Hikaru Nakamura continues his quest for Candidates Chess 2026
In a strategic move to secure his spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament, world number-two chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura participated in the 2025 Louisiana State Championship in New Orleans, a relatively small tournament with a $3,000 prize fund, where he scored a perfect 7/7 against opponents rated significantly lower, including FM Nicholas Matta (2344). This participation sparked debate in the chess community regarding Nakamura’s strategy, previously used by Ding Liren.
Now Nakamura continues his quest for Candidates Chess 2026 and he joins the 70th Iowa Open Chess Championship (part of The Chess Calendar). There Nakamura will play with Anjaneya Sripathy Rao 2276, Valeriy Kosokin 2232, Tim R McEntee 2200, Alec Daniel Aimdilokwong 2174, Kyler Weatherspoon 2151, Dane Bruno Zagar 2103, Luke O Hengen 2093, Edward Shen 2071, Gurugrahan Gurumoorthi 2064, Elijah Logozar 2057, Matthew Kent Pikus 2051, etc.
Stay tuned for live games and more information