Playing down for a shot at chess’ highest prize

The road to the chess world championship just may wind through New Orleans and Iowa City.

That’s where you would have found U.S. GM Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s second-highest rated player, playing earlier this month in the Louisiana and Iowa state championships.

Competing against players rated as much as 1,000 points lower, Nakamura took both titles and won all 12 games, but the point wasn’t to add to his trophy collection. Instead, the popular American GM (as he openly acknowledged) was playing down to guarantee an all-important berth in the upcoming 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament to pick the challenger to current titleholder GM Dommaraju Gukesh.

One would think Nakamura would qualify for an invite on rating strength alone, but FIDE rules say the slot only goes to a player who played 40 rated classical games between August 2025 and January 2026, and he was about 20 games short of the total. Hence his decision to play in events far below his elite level.

The experts and Class A players paired with the grandmaster appeared thrilled by just the opportunity to match wits with a super GM, and Nakamura himself said the experience took him back to his early days of three-game-a-day Swisses of his youth.

Sometimes these vast ratings mismatches can lead to glittering sacrificial brilliancies, but Nakamura appeared happy just to accumulate small advantages and rely on grandmasterly technique to carry the day.

That’s how things worked out in his win from the Black side of a Rossolimo Sicilian against candidate master Anjaneya Rao in the Iowa event. In true “Rocky” fashion, White manages not to get knocked out in the early rounds of the bout, losing honorably on a TKO when Nakamura gets down to business in the middle game.

Small inaccuracies subtly undercut White’s position — 11. Kb1 seems more prudent, and the admirably aggressive but premature 15. g4?! (Qe1 Kb7 16. a3 offers Black only the tiniest of advantages) allows Black an advantageous repositioning after 15…Nc5 16. Qc1 Ne6 17. Rxd8+ Qxd8 18. h4 Qf6 19. Rh3 Nd4. If and when White trades off the powerful knight, Black’s bishop pair will spring to life.

Rao’s 24. a3 Bc8! (a nice repositioning to get both bishops into play) 25. f4?! exf4 26. Bxf4+ Kb7 27. Rd3 Ne6 28. Nxe6 Bxe6 clearly leaves every Black piece in better position than its White counterpart. White has one more trick up his sleeve, but the grandmaster has things well in hand.

Thus: 29. Qd1 (ceding the undefendable h-pawn to get some scary-looking pressure on Nakamura’s king) Qxh4 30. Rd7+! (this doesn’t work, but White gets style points for giving it his best shot) Ka8! (Bxd7?? 31. Qxd7+ Ka6 [Ka8?? 32. Qxc6 mate] 32. Qxc6 Bxc3 33. Qc4+ Kb7 34. Qc7+ Ka6 35. Qc4+, drawing, as losing are both 35…Ka5?? 36. b4+ Bxb4 37. axb4+ Ka4 38. b5+ Ka3 [Ka5 39. Bd2 mate] 39. Qb3 mate; and 35…b5?? 36. Qc6+ Ka5 37. Bc7+ Ka4 38. Qa6+ Ba5 39. Qxa5 mate) 31. Ne2 Bxd7 32. Qxd7.

Chalk this up as a moral victory, as White threatens mate on the move against the world’s No. 2 player, but, unfortunately, it’s Black’s move. Nakamura quashes the threat and turns the mating tables with 32…Qf6! 33. Nd4 Qxf4!, and Rao resigns. It’s White’s king who doesn’t survive after 34. Nxc6 Qf1+ 35. Ka2 Qc4+ 36. b3 (Kb1 Rh1+ 37. Qd1 Rxd1 mate) Qxc2 mate.

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Two strong open and women’s fields were pursuing a more conventional path to the Candidates field, as the FIDE Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss tournaments wrapped up Monday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Dutch GM Anish Giri claimed one of the slots in the Open tournament, defeating American GM Hans Moke Niemann in the 11th and final round, while German GM Mathias Bluebaum, seeded 32nd, was a surprise qualifier with the best tiebreaks among the four grandmasters a half-point back. On the women’s side, Indian GM Rameshbabu Vaishali and Russian GM Kateryna Lagno earned spots in the women’s Candidates tournament.

With the field so strong and the stakes so high, there was no time to employ a “Swiss gambit” and sharp, aggressive play was paramount in the early rounds of both tournaments. Turkish 14-year-old phenom Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, the world’s youngest grandmaster, showed how it’s done against “veteran” Indian GM Aditya Mittal, who will himself turn all of 19 years old later this week.

In a Queen’s Gambit Accepted, neither players shrinks from the complications when Erdogmus as Black jettisons a pawn for a dangerous kingside attack: 20. Nd2 Nh4!? 21. Bxc5 Qg6 22. g3 Bg2!? (bxc5 23. Nxe4 Rxe4 24. Rxe4 Qxe4 25. gxh4 Re8 leads to equal play) 23. Be7 Bxh3 24. Kh2 Ng2!? (also worth a look was 24…Bd7 25. gxh4 Rxe7! 26. Rxe7 Qd6+) 25. Re5 f6 (Nf4?! 26. Qe3 defends nicely) 26. Qxb6 Nf4! — producing a fiendishly complicated position with pins, hanging pieces and counterthreats abounding.

With his two passed central pawns a potentially winning asset in the long run, White tries first to fortify his king, falling just short at the critical juncture: 27. Re4!? (of course not 27. gxf4?? Qg2 mate, but 27. Re3! was a stingier defense, with the computer offering one wild drawing line on 27…Rxe7 28. Rxe7 Qh5 29. f3 Bg2+ 30. Kg1 Qh1+ 31. Kf2 Nd3+ 32 Ke2 [Ke3?? Qg1+, skewering the White queen] Nc1+ 33. Kf2 Nd3+ 34. Ke2 Nc1+ 35. Kf2, with a perpetual, as Black dare not vary with 35…Nxa2?? 36. Qb7!, and Black’s g7-square can’t be defended) Qh5! 28. Rxf4 Bg4+ 29. Kg1 Rxe7 30. Ra1 Rae8 31. Rf1, trying to bolster the squares around the White king to allow the pawns to advance.

In a horrifically messy position, Aditya finally gets his extra queen only to leave his king exposed to a fatal counterattack: 31…Bh3?! (Re1! immediately was stronger, with the threat of 32…Rxf1+ 33. Nxf1 Re1 34. Rxg4 Qxg4 35. Qa6 Qf3 36. c5 Re2, winning) 32. d6? (missing 32. Rh4!, throwing a wrench in Black’s attacking plans) Re2 33. Rh4 Qf5 34. Qb5 R8e5 35. d7? (White may have been banking on this idea, figuring a second queen would undermine the Black attack, but Erdogmus has other ideas) Rxd1! 36. Qb8+ Kh7 37. d8=Q (see diagram).

White gets his extra queen, but now Black sacrifices his own for the win: 37…Qxf2+!! 38. Rxf2 Re1+ 39. Kh2 Rxf2+ 40. Kxh3. Aditya has two queens for a rook, but his king is about to be pushed into a fatal briar patch of Black pawns: 40…Rh1+ 41. Kg4 f5+ 42. Kh5 g6 mate.

(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)

Anjaneya Rao-Nakamura, 70th Iowa State Championship, Iowa City, September 2025

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 g6 6. Be3 b6 7. h3 Bg7 8. Nc3 Nd7 9. Qd2 h6 10. O-O-O Qc7 11. d4 cxd4 12. Bxd4 e5 13. Be3 Ba6 14. Kb1 O-O-O 15. g4 Nc5 16. Qc1 Ne6 17. Rxd8+ Qxd8 18. h4 Qf6 19. Rh3 Nd4 20. g5 Qe6 21. Rg3 hxg5 22. Nxg5 Qe7 23. Qh1 Kb8 24. a3 Bc8 25. f4 exf4 26. Bxf4+ Kb7 27. Rd3 Ne6 28. Nxe6 Bxe6 29. Qd1 Qxh4 30. Rd7+ Ka8 31. Ne2 Bxd7 32. Qxd7 Qf6 33. Nd4 Qxf4 White resigns.

Aditya-Erdogmus, FIDE Grand Swiss 2025, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, September 2025

1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 dxc4 4. e4 c5 5. d5 exd5 6. exd5 Bd6 7. Bxc4 Ne7 8. h3 O-O 9. Nf3 Nd7 10. O-O Nb6 11. b3 Nxc4 12. bxc4 Ng6 13. Ne4 Bf5 14. Nxd6 Qxd6 15. Qb3 b6 16. a4 a5 17. Re1 Rfe8 18. Be3 h6 19. Ra2 Be4 20. Nd2 Nh4 21. Bxc5 Qg6 22. g3 Bg2 23. Be7 Bxh3 24. Kh2 Ng2 25. Re5 f6 26. Qxb6 Nf4 27. Re4 Qh5 28. Rxf4 Bg4+ 29. Kg1 Rxe7 30. Ra1 Rae8 31. Rf1 Bh3 32. d6 Re2 33. Rh4 Qf5 34. Qb5 R8e5 35. d7 Rxd2 36. Qb8+ Kh7 37. d8=Q Qxf2+ 38. Rxf2 Re1+ 39. Kh2 Rxf2+ 40. Kxh3 Rh1+ 41. Kg4 f5+ 42. Kh5 g6 mate.

• Got a hot chess tip or a good game to share? David R. Sands can be reached by email at davidrsands18@gmail.com.