Hikaru Nakamura
The top USA chess player Hikaru Nakamura shared 3rd at London Chess Classic 2012-2013. Nakamura finished with 13.0/24, the same points as the local representative GM Michael Adams. The tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen with 18.0, the second place is for Vladimir Kramnik with 16.0.
Nakamura had a great start as he defeated the 2800 club member Levon Aronian with black. However, a loss against Vladimir Kramnik, draws with Jones and Adams, and the perfect start of Magnus Carlsen put extra pressure on Nakamura to chase result in the next rounds. The ambition helped achieve a victory vs Judit Polgar and draws with Carlsen and Anand, as well as a last round win over Luke McShane. But what Nakamura could not control was the fantastic performance of Kramnik and Carlsen.
Still, the third place is a solid performance for Nakamura, who added 8.9 ELO points to his rating, making it 2769 as of January 2013.
Replay the games with computer analysis / Official website
Round 9 results:
Hikaru Nakamura – Luke McShane 1-0
Judit Polgar – Levon Aronian ?-?
Magnus Carlsen – Viswanathan Anand ?-?
Mickey Adams – Vladimir Kramnik ?-?
Gawain Jones – Bye
Final standings:
1. Magnus Carlsen – 18
2. Vladimir Kramnik – 16
3-4. Michael Adams and Hikaru Nakamura – 13
5. Viswanathan Anand – 9
6. Levon Aronian – 8
7. Judit Polgar – 6
8. Luke McShane – 5
9. Gawain Jones – 3