Hikaru in Trouble against a Player 1000 Elo Lower! - The Underdog

by Arne Kaehler
9/10/2025 – At the Louisiana State Championship, a surprise guest stole the spotlight: none other than Hikaru Nakamura. The superstar streamer was looking to secure qualification for the Candidates Tournament and needed a few rated games to do so. That set the stage for some wildly lopsided encounters - none more striking than his matchup against Nahum Jose Villamil, rated just 1933, nearly 1000 points below Hikaru. Against all odds, Villamil came close to pulling off what would have been one of the most sensational underdog upsets in chess history. Robert Ris has a closer look.
Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

The Underdog!

with IM Robert Ris

We all love stories where a vastly underrated player surprises everyone by beating a much stronger player. Fortunately, we are all human.

But how do these things happen? What are the moves that lead to success? And what can we learn from these examples for the times when we face a stronger opponent?

Dutch IM Robert Ris presents us with real-life examples of such encounters from the past month. Together with his co-host Arne Kaehler, they look at the tactics and strategies that led to the upset.

Robert Ris has authored plenty of FritzTrainers for ChessBase — these are his newest, and perfect for every "Underdog"

Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

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Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.