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Chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura took over 67 minutes deliberating over a single move in a professional tournament, only to lose the match anyway.
The American GM, who is ranked number two in the world, was playing against 20-year-old Javokhir Sindarov in a FIDE Candidates 2026 match. However, he got off to a slow start and found himself on the back foot.
This all came to a head when he was plotting his 13th move, and Nakamura took some time to think about what he was going to do. In fact, he sat there and mulled over the move for a whole 67 minutes and 44 seconds before eventually moving.
GM Hikaru takes 67 minutes planning one move
In this particular tournament, all players have a total of 120 minutes to make their first 40 moves, meaning that Nakamura used up well over half his time on a single turn.
But taking all that time didn’t exactly pay off, as the move he eventually played was classed as an “inaccuracy,” according to Sportstar. In chess terms, this means it slightly lessened his advantage based on the position of the other pieces.
It proved costly, too, as Sindarov managed to get the upper hand, and Nakamura ultimately went on to lose the match.
“He just thought for one hour and played the wrong move,” his opponent said after the match. “And after this, I took this advantage and played very well in my opinion.”
It’s not unusual for chess players at the top level to spend a while figuring out the next move, but this was long even by their standards. It was revealed afterwards that it’s the second-longest move in the history of the tournament, beaten only by the Russian Alexander Grischuk, who took 72 minutes during a 2021 match.
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This comes after Nakamura criticized the Candidates tournament for its strict anti-cheating measures, calling the level of security “nonsense.”
