GM Hikaru Nakamura has booked his ticket for the Speed Chess Championship 2025 Semifinals in London after a nail-biting match against GM Wesley So went down to the wire. Nakamura built up four and three-point leads, but So twice hit back with three-game winning streaks and did what few can boast of: beat Nakamura in the bullet segment. In the end a brilliant win in the penultimate game, and a great escape in the last, saw Nakamura clinch victory.
In London, Nakamura will play the winner of GM Alireza Firouzja vs. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, scheduled for Thursday, November 20, starting at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST.
2025 Speed Chess Championship Bracket
Nakamura is so far joined by GM Magnus Carlsen for the in-person Finals next February in London, with two spots still to be decided.
Nakamura 11-10 So
Nakamura has won the Speed Chess Championship five times to So’s zero, so perhaps it was no surprise that the pre-match prediction was heavily in his favor. Nakamura was given an 84 percent chance of winning and expected to win every section to build up a seven-point margin.
Instead, we got an incredibly close match, with only the five-minute segment going as predicted. So tied in three-minute chess and even won the bullet section, despite Nakamura being predicted to win that by the largest margin.
It was an extraordinary match.
5+1: Nakamura 4.5-2.5 So
The first few games only hinted at the drama to follow, with Nakamura getting off to the perfect start. A modest opening worked to perfection when So played 21…f6?, and shortly afterward allowed a crushing rook sacrifice on e7.
Nakamura’s facial expressions when he got the chance to deliver the winning blow were all we could hope for.
“He sacrifices the roooook!!!” — Hikaru Nakamura takes Game 1 against Wesley So! https://t.co/FlB9qwsr8F pic.twitter.com/M1ojJNp6tV
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 17, 2025
The next two games were drawn, though So winning a pawn with Black in game three would perhaps be the theme of the day. Nakamura increased his lead in game four when So kept avoiding draws by repetition, smiled as the players shuffled the pieces, then suddenly stumbled into a lost position.
Wesley So smiles as the players seem to be shuffling pieces aimlessly toward a draw—but he blunders and Nakamura whips up a winning attack to take a 2-point lead! 😲 https://t.co/ERNlKKTueT pic.twitter.com/iwrLczqeVg
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 17, 2025
Again So failed to convert a winning position with Black, and then in the next game he went for a piece sac that was swatted away like a fly by Nakamura.
That saw Nakamura take a three-point lead, and it backed up what he would say in the post-match interview about his favorite time control:
5+1 is my favorite time control now by a big margin, because I really like thinking, I like trying to play good moves, and you probably noticed in the 5+1 I usually had good positions, at least with Black, but I was down like two minutes on the clock every game… I like thinking, unfortunately—I really like thinking these days!
I like thinking, unfortunately—I really like thinking these days!
—Hikaru Nakamura
The only blemish on the five-minute section for Nakamura came in the final game, when So did manage to win a pawn-up position, even if the conversion was shaky.
Nakamura talked about his opening preparation, or lack of it, saying he’d relied on the fact that he could “just show up.” He lamented:
I think, unfortunately, chess is a different game than it used to be. I used to always play this Nf3, b3 stuff that worked. Now everybody is super booked up and you have to have a lot more variety, but I think it was a good wake-up call that trying to play random openings and not prepare, a la Dubov, is probably not a very smart idea!
Trying to play random openings and not prepare, a la Dubov, is probably not a very smart idea!
—Hikaru Nakamura
Despite So’s win, however, Nakamura had a two-point lead, and got off to a great start in the three-minute section.
In the first three-minute game it was Nakamura’s turn to spoil a winning advantage with Black, but the miss made possible a beautiful finish—in a drawish endgame, he suddenly managed to deliver checkmate with knights and a pawn!
Wesley So walks into a pawn checkmate against Hikaru Nakamura after reaching what looked like a drawish endgame! pic.twitter.com/Q1qfg1CetU
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 17, 2025
A move before the end, So could have escaped.
To add insult to injury, So then lost on time in a difficult but still playable position.
It’s going from bad to worse for Wesley So as he loses on time and Hikaru takes a 4-point lead! https://t.co/En1FCfdS73 pic.twitter.com/SIJb7MhTbM
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 17, 2025
The gap had grown to four points, and it’s here that Nakamura felt he let things slip. He said afterward:
When I was up four points and I got this bishop and knight time scramble I should have won that. With the trend of the match, the way it was going, if I win that game it would have been a complete blowout, which in all honesty is probably how it should have been, but for the fans it was better that didn’t happen.
Nakamura could have taken a five-point lead, but instead his lead was cut to three points.
Here’s the finish in fast-motion!
For the first time in the match, Wesley So turns things around to grab a win! https://t.co/cCq6QXf531 pic.twitter.com/mp0WV2jWfd
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 17, 2025
So then also won a rollercoaster second game, with Nakamura confessing, “And then I tilted very badly the next game and for some reason I just couldn’t really find the rhythm and Wesley really started turning up the heat.”
The third win in a row for So was smooth, but he perhaps got carried away when he went for an exchange sac on f3 in the game that could have seen him level the scores.
31.Nxe5! turned the tables and Nakamura went on to restore a two-point lead, which he kept until the end of the three-minute section.
1+1: Nakamura 3-4 So
Historically it would be foolhardy to bet against Nakamura entering bullet level, never mind with a two-point lead, but as he admitted himself, things are no longer so clear-cut:
Unlike past years, I think I’m still pretty good in the bullet portion, but I don’t think I’m as good as I once was, so that probably didn’t help matters. Normally I feel like if I get to bullet and I’m not down I’ll just win the match, but Wesley played very well after that and I think he was feeling the momentum, feeling very inspired, and fortunately I was able to win that game right before the end.
I don’t think I’m as good as I once was.
—Hikaru Nakamura on his bullet chess
Nakamura was the first player to grab a win, opening up a three-point lead, but then So reeled off three wins in a row to level the match. The second of those ended a move before checkmate, while in the last Nakamura actually missed mate-in-one, and looked suitably shocked!
Wesley So delivers checkmate to win a 3rd bullet game in a row and tie the match at 9.5-9.5, with 6 minutes to go!!! pic.twitter.com/NShawDdmQT
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 17, 2025
If ever there was a time to panic it was now, since the scores were level with minutes to go, and all the momentum was with So. Instead, however, Nakamura pulled himself together and scored a powerful win with the black pieces just when he needed it most. That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
That wasn’t the end, however, since So still had a few minutes in which to hit back, and he very nearly did. Nakamura admitted the final game was “really, really bad by me,” but he managed to not only hold on in a lost position but make a draw that stretched to 103 moves and used up all the remaining time on the match clock—he’d won by a single point!
An extraordinary 103-move draw where Wesley So was incredibly close to a win sees Hikaru Nakamura advance 11-10 to the #SpeedChess Semifinals in London! pic.twitter.com/7cJH50sSVp
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 17, 2025
Nakamura shared his upcoming schedule. First he’ll head to Mumbai, India in a few weeks for the Global Chess League “schedule permitting, or life-permitting” (Nakamura’s wife WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan is expecting a child), then play the Speed Chess Finals in London in February, then play a Freestyle Chess event in Germany shortly afterward, before the FIDE Candidates starts in Cyprus in late March.
In Londonm, Nakamura will face the winner of Firouzja vs. Nepomniachtchi, and he gives Firouzja a 90 percent chance of taking that match. Nakamura commented:
Alireza these days, in my view at least, is probably the best bullet player in the world. I think I can still compete, but I think he’s probably the best bullet player. I struggle to see Nepo keeping up with Alireza.
I struggle to see Nepo keeping up with Alireza.
—Hikaru Nakamura
That match takes place this Thursday and you don’t want to miss it!
The Speed Chess Championship, which starts on October 12 and culminates with Live Finals on February 8, 2026 in London, is Chess.com’s most important speed chess event. Some of the biggest names in chess compete to determine the best speed chess player in the world. The games are played with time controls of 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1. The prize fund is $250,000.
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