I wonder if the loss made Giri become un-Giri (angry?).

This is unfair match. Blitz King Nakamura should offer handicap to Giri of 1 minute against 3

It wouldn't have mattered. What did Naka take...40 seconds in game 2? Fair and square by the rules. Nice job to Naka and Anish. Also Boris Gelfand. Great Tournament. Thanks to NH Hoteles and also Chessvibes for the fantastic coverage.

So Giri can blunder too. Maybe he learnt from Anand during the Topalov match?

(3 minutes + 2 seconds increment)
To me that time limit is close to bullet chess. I am not surprised about the outcome.

3+2 was too short for tiebreaks.

Maybe they will invite Anish anyway, however, Nakamura deserves it, actually he's not a real rising star anymore, as he's in the top 20 already.

3 + 2 oh come on, flip a coin and save even more time.

I see a lot of potential for the underdog, Wesley So. With only one loss in this tournament, he has what it takes to become as strong as Anish Giri.

Does Howell also have the same potential as Giri? After all, (unlike So) he had the same number of wins in the event ... .

In fairness, everyone has the potential to be stronger. It just so happens that So was at the bottom of the standing list of the Youth team, and I just cannot ignore the fact that he drew all his other games in this tournament except for one loss.

If he continues to prevent losses and converts those draws to wins, he'll be on his way to the elite levels.

Jake C, if i prevent my losses and convert my drawing games into winning games i will be rising to the top also soon.

Nakamura didn't deserve to be in the Youth Team in the first place. Unlike the other four, he is not even in the FIDE's current 'Junior' list. He played there last year too and didn't make it then, so he got a second chance this year. One of the other Juniors should have replaced him this year. True, Caruana also got a second chance (even a third) this year but he is 5 years younger and is still very much a Junior.

First point is the tournament is called RISING STARS not Youth.
Nakamura definitely falls into the Rising stars category.

I would say that Ljubomir Ljubojevic was a bit passed his prime at this point in his life. [He was a Major player in the past so nothing but respect.] I would like to have seen someone else in his place. Maybe Chucky would have been a good choice since he is one of the 'old' guys on the top list. Probably that would have been too much for the rising stars to handle though with Svidler, Gelfand and Chucky. The tournament might have been renamed Lambs to the Slaughter.

Excellent point about Hikaru Tony! People overlook the obvious sometimes. I'm glad to see Nakamura make the Meloder Amber, even if I think it's a bit silly. For some reason organizers aren't giving Nakamura the breaks they normally give other "Rising Stars". In a way this is a good thing as Hikaru's having to scrap and earn every invitation. That will just make him a stronger player as long as he continues to learn from the experiences. I look forward to him breaking into the Top Ten and regularly participating in top tournaments. He's the "Mikhail Tal" of our generation.

that is an incredible insult to mikhail tal; by the time he was nakamura's age, he was already world champion.

the truth is that nakamura does not get invited to more of the premiere events because his performances are sub-par when compared to the world's elite.

replace Ljubojevic with Anand. Increase prize money.

Nakamura usually gets much higher praise than others for similar achievements. This and what is sometimes perceived as arrogance on his part tend as well to attract harsher critics than he truly deserves. Nakamura may not be the Tal of our time (Tal became World Champion at the age of 23, Nakamura is 22), but it will still be interesting to see how his flamboyant style fares against blindfold masters in Amber.

There are a lot of jealous Naka haters out there, but the fact remains he has destroyed everyone of these highly touted child prodigies, starting with Karjakin and including Magnus Carlsen.

These young pretenders are all terrified of Naka having been repeatedly demoralised by him on ICC, I believe Naka ended Hawkeye's ICC dominance and career and ive seen Grischuk simply log off in frustration during a Naka drubbing.

Giri stated in an interview with Maculaey Petereson on Chessvibes that he messed up the win against Van Wely because he became nervous at some point. What he failed to say was that his nervousness was at the prospect of having to face Naka in a playoff. LOL :-

It would not surprise me if Naka wins Amber easily next year, as he is by far the strongest Blitz and Rapid player on the planet bar none, how good his Blindfold chess is though is not known, but I suspect it too is quite high.

True he is arrogant and so what, he is the most exciting player on the circuit and I sort of agree he is the Tal of our generation, and his going it alone also strongly reminds me of Fischer. How many players today have racked up such an impressive array of miniatures vs Top GM's.

His potential is unlimited and his gifts unique.

At the closing ceremony rumours were confirmed that this 5th edition was the last NH Chess Tournament. All people present gave a big applause to the Van Oosterom family for generously sponsoring these five events in the heart of Amsterdam.

@Chess Pundit: Well, if everyone who doesn't go over the top like you do is considered a "jealous Naka hater", there are indeed a lot of them, myself included.

- To the best of my knowledge, Karjakin and Carlsen are alive and kicking, hence they weren't destroyed by Nakamura (don't make too much of incidental exhibition matches, let alone blitz).

- Nakamura's chances at Amber: of course they exist, but blitz isn't on the menu and "by far the strongest rapid player on the planet" finished 8th at the Mainz Open in 2009 ... . This might have been an outlier, Kamsky finished 89th last year and won this year - still I wonder about the empirical evidence for your claim.

- "impressive array of miniatures vs Top GM’s" - dunno how you define top GM, on my list he has beaten Gelfand and Shirov last January, that's it. Van Wely's stupidity at the NH event doesn't count, nor do blitz games on ICC.

@Tony: As a frequent visitor of this tournament, I can say that Ljubo's presence is always worth it, even if he plays horribly (which he usually doesn't at all). Seeing him analyse with the stars of the new generation is a real pleasure, especially since he gets away with so much and can obviously still teach these youngsters many things - for instance, always being sceptical about 'obvious' advantages. His favourite line seems to be, "Yes, okay, but what do you play?" Hearing him say this alone is worth a trip to the NH tournament and it's a true pity we won't be able to see him in this tournament again. If anything, I'm going to miss Ljubo most from all players who ever played in this tournament!

LOL at "Naka is the best rapid player".
And Tal used to quip about upcoming youngsters "at his age I was already ex-World Champion!"

A friend of mine (rated around 2200) once got to play Naka in a Blitz. He even managed to get to a complete level endgame on the board with rook and 5 pawns. What followed would have made most people burst out in tears. It took Naka about 7 seconds to win...
I think he fully deserves a chance among the world's elite in Monaco and I'm curious how his blindplay will hold up.

Until Nakamura wins something else than these two game mini matches, there is absolutely no ground to consider him as the best blitz player in the world (and certainly not as the best rapid player).

Nakamura continuosly year after year refuses to qualify for World Blitz championship (he won't play in these years edition either).
He doesn't want to shgow his blitz skills in a real event, he only shows them in mickey-mouse games. Lack of confidence perhaps?

@Jeroen: Nice anecdote, but what does it really say about Nakamura's blitz skills? He is apparently fast and tricky when both players are down to seconds on the clock, is this enough against the world elite? And once again, Amber is rapid rather than blitz where such skills are less relevant though not altogether irrelevant.

@Arne Moll: I completely agree (while I have to rely on videos for such things). Ljubojevic was the last remnant of the original NH idea - putting old distinguished, now (semi-)inactive players into the spotlight once a year: Korchnoi, Jussupow, Bareev, Beliavsky, Andersson, Nunn [Nunn is still present at the venue, as I know from sneakily looking into the press room].

And after all, you and I and others living in NL still have a chance to see most of the other players, as well as future rising stars at Corus A-B-C. To see Ljubo, you will now have to travel all the way to Linares - where he lives, regularly visits the event and comments on GM games.

This was the scene Arne had in mind:

One more thing about Ljubo: he scored what was expected from him (see final standings). So if he played horrible here, he does so al the time? (otherwise he would be rated higher......).

Thank you van Oosterom family for sponsoring these tournaments. They will be missed. The story and games of the Rising Stars vs. The Experienced players would make a great tournament book.

And thank you again Peter, Arne and Chessvibes crew for all of your reports and video.

Shame this was the last tournement, but maybe a good plan to get the Amber to Amsterdam in 2011 :-)
We in Amsterdam loved the tournement, and Ljubo is a great man who I would like to see more playing or explaining the games. It's good to hear him.

Great picture of Ljubo in action, Peter. Thanks. I simply ADORE him! Respect!

@Voor: "The story and games of the Rising Stars vs. The Experienced players would make a great tournament book."

Excellent suggestion!

@Sergio: I'm not sure where you're going with your last comment, but good luck with that.

Great coverage Chessvibes team!

Thank you Chessvibes for the superb coverage!

I cannot believe this was the last edition of this tournament! Such a shame. I really enjoyed the commentary and atmosphere while I was there. Hopefully some other tournament will follow this one up. I vote for the Amber tournament in Amsterdam next year ;-)

Thanks for the great coverage.
I find it strange that modern chessplayers apparantly are unable to give a firm handshake - just look at Giri and Nakamura. - Come on guys show some respect for eachother!!

Ljubo is a real legend! And we are really proud of him!
His experience, games he won against top players over decades, his attitude, his passion for the game, are priceless for young players. And more over he is 60, he does not play to often, he does not even use the computers the way these young chess monsters do. All in all I think he had very good performance for his age. More over, he missed some chances due to time troubles. I think we are going to miss him!

Ljubo is a real legend! And we are really proud of him!
His experience, games he won against top players over decades, his attitude, his passion for the game, are priceless for young players. And more over he is 60, he does not play to often, he does not even use the computers the way these young chess monsters do. All in all I think he had very good performance for his age. More over, he missed some chances due to time troubles. I think we are going to miss him!