Hikaru Nakamura Triumphs in Berlin
Wesley So wins the third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022, organized by World Chess; Hikaru Nakamura wins the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022; Nakamura and Richard Rapport qualify for the FIDE Candidates Tournament to be held in Madrid later this year.
During the Grand Prix, Hikaru Nakamura captured the world’s attention: a semi-retired professional chess player who did not play a single classical game in 2021, and who became the most successful chess streamer in history during the pandemic chess boom, convincingly won the Grand Prix Series and catapulted into the Candidates Tournament. Nakamura’s post-game interviews received most attention during the Series — he used his streaming experience to discuss his games and opponents in a way that appeals to the younger audience.
The FIDE Grand Prix Series was organized by World Chess under the tagline ‘Time to Say Berlin’. Held in World Chess Club Berlin, a bespoke chess venue in the heart of the German capital. It become one of the most attractive chess events of this championship cycle and was covered by worldwide media including Zeit, Spiegel, The Guardian, ARD TV and others. More than 1 000 000 people followed the exclusive broadcasts of the games from Berlin via www.worldchess.com and other streaming platforms.
GAME STATISTICS:
25 Participants
326 games
108 Draws
46 of Wins with White
Average rating — 2721
The overall standings in the Grand Prix Series are as follows:
| Player | Berlin | Belgrade | Berlin | Overall |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 13 | 10 | 23 | |
| Richard Rapport | 7 | 13 | 20 | |
| Wesley So | 4 | 13 | 17 | |
| Levon Aronian | 10 | 2 | 12 | |
| Dmitry Andreikin | 10 | 10 | ||
| Amin Tabatabaei | 3 | 7 | 10 | |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 3 | 7 | 10 | |
| Leinier Dominguez | 7 | 2 | 9 | |
| Sam Shankland | 4 | 4 | 8 | |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 7 | 1 | 8 | |
| Anish Giri | 7 | 0 | 7 | |
| Vidit Gujrathi | 3 | 4 | 7 | |
| Nikita Vitiugov | 3 | 3 | 6 | |
| Alexandr Predke | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Grigoriy Oparin | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| Andrey Esipenko | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| Vincent Keymer | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| Radosław Wojtaszek | 4 | 4 | ||
| Vladimir Fedoseev | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Yu Yangyi | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| Daniil Dubov | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Alexander Grischuk | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| Pentala Harikrishna | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| Etienne Bacrot | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Alexei Shirov | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Ilya Merenzon, CEO of World Chess, said: “With the FIDE Grand Prix Series in Berlin, we have created an new chess hub in the center of Europe and we believe that the German chess fans and chess stars have fallen in love with the space, and that chess will have a permanent home here. We can’t wait for the continuation of the World Chess Championship cycle in the summer!”
The principal sponsors of the event, helping to make this Grand Prix possible, are:
Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner;
Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner;
Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner;
FIDE Online Arena as the Official Gaming Platform.
