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No Mercy Nakamura in Spain Print E-mail
July 12, 2009
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GM Hikaru Nakamura, Photo Betsy Dynako
U.S. Champion and World Open co-champ Hikaru Nakamura is on fire at the Donostia Chess Festival (July 7-16) in San Sebastian, Spain. He started out with two whites and wins over Karpov and Vachier-Lagrave. Hikaru wrote about the first few rounds on his blog , and remarked on drawing #1, which in a round robin, guarantees two whites in the first two rounds (plus an extra white overall): "... it is supposed to be a huge advantage due to starting off a tournament with double whites, I have found that it is very much a double edged sword. For instance, if you fail to convert in the first two games, there will be huge pressure to win with Black. Also, I was not overly thrilled about this drawing due to a certain uncertainty involving my performance as I was coming straight from the World Open in Philadelphia. Nevertheless, it is supposed to be an advantage and you just have to deal with it."

Our champion has certainly dealt well with it so far- Nakamura now stands a point ahead of the field with 4.5/5.

Nakamura's Games from Spain

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Bookmark the official website, where you can find more information including complete results and live games. Also remember to sign up for Hikaru Nakamura's U.S. Open simul on August 7th- you can now register for that or Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk's August 6th simul at the USCF webstore.
 
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