Nakamura Crushes Friedel to Win US Championship
While five players were technically in the title hunt heading into the final round of the US Chess Championship, most eyes were on the two co-leaders: Hikaru Nakamura and Robert Hess. And while Hess couldn't find a win against Varuzhan Akobian, Nakamura used superior preparation to take care of Joshua Friedel in just 22 moves to take clear first place with a 7/9 score.
For winning clear first, Nakamura won $40,000. Hess and Alexander Onischuk tied for second at 6.5 points, and took home $12,500 each. Gata Kamsky and Akobian each scored 6/9 to round out the top five.
For Nakamura, this is his second US Chess Championship. Nakamura has been making great strides towards becoming a truly elite world-class grandmaster (he is currently ranked 30th in the world), and winning this event without a single loss showed remarkable consistency and strength.
Of course, Robert Hess may have had the most remarkable result of all. Nobody expected the young GM-elect to remain in contention until the last moments of the tournament, and a second place finish suggests he'll be a factor in many US Championships to come.
Perhaps the biggest round of applause should go to the organizers. This has been one of the best run events in recent US Championship history, and the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis is a gorgeous venue. We'll al be looking forward to future events being held there, including the 2009 US Women's Championship later this year.
Comments
It would be great if you could possibly show some of the games move by move that stand out in tournaments like the US Championship match.
Congratulation Nakamura!!!
Congrats to Nakamura. I was hoping to see Kamsky do well, but Hikaru is great! I agree with Ken … any chance of seeing the score of Nakamura’s last round win?
What happened to Kamsky? With his international experience and having done so well on a world class level, he should have waltzed into the winner’s circle. Now that Nakamura has again won the U.S. Championship, will he be testing the H2O of world class competition? I think that it is way passed time for him to do so – he can be a big fish in a small pond for only so long.
mikel nix, Kamsky is only slightly higher rated than Nakamura and Naka plays in many international tournaments such as The 2009 PWC Toronto Open Chess Championship, Aker Chess Challenge in Gjøvik, Cap d’Agde, Gibtel, Corsican Circuit, Magistral D’Escacs in Barcelona, GibTel Masters in Gibraltar, etc.