My Game vs Hikaru

GM Hikaru was not only nice enough to accept my friend request, but also accepted my game challenge! Here's the game.

After all our pieces (besides a single bishop each) were traded, he was left with a two pawn advantage, which he obviously won with.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my performance. I ended up losing only two pawns due to his tactics, and managed to not blunder away any pieces. Obviously this was due in part to the fact that because he was playing many games simultaneously, he probably only spent a few seconds per move. I was also spending an average of only about 10 seconds per move, because I wanted to play as much of the game as I could before he logged off.

He's beaten GMs in fewer moves than the 27 which you show, and your game obviously went on for quite a few moves, so that's definitely one to frame and hang in the bathroom! Well done!

^Honestly, I don't think he was trying very hard. The computer analysis shows that he didn't make any mistakes, but he also just wasn't playing aggresively at all. The computer analysis even showed that I had an advantage for the first 12 moves or so.

This is because he plays weird openings to not show his opening preperations

Wow, I never really did care about Hikaru, but that was pretty bro-tier of him.  I'll be rooting for him from now on.

Now I'm afraid he's gonna be inundated with friend requests and challenges after doing a cool thing like this.

Beating someone in __# of moves isn't representative of your skill.  Someone can blunder and be completely lost during a mating attack and lose in a few more moves... or can blunder into a lost position that takes longer to play out.

At move 14 or 15 black looks completely busted.  But if you'd played out the endgame you may have lasted to move 50 before being checkmated.

Firstly, his rating is 2242 (not 2780) (this was a turn-based game). Secondly, he did finish the game: http://www.chess.com/echess/game?id=82586350 

@Skf95 I put in his FIDE rating. That 2242 was based on only one online game ever played, so it clearly isn't accurate.

@Wafflemaster I actually did play out the endgame, he checkmated me around move 44. After the final position shown in my first post where we each had a bishop left, we both started playing very quickly, only spending a few seconds on each move. I didn't include the rest of the game because it was a pretty boring endgame with just pawn trades, promotion & checkmate.

The pins and other tactics around the C file make for some interesting tension. Fun game.

@Mersaphe As I said in my previous post, I played the game out all the way through, I just didn't post the whole game because the endgame wasn't very exciting. I did play Bb4 and win the pawn, but he still won easily.

Great effort, well played. :)

And props to Mr Nakamura. With top players willing to promote the game as actively as this professional chess has an excellent future.

now I am definately rooting for him, (I was a passive fan because of his being an american)

I thought it was a cool end to the game, you should post it

i am still hanging on after 50 moves in my game against him :P

if he accepts my challenge, definately going to post it.

It looks like he accepted about 20 of us last night, but was declining them today. I hope he accepts some more people in the future

I set it up so he would play as white, and it is unrated, hopefully he agrees that it is acceptable. I understand if he declines, after all he is a busy man.

I edited my original post to show the game in its entirety if anyone wants to see the end.

@jetfighter13 I wasn't a huge Naka supporter either, but it's great to see such an incredible player take time out of his busy schedule to play a mere mortal such as myself. Definitely gonna be rooting for him from now on.

I think the endgame with the pawns is very impressive

Yes I agree, this definitly helped his image with many peple

That is really awesome of him! He has accepted my friend request as well.

A little advice - don't play to mate in a losing position against a super-GM (or any expert player) if you want them to play you again.