U.S. Champion GM Hikaru Nakamura Holds Simul in Atlanta

U.S. Champions have not often visited Atlanta, Georgia. On Saturday, April 20, GM Hikaru Nakamura, only three weeks removed from winning his fifth U.S. Championship, visited North Point Mall in Alpharetta, a northern suburb of the ATL for an exhibition that included a 25-board simul, 11-boards of blitz, and a lecture. The result against some of Georgia’s best? A resounding 36-0 for the champ. The lineup included many players north of 2000, including three IMs and GM Alonso Zapata playing in the blitz. For the lecture, Hikaru analyzed his last-round win in the U.S. Championship against GM Jeffery Xiong. https://youtu.be/_3uk1bNvbqk One of the IMs playing in the blitz was seventh-grader Arthur Guo, who won the 2018 K-9 Championship as only a sixth grader. That event was also in Atlanta. https://youtu.be/Ef4xi1jjNxQ Two girls and one woman participated in the simul. Bella Belegradek was a seasoned tournament player in the Soviet Union, where she acquired the title of Woman Master’s Candidate at age 16. She is now rated 2063 and works as a coach for Kid Chess, one of the event sponsors. One of the two girls was Evelyn Qiao, who won bronze at the 2018 World’s Cadet in the Girl’s Under 8 section and is currently rated 1598. Young Evelyn outlasted 12 other players. As you’ll hear in the below interview, her favorite player crosses generations! https://youtu.be/COr_ha8ccFw Christopher Abel is a blind player in Georgia. You’ve probably seen a braille board before, but you may never have seen one in use before; for that, see the video: https://youtu.be/smqn7pD64VQ It is always of interest to see who the last player standing is at a simul. That honor for this event goes to 1928-rated Anshul Gokul, who was the only player to go the distance during the almost two-hour simul. Other events took place, including casual play for anyone who happened to wander by on this busy Easter weekend in the mall and a photo session with Nakamura. There was even a random Chess Life sighting in the crowd, as Robbie Stadter (shown with two of her three sons) brought her April issue for the champion to sign. The Kid Chess knight mascot appeared to be playing some version of the three knights opening against Nakamura. The sponsors who made this event happen were (left-right): Justin Morrison of Kid Chess and Chess.Zone, IM Carlos Perdomo of Chess Atlanta,  and A.J. Steigman of Steignet (an arbitrage platform for the single family residential housing market). CLO talked to Nakamura immediately after the simul: https://youtu.be/Kcst_44ctJ8 As an example of that Atlanta talent that Nakamura referenced, we will leave you with his game against 12-year-old Alexander Rutten, a 2152-rated sixth-grader in the Atlanta area. As you’ll see, material was even for most of the game even though Hikaru was clearly better from early on:

[pgn]

[Event "Nakamura Simul"]
[Site "Alpharetta, GA"]
[Date "2019.04.20"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Black "Rutten, Alexander"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B53"]
[WhiteElo "2819"]
[BlackElo "2152"]
[PlyCount "71"]
[EventDate "2019.04.20"]
[EventCountry "USA"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 a6 5. c4 Nc6 6. Qd2 Nf6 7. Nc3 g6 8. h3
Bg7 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Bd7 11. Rb1 Rc8 12. b3 Qa5 13. Rd1 Rfe8 14. Bb2 Rb8 15.
a3 Qb6 16. Nd5 Nxd5 17. exd5 Ne5 18. Nd4 f5 19. f4 Nf7 20. Kh1 e5 21. dxe6 Bxe6
22. Bf3 Bd7 23. Bd5 Rbd8 24. Nf3 Be6 25. Bxg7 Kxg7 26. Nd4 Bd7 27. b4 Qc7 28.
Rdc1 b6 29. Nf3 Be6 30. Nd4 Bd7 31. Qb2 Kg8 32. Re1 a5 33. b5 Rxe1+ 34. Rxe1
Re8 35. Rxe8+ Bxe8 36. Ne6 1-0

[/pgn]