several hours was spent with famous talk show host Dick Cavett recollecting his memories about Fischer as well as some very good footage from the three different times during which Fischer appeared on the show. While watching these clips, I couldn't help but notice how normal Fischer seemed during these interviews during 1972-73. However, I also found it very striking that Fischer did not seem to have any other hobbies which he had interest in. If there is one thing I've noticed about chess players nowadays as compared to then is that most have other interests besides chess, I suspect this is why there haven't been any top grandmasters who have gone rather insane in the past 10 years. Other not ... Read More »

By Hikaru on 3/7/2008 8:16 PM

Hello everyone! So since I haven't done a really detailed blog in sometime, I will write one now.

 

First of all, I would like to address the specific issue of playing Transwarp(C) on ICC. Many people have now asked me why I play it and, more importantly, what purpose it serves. Of course attempting to lock up a position against a computer and then premove for 150 moves is rather pointless after awhile. Some have said that they thought I was doing it simply to gain rating points. However, they were wrong. The main purpose I find that playing transwarp or any computer on ICC for that matter provides a certain mental toughness. After all, playing against a computer and losing 10-15 in a row is much more painful than losing to any super GM 1 or 2 games. Therefore, I find that it is a very good way of becoming mentally stronger.

Secondly, I cannot mention what a bad week it has been for me! So far two of my records have been broken...oh ... Read More »

By Hikaru on 2/26/2008 4:53 PM

My life lately has been fairly normal with not a whole lot to mention. Ever since the Amateur Team which I played a week ago, I've been reading and studying chess quite a bit. Yesterday, I got an invitation to play the rapid tournament in Cap D'Agde France. I was previously invited 2 years ago but was not able to participate due to scheduling conflicts. This year, however, I am going to play the event. I will update everyone when I have more details or something mildly interesting is happening in my life.

 

 

By Hikaru on 2/20/2008 11:15 AM

Hello everyone! It has been far too long since I last blogged, so I will add an entry today. This past weekend I decided to play in the Amateur Team East for the first time in 2 years. The tournament which has now been running for 35+ years is one of the very few tournaments which I still will always try to play. I have always found this tournament very enjoyable due to the fact that it is pretty much the only tournament where one can see friends who they haven't seen in many years. This did happen with me as I came across quite a few people whom I had not seen in several years. As far as the chess is concerned, I went 6-0 and only had to play 2 players above master (Kelleher and Mabe). I will probably add some more thoughts later, but this is all for now.

By Hikaru on 2/2/2008 10:07 PM

Hmm, where to start? I actually attempted to blog after my round 8 game, but it was all erased because the internet connection died when I was posting it. After this disaster, I did not even attempt to write a blog after my round 9 game. As such, I will attempt to recap each of the final 3 rounds.

Round 8

In this round, I was paired against GM Mark Hebden from England. Prior to this game, I had played him in Gibraltar in 2006 with the black pieces. In that game I was able to obtain a small advantage out of the opening and convert it into a win. This time around, I was white which gave me significantly more confidence as Hebden tends to be a more classical player. The opening was the Scotch Two Knights and was pretty standard unti ... Read More »

By Hikaru on 2/2/2008 7:41 PM

Very quickly, I will indeed post a wrapup report on Gibraltar, but it is just taking me quite some time to write it all up.

By Hikaru on 1/28/2008 12:18 PM

Yay! Today was, without a doubt, the best game I've played all tournament. After my fairly shaky last couple of rounds, today I was paired against WGM Harika. I've actually known her for quite some time, so I was fairly familiar with her style. For this reason, I chose to play into the Meran yet again. However, I chose to play the order with d5,c6,e6 in order to avoid the Moscow variations with Bg5. Harika slightly surprised me by playing the Shabalov variation with 7.g4. Ironically I have also had this position with white against Shabalov (Nakamura-Shabalov, Foxwoods 2006). As such, I'm fairly well versed in many of these lines; I chose the fairly quiet 7...h6 variation in order to avoid a huge theoretical discussion. Most of the moves were fairly standard until I deviated from Dreev-Petrosyan, Aeroflot 2006 by playing 17...0-0. Although 17...Qb4 was perfectly fine, I felt that in that game after 18.Qd2 Qb5 19.0-0-0 c5 20.Bxb7 Rxb7 21.dxc5 0-0 22.Qd3! was too drawish. I am not sure whether Harika ha ... Read More »