Nakamura raises his Chess.com blitz record to 3503, well ahead of Carlsen

Hikaru Nakamura has once again pushed the boundaries of blitz rating on Chess.com. At the Titled Tuesday on 6 October, played from Sithonia, Greece, the American raised his own record to 3503 points, a day after becoming the first player in the platform’s history to break the 3500 barrier.

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The essentials
• Nakamura raises his Chess.com blitz rating record to 3503 points.
• The day before, he became the first player to top 3500 on the platform.
• According to DAZN, he now leads Magnus Carlsen by roughly 100 points in blitz.
• Despite this, he did not win the tournament, losing in the final round to Vladislav Artemiev.
• Nakamura estimates the theoretical ceiling of the system at around 3550 points.

Table des matières

A new peak, two days running

Titled Tuesday has, over the years, become Nakamura’s favoured ground for testing the limits of online blitz rating. Having broken 3500 points the day before, unprecedented on Chess.com, he followed up by pushing his own ceiling to 3503. Two records in 48 hours, at the same event held in Sithonia.

A sizeable lead over Carlsen

According to DAZN, this gap now puts Nakamura roughly 100 points ahead of Magnus Carlsen in the blitz rankings, a considerable gulf between two players who have regularly contested supremacy in this format for years.

Victory still eludes Nakamura

This individual record was not enough to win him the tournament. Although his run looked set to deliver victory before the final round, Nakamura was beaten by Vladislav Artemiev in the decisive clash, eventually finishing ninth. Artemiev, for his part, claimed his first Titled Tuesday win since 2021.

"My goal is victory"

Asked about his ambitions in this weekly tournament, Nakamura summed up his philosophy: "My goal in Titled Tuesday is like every Titled Tuesday, meaning victory." A line that reflects his near-obsessive relationship with this format, which he plays every week live in front of thousands of viewers.

Towards a theoretical ceiling near 3550

Nakamura has assessed the limits of his own progress. In his view, the theoretical ceiling of the Chess.com rating system sits around 3550 points. He also explained that reaching 3600 feels out of reach for as long as he keeps streaming his games and playing Titled Tuesdays, two habits that expose his rating to regular risk against increasingly sharp opponents.

Titled Tuesday, Chess.com’s weekly tournament for titled players starting at 11:00am US Eastern time, will continue week after week to offer a prime vantage point for tracking these figures. To better understand how Elo ratings work and what sets Nakamura apart from rivals such as Magnus Carlsen, see our feature on how chess Elo ratings work.