He prefers competing against players of the same caliber (Categoty-21 and up) rather than bullying himself in a tournament with relatively low ELO ratings like this one.
Gaining ELO points against low-rated players is not Nakamura’s philosophy.
For him to be the best is to beat the best out there.
Joel Benjamin’s win in the endgame against Akobian invites comparison with Bobby Fischer’s handling of endgames with the “Fischer Bishop” tying down a black knight. Well, at least Joel has earned such comparison with the times he’s won and many times he’s played in the US Championship! For those viewing the Houdini analysis window at ChessBomb, Joel’s 56.Be8!? feint appears in it as an error, but note that after Black’s correct 56…Ke7 Joel could always have repeated with 57.Bb5 (upon deciding that 57.Bf7!? doesn’t work after all—it leads after 57…Bxf7 58.gxf7 Kxf7 59.Nxd5 Nc8 60.Kb5 Nd6+ to several interesting theoretical endgames, most notably 61.Kxb6 Nc4+ 62.Kb5 Nxa3+ 63.Kxa5 Ke6 64.Kb4 Nc2+ 65.Kc5 or Kc4 with N+e3,d4 vs. N+e4 which looks like it should be winning but seems not to be from my Houdini glimpse of it).
Where’s Nakamura?
Nakamura is scheduled to play in the big Norway tournament, which will feature almost all the World’s Top players.
it will feature the worlds top players but as usual naka will be in the bottom
Nakamura is taking the high road.
He prefers competing against players of the same caliber (Categoty-21 and up) rather than bullying himself in a tournament with relatively low ELO ratings like this one.
Gaining ELO points against low-rated players is not Nakamura’s philosophy.
For him to be the best is to beat the best out there.
Joel Benjamin’s win in the endgame against Akobian invites comparison with Bobby Fischer’s handling of endgames with the “Fischer Bishop” tying down a black knight. Well, at least Joel has earned such comparison with the times he’s won and many times he’s played in the US Championship! For those viewing the Houdini analysis window at ChessBomb, Joel’s 56.Be8!? feint appears in it as an error, but note that after Black’s correct 56…Ke7 Joel could always have repeated with 57.Bb5 (upon deciding that 57.Bf7!? doesn’t work after all—it leads after 57…Bxf7 58.gxf7 Kxf7 59.Nxd5 Nc8 60.Kb5 Nd6+ to several interesting theoretical endgames, most notably 61.Kxb6 Nc4+ 62.Kb5 Nxa3+ 63.Kxa5 Ke6 64.Kb4 Nc2+ 65.Kc5 or Kc4 with N+e3,d4 vs. N+e4 which looks like it should be winning but seems not to be from my Houdini glimpse of it).