The East Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
75-467: This opening has a close kinship to the more-common King's Indian Defence and is often considered a variant thereof. The difference is that White has not yet played c4, and therefore retains some options. If White plays an early c4, the opening will transpose into a King's Indian. It is also possible for White to support an early e4 advance, transposing into the Pirc Defence . Unless transposition
150-597: A 4½/9 score (+4−4=1). However, he won the blitz tournament before the classical competition, raising his FIDE blitz rating to 2879, first in the world at the time. In the World Cup in Tromsø, Norway, Nakamura scored 6/8 (+5−1=2), eventually losing in the fourth round to Anton Korobov . Nakamura finished second at the Sinquefield Cup in his hometown of St. Louis, behind Carlsen with a 3½/6 (+2−1=3) score, including
225-530: A Japanese father, Shuichi Nakamura. Nakamura has an older brother, Asuka. When he was two years old, his family moved to the United States, and, a year later in 1990, his parents divorced. He was raised in White Plains , New York . He began playing chess at the age of seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry . Weeramantry began coaching
300-612: A career-high of 2814 and put him at number 4 in the July 2015 world rankings. In February 2016, Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Festival for the second year in a row, scoring 8/10 (+6−0=4) and beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on tiebreaks. That same month, he also won the Zurich Chess Challenge for the second year in a row. He tied with Viswanathan Anand on the number of points; however, Nakamura
375-472: A favourite of former world champions Garry Kasparov , Bobby Fischer , and Mikhail Tal , with prominent grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi , Miguel Najdorf , Efim Geller , John Nunn , Svetozar Gligorić , Wolfgang Uhlmann , and Ilya Smirin having also contributed much to the theory and practice of this opening. In the early 2000s the opening's popularity suffered after Vladimir Kramnik began scoring excellently against it, so much so that Kasparov gave up
450-411: A kingside attack, then 7...a6 prepares ...b7–b5 with a counterattack against White's castled position. If instead White plays more cautiously, then Black challenges White's centre with ...e5. The Averbakh Variation is 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5 (named for Yuri Averbakh ), which prevents the immediate 6...e5 (6...e5 ? 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. Qxd8 Rxd8 9. Nd5 Nxd5 (If black doesn't play Nxd5, black loses
525-459: A massive centre at the price of falling behind in development. If Black can open the position, White may well find themselves overextended. From this 6...c5 is the main line. The Fianchetto Variation 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.0-0, is named for White's development of light-squared bishop to g2, and is one of the most popular lines at the grandmaster level, Korchnoi once its most notable practitioner. This method of development
600-505: A score of 7½/13, tying for fourth place with Viswanathan Anand , and behind Carlsen, Alexei Shirov , and Kramnik. In May, Nakamura participated in the 2010 United States Chess Championship in Saint Louis, Missouri, attempting to defend his 2009 title. Seeded first, he scored 5/7 points to qualify for the round-robin stage against the 1991 champion Gata Kamsky , 2006 champion Alexander Onischuk , and 2008 champion Yuri Shulman . In
675-741: A second consecutive disappointing performance, beginning at −3 before winning his last two games, including a last-round win over tournament winner Kramnik on the black side of the King's Indian Defense , to finish at 4½/10. Nakamura competed in the Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September, after which he played in the Tal Memorial for the second consecutive year in a field comprising Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Karjakin, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Hao, and Nepomniachtchi. He finished
750-533: A team gold medal and two team bronze medals. In May 2014, when FIDE began publishing official rapid and blitz chess ratings, Nakamura ranked No. 1 in the world on both lists; he has remained at or near the No. 1 rank in rapid and blitz ever since. Nakamura was born in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture , Japan, to an American mother, Carolyn Merrow Nakamura, a classically trained musician and former public school teacher, and
825-543: A tie for fourth place and missing out on a tie for first place by blundering into a draw in a winning position in the final round against Grischuk. Nakamura's round two win over Eljanov placed him in the world top-ten in the live ratings for the first time in his career. Nakamura's performance at this tournament, his first involving an entirely super-elite field allowed him to "force (the chess elite) to respect him", according to noted Russian commentator grandmaster Sergey Shipov . From November 16–18, Nakamura made his debut at
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#1732800919664900-673: A tie. Nakamura had one of his best-ever months as a chess professional in February 2015, and as a result on the March FIDE classical list Nakamura moved to his then-career highest 2798 and No. 3 in the world. That April, Nakamura won his fourth U.S. Chess Championship with a score of 8/11. In the final stage of the 4-stage Grand Prix event, Nakamura finished equal first with Fabiano Caruana and Dmitry Jakovenko with 6½ out of 11 points at Khanty-Mansiysk, giving him an overall second place Grand Prix placement, which automatically qualified him for
975-573: A tournament performance rating of 2879, and guaranteed at least a share of first place. With Anand's final round draw against Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura clinched sole possession of first place, making him the first American to win the Wijk aan Zee tournament since 1980. The win also guaranteed that Nakamura would join Carlsen (winner of the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament ) as qualifiers for Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September 2011. Nakamura after
1050-845: A win over then world number two Levon Aronian . At the FIDE Grand Prix in Paris , Nakamura scored 6½/11 (+3−1=7) and tied for third with Étienne Bacrot , behind co-winners Caruana and Boris Gelfand . He defeated Caruana in their individual encounter but lost to Gelfand. Overall, Nakamura finished sixth in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13 series. He then played first board for O.R. Padova in the European Club Championship in Rhodes, Greece and scored 4/6 (+2−0=4). He defeated current Russian champion Peter Svidler with
1125-577: A win with Black against Kramnik, evening their career head-to-head record at 2½/2½. The tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen . Nakamura's performance ensured that he would officially join the world top ten in January 2011. In the January 2011 FIDE rating list, Nakamura was ranked number 10 in the world with a rating of 2751. Nakamura began training with former world champion Garry Kasparov . The first of several training sessions were held in New York at
1200-520: Is a common chess opening . It is defined by the following moves: Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6 (the Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead and is considered a separate opening). White's major third move options are 3.Nc3, 3.Nf3 or 3.g3, with both the King's Indian and Grünfeld playable against these moves. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings classifies
1275-474: Is an American chess grandmaster , streamer , YouTuber , five-time U.S. Chess Champion , and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion . A chess prodigy , he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history . Nakamura has represented the United States at seven Chess Olympiads (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), securing
1350-490: Is called the Hungarian Attack . One of the earliest examples: One of the most famous King's Indian games was a brilliancy by the late Ukrainian -American grandmaster Eduard Gufeld , who called it his " Mona Lisa ": The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings ( ECO ) classification of variations of the King's Indian are: Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru Nakamura (born December 9, 1987)
1425-441: Is on completely different lines than other King's Indian variations. Here, Black's normal plan of attack can hardly succeed, as White's kingside is more solidly defended than in most KID variations. The most common responses are: Finally, White has other setups, such as Nf3 and h3 and Nge2 (with or without Bd3), but these are currently not as popular at the grandmaster level. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nge2 followed by 6.Ng3
1500-1070: Is reached, there are four popular, independent continuations: The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings classifies the East Indian Defence under A49 for the Przepiórka Variation and A48 for the others. Vasily Smyslov vs. Gyula Sax , 1979 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.0-0 0-0 5.d4 d6 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7.e4 e5 8.dxe5 dxe5 9.b3 b6 10.a4 Bb7 11.Nd2 Re8 12.Ba3 Bf8 13.Bxf8 Nxf8 14.Nc4 Ne6 15.Re1 Qd4 16.Nd5 Kg7 17.Qf3 Bxd5 18.exd5 e4 19.Qd1 Nxd5 20.Bxe4 Rad8 21.Bxd5 Qxd5 22.Qxd5 Rxd5 23.Rad1 Red8 24.Rxd5 Rxd5 25.Kg2 Kf6 26.Ne3 Rd2 27.Ng4 Ke7 28.Ne3 Kd7 29.Rd1 Rxd1 30.Nxd1 Nd4 31.Ne3 Kd6 32.h4 Kc5 33.Kf1 Kb4 34.Ke1 Kc3 35.Kd1 c6 36.Kc1 Nf3 37.Nc4 f5 38.Nb2 f4 39.Nc4 Nd4 40.Ne5 fxg3 41.fxg3 c5 42.a5 Nxc2 43.axb6 axb6 44.Nd7 Nd4 45.Nxb6 Ne2 46.Kd1 Nxg3 47.Nd7 Kb4 48.Kc2 Nf5 49.Nf8 Nxh4 50.Nxh7 Nf5 51.Nf6 Nd4 52.Kd3 Kxb3 53.Nd7 Ne6 54.Ne5 g5 0–1 King%27s Indian Defence The King's Indian Defence (or KID )
1575-713: Is to decline the gambit, and instead play 7.Nge2, and head for Benoni type positions after a d4–d5 advance. However, after 7...cxd4 (preventing the d4-d5 advance) 8.Nxd4 Nc6, the game transposes into the Accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence . 5...0-0 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Nge2 a6 8.Qd2 Rb8 leads to the Panno Variation of the Sämisch. Black prepares to respond appropriately depending on White's choice of plan. If White plays 0-0-0 and goes for
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#17328009196641650-574: The 960 World Chess Champion , beating GM Levon Aronian 3½–½ in Mainz, Germany. In November 2009, Nakamura participated in the BNbank blitz tournament in Oslo, Norway. He reached the final by winning all 12 of his games. In the championship, he faced the world No. 2 and reigning World Blitz Champion Magnus Carlsen . Nakamura won the match 3–1, further cementing his reputation as one of the best blitz players in
1725-530: The Donostia-San Sebastian Chess Festival, tying with former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov with 6½/9 before defeating Ponomariov in a blitz playoff to win the title over a field including former undisputed world champion Anatoly Karpov , former FIDE world champions Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Ponomariov, 2009 World Junior champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave , and Peter Svidler among others. In August 2009, Nakamura became
1800-591: The FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk , Russia, seeded 28th (of 128 players) but failed to advance beyond the first round. He lost each of his two games to Indian grandmaster Surya Ganguly . In 2006, Nakamura was offered a full scholarship to the University of Texas, Dallas but instead began attending Dickinson College , with a partial scholarship, in order to take a break from chess. Later in
1875-486: The Gibraltar Chess Festival with a score of 8/10 points (+6−0=4) and beating David Antón Guijarro in the tie-break final by 1½–½. In January 2018, Nakamura took second place in the Chess.com Speed Chess Championships after winning matches in 2017 with Sergey Grigoriants, Fabiano Caruana , and then-World Blitz Champion Sergey Karjakin , only losing to Carlsen in the January finals. That February, Nakamura participated in
1950-639: The Norway Chess tournament, finishing tied with Magnus Carlsen for second behind winner Sergey Karjakin . His 5½/9 score (+4−2=3) featured a win over then-world champion Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces in a Ruy Lopez. He then scored 5/11 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki , Greece. Nakamura had an up-and-down Tal Memorial in June, at one point winning three straight games and then later losing three straight. He finished in sixth place with
2025-552: The Zurich Chess Challenge , drawing with Caruana in the first round and winning against Anand in the second. In the third round, Nakamura achieved a winning position against Carlsen but later made several mistakes and eventually lost the game. Nakamura finished fourth of the six players in the event, with a 7½/15 score. In April, Nakamura finished third of the six players in the Gashimov Memorial . In
2100-452: The 2010 World Blitz Championship in Moscow. Despite a disastrous start and losing four of his first five games to Magnus Carlsen , Vladimir Kramnik , Maxime Vachier-Lagrave , and Sergey Karjakin , he recovered to score 5/7 in the second half of the day and finished with a score of 7½/14, 2½ points behind co-leaders Carlsen and Levon Aronian , whom he defeated in their individual games. On
2175-456: The Averbakh, and then follows with 6.Bg5. Another, more significant and quite popular sideline occurs for Black on move 6, with 6...Bg4, in place of the mainline 6...e5. One idea for Black here is to relieve their somewhat cramped position by exchanging their light-squared bishop, which is often relegated to a passive role in the King's Indian. White's most popular response is 7.Be3, similar to
2250-659: The Candidates tournament to determine the challenger for Magnus Carlsen in the next Chess World Championship. In the first stage of the June Norway Chess tournament for the Grand Chess Tour , Nakamura finished equal second with Viswanathan Anand with 6 out of 9 points and a 2900 performance. This gave Nakamura 8 points in the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour. It also propelled his rating to
2325-506: The Gligoric System (see above); White seems to retain a small edge in every variation. Top players who have used this line for Black include two former World Champions: GMs Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky . After 6...c5 7.O-O cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6, the game transposes into the Accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence . The Sämisch Variation is 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3. It is named after Friedrich Sämisch , who developed
East Indian Defence - Misplaced Pages Continue
2400-499: The King's Indian Defence under the codes E60 through E99. The King's Indian is a hypermodern opening, where Black deliberately allows White control of the centre with pawns, with the view to subsequently challenge it. In the most critical lines of the King's Indian, White erects an imposing pawn centre with Nc3 followed by e4. Black stakes out their own claim to the centre with the Benoni -style ...c5, or ...e5. If White resolves
2475-741: The Nakamura brothers after Asuka Nakamura won the National Kindergarten Championship in 1992, which led to his developing a relationship with their mother. At age 10, he became the youngest American to beat an International Master when he defeated Jay Bonin at the Marshall Chess Club . Also at age 10, Nakamura became the youngest player to achieve the title of chess master from the United States Chess Federation , breaking
2550-669: The Netherlands. In December he tied for third with Mickey Adams in the London Chess Classic with a +3−1=4 score. Nakamura finished the year by winning three silver medals in the three chess events (rapid, blitz and blindfold) at the World Mind Games in Beijing. After this tournament, Nakamura achieved a 2844 FIDE blitz rating and a 2795 FIDE rapid rating. After what was to him a disappointing tournament at
2625-662: The Rapid portion of the inaugural Tata Steel India Chess tournament, held in November 2018 in Kolkata . He also finished runner-up, losing 1½–½ in a tiebreaker to Viswanathan Anand , in the blitz portion of the same event. From December 11–17, Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana with a score of 18–10 in the semifinal match at the London Chess Classic and, in the final match with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave , scored
2700-863: The Second Piatigorsky Cup. "Of course, there were far fewer such events back then, and Fischer had several great tournament results like Stockholm 62", the interzonal qualifier for the world championship. "Reuben Fine only equaled Keres on points at AVRO in 38." Referring to the breakout performance of Frank J. Marshall, the United States Champion from 1909 to 1936, Mr. Kasparov continued, "Then you have Marshall at Cambridge Springs in 1904 ahead of Lasker, though Tarrasch wasn't there. So unless you include Capablanca as an American player, I think you can go back to Pillsbury at Hastings 1895 for an American tournament victory on par with Nakamura's. Following his super tournament triumph, Nakamura
2775-630: The Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, finishing sixth. He scored a win against then world number five Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces in an Old Indian Defense. He then played at the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Zug , Switzerland in April, scoring 6½/11 (+3−1=7) and finishing clear second behind Veselin Topalov . Nakamura did not participate in the 2013 U.S. championship. Instead, he played in
2850-715: The U.S. team to a fifth-place finish with a +4−1=4 record on the first board. Nakamura then suffered through the FIDE London Grand Prix tournament, at one point losing four games in a row. He finished tied for last with Giri. After another lackluster performance in the European Club Championship in Eilat, Israel, Nakamura finished first in the "crown group" at the Univé tournament in Hoogeveen,
2925-733: The US Championship in May with a score of 8½, one point ahead of Gata Kamsky . In June 2012, Nakamura played at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. In a tightly bunched field, he finished tied for eighth with Luke McShane , 1½ points behind winner Magnus Carlsen . He participated in the Biel Chess Festival, finishing third with Anish Giri , behind Carlsen and Wang Hao . At the 2012 Chess Olympiad in August and September, he led
3000-690: The United States at the World Team Chess Championship held in Bursa, Turkey . His performance, including a win over world No. 6 and recent FIDE World Cup winner Boris Gelfand on the black side of a King's Indian Defense , won him the individual gold medal for board one and led the U.S. to a second-place finish behind Russia. Nakamura participated in the Corus Chess Tournament 2010 in Wijk aan Zee . He finished with
3075-531: The Zinnowitz Variation, instead of 6.Be2 e5. The line was played several times by German Grandmaster Burkhard Malich in the 1960s and 1970s. It is currently unfashionable at master level; Black gets a good game with either 6...h6 or 6...Nbd7. This line is distinct from the much more popular Averbakh Variation, described below, since in the Zinnowitz, White has played 5.Nf3 instead of 5.Be2, as in
East Indian Defence - Misplaced Pages Continue
3150-857: The beginning of January, but the training ended in December 2011. From January 14 through 30, Nakamura competed in the Tata Steel Grandmaster A tournament in Wijk aan Zee among a field of world No. 1 and defending champion Magnus Carlsen , world champion , world No. 2 and former world champion Viswanathan Anand , world No. 3 and reigning World Blitz champion Levon Aronian , world No. 4 and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik , world No. 7 Alexander Grischuk , former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov , reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi , reigning Chinese champion Wang Hao , Maxime Vachier-Lagrave , Alexei Shirov , Anish Giri , Jan Smeets , and Erwin L'Ami . The average rating of
3225-493: The black pieces in an extremely sharp King's Indian Defense. At the World Team Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey , Nakamura led the U.S. team to a fourth-place finish. His personal record of 4½/7 (+3−1=3) earned him an individual silver medal on board one. Nakamura closed out his tournament schedule for the year with a win at the London Chess Classic , which was converted to a rapid chess event in 2013. He won his pool in
3300-422: The central pawn tension with d5, then Black follows with either ...b5 and queenside play, or ...f5 and an eventual kingside attack. Meanwhile, White attempts to expand on the opposite wing. The resulting unbalanced positions offer scope for both sides to play for a win. The earliest known use of the term " Indian Defence " was in 1884. The modern names "King's Indian Defence", " King's Indian Attack ", etc. arose in
3375-417: The double round-robin event, he lost both of his games to Carlsen but defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov twice to close with a 5/10 score (+2−2=6). He then played a four-game match against Czech grandmaster David Navara in June and won easily 3½/4. In November, Nakamura played a match against Levon Aronian consisting of four classical and sixteen blitz games. The two tied the classical games 2–2; Nakamura won
3450-460: The e4-pawn to create a secure centre and enables White to begin an attack kingside with Be3, Qd2, Bh6, g2–g4 and h2–h4. It allows placement of a bishop on e3 without allowing ...Ng4; however, its drawback is that it deprives the knight on g1 of its most natural square, thus impeding development of the kingside. Black can strike for the centre as previously mentioned or delay with 6...Nc6, 7...a6 and 8...Rb8 so that Black can play ...b7–b5 to open lines on
3525-445: The f6 knight)10. Bxd8 Nb6 11. Bxc7 White is up an exchange and a pawn, the endgame should be winning for white.) Black often repels the bishop with 6...h6 giving them the option of a later g5, though in practice this is a weakening move. White has various ways to develop, such as Qd2, Nf3, f4 or even h4. However, Black obtains good play against all of these development schemes. The old main line in this begins with 6...c5 (which keeps
3600-449: The field consisted of world No. 3 Levon Aronian , world No. 4 Vladimir Kramnik , world No. 6 Alexander Grischuk , world No. 8 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , world No. 9 Sergey Karjakin , Pavel Eljanov , Boris Gelfand , Alexei Shirov , and Wang Hao . The average Elo of the field was 2757, making it the third-strongest tournament in chess history at the time. Nakamura finished at +1, defeating Eljanov and drawing every other player to finish in
3675-401: The field was 2740, making this thirteen-round event a category 20 tournament. After twelve rounds, Nakamura was in clear first place with 8½ points going into the final round, half a point ahead of Anand and a full point ahead of Carlsen and Aronian. In the final round, Nakamura drew against Wang with the black pieces in a King's Indian Defense . With the draw, Nakamura finished with 9/13 (+5),
3750-472: The fifth edition of the King's Tournament in Medias (although Nakamura placed third of six among a cadre of top Grandmasters), Nakamura tweeted that he was focusing on the 2011 World Series of Poker , in which he played, although busted out on the second day. Kasparov, who had been training Nakamura at the time, publicly grumbled about his interest in poker. Nakamura began 2013 with a 7/13 (+3−2=8) result at
3825-544: The first stage of the tournament, then defeated Nigel Short , Vladimir Kramnik , and Boris Gelfand in the knockout stage. His overall record was +5−0=7. Entering 2014, Nakamura had achieved a No. 3 position in the FIDE ratings, below Carlsen and Aronian. He began his 2014 schedule with a ninth-place finish in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament at Wijk Aan Zee, with a 5/11 score (+2−3=6). He then played
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#17328009196643900-634: The fourth round, defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov , Aleksej Aleksandrov , and Alexander Lastin before falling to England's Michael Adams , the tournament's third-seeded participant and eventual runner-up. On June 20, 2005, Nakamura was selected as the 19th Frank Samford Chess Fellow, receiving a grant of $ 32,000 to further his chess education and competition. Nakamura won the 2005 U.S. Chess Championship (held in November and December 2004), scoring seven points over nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alexander Stripunsky for first place. Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in two straight rapid playoff games to claim
3975-436: The gambit now enjoys a good reputation. A practical drawback, however, is that a well-prepared but unambitious White player can often enter lines leading to a forced draw . The line where White accepts the gambit runs 5...0-0 6.Be3 c5 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Qxd8 (8.e5 Nfd7 9.f4 f6 10.exf6 is also possible here, though less often seen) Rxd8 9.Bxc5 Nc6. Black's activity is believed to give sufficient compensation. White's most frequent play
4050-693: The grandmaster title at the time, breaking the record of Bobby Fischer by three months. In July 2002, Nakamura achieved 56th place at the 30th annual World Open tournament in Philadelphia . In April 2004, Nakamura achieved a fourth-place finish in the "B" group at the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee , the Netherlands. Nakamura qualified for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 , played in Tripoli, Libya , and reached
4125-425: The long diagonal open). However, 6...Nbd7 and 6...Na6 ( Judit Polgár 's move) are also seen. It is possible that the Averbakh System (of the Modern Defense) can transition to the Averbakh Variation of the King's Indian Defence. The Four Pawns Attack continues with 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 0-0 6.Nf3. This is the most aggressive method for White, and was often seen in the 1920s. With their fifth move, White erects
4200-448: The match 3½–2½, raising his rating to 2777 and ranking to world No. 6 on the unofficial live rating list, both career-highs to that date. From June 11–21, he made his debut at the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania in a field including Carlsen, world No. 5 Vassily Ivanchuk , world No. 6 Sergey Karjakin , world No. 13 Teimour Radjabov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu ; the tournament was a Category XXI event with an average ELO of 2760, making it
4275-411: The match with a 9½–6½ score in blitz games. On the February 2015 FIDE rating list, Nakamura fell behind Wesley So , the first time since January 2013 that Nakamura had not been the top FIDE-ranked player in the United States. In January, Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Masters tournament, scoring 8½/10 (+7−0=3). In February, Nakamura won the Zurich Chess Challenge after a playoff event to settle
4350-407: The mid-twentieth century and are attributed to Hans Kmoch . Until the mid-1930s, the King's Indian Defence was generally regarded as highly suspect, but the analysis and play of three strong Soviet players in particular— Alexander Konstantinopolsky , Isaac Boleslavsky , and David Bronstein —helped to make the defence much more respected and popular. It is a dynamic opening, exceptionally complex, and
4425-435: The opening after several critical losses to Kramnik. However, Kramnik himself won a game on the black side of the KID in 2012, and current top players including Hikaru Nakamura , Teimour Radjabov , and Ding Liren play the opening. The main variations of the King's Indian are: The Classical Variation is 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5. A minor but still significant sideline occurs for White on move 6, with 6.Bg5,
4500-406: The queenside. The Classical Defence to the Sämisch is 5...0-0 6.Be3 e5, when White has a choice between closing the centre with 7.d5, or maintaining the tension with 7.Nge2. Kasparov was a major proponent of this defence. The Sämisch Gambit arises after 5...0-0 6.Be3 c5. This is a pawn sacrifice, and was once considered dubious. As Black's play has been worked out, this evaluation has changed, and
4575-399: The record previously set by Vinay Bhat . (Nakamura's record stood until 2008 when Nicholas Nip achieved the master title at the age of 9 years and 11 months.) In 1999, Nakamura won the Laura Aspis Prize , given annually to the top USCF-rated player under age 13. In 2003, at age 15 years and 79 days, Nakamura solidified his reputation as a chess prodigy , becoming the youngest American to earn
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#17328009196644650-436: The round-robin stage, he drew with Kamsky before losing to Shulman, with the white pieces in both games. The loss to Shulman eliminated him from defending his 2009 title. Nakamura competed in the 39th Chess Olympiad. Although he defeated Lê Quang Liêm and drew Kramnik with the black pieces during the tournament, the U.S. team failed to medal. From November 5–14, Nakamura competed in the 2010 Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow;
4725-513: The second day, Nakamura avenged his earlier losses against both Carlsen and Kramnik and scored 8/14, for a total of 15½/28, three points behind Aronian and a point and a half behind Carlsen. Nakamura finished with 21½/38 for fifth place behind Gelfand, Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and champion Aronian. In December 2010, Nakamura finished fourth in the London Chess Classic , among a field including Anand, Carlsen , Kramnik, Michael Adams , Nigel Short , David Howell , and Luke McShane . This included
4800-412: The semifinals and Vassily Ivanchuk in the finals. In February 2009, he came joint third at the 7th Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar, again finishing strongly with 4½/5 to end the event on 7½/10. Nakamura won the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship (St Louis, Missouri, May 2009), scoring 7/9 to take clear first ahead of 17-year-old GM-elect Robert Hess , who shared second with 6½. In July 2009, Nakamura won
4875-599: The system in the 1920s. This often leads to very sharp play with the players castling on opposite wings and attacking each other's kings, as in the Bagirov–Gufeld game given below, though it may also give rise to heavyweight positional struggles. Black has a variety of pawn breaks, such as ...e5, ...c5 and ...b5 (prepared by ...c6 and/or ...a6). This can transpose to the Modern Benoni after 5...0-0 6.Bg5 c5 7.d5 e6. World champions Mikhail Botvinnik , Mikhail Tal , Tigran Petrosian , Boris Spassky , Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov have all played this variation. This line defends
4950-510: The third strongest tournament in history; Nakamura finished 4½/10; the tournament was won by Carlsen on tiebreak over Karjakin. Despite the disappointing performance at Bazna, he reached a new career-high world ranking of No. 6 in the July 2011 FIDE list with a 2770 rating. From July 21–31, Nakamura made his debut at the Dortmund Invitational in Germany; the field comprised world No. 5 Kramnik, world No. 10 Ponomariov, world No. 27 Lê Quang Liêm , world No. 40 Giri, and Georg Meier . Nakamura had
5025-474: The title and become the youngest national champion since Fischer. Nakamura finished the tournament without a loss and, in the seventh round, defeated grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov , then the nation's top-ranked player. Following that victory, Nakamura played a challenge match dubbed the "Duelo de Jóvenes Prodigios" in Mexico against Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and defeated his fellow prodigy by 4½–1½. In November and December 2005, Nakamura competed in
5100-426: The tournament stated that his goal was to reach a 2800 rating by the end of the year; the win raised his rating from 2751 to 2774 and from world No. 10 to world No. 7 on the unofficial live rating list. Kasparov called Nakamura's victory the best by an American in more than 100 years: In an e-mail, Kasparov said, "Fischer never won a tournament ahead of the world champion. He was second in Santa Monica", referring to
5175-468: The tournament the following year, finishing with five straight wins to tie with Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi , whom he then proceeded to beat in the rapidplay playoff. In October 2007, Nakamura won the Magistral D'Escacs tournament in Barcelona and the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament. Nakamura won the 2008 Finet Chess960 Open in Mainz, Germany. In November 2008, he won the Cap d'Agde Rapid Tournament in Cap d'Agde , defeating Anatoly Karpov in
5250-485: The unofficial Chess960 Championship, losing 10–14 to Carlsen. From May 28 to June 7, he competed in the sixth edition of Norway Chess, placing third with 4½/8 (+1–0=7). The Paris Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz tournament took place 20 to 24 June 2018. Nakamura won the event with 23 points, ahead of Sergei Karjakin with 21½ points and Wesley So who had 21 points. Nakamura won the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament that ran from 11 to 15 August 2018. Nakamura won
5325-468: The world, despite having not been invited to the 2009 World Blitz championship. Nakamura skipped the Chess World Cup 2009 in favor of the London Chess Classic in December 2009. Although he drew with the black pieces against eventual winner Magnus Carlsen and with White against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik , Nakamura failed to win a game during the tournament and ended in seventh place out of eight. Nakamura began 2010 playing first board for
5400-559: The year by participating in the London Chess Classic for the third consecutive time. Starting in 2012, he participated in the Reggio Emilia Tournament, tying for second with Alexander Morozevich of Russia and Fabiano Caruana of Italy. Anish Giri got first place in the tournament, a half-point ahead of the field. Nakamura then played in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, finishing fifth. He won
5475-680: The year, he announced that he would resume playing. The same year, he helped the U.S. team win the bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad at Turin , Italy, playing on the third board behind Gata Kamsky and 2006 U.S. Champion Alexander Onischuk . In the same year, he won the 16th North American Open in Las Vegas. In January 2007, Nakamura shared second place at the GibTelecom Masters in Gibraltar . He placed joint first in
5550-699: Was declared the overall winner due to his higher Sonneborn–Berger score . In March 2016, Nakamura came seventh out of eight in the Candidates Tournament 2016 , which decided the challenger— Sergey Karjakin —to face Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship . He scored 7/14, as did the three players directly above him. In September 2016, Nakamura was part of the U.S. team that won the 42nd Chess Olympiad that took place in Baku , Azerbaijan . In January–February 2017, Nakamura won
5625-411: Was given the key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee on February 15, 2011. The victory also opened the door for Nakamura to receive invitations from other super grandmaster tournaments for the first time, and increased his world ranking to a career-high number eight. In May, he contested a six-game match in the United States against world No. 11 Ponomariov, where he lost the first game but rallied to win
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