Hikaru Nakamura Won Millionaire Chess 2015

When Wesley So won the USD 100,000 prize in Millionaire Chess 2014, it was an eye opener! Chess indeed has lot of money. A year later, big boys smell the big fortune and they do not want to miss it out this year. Millionaire Chess 2015 started few days ago in Las Vegas, this year with three world top ten players join in. Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So is the big boys. They are surrounded by legion of other chess players, ranging from ex World champion challenger Gata Kamsky, the suddenly Canadian Evgeny Bareev, Webster stars Le Quang Liem and friends, goes all the way to Gregory Kaidanov, Chinaman Yu Yangyi to Samuel Sevian.

How the Millionaire Chess 2015 being played, here is the brief explanation of it. In less than a week, seven qualifiers rounds were being played. Millionaire chess 2015 played two rounds per day, not very uncommon in United States. After seven rounds, three players secure the semi final round, they are Le Quang Liem, Yu Yangyi and Alexandr Lenderman. Several players then goes to the "play off / tie break" round to determine the fourth player. They are Hikaru Nakamura, Luke McShane, Gata Kamsky, Wesley So, Evgeny Bareev, Aleksandr Shimaov, Sergei Avarov, Fabiano Caruana, Gil Popilski and Gregory Kaidanov. They all are having 5.5 points after round 7. They are then being group as two and pit to fight each other for one qualifier to semi final. In short story, Hikaru Nakamura indeed emerge as the survivor, defeating Wesley So in the way.

The next climax round is arranged, titled as Millionaire Monday, played on the Monday, 13 October 2015. That is after Hikaru Nakamura knocked out Yu Yangyi and Le Quang Liem knock out Alexandr Lenderman in semi final match. The final round is Hikaru Nakamura vs Le Quang Liem. Both played two rapid games with Hikaru Nakamura won the first game and drew the second. Hikaru Nakamura won 100,000 US dollar as the result of this achievements.

In graphic :

Hikaru Nakamura vs Gata Kamsky, Nakamura is the winner of 2015 Millionaire Chess

Photo from official website ; photographed by David Llada

Final ranking list of Millionaire Chess 2015 and their pocket money. This list is not confirmed but I believe to be very close to the truth.
Millionaire Chess 2015 Open category final standings:

Rank	Name	Prize
1	Hikaru Nakamura	$100,000
2	Lee Quang Liem	$50,000
3	Yu Yangyi	$25,000
4	Alesandr Lenderman	$16,000
5	Wesley So	$10,000
6	Luke McShane	$8,000
7	Fabiano Caruana	$5,000
8	Evgeniy Najer	$5,000
9	Evgeny Bareev	$5,000
10	Gata Kamsky	$5,000
11	Ray Robson	$3,500
12	Gregory Kaidanov	$3,500
13	Jeffery Xiong	$3,500
14	Zhou Jianchao	$3,500
15	Samuel Shankland	$3,500
16	Illya Nyzhnyk	$3,500
17	Sergei Azarov	$3,500
18	Yaacov Norowitz	$3,500
19	Kayden Troff	$3,500
20	Conrad Holt	$3,500

Along with the Open category is top 2400-2549 with 1st place getting $40,000 and total of $ 86,000 prizes. Top 2400, U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400, U1200 and unrated all have 1st prizes that can make Magnus Carlsen envy, because he "only" got Euro 40,000 for his first place in 2015 World Rapid Championship. As comparition, Harikhrisna's won PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess 2015 and received  10,000 poundsterling. The ongoing Monte Carlo Women FIDE GP is also providing Euro 10,000 for the first winner.

Millionaire Chess is a work of GM Maurice Ashley and Amy Lee. As the name goes, Millionaire Chess provide million dollar in prizes as its major attraction. In very brief period of time, United State has become major chess event with Millionaire Chess and Sinquefield Cup taking place. 

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Pecatur urutan kedua dunia, Hikaru Nakamura akhirnya menjuarai turnamen catur Millionaire Chess 2015. Hikaru Nakamura menuntaskan perjuangan pecatur Vietnam Le Quang Liem di babak final. Turnamen ini menggunakan sistem swiss, namun setelah 7 babak, empat pecatur teratas diloloskan ke babak sistem gugur. Keempat semifinalis adalah Yu Yangyi , Alesandr Lendermen, Le Quang Liem dan Nakamura sendiri. Turnamen Millionair Chess 2015 ini terkenal karena menyediakan hadiah yang sangat besar, yaitu $ 100,000 untuk juara pertamanya, lebih dari 1,3 Miliar. Wesley So adalah juara Millionaire Chess tahun lalu.

Partai Hikaru Nakamura vs Le Quang Liem, 1-0 Millionaire Chess 2015