Hikaru Nakamura overtook Sergey Karjakin on the final day of blitz to take home the winner’s trophy from the Paris Grand Chess Tour. The American displayed his great skills at accelerated time controls as he only lost one game in both sections. Wesley So drew his last eight games to finish clear third behind Karjakin and still leads the GCT overall standings.

When we last reported from Paris, Wesley So had a one-point lead over Karjakin and Nakamura. The three players remained on the “podium” throughout the weekend, but ended up switching places. The first one to rise over his colleagues was Sergey Karjakin. The Russian seemed to be heading for clear first after his outstanding run of five consecutive wins on Saturday. At some point, Sergey even threatened to surpass Carlsen on the blitz live ratings list.

Nakamura took home $37,500 and 13 Grand Chess Tour points. In addition, his strong performances in the blitz sections of Leuven and Paris netted him 37.2 rating points, which leaves him 24 points behind Carlsen on the live ratings list. Hikaru is now ready to enjoy the summer.

See also:

• Official website
• All the games from the Paris GCT on chess24
• Paris GCT, Day 1: Caruana’s woes continue
• Paris GCT, Day 2: So takes the lead
• Paris GCT, Day 3: Caruana and MVL bounce back

 1,032 total views,  1 views today