NICK BARNETT CHESS

MAGNUS CARLSEN was at the time of writing, meeting Hikaru Nakamura on the 5th day of the best-of-7 final of the Chess Tour bearing Carlsen’s name. Games 1,2 and 4 ended in draw, while Carlsen won game 3. He said: ‘I haven’t found any semblance of rhythm whatsoever, so I’m in general very unhappy with the way that I’ve played’. The match has now become a best-of-3 decider for huge stakes, with the winner set to claim the $140,000 top prize. Whether Carlsen turns out to be Nakamura’s nemesis, can be decided on Chess24 and YouTube. * * * HIKARU NAKAMURA was born in Japan to an American mother and a Japanese father. His family moved to the United States when he was 2 and he began playing chess at the age of seven. He was coached by Sri Lankan, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry, who married his mother after her divorce. Nakamura is a five-time U.S. champion. At the moment his standing on the FIDE 100 top players list is 18 and his rating is 2736. Carlsen, three years younger, rates at 2863. According to chess-players.org, Nakamura is known as the ‘H-Bomb’ because of a direct playing style. Ichess calls this style ‘aggressive’. But he has a fun side: he plays ‘Fall Guys’ as part of his preparation! (See on YouTube). He is the author of ‘Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate’ and ‘Pool Chess: One Minute’. He lives in Missouri, USA. His hobbies include tennis, mathematics, history and financial markets. He twitters at @GMHikaru. After winning set 3 of the final Nakamura commented: ‘Yesterday I should’ve won the match and today I should’ve lost the match, so I think all is right in the world’. As Siegbert Tarrasch (1862 – 1934) said: ‘Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.’ * * * SOME PEOPLE allow the tsunami to overtake them, others swim like hell with the tide: thus Phumlani (Eddie) Bhila, passionate chess coach in Mpumalanga, has produced a podcast promoting his writings. He has a biographical (and philosophical) work called ‘The Coach - Life Adventures Through Chess’ as well as ‘The Coach Chess Manual - A Coaching and Learning Guide to Understanding the game of Chess’, to his name. Both of these can be bought on Amazon and we encourage you to support him. FIDE has also featured his mission to ‘get chess to all rural communities as a development tool’. If you want to hear his podcast go to: www.podbean. com and search for ‘The eddiebhila's podcast’. He is on FaceBook and Twitter. * * * For news or comment please write to thechessnik@ gmail.com