  We report a quantum Monte Carlo calculation of the equation of state of
symmetric nuclear matter using local interactions derived from chiral effective
field theory up to next-to-next-to-leading order fit to few-body observables
only. The empirical saturation density and energy are well reproduced within
statistical and systematic uncertainties. We have also derived the symmetry
energy as a function of the density, finding good agreement with available
experimentally derived constraints at saturation and twice saturation density.
We find that the corresponding pressure is also in excellent agreement with
recent constraints extracted from gravitational waves of the neutron-star
merger GW170817 by the LIGO-Virgo detection.
