Nakamura Completes Perfect Freestyle Friday For Fourth Title
GM Hikaru Nakamura won Freestyle Friday on June 27 with a perfect 11/11 score, matching the feat accomplished three weeks ago by GM Jeffery Xiong. In the 23rd Freestyle Friday held so far, Nakamura earned his fourth victory, breaking a tie with GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Oleksandr Bortnyk for the most wins by anyone.
After just eight rounds, Nakamura had already opened up a full-point lead on the field. In that round, he had needed just 13 moves to win a piece and the game against GM Mitrabha Guha, who had entered the game with a 6.5/7 score behind Nakamura's 7/7.
Despite this run continuing against GMs Alexander Grischuk and Matthias Bluebaum, Nakamura had still not clinched the outright victory after 10 rounds: FM Artin Ashraf remained within striking distance, but Nakamura's tiebreaks were likely to hold anyway. That said, after Nakamura won against GM Pranav Venkatesh, it didn't matter what Ashraf did, which ended up being a draw with IM Renato Terry that concluded at about the same time.
Nakamura vs. Pranav was a close game for much of its duration, and it took until the last fifth or so of the game for Pranav to lose the thread. Pranav tried getting a rook on the seventh rank, but in the process, he allowed Nakamura's passed e-pawn to become too much of a threat. It was still a square away from promotion when Pranav lost on time, but the position was hopeless.
After ending up on 9.5 points, Ashraf was the only player within even two points of Nakamura, which he achieved with games like this one against GM Dmitrij Kollars in the seventh round. Kollars' decisive error was almost imperceptible, but Ashraf made him pay anyway.
But this Friday was the Nakamura show. Below are all 11 of his wins.
Rounding out the top four, each with 8.5/11 scores, were Bluebaum and Terry. GM Daniel Naroditsky, who the day before had advanced in the Bullet Chess Championship, also scored 8.5 points, but finished fifth and just missed cashing in. WIM Phuong Hanh Luong won the women's prize.
June 27 Freestyle Friday | Final Standings (Top 25)
| Rank | Seed | Fed | Title | Username | Name | Rating | Score | 1st Tiebreak |
| 1 | 1 | GM | @Hikaru | Hikaru Nakamura | 2855 | 11 | 71 | |
| 2 | 17 | FM | @artin10862 | Artin Ashraf | 2675 | 9.5 | 61.5 | |
| 3 | 13 | GM | @Msb2 | Matthias Bluebaum | 2684 | 8.5 | 67.5 | |
| 4 | 10 | IM | @MITerryble | Renato Terry | 2693 | 8.5 | 65.5 | |
| 5 | 19 | GM | @DanielNaroditsky | Daniel Naroditsky | 2636 | 8.5 | 55.5 | |
| 6 | 11 | GM | @wonderfultime | Tuan Minh Le | 2675 | 8 | 61.5 | |
| 7 | 55 | GM | @Igor_Janik | Igor Janik | 2489 | 8 | 61.5 | |
| 8 | 7 | GM | @vi_pranav | Pranav V | 2751 | 8 | 61.5 | |
| 9 | 20 | GM | @Sam_ChessMood | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan | 2624 | 8 | 58.5 | |
| 10 | 15 | GM | @adotand | Pranav Anand | 2619 | 8 | 57 | |
| 11 | 26 | GM | @Zhigalko_Sergei | Sergei Zhigalko | 2579 | 8 | 53.5 | |
| 12 | 9 | GM | @BogdanDeac | Bogdan Daniel Deac | 2691 | 7.5 | 68.5 | |
| 13 | 36 | FM | @RrainlessBobot | Kamil Plichta | 2511 | 7.5 | 68 | |
| 14 | 18 | GM | @Volodar_Murzin | Volodar Murzin | 2622 | 7.5 | 66.5 | |
| 15 | 12 | GM | @mitrabhaa | Mitrabha Guha | 2685 | 7.5 | 65.5 | |
| 16 | 43 | FM | @ilqar_74 | Rustam Rustamov | 2489 | 7.5 | 59.5 | |
| 17 | 14 | GM | @rasmussvane | Rasmus Svane | 2666 | 7.5 | 57.5 | |
| 18 | 24 | GM | @sokidze | Ihor Samunenkov | 2597 | 7.5 | 56.5 | |
| 19 | 129 | CM | @Laurin_2009 | Laurin Jahnz | 2187 | 7.5 | 56 | |
| 20 | 6 | GM | @Grischuk | Alexander Grischuk | 2747 | 7 | 74 | |
| 30 | 126 | WIM | @amylazy | Phuong Hanh Luong | 2214 | 6.5 | 59.5 |
Prizes: Nakamura $400, Ashraf $250, Bluebaum $150, Terry $100, Phuong $100.
Freestyle Friday is Chess.com's weekly tournament dedicated to Freestyle Chess for titled players. The tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time.
Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.
