GM Hikaru Nakamura won his fourth consecutive Arena Kings on April 20 with a score of 3.5-0.5 in the final and has continued a streak of winning every time he’s played in Season 9, seven in total. GM Vagur Rasulov finished as a finalist while IM Tuan Minh Le and GM Alan Pichot finished in the semifinals.
This week’s Arena Kings was streamed by 64 players out of the 1,398 total who competed on Wednesday. Only streamers are eligible for the knockout portion of the tournament.
FM James Canty III showcased several streamers during the two-hour arena portion of the tournament: GMs Nakamura, Daniel Naroditsky, Gata Kamsky, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Ben Finegold. David Arutinian, Aman Hambleton, Le, WGM Adriana Nikolova, James Chirilov, and Timofii Datsenko.
Nakamura was the first-place finisher among streamers, boasting 22 wins, two losses, and one draw this week. Other streamers who did not make it into the knockout, however, took it in stride and provided some comical moments nevertheless.
After losing to Nakamura in a previous game, Nikolova went on a rampage, winning her next five games in a row and remarking: “Everyone is easy after Hikaru’s game.”