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Young White Plains Resident
Wins US Chess Championship
(Copy of NSCF Press Release to Gannett Newspapers)
"White Plains, New York, December 5, 2004. Hikaru Nakamura, a 16 year old chess grandmaster from
White Plains, won the 2005 United States Chess Championship on Sunday, December 5, 2004.
Nakamura is the youngest player to win the U.S. Chess championship since Bobby Fisher won at age 14 in 1957.
The championship, a twelve day invitational tournament open to U.S. residents, was held in San Diego,
California. The finals came down to a tie break rapid chess playoff between Nakamura and Grandmaster
Alexander Stripunsky, after they tied with scores of seven out of a possible nine in the main event.
Nakamura won the $25,000 first prize with a convincing two to nothing victory in the playoff.
He first won while having the disadvantage of the black pieces, and then left no doubt as to who is the
best chess player in the United States by winning again with the white pieces, when he only needed a draw
to assure the first place prize.
The tournament had a total of 64 competitors, one for each square on the chess board, and 25 of the
players held the title of Grandmaster. It was the strongest competition ever held for the U.S. Championship. Nakamura entered the
event as the eighth seed and completed the nine rounds with five wins and four draws, including three wins against other grandmasters.
Nakamura started playing competitive chess in first grade at tournaments sponsored by the National
Scholastic Chess Foundation at elementary schools throughout Westchester County.
Within a few years, he was winning national scholastic championships, after which he "graduated" to
victories in adult tournaments. He beat his first grandmaster at age 10, attained the title of International
Master at age 13 and earned the grandmaster title himself at age 15."
(Hikaru Nakamura is the stepson of Sunil Weeramantry, Executive Director of the National Scholastic Chess
Foundation.)
"The 2005 Women's US Championship, contested at the same time as part of the same 64 player event, was won
by Rusudan Goletiani of Hartsdale. Goletiani is a women's grandmaster who is a former teacher for the
National Scholastic Chess Foundation. She also won a rapid chess playoff by a two to nothing score to win
the $12,500 women's championship prize."
("Rusa" Goletiani has been on leave from coaching at the NSCF to pursue chess competition full time under a Samford fellowship.)
See the published Gannett article here.
For more information about the 2005 U.S. Chess Championship, see http://www.uschesschampionship.com.
Also see the Chess Drum article
"Why Nakamura's Victory is Good for Chess"
FLASH! Hikaru followed up his U.S. success with a win over young Ukrainian star Sergey Karjakin in a match held in Mexico.
Hikaru scored a convincing 4.5-1.5.
See the excellent ChessBase article on the match here.
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