Two First Games on Lichess

Every account starts at 1500. The games that follow are another matter.

This is a comparison of the first recorded Lichess game for Hikaru Nakamura’s TSMFTXH account and the first game from my ThreeSadPandas account.

The short version

Why “TSMFTXH”?

The username is a timestamp from a strange moment in chess and esports history. Nakamura joined the esports organization TSM in 2020. In June 2021, TSM sold its naming rights to the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and became TSM FTX. The Lichess handle compresses that branding into TSM + FTX + H, for Hikaru.

His first game on the account came the following month. That makes TSMFTXH less a timeless chess identity than a sponsor-era artifact—one that outlasted both Nakamura’s time with TSM and the TSM–FTX partnership. TSM’s original naming-rights announcement records the deal behind the name.

Hikaru: immediate complications

Hikaru opened with 1. f4, reached a sharp position quickly, and finished with 42. Rh4#. It was not a flawless game—the available Lichess analysis marks one blunder—but it was recognizably direct: open lines, active pieces, and an attack that ended on the board rather than on the clock.

The full game is beoIbq3f on Lichess.

ThreeSadPandas: learning in public

I opened with 1. e4 and met the Sicilian with 2. Nc3. The game became a Closed Sicilian, then slipped away through exchanges and queenside pressure. I resigned after 27…b4.

The full game is lcoWYZIy on Lichess.

A note on the sample

The TSMFTXH account has only 314 public Lichess games, spanning July 2021 through October 2023. That is a small slice of Nakamura’s chess, not a career archive. His primary online profile is Hikaru on Chess.com, and Chess.com’s Nakamura game database currently lists thousands of games.

So this comparison is deliberately narrow: one first game against another. One account begins with a grandmaster mating in bullet. The other begins with a loss and a reason to start taking notes.