Hikaru Nakamura won the Fischer Random world championship in Reykjavik, in an event which marked 50 years since Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in Iceland in the most famous match in chess history. Fischer Random is a chess variant where the back rank pieces are placed randomly, and is an effective way of escaping book openings.
Nakamura, 34, a five-time US champion who has become a streamer with more than a million followers, lost only one game throughout, though he needed an Armageddon at the end to clinch the final against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, who played under a neutral Fide flag.
The symbolism of an American beating a Russian again half a century after 1972 was not lost on the new champion, who said: “It’s kind of fitting, there’s some irony. The gods at least seem to have a sense of humour, and it seemed to work out the same way as it did then.”
In the semi-finals, Nakamura defeated the 18-year-old Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov 3-0, while Nepomniachtchi hustled Magnus Carlsen 3-1. The world champion was unhappy with the time control of 25 minutes for the first 30 moves, then five minutes for the rest of the game with a five-second per move increment from move 31. He wanted 10 seconds, as many FR positions are too complex to take in at a glance.
Reykjavik had a $150,000 (£130,000) first prize and other awards to match, so attracted the world’s top players, but it is still questionable whether FR can really take off as an alternative to traditional chess.
Anecdotal evidence is that attempts to introduce the variant at national or club level have failed to generate entries, while there is little guidance on the principles of good play. Nakamura observed that you should avoid developing your knights at e3/d3 because Black can easily keep them out of the game by e7-e6 or d7-d6. At least that’s a start. Instead of “knight on the rim is dim” we now have “knight at d3, disagree”.
Last weekend, Fide announced that Carlsen had formally confirmed, in writing, that he has given up his right to defend his classical world title, and that China’s Ding Liren had received the official invitation to play the match against Nepomniachtchi in the summer of 2023.
This week, Carlsen said that he would be willing to re-enter the championship cycle in the future if it included more games at faster time limits.
Surprisingly, Nakamura had never previously won an official world title of any kind, even though at various times he has been ranked No 2 in classical and No 1 in rapid and blitz. His breakthrough in Reykjavik unleashed a remarkable burst of energy.
Within a few hours of victory, his stream had published a video with his game by game account of how he won. Next morning, he played in chess.com’s Titled Tuesday and won first prize yet again in that.
By Wednesday, Nakamura was in Toronto for the quarter-finals of chess.com‘s $200,000 global knockout where he beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda 5-2. The Polish No 1 lost the first three, and in some desperation used the Bongcloud 1 e3 e5 2 Ke2 in game four, which Nakamura converted with calm strategic chess.
Back in June, England over-50s and over-65s made a clean sweep of the world senior championships as the teams led by Michael Adams, Nigel Short and John Nunn held off their US rivals.
A golden repeat is set for this week as Friday’s ninth and final round of the European 50+ title race in Dresden starts with England having won seven and drawn one of their eight matches without losing a single game. They cannot now be caught, whatever happens in round nine, which kicks off at 9am GMT, and where England 1 meet England 2.
This impressive performance can be assessed in various ways, and one of them is as a tribute to the unique weekend tournament circuit that developed in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. Those events took no prisoners. There were six rounds, including three on Saturday when play normally started at 9am and finished not far short of midnight.
Playing areas were often basic, but entry fees were very low and prizes were high, the competitors were often young, hungry and ambitious, while the ambience spawned sharp and tricky opening lines like the Grand Prix Attack, the 150 Attack, the Barry, and the DERLD.
Those who emerged at the end with prize-winning scores of 5.5/6 often went on to become IMs and GMs, and the survivors today are remarkable for their durability and longevity. Mark Hebden and Keith Arkell, the two top boards in Dresden, have ridden the weekend circuit and its diminished 21st-century rewards all the way from the early 1970s, Their huge experience has kept them regular prize-winners into their 60s. John Emms, the captain, has taken a slightly different route as a writer and trainer, who has been notably successful in helping Shreyas Royal, 13, achieve an IM title. Fourth board Glenn Flear has his niche in chess history as the player who was invited to the GM tournament at London 1986 as the lowest-ranked player, got married in mid-event, and won first prize ahead of Boris Spassky and other greats.
Lu Miaoyi. Remember that name. The little-known 12-year-old Chinese girl is in contention to become among the top three women chess players of all time, alongside the legendary Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan.
Lu’s mother Xu Yuanyuan was Chinese women’s champion in 2003 and a double world girl champion. Lu learned chess at three, got her first Fide rating at five, and was 2200, master level, at 10. During the pandemic lockdown, Xu took her daughter to Hungary and Serbia, where she has played well over 100 classical games this year. An interview chronicles their journey.
The climax so far came in Tuesday’s final round of the Serbian League, when Lu defeated Armenia’s No 3-ranked woman Lilit Mkrtchian in a truly brilliant 18-move sacrificial miniature. The result raised Lu’s Fide rating to 2399, international master standard, just outside the top 50 women in the Fide rankings, and not far short of Polgar and Hou at age 12. It is time for this exceptional talent to be given higher-level opportunities.
3840 1 Qh6+ Kf7 2 Rf4! exf4 3 Re1! with the winning threat of 4 Qg7/h7 mate.
