Hikaru loses to a 13-year-old - The Underdog

by Arne Kaehler
6/27/2025 – In this episode of The Underdog with Robert Ris, we witness 13-year-old IM Kagan Ahmad from Azerbaijan defeating world blitz legend Hikaru Nakamura in a dramatic 112-move battle during the World Blitz Team Championship. Despite Hikaru’s deep experience and early initiative in a quiet Anti-Sicilian, he blunders with 21.h4, falling into a tactical shot Nxe5, allowing Ahmad to seize material and survive. Ahmad defends tenaciously, even under extreme time pressure, finding key tactical resources like Qa2 and Qf6 with only seconds on the clock. The endgame sees Hikaru applying relentless pressure, but Ahmad methodically converts his advantage and finishes with a brilliant checkmate sequence—proving that even the greatest can be toppled, and that this young prodigy might soon be making waves in the global chess scene.
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 victory.

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.