American Chess Player Wins Tourney Ahead of World's Best

GM Hikaru Nakamura, 23, is the world's #10 chess player

American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has won the prestigious super Grand Master tournament held in Wijk ann Zee, the Netherlands, ahead of the top 4 ranked players in the world:  Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik . Carlsen is the world's top-ranked player and Anand and Kramnik have both won the world chess championship.


Former world champion Garry Kasparov called it "maybe the best performance by an American in  100 years." The New York Times Gambit blogger disputed this remark, but did call it "one of the best results by an American in decades."

Nakamura won the Tata Steel Chess with 6 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss (to Carlsen), or 9 points, half a point ahead of Anand, with World #3 Aronian and World #4 back at 8 points.

Congrats to Hikaru!

Hat/tip to Susan Polgar.