Hikaru Nakamura wins in Berlin as popular chess streamer leads Grand Prix

Hikaru Nakamura defeated Levon Aronian 3-1 in the all-American Fide Grand Prix first leg final at Berlin on Thursday as the five-time US champion, who has become a Twitch stremer with more than a million followers, showed his speed skills by winning both 15-minute rapids after two classical games were drawn.

Nakamura needed a wildcard from the Fide president to compete in Berlin, and that decision drew sharp criticism from Arkady Dvorkovich’s Russian compatriots, but his games were full of energy and ideas. The decisive final encounter was level until Aronian, needing a win to stay in the match, advanced his white king too far into the black camp where it was trapped by Nakamura’s rooks.

This was the first leg (of three) of the Grand Prix, which qualifies its top two finishers to the eight-player Candidates at Madrid in June, the event which will decide the 2023 challenger for Magnus Carlsen’s world crown.

There has been tension between Aronian and Nakamura dating back to a touch-move incident at Moscow 2016, but the former Armenian, 39, and the 34-year-old, who has popularised chess to huge online audiences, are now both well placed. They will miss the Grand Prix second leg starting in Belgrade on 28 February before returning for the final leg in Berlin on 21 March. In contrast, the quintet of Russians who failed to get past the group stage all face elimination.

The only US casualty who did not reach at least the semi-final in Berlin was Wesley So, and the former Filipino was knocked out by a compatriot. Leinier Domínguez found White’s winning move in the diagram with seconds to spare, avoiding a plausible but losing alternative, Can you do as well?

Aronian, Domínguez, and Carlsen’s 2018 challenger, Fabiano Caruana, are