Overview
- Speaking to the Take Take Take app, Magnus Carlsen labeled Hikaru Nakamura’s strategy of entering weaker classical events “shameless” yet “probably the right thing to do,” and said the system needs fixing.
- Hikaru Nakamura won the 70th Iowa Open with a perfect 5/5, lifting his live classical rating to roughly 2816 and keeping his 2026 Candidates rating bid on track.
- Under FIDE rules, one Candidates berth goes to the highest six‑month average rating from Aug 1, 2025 to Jan 1, 2026, provided the player logs at least 40 classical games in that window.
- Reporting indicates Nakamura still needs about 11 classical games to hit the 40‑game minimum after a year with relatively few classical starts before August.
- Nakamura has said he will skip the Grand Swiss and World Cup and has criticized the rating berth itself, while figures like Susan Polgar argue his approach is transparent and within the rules, citing past precedents by Ding Liren and Alireza Firouzja.