The Hikaru Nakamura Blog

Musings by Hikaru Nakamura on life, chess, and travel. Don't forget to subscribe to receive timely updates.

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    Archives

    Greetings

    April 28, 2008 • General

    Since I have neither been on ICC or blogging much lately, I am sure people are wondering where I have vanished off to. Matter of fact, I’ve been spending time in the lovely Pacific Northwest. This past week I was staying in absolutely beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. After that I returned to Washington State for a mere two days to do a simul at the Washington Elementary Championships in Redmond, WA. Now, I am back in Vancouver for the next two weeks before I try and remember how to play chess amidst all the calm and beauty. Till next time, keep it classy Chess World! (Takeoff on Ron Burgundy for those who didn’t see Anchorman).

    French League Part II (Round IV) Wrapup

    April 14, 2008 • General

    So, yesterday I played GM Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu with white in the last round of this 2nd leg of the French Top 16 Team Championship. Nisipeanu first became famous way back in 1999 when he had a magical run in the Fide World Cup at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas by beating GMs Ivanchuk and Shirov along the way before losing in the semi finals. Since then, he has consistently performed at a very high level and is considering an extremely solid player. Surprisingly despite having played in several of the same tournaments, this was the first time I ever played him. The game was rather short by my standards as it was a 14 move draw in a Nimzo Indian. Playing morning rounds is always difficult and I was quite tired and played a very dull line which led to a very drawish position.

    Unfortunately, while I put up another solid performance scoring 3/4 my team suffered. We only scored 1 win out of our 4 matches with 3 losses. Nevetheless, despite these two rather disappointing performances the players on my team seem to have a lot of enthusiasm and are fun to be around. Hopefully we can turn it around in the third and final leg of the tournament but if not, it will still have been a new experience and a lot of fun.

    Quick update, my rating is unofficially 2696 right now. However, it also depends on whether the US Amateur Team gets rated in which case I would be picking up at least two points and whether the tournament I played in Karabakh, Armenia in 2005 gets rated. If these two tournaments ever end up getting rated I would be 2703. However, right now all I am doing is playing the best chess I can and we’ll see what happens. As I have stated on ICC as well as some other places, my goal is to be 2730 by the end of the year. Whether this is possible or not remains to be seen, but I will keep on trying to improve.

    Also, as some of you may have noticed my website went down yesterday. I am not sure yet what the reason was, but it appeared to be a technical glitch as opposed to any malicious hacking. Just letting everyone know so that people don’t freak out! Hopefully this won’t happen again, but there is no guarantee.

    Shortly, I will be adding a new function where I will include a subscription based area in which I will annotate 1 game a week in which I will pick top games whether they be my own of from elite tournaments. This will probably be setup sometime within the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes open! Amongst other updates, I will be doing a simul at the Washington State Elementary Championships on April 26, 2008. Outside of this there is not much to report other than my continued preparations towards becoming a top 10 player. As of right now, I do not have any tournaments planned during the months of July,August, or September, so perhaps I will get an invitation to a top tournament like Biel. As far as my personal life, these next couple weeks will be very busy as I will be traveling as well as celebrating my brothers graduation. Therefore, it is unlikely that I will be posting very much in the near future. My next major tournament that I have planned right now is the Chicago Open towards the end of May, if anyone is going to be there feel free to say hello! Till next time, Chao!

    French League Part II (Round III)

    April 12, 2008 • General

    So today I played a rather dull game against GM Kasimdzhanov. The opening was a Meran Slav with 6.Qc2 followed by 7.Bd3. Shortly afterwards queens came off and I held a draw with relative ease. Nothing special, but its hard to complain about draws with black. Tomorrow my team Antibes will face the extremely strong Clichy club (Nisipeanu,Fressinet,Pelletier,Tregubov top 4) and hopefully we can find a way to survive.  I do not yet know who  I will play, but due to the fact that it is a 10 AM game (11:15 PM here now) I probably should go and get some sleep. Till next time, au revior!

    French League Part II (Round II)

    April 12, 2008 • General

    Hello again! So I beat a 2377 French IM with black yesterday to remain perfect with 2/2. Today, I will probably be black against GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov who I beat in the finals of the Corsica Rapid tournament. About the previous post, I attempted to copy and paste the game against Bauer with annotations but unfortunately it did not work. For everyone who is interested, here is a link to the French website with results. http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Equipes.aspx To find the results go to the right tab which shows “selectionnaire une competition” and select “Interclub Adultes” followed by “Top 16” On selectionner division tab. In case this does not work I will post the results from the website thus far.

     

     

    Compétitions

    Imprimer 

    Par équipes
    http://www.echecs.asso.fr/images/ligne.gif

     

     

    Ronde 1

    Vandoeuvre

    4

    3

    Bois Colombes

    Montpellier

    1

    5

    Clichy

    Marseille Duchamps

    2

    4

    Mulhouse

    Antibes

    1

    3

    Marseille Echecs

    Ronde 2

    Bois Colombes

    0

    5

    Clichy

    Vandoeuvre

    2

    4

    Montpellier

    Mulhouse

    3

    1

    Marseille Echecs

    Marseille Duchamps

    0

    4

    Antibes

    Ronde 3

    Montpellier

    5

    0

    Bois Colombes

    Clichy

    2

    0

    Vandoeuvre

    Antibes

    1

    3

    Mulhouse

    Marseille Echecs

    3

    1

    Marseille Duchamps

    Ronde 4

    Clichy

    6

    1

    Marseille Duchamps

    Montpellier

    3

    2

    Antibes

    Vandoeuvre

    3

    2

    Marseille Echecs

    Bois Colombes

    1

    4

    Mulhouse

    Ronde 5

    Marseille Echecs

    1

    3

    Clichy

    Mulhouse

    0

    2

    Montpellier

    Antibes

    3

    2

    Bois Colombes

    Marseille Duchamps

    0

    4

    Vandoeuvre

    Ronde 6

    Clichy

     

     

    Mulhouse

    Montpellier

     

     

    Marseille Echecs

    Vandoeuvre

     

     

    Antibes

    Bois Colombes

     

     

    Marseille Duchamps

    Ronde 7

    Antibes

     

     

    Clichy

    Marseille Duchamps

     

     

    Montpellier

    Mulhouse

     

     

    Vandoeuvre

    Marseille Echecs

     

     

    Bois Colombes

     

     

     

    Pl.

    Equipe

    Pts

    j.

    d.

    p.

    c.

    1

    Clichy

    15

    5

    18

    21

    3

    2

    Mulhouse

    13

    5

    7

    14

    7

    3

    Montpellier

    13

    5

    6

    15

    9

    4

    Vandoeuvre

    11

    5

    2

    13

    11

    5

    Antibes

    9

    5

    0

    11

    11

    6

    Marseille Echecs

    9

    5

    -1

    10

    11

    7

    Bois Colombes

    5

    5

    -15

    6

    21

    8

    Marseille Duchamps

    5

    5

    -17

    4

    21

     

    Round 1

    April 11, 2008 • General

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