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Nakamura in South Africa
January 9, 2018
Evidently Hikaru Nakamura has been in South Africa for a week or so.
On January 3, he played his speedchess final with Magnus Carlsen from an auditorium, with spectators. There is a photo at https://twitter.com/SAJCC2018 showing him during the match.
What interests me is what is on the table to snack while the games are going on. I see three cans of Red Bull, a bottle of orange juice and another juice, bottled water, meat, watermelon and pineapple chunks. Really chesstalkers, I need some help here!
Mike Klein captions the photo “Playing from South Africa Hikaru has his biltong ready against Magnus”. Wikipedia defines biltong as a form of dried, cured meat that originated in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Lennart Ootes writes on the same page: I’m in Johannesburg for the South African Junior Team Championships and its special guest GMHikaru will play the speedchess final vs Magnus live from S. Africa.
Hikaru also played blitz against some of the regulars in a chess park.
And, a 100-board simul, photos of which can be seen at:
https://twitter.com/ChessMike
I assume that Hikaru, Mike Klein and Lennart Ootes are all guests of the organizers of the SAJCC2018. What a wonderful promotion! I expect Mike will write this up at chess.com shortly.
And the results of the big simul? This story from IOL, Zambia:
Boys beat chess grandmaster
NEWS / 9 JANUARY 2018
NICOLA DANIELS
Twelve-year-old Alexander van der Merwe from Stellenbosch has made his mark against a chess grandmaster. He claimed one of only two wins against American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura at the SA National Junior Chess Championships in Boksburg.
The competition, which lasted more than five hours, was the biggest simultaneous chess exhibition to take place in South Africa.
It saw Nakamura, eighth in the world, take on 101 games at the same time, moving from board to board from 5.50pm until 11.35pm.
Alexander said: “It feels amazing, I have never played someone so highly rated.
“I went wild in the end and played very aggressive(ly) because I was determined to win and he didn’t see what I was planning.”
The Grade 6 pupil said the qualities that made a good chess player were “patience, hard work and passion for the sport”.
Out of the 101 games played, Nakamura won 92 and conceded seven draws and two losses.
He made an average of 24 moves per game and made about 3 000 moves during the course of the simultaneous exhibition.
Khanya Mazibuko, 16, from Soweto was the only other participant to defeat Nakamura.
“I am excited, overwhelmed and very proud of myself.
“I was the second last person to finish; the game was long, but it was fun,” Khanya said.
nicola.daniels@inl.co.za
January 9, 2018
Evidently Hikaru Nakamura has been in South Africa for a week or so.
On January 3, he played his speedchess final with Magnus Carlsen from an auditorium, with spectators. There is a photo at https://twitter.com/SAJCC2018 showing him during the match.
What interests me is what is on the table to snack while the games are going on. I see three cans of Red Bull, a bottle of orange juice and another juice, bottled water, meat, watermelon and pineapple chunks. Really chesstalkers, I need some help here!
Mike Klein captions the photo “Playing from South Africa Hikaru has his biltong ready against Magnus”. Wikipedia defines biltong as a form of dried, cured meat that originated in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Lennart Ootes writes on the same page: I’m in Johannesburg for the South African Junior Team Championships and its special guest GMHikaru will play the speedchess final vs Magnus live from S. Africa.
Hikaru also played blitz against some of the regulars in a chess park.
And, a 100-board simul, photos of which can be seen at:
https://twitter.com/ChessMike
I assume that Hikaru, Mike Klein and Lennart Ootes are all guests of the organizers of the SAJCC2018. What a wonderful promotion! I expect Mike will write this up at chess.com shortly.
And the results of the big simul? This story from IOL, Zambia:
Boys beat chess grandmaster
NEWS / 9 JANUARY 2018
NICOLA DANIELS
Twelve-year-old Alexander van der Merwe from Stellenbosch has made his mark against a chess grandmaster. He claimed one of only two wins against American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura at the SA National Junior Chess Championships in Boksburg.
The competition, which lasted more than five hours, was the biggest simultaneous chess exhibition to take place in South Africa.
It saw Nakamura, eighth in the world, take on 101 games at the same time, moving from board to board from 5.50pm until 11.35pm.
Alexander said: “It feels amazing, I have never played someone so highly rated.
“I went wild in the end and played very aggressive(ly) because I was determined to win and he didn’t see what I was planning.”
The Grade 6 pupil said the qualities that made a good chess player were “patience, hard work and passion for the sport”.
Out of the 101 games played, Nakamura won 92 and conceded seven draws and two losses.
He made an average of 24 moves per game and made about 3 000 moves during the course of the simultaneous exhibition.
Khanya Mazibuko, 16, from Soweto was the only other participant to defeat Nakamura.
“I am excited, overwhelmed and very proud of myself.
“I was the second last person to finish; the game was long, but it was fun,” Khanya said.
nicola.daniels@inl.co.za
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