Nakamura Is an Active Player Again, According to FIDE Rules

Hikaru Nakamura, American Grandmaster and top chess streamer, is an active player again, according to FIDE rules. He played his first classical game in two years today at the FIDE World Chess Grand Prix in Berlin. Fittingly, it was a draw.

Nakamura, like many other elite chess players, found himself unable to attend tournaments during the pandemic, because there weren’t any. However, Nakamura used the lockdown time wisely, becoming a chess streaming sensation, amassing over a million followers, and signing major sponsorship and management contracts, while playing blitz online.

He hasn’t played a single classic game in two years and fell of the active players’ list. He received a personal wild card into the Grand Prix Series from FIDE President. After a fairly uneventful and quick draw against French GM Etienne Bacrot, Nakamura said “I think at the end of the game I was playing too quickly, maybe because I haven’t played classical chess for so long and it felt too boring!”.

Welcome back to the real world.

FIDE World Chess Grand Prix is a three-leg series which is a final qualifier to the Candidates Tournament. Organized by World Chess, the leading chess organizer, it takes place in Berlin and will run for two weeks. Nakamura is facing strong competition and will have to fight for the chance to advance in the Championship cycle.