Hikaru Nakamura commented on Vaishali Rameshbabu’s victory over Hans Moke Niemann at the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot. Nakamura calls Vaishali’s win shocking. Hikaru explains that one critical mistake led to Niemann’s loss.

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

World's No. 2

“Hans inexplicably played the wrong King move and he goes from winning to losing.

All that the future first American World Champion had to do was push his A Pawn up the board trying to get it to the end and he would have been winning…

This is a shocking victory for Vaishali in the very first game of this Blitz event. She gets a very impressive victory in this first game.”

The Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot takes place from November 10 to 20, at the Anantara New York Palace Hotel in Budapest, Hungary. Vaishali Rameshbabu finished the Blitz Tiebreaker in 17th place out of 24. She defeated Hans Niemann and Wesley So and gained +27.1 Blitz points.

Credit: Michal Walusza / FIDE