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Wikipedia

Hikaru Nakamura

January 21, 2023

For the manga artist, see Hikaru Nakamura (artist).

Christopher Hikaru Nakamura[2] (born December 9, 1987) is an American chess grandmaster, Twitch streamer, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. Nakamura won the 2011 edition of Tata Steel Chess Tournament Group A and has represented the United States at five Chess Olympiads, winning a team gold medal and two team bronze medals. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest rated player in history. In May 2014, when FIDE began publishing official rapid and blitz chess ratings, Nakamura ranked No. 1 in the world on both lists;[3] he has remained at or near the No. 1 rank on both lists ever since.[4][5] As of December 2022, he has won all of the last five Chess.com Speed Chess Championships.[6]

Hikaru Nakamura
Nakamura at the 2016 Chess Olympiad
Born
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura

(1987-12-09) December 9, 1987 (age 35)
Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Japanese name
Kanji中村 光
Hiraganaなかむら　ひかる
Katakanaナカムラ・ヒカル
Transcriptions
RomanizationNakamura Hikaru
Chess career
CountryUnited States
TitleGrandmaster (2003)
FIDE rating2768 (December 2022)
Peak rating2816 (October 2015)
RankingNo. 5 (December 2022)
Peak rankingNo. 2 (October 2015)
Twitch information
Channel
  • GMHikaru
Years active2015–present
Followers1.5 million
Total views174.98 million
Follower and view counts updated as of October 30, 2022.
YouTube information
Channel
  • GMHikaru
Years active2017–present
Subscribers1.43 million[1]
Total views403.2 million[1]
100,000 subscribers 2020
1,000,000 subscribers 2021
Last updated: November 21, 2022

Early life

Nakamura was born in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, to an American mother, Carolyn Merrow Nakamura, a classically trained musician and former public school teacher, and a Japanese father, Shuichi Nakamura.[7][8] Nakamura has an older brother, Asuka.[9] When he was two years old, his family moved to the United States, and, a year later in 1990, his parents divorced.[10] He was raised in White Plains, New York. He began playing chess at the age of seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry.[11] Weeramantry began coaching the Nakamura brothers after Asuka Nakamura won the National Kindergarten Championship in 1992, which led to him developing a relationship with their mother.[9]

Chess prodigy

At age 10, he became the youngest American to beat an International Master when he defeated Jay Bonin at the Marshall Chess Club.[9][12] Also at age 10, Nakamura became the youngest player to achieve the title of chess master from the United States Chess Federation, breaking the record previously set by Vinay Bhat (Nakamura's record stood until 2008 when Nicholas Nip achieved the master title at the age of 9 years and 11 months). In 1999, Nakamura won the Laura Aspis Prize, given annually to the top USCF-rated player under age 13. In 2003, at age 15 years and 79 days, Nakamura solidified his reputation as a chess prodigy, becoming the youngest American to earn the grandmaster title at the time, breaking the record of Bobby Fischer by three months.[13][14]

Chess career

In July 2002, Nakamura achieved 56th place at the 30th annual World Open tournament in Philadelphia.[15][16]

In April 2004, Nakamura achieved a fourth-place finish in the "B" group at the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.[17]

Nakamura qualified for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, played in Tripoli, Libya, and reached the fourth round, defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov, Aleksej Aleksandrov, and Alexander Lastin before falling to England's Michael Adams, the tournament's third-seeded participant and eventual runner-up.

On June 20, 2005, Nakamura was selected as the 19th Frank Samford Chess Fellow, receiving a grant of $32,000 to further his chess education and competition.[18]

Nakamura won the 2005 U.S. Chess Championship (held in November and December 2004), scoring seven points over nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alexander Stripunsky for first place. Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in two straight rapid playoff games to claim the title and become the youngest national champion since Fischer. Nakamura finished the tournament without a loss and, in the seventh round, defeated grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, then the nation's top-ranked player.

Following that victory, Nakamura played a challenge match dubbed the "Duelo de Jóvenes Prodigios" in Mexico against Ukrainian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin (who now identifies as Russian) and defeated his fellow prodigy by 4½–1½.[19]

In November and December 2005, Nakamura competed in the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, seeded 28th (of 128 players) but failed to advance beyond the first round. He lost each of his two games to Indian grandmaster Surya Ganguly.[20]

In 2006, Nakamura was offered a full scholarship to the University of Texas, Dallas but instead began attending Dickinson College, with a partial scholarship, in order to take a break from chess. Later in the year, he announced that he would resume playing.[21] The same year, he helped the U.S. team win the bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad at Turin, Italy, playing on the third board behind Gata Kamsky and 2006 U.S. Champion Alexander Onischuk. In the same year, he won the 16th North American Open in Las Vegas.[22]

In January 2007, Nakamura shared second place at the GibTelecom Masters in Gibraltar.[23] He placed joint first in the tournament the following year, finishing with five straight wins to tie with Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi, whom he then proceeded to beat in the rapidplay playoff.[24]

In October 2007, Nakamura won the Magistral D'Escacs tournament in Barcelona[25] and the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament.[26]

Nakamura won the 2008 Finet Chess960 Open in Mainz, Germany.[27] In November 2008, he won the Cap d'Agde Rapid Tournament in Cap d'Agde, defeating Anatoly Karpov in the semifinals and Vassily Ivanchuk in the finals.[28] In February 2009, he came joint third at the 7th Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar, again finishing strongly with 4½/5 to end the event on 7½/10.[29]

2009: Second U.S. Championship and other tournament successes

Nakamura won the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship (St Louis, Missouri, May 2009), scoring 7/9 to take clear first ahead of 17-year-old GM-elect Robert Hess, who shared second with 6½.[30]

In July 2009, Nakamura won the Donostia-San Sebastian Chess Festival, tying with former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov with 6½/9 before defeating Ponomariov in a blitz playoff to win the title over a field including former undisputed world champion Anatoly Karpov, former FIDE world champions Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Ponomariov, 2009 World Junior champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Peter Svidler among others.[31] In August 2009, Nakamura became the 960 World Chess Champion, beating GM Levon Aronian 3½–½ in Mainz, Germany.

In November 2009, Nakamura participated in the BNbank blitz tournament in Oslo, Norway. He reached the final by winning all 12 of his games. In the championship, he faced the world No. 2 and reigning World Blitz Champion Magnus Carlsen. Nakamura won the match 3–1, further cementing his reputation as one of the best blitz players in the world, despite having not been invited to the 2009 World Blitz championship.[32][33]

Nakamura skipped the Chess World Cup 2009 in favor of the London Chess Classic in December 2009. Although he drew with the black pieces against eventual winner Magnus Carlsen and with white against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, Nakamura failed to win a game during the tournament and ended in seventh place out of eight.[34]

2010: Gold medalist and top-ten player

Nakamura began 2010 playing first board for the United States at the World Team Chess Championship held in Bursa, Turkey. His performance, including a win over world No. 6 and recent FIDE World Cup winner Boris Gelfand on the black side of a King's Indian Defense, won him the individual gold medal for board one and led the U.S. to a second-place finish behind Russia.[35][36]

Nakamura participated in the 2010 Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee. He finished with +2, tying for fourth with Viswanathan Anand, behind Carlsen, Shirov, and Kramnik.

In May, Nakamura participated in the 2010 United States Chess Championship in Saint Louis, Missouri, attempting to defend his 2009 title. Seeded first, he scored 5/7 points to qualify for the round-robin stage against the 1991 champion Gata Kamsky, 2006 champion Alexander Onischuk, and 2008 champion Yuri Shulman. In the round-robin stage, he drew with Kamsky before losing to Shulman, with the white pieces in both games.[37] The loss to Shulman eliminated him from defending his 2009 title.

Nakamura competed in the 39th Chess Olympiad. Although he defeated Lê Quang Liêm and drew Kramnik with the black pieces during the tournament, the U.S. team failed to medal.

From November 5–14, Nakamura competed in the 2010 Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow; the field consisted of world No. 3 Levon Aronian, world No. 4 Vladimir Kramnik, world No. 6 Alexander Grischuk, world No. 8 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, world No. 9 Sergey Karjakin, Pavel Eljanov, Boris Gelfand, Alexei Shirov, and Wang Hao. The average Elo of the field was 2757, making it the third-strongest tournament in chess history at the time. Nakamura finished at +1, defeating Eljanov and drawing every other player to finish in a tie for fourth place and missing out on a tie for first place by blundering into a draw in a winning position in the final round against Grischuk.[38] Nakamura's round two win over Eljanov placed him in the world top-ten in the live ratings for the first time in his career.[39] Nakamura's performance at this tournament, his first involving an entirely super-elite field allowed him to "force (the chess elite) to respect him", according to noted Russian commentator grandmaster Sergey Shipov.[40]

From November 16–18, Nakamura made his debut at the 2010 World Blitz Championship in Moscow. Despite a disastrous start and losing four of his first five games to Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Sergey Karjakin, he recovered to score 5/7 in the second half of the day and finished with a score of 7½/14, 2½ points behind co-leaders Carlsen and Levon Aronian, whom he defeated in their individual games. On the second day, Nakamura avenged his earlier losses against both Carlsen and Kramnik and scored 8/14, for a total of 15½/28, three points behind Aronian and a point and a half behind Carlsen. Nakamura finished with 21½/38 for fifth place behind Gelfand, Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and champion Aronian.[41]

In December 2010, Nakamura finished fourth in the London Chess Classic, among a field including Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell, and Luke McShane. This included a win with Black against Kramnik, evening their career head-to-head record at 2½/2½. The tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen.[42] Nakamura's performance ensured that he would officially join the world top ten as of January 1, 2011.

2011: Tata Steel Group A victory

In the January 2011 FIDE rating list, Nakamura was ranked number 10 in the world with a rating of 2751.

Nakamura began training with former world champion Garry Kasparov. The first of several training sessions were held in New York at the beginning of January,[43] but the training ended in December 2011.[44]

From January 14 through 30, Nakamura competed in the Tata Steel Grandmaster A tournament in Wijk aan Zee among a field of world No. 1 and defending champion Magnus Carlsen, world champion and world No. 2 Viswanathan Anand, world No. 3 and reigning World Blitz champion Levon Aronian, world No. 4 and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, world No. 7 Alexander Grischuk, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, reigning Chinese champion Wang Hao, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexei Shirov, Anish Giri, Jan Smeets, and Erwin L'Ami. The average rating of the field was 2740, making this thirteen-round event a category 20 tournament. After twelve rounds, Nakamura was in clear first place with 8½ points going into the final round, half a point ahead of Anand and a full point ahead of Carlsen and Aronian.[45][46] In the final round, Nakamura drew against Wang with the black pieces in a King's Indian Defense. With the draw, Nakamura finished with 9/13 (+5), a tournament performance rating of 2879, and guaranteed at least a share of first place. With Anand's final round draw against Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura clinched sole possession of first place,[47] making him the first American to win the Wijk aan Zee tournament since 1980. The win also guaranteed that Nakamura would join Carlsen (winner of the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament) as qualifiers for Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September 2011.[48] Nakamura after the tournament stated that his goal was to reach a 2800 rating by the end of the year; the win raised his rating from 2751 to 2774 and from world No. 10 to world No. 7 on the unofficial live rating list.[49]

Kasparov called Nakamura's victory the best by an American in more than 100 years:

In an e-mail, Kasparov said, "Fischer never won a tournament ahead of the world champion. He was second in Santa Monica", referring to the Second Piatigorsky Cup. "Of course, there were far fewer such events back then, and Fischer had several great tournament results like Stockholm 62", the interzonal qualifier for the world championship. "Reuben Fine only equaled Keres on points at AVRO in 38." Referring to the breakout performance of Frank J. Marshall, the United States Champion from 1909 to 1936, Mr. Kasparov continued, "Then you have Marshall at Cambridge Springs in 1904 ahead of Lasker, though Tarrasch wasn't there. So unless you include Capablanca as an American player, I think you can go back to Pillsbury at Hastings 1895 for an American tournament victory on par with Nakamura's.[50]

Following his super tournament triumph, Nakamura was given the key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee on February 15, 2011.[51] The victory also opened the door for Nakamura to receive invitations from other super grandmaster tournaments for the first time, and increased his world ranking to a career-high number eight. In May, he contested a six-game match in the United States against world No. 11 Ponomariov, where he lost the first game but rallied to win the match 3½–2½, raising his rating to 2777 and ranking to world No. 6 on the unofficial live rating list, both career-highs to that date. From June 11–21, he made his debut at the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania in a field including Carlsen, world No. 5 Vassily Ivanchuk, world No. 6 Sergey Karjakin, world No. 13 Teimour Radjabov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu; the tournament was a Category XXI event with an average ELO of 2760, making it the third strongest tournament in history; Nakamura finished 4½/10; the tournament was won by Carlsen on tiebreak over Karjakin.[52] Despite the disappointing performance at Bazna, he reached a new career-high world ranking of No. 6 in the July 2011 FIDE list with a 2770 rating.

From July 21–31, Nakamura made his debut at the Dortmund Invitational in Germany; the field comprised world No. 5 Kramnik, world No. 10 Ponomariov, world No. 27 Lê Quang Liêm, world No. 40 Giri, and Georg Meier.[53] Nakamura had a second consecutive disappointing performance, beginning at −3 before winning his last two games, including a last-round win over tournament winner Kramnik on the black side of the King's Indian Defense, to finish at 4½/10.[54]

Nakamura competed in the Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September, after which he played in the Tal Memorial for the second consecutive year in a field comprising Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Karjakin, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Hao, and Nepomniachtchi. He finished the year by participating in the London Chess Classic for the third consecutive time.[55]

2012: Third U.S. Championship

Starting in 2012, he participated in the Reggio Emilia Tournament, tying for second with Alexander Morozevich of Russia and Fabiano Caruana of Italy. Anish Giri got first place in the tournament, a half-point ahead of the field. Nakamura then played in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, finishing fifth.[56] He won the US Championship in May with a score of 8½, one point ahead of Gata Kamsky.[57]

In June 2012, Nakamura played at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. In a tightly bunched field, he finished tied for eighth with Luke McShane, 1½ points behind winner Magnus Carlsen.[58] He participated in the Biel Chess Festival, finishing third with Anish Giri, behind Carlsen and Wang Hao.[59] At the 2012 Chess Olympiad in August and September, he led the U.S. team to a fifth-place finish with a +4−1=4 record on the first board.[60] Nakamura then suffered through the FIDE London Grand Prix tournament, at one point losing four games in a row. He finished tied for last with Giri.[61] After another lackluster performance in the European Club Championship in Eilat, Israel, Nakamura finished first in the "crown group" at the Univé tournament in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands.[62] In December he tied for third with Mickey Adams in the London Chess Classic with a +3−1=4 score.[63] Nakamura finished the year by winning three silver medals in the three chess events (rapid, blitz and blindfold) at the World Mind Games in Beijing.[64] After this tournament, Nakamura achieved a 2844 FIDE blitz rating and a 2795 FIDE rapid rating.

After what was to him a disappointing tournament at the fifth edition of the King's Tournament in Medias (although Nakamura placed third of six among a cadre of top Grandmasters),[65] Nakamura tweeted that he was focusing on the 2011 World Series of Poker,[66] in which he played, although busted out on the second day.[67] Kasparov, who had been training Nakamura at the time, publicly grumbled about his interest in poker.[68]

2013: Top FIDE blitz rating

 
Nakamura vs Carlsen from the Tata Steel 2013

Nakamura began 2013 with a 7/13 (+3−2=8) result at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, finishing sixth.[69] He scored a win against then world number five Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces in an Old Indian Defense. He then played at the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Zug, Switzerland in April, scoring 6½/11 (+3−1=7) and finishing clear second behind Veselin Topalov.[70]

Nakamura did not participate in the 2013 U.S. championship. Instead, he played in the Norway Chess tournament, finishing tied with Magnus Carlsen for second behind winner Sergey Karjakin. His 5½/9 score (+4−2=3) featured a win over then-world champion Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces in a Ruy Lopez.[71] He then scored 5/11 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki, Greece.[72] Nakamura had an up-and-down Tal Memorial in June, at one point winning three straight games and then later losing three straight. He finished in sixth place with a 4½/9 score (+4−4=1).[73] However, he won the blitz tournament before the classical competition, raising his FIDE blitz rating to 2879, first in the world at the time. In the World Cup in Tromsø, Norway, Nakamura scored 6/8 (+5−1=2), eventually losing in the fourth round to Anton Korobov.[74] Nakamura finished second at the Sinquefield Cup in his hometown of St. Louis, behind Carlsen with a 3½/6 (+2−1=3) score, including a win over then world number two Levon Aronian.[75]

At the FIDE Grand Prix in Paris, Nakamura scored 6½/11 (+3−1=7) and tied for third with Étienne Bacrot, behind co-winners Caruana and Boris Gelfand. He defeated Caruana in their individual encounter but lost to Gelfand. Overall, Nakamura finished sixth in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13 series.[76] He then played first board for O.R. Padova in the European Club Championship in Rhodes, Greece and scored 4/6 (+2−0=4).[77] He defeated current Russian champion Peter Svidler with the black pieces in an extremely sharp King's Indian Defense.[78] At the World Team Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey, Nakamura led the U.S. team to a fourth-place finish.[79] His personal record of 4½/7 (+3−1=3) earned him an individual silver medal on board one.[80] Nakamura closed out his tournament schedule for the year with a win at the London Chess Classic, which was converted to a rapid chess event in 2013. He won his pool in the first stage of the tournament, then defeated Nigel Short, Vladimir Kramnik, and Boris Gelfand in the knockout stage. His overall record was +5−0=7.[81]

2014: No. 3 ranking and Zurich Chess Challenge

Entering 2014, Nakamura had achieved a No. 3 position in the FIDE ratings, below Carlsen and Aronian. He began his 2014 schedule with a ninth-place finish in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament at Wijk Aan Zee, with a 5/11 score (+2−3=6).[82] He then played the Zurich Chess Challenge, drawing with Caruana in the first round and winning against Anand in the second. In the third round, Nakamura achieved a winning position against Carlsen but later made several mistakes and eventually lost the game.[83] Nakamura finished fourth of the six players in the event, with a 7½/15 score.[84]

In April, Nakamura finished third of the six players in the Gashimov Memorial. In the double round-robin event, he lost both of his games to Carlsen but defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov twice to close with a 5/10 score (+2−2=6).[85] He then played a four-game match against Czech grandmaster David Navara in June and won easily 3½/4.[86]

In November, Nakamura played a match against Levon Aronian consisting of four classical and sixteen blitz games. The two tied the classical games 2–2; Nakamura won the match with a 9½–6½ score in blitz games.[87]

2015: 2800 rating and fourth U.S. Championship

On the February 2015 FIDE rating list, Nakamura fell behind Wesley So, the first time since January 2013 that Nakamura had not been the top FIDE-ranked player in the United States.

In January, Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Masters tournament, scoring 8½/10 (+7−0=3).[88] In February, Nakamura won the Zurich Chess Challenge after a playoff event to settle a tie.[89] Nakamura had one of his best-ever months as a chess professional in February 2015, and as a result on the March FIDE classical list Nakamura moved to his then-career highest 2798 and No. 3 in the world.[90] That April, Nakamura won his fourth U.S. Chess Championship with a score of 8/11.[91] In the final stage of the 4-stage Grand Prix event, Nakamura finished equal first with Fabiano Caruana and Dmitry Jakovenko with 6½ out of 11 points at Khanty-Mansiysk, giving him an overall second place Grand Prix placement, which automatically qualified him for the Candidates tournament to determine the challenger for Magnus Carlsen in the next Chess World Championship.[92] In the first stage of the June Norway Chess tournament for the Grand Chess Tour, Nakamura finished equal second with Viswanathan Anand with 6 out of 9 points and a 2900 performance. This gave Nakamura 8 points in the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour. It also propelled his rating to a career-high of 2814 and put him at number 4 in the July 2015 world rankings.[93][94]

2016–2018

In February 2016, Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Festival for the second year in a row, scoring 8/10 (+6−0=4) and beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on tiebreaks.[95] That same month, he also won the Zurich Chess Challenge for the second year in a row. He tied with Viswanathan Anand on the number of points; however, Nakamura was declared the overall winner due to his higher Sonneborn–Berger score.[96] In March 2016, Nakamura came seventh out of eight in the Candidates Tournament 2016, which decided the challenger—Sergey Karjakin—to face Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship. He scored 7/14, as did the three players directly above him.[97] In September 2016, Nakamura was part of the U.S. team that won the 42nd Chess Olympiad that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan.[98]

In January–February 2017, Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Festival with a score of 8/10 points (+6−0=4) and beating David Antón Guijarro in the tie-break final by 1½–½.

In January 2018, Nakamura took second place in the Chess.com Speed Chess Championships after winning matches in 2017 with Sergey Grigoriants, Fabiano Caruana, and then-World Blitz Champion Sergey Karjakin, only losing to Carlsen in the January finals.[99] That February, Nakamura participated in the unofficial Chess960 Championship, losing 10–14 to Carlsen.[100] From May 28 to June 7, he competed in the sixth edition of Norway Chess, placing third with 4½/8 (+1–0=7).[101] The Paris Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz tournament took place 20 to 24 June 2018. Nakamura won the event with 23 points, ahead of Sergei Karjakin with 21½ points and Wesley So who had 21 points. Nakamura won the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament that ran from 11 to 15 August 2018.[102]

Nakamura won the Rapid portion of the inaugural Tata Steel India Chess tournament, held in November 2018 in Kolkata.[103] He also finished runner-up, losing 1½–½ in a tiebreaker to Viswanathan Anand, in the blitz portion of the same event.[104][105] From December 11–17, Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana with a score of 18–10[106] in the semifinal match at the London Chess Classic and, in the final match with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, scored a victory in the fourth and final blitz game after the previous seven games were drawn.[107] Nakamura thus won the 2018 Grand Chess Tour.[107]

2019: Fifth U.S. Championship

In March, Nakamura won his fifth U.S. Chess Championship by a score of 8/11.[108]

In April, Nakamura won the Bullet Chess Championship hosted by Chess.com.[109] Defeating Grandmasters Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian in the quarterfinals and the semifinals, respectively, he then defeated Ukrainian Grandmaster Olexandr Bortnyk to win the tournament.

In early May, Nakamura shared second place[110] with French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour which was held in Côte d’Ivoire. The tournament was a combination rapid & blitz format, with world champion Magnus Carlsen placing first.[111]

In late May, Hikaru participated in the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix tournament, which is part of the qualification cycle for the 2020 World Chess Championship. The tournament was a 16-player event. Nakamura defeated grandmasters Teimour Radjabov and Daniil Dubov but lost to grandmaster Alexander Grischuk in the semi-final match.[112]

In early September, Hikaru participated in the Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX[113] tournament, which featured seven other grandmasters playing a 4-day match in Chess960. Players faced one opponent only the entire event. Hikaru was paired against Levon Aronian.[114] Despite scoring only half a point out of 8 at the start of the match, Hikaru eventually defeated Aronian by a score of 14½ to 11½.[115]

2020: Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour

Nakamura started 2020 as the top-ranked blitz chess player in the world. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, chess moved online, with Nakamura playing an important role in popularizing it.[116]

Since April 2020, Nakamura participated in the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour with a prize pool of $1 million.[117] He won the group stage of Magnus Carlsen Invitational and finished second behind Magnus Carlsen. He beat Carlsen in the semi-finals of Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge but finished second, losing to eventual champion Daniil Dubov in the final. Nakamura qualified for the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals against Carlsen, where he took his opponent to seven matches before drawing an armageddon tiebreaker game as white, thus losing the match. The world champion praised Nakamura after the match, saying, "he played a great match, he made it extremely difficult for me".[118]

In September, Nakamura tied for first with Carlsen in Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX[119] and finished third in St. Louis Rapid & Blitz.[120]

After many victories in shorter tournaments on Chess.com, including Titled Tuesday[121] and Super Swiss,[122] Nakamura failed to defend his U.S. Chess Champion title, finishing seventh. The tournament, which took place online in a rapid format, was won by Wesley So.[123]

In October, Nakamura held a 77-board charity simultaneous exhibition online, raising around $9,500 for Doctors Without Borders.[124] Before the 2020 United States presidential election, he challenged President Barack Obama to a game of chess to raise funds for the presidential nominee Joe Biden’s victory fund and ActBlue.[125]

Nakamura won the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship in December. It was his third victory in the format. The site promoted the knockout tournament by emphasizing a possible rematch of Nakamura and world champion Magnus Carlsen in the final. However, French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Carlsen in their semi-final match earning a spot in the final against Nakamura. In the Speed Chess Championship final, Nakamura defeated Vachier-Lagrave by a score of 18½ to 12½. Nakamura's skill at bullet chess proved to be the deciding factor, as he beat Vachier-Lagrave 8–3 in the bullet section of the match. Previous to the final Nakamura had defeated grandmasters Haik Martirosyan 21–5, Vladimir Fedoseev 21½–5½, and Wesley So 13½–12½.[126]

Since November, Nakamura participated in the Champions Chess Tour 2021, qualifying for the knockout stage of Skilling Open and Airthings Masters. After losing in the quarterfinals of the second event to Levon Aronian, Nakamura and his team held a charity stream, raising over $358,000 for CARE.[127][128]

2021: Champions Chess Tour and return to over-the-board chess

Nakamura continued to play the Champions Chess Tour with the Opera Euro Rapid tournament in February 2021. In the initial round-robin phase of the tournament, Nakamura compiled an up-and-down record. His final round-robin game against fellow American grandmaster Sam Shankland was pivotal. A win or draw in the game would have secured Nakamura's qualification to the tournament's knockout phase. He obtained a winning position against Shankland but failed to convert the advantage and eventually lost the game. This resulted in his exclusion from the knockout phase based on tiebreaks with Russian grandmaster Daniil Dubov.[129]

In the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the next tournament on the Champions Chess Tour, Nakamura scored +3−0=12 to place fourth in the preliminary stage and thus qualified for the knockout phase. He then lost his two-day quarterfinal match against Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. He drew 2–2 with Nepomniachtchi on the first day but lost 2½–½ on the second day.[130]

Nakamura scored +4−0=11 in the preliminary stage of the New In Chess Classic, the fifth event of the Champions Chess Tour, thus finishing second and qualifying for the tournament's knockout stage. After defeating Lê Quang Liêm and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, he lost to Magnus Carlsen 3–1 in the first match of the final and drew the second match 2–2, thus losing the final and finishing in second place. Nakamura qualified for the knockouts of the other two events, FTX Crypto Cup and Chessable Masters, finishing in the overall fifth place in the Tour after showing the second strongest performance in the Tour Final.[131]

In August 2021, Nakamura won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz competition without a single loss in his first over-the-board tournament since before the COVID-19 pandemic.[132] He had three wins and six draws in the rapid portion, as well as six wins and twelve draws in the blitz portion.

In December 2021, he won Chess.com's 2021 Speed Chess Championship by defeating GM Wesley So 23–8 in the final match.[133][134] This was his fourth successive victory in this event.[6]

From 26 to 28 December 2021, Nakamura participated in the 2021 World Rapid Chess Championship in Warsaw, where he ended up in sixth place after tiebreaks.[135] On the 29th he played the first leg of the 2021 World Blitz Chess Championship, but had to forfeit the tournament due to testing positive for COVID-19.[136]

2022: FIDE Grand Prix, second Candidates, and World Fischer Random Championship

Nakamura was granted a wildcard entry to the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 in December 2021 by the FIDE President. In the first leg of the tournament held in Berlin in February 2022, he played in Pool A alongside Andrey Esipenko, Étienne Bacrot, and Alexander Grischuk, making it his first classical tournament in two years.[137] Through five rounds, he held a 3½/5 (+2−0=3) lead in his group. Following a thriller against Esipenko in the sixth round, Nakamura held a draw with black to win his group and advance to the semifinals to face Richárd Rapport. With white, he convincingly won a complicated rook-and-pawn endgame to take a 1–0 lead in the semifinals. He held a draw in the following game to advance to the finals against Levon Aronian. The classical portion was drawn, but he won in rapid 2–0 to win the first leg of the tournament.[138]

On March 18, Nakamura won the 2022 edition of the Bullet Chess Championship hosted by chess.com, beating Andrew Tang in the final.[139]

Entering the third and final leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2022, Nakamura was ranked second in the Grand Prix standings with 13 points. He played in Pool A alongside Andrey Esipenko, Grigoriy Oparin, and Levon Aronian, who was ranked third in the standings entering the tournament with 10 points. On March 28, Nakamura defeated Esipenko to finish a 4/6 run in the round-robin stage, guaranteeing him at least second place and qualifying him for the Candidates Tournament 2022.[140] On March 31, after a draw in the semi-finals against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, he secured first place in the Grand Prix standings, thus winning the Grand Prix 2022 series.[141] He would eventually proceed to defeat Mamedyarov by drawing in classical and proceeding to rapid tiebreakers, where he won the tiebreakers in a 2–0 sweep.[142] This briefly propelled Nakamura to the highest live rapid chess rating on April 1, surpassing Magnus Carlsen,[143] though Carlsen regained his number one spot after Nakamura lost to Wesley So on tiebreakers in the finals of the third leg of the Grand Prix.[144][145] From June 16 to July 4, Nakamura participated in the 2022 Candidates Tournament, finishing in fourth place with a score of 7½/14.[146]

On June 14 Nakamura joined Misfits Gaming Group as a content creator and influencer.[147] Hans Niemann filed a $100 million lawsuit against Nakamura and others on October 20. (See Carlsen–Niemann controversy.) Later in October Nakamura won the second World Fischer Random Chess Championship ahead of reigning World Fischer Random Champion Wesley So, World Classical Champion Magnus Carlsen, World Rapid Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and runner-up World Chess Championship 2021 contender Ian Nepomniachtchi, defeating the latter in armageddon.[148] In December Nakamura won his fifth straight Speed Chess Championship, defeating Magnus Carlsen 14.5 v. 13.5 in the final.[149] On December 30 Nakamura finished as the runner-up in the World Blitz Chess Championship 2022 with a score of 15/21 behind Magnus Carlsen.[150]

Playing style

Nakamura is particularly skilled at rapid and blitz chess, a variety of time controls in which players have less than an hour to complete all or most of their moves. As of October 2022, Nakamura is ranked No. 1 on the FIDE blitz list[151] and was previously ranked No. 1 on the rapid list.[152] He is also strong at bullet chess, a time control giving the players one minute each.[153] In 2009, Nakamura authored the book Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate.[154] Nakamura said in September 2020, "At least at blitz chess, I'm probably the best or second-best player ever, in the entire history, at least online."[155]

Nakamura has been nicknamed "The H Bomb" because of his explosive style of playing.[156]

Nakamura's long-time second is USCF National Master Kris Littlejohn,[157] who works with chess engines to prepare lines for Nakamura to play.[158]

Chess records

Nakamura has set several "youngest-ever" records in U.S. chess history, including:[159]

  • Youngest to defeat an International Master in a USCF-rated game (10 years, 0 months); later surpassed by Praveen Balakrishnan at 9 years 29 days, and then by Awonder Liang at 8 years 118 days;
  • Youngest to defeat a Grandmaster in a USCF-rated game (10 years, 117 days); later surpassed by Fabiano Caruana at 10 years, 61 days; then surpassed by Awonder Liang at 9 years 112 days;
  • Youngest International Master (13 years, 2 months); later surpassed by Ray Robson at 13 years, 1 month, by Samuel Sevian at 12 years, 10 months, and then by Awonder Liang at 12 years, 7 months and 6 days old.[160]

Internet activity

Nakamura has played on the Internet Chess Club (as "Capilanobridge"; formerly as "Smallville") and Playchess (as "Star Wars"). He served as a commentator and game annotator on the ChessNinja website, operated by chess author Mig Greengard.

Nakamura is sponsored by Chess.com, a chess website.[161] In 2018, Nakamura began streaming on the platform Twitch under the name "GMHikaru". He plays speed chess games, variously against grandmasters, other streamers, and viewers who pay to subscribe to his channel.[155][162][163] He may play blindfolded or with piece handicaps, such as odds of a queen.[163] He also reviews his tournament games on stream.[164][165] In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, chess became significantly more popular on Twitch, with Nakamura widely identified as a significant reason for this.[155][163][161][165] His channel received a tenfold increase in audience size between February and June 2020.[162] Around August 2020, Nakamura averaged 14,000 viewers and streamed on Twitch on most days.[166] By September 2020, he had reached 500,000 followers.[155] Nakamura often plays games using "joke openings" while on stream, including the Bongcloud Attack, the Jerome Gambit and the Botez Gambit.[167] Nakamura has stated that he prioritizes his streaming career over his chess playing career.[168]

On August 27, 2020, Nakamura signed with the esports organization Team SoloMid (TSM) for a six-figure sum, making him one of the first chess players to join an esports team.[161][155] He operates a Discord server named "Naka's PogUniversity" and has a Twitter account.[155][161] Nakamura also has a YouTube channel, which had over 1.24M subscribers as of March 2022,[169] up from 78,000 subscribers in the beginning of 2020.[170] When asked about his popularity online, Nakamura attributed it to "the ability to play extremely high-level chess" while "seemingly ... not focused on the game" and conversing with his viewers.[155] Nathan Grayson of Kotaku called it a "combination of teacherly wisdom, galaxy-brained skills, and uncommon expressiveness".[165]

Nakamura has also coached beginner chess players on his Twitch platform, including the streamer xQc.[165] He gave lessons to players in PogChamps, an amateur tournament for Twitch streamers hosted by Chess.com, and its sequel, PogChamps 2. He additionally provided commentary.[171] At its peak, the tournament was the most-watched channel on Twitch for a short period, with 63,000 viewers.[155] Nakamura told Kotaku that though the competition had been met with some criticism, he believed that such tournaments with varying levels of skills among players could become popular.[165] On February 14, 2021, PogChamps 3 began. During the xQc vs. Rubius match on the second day of the event, chess hit its all-time high of 115,000 viewers in the chess category on Twitch.

On February 14, 2021, Nakamura reached a milestone of one million followers on his Twitch channel, GMHikaru.[172] During the FIDE Grand Prix in March 2022, Twitch suspended Nakamura for three days (later reduced to two days) after he broadcast and commented on chess games being played by Dr Disrespect, who is permanently suspended from the streaming platform.[173]

Other activities

Nakamura appeared as himself in season 5, episode 2 of the Showtime series Billions, which premiered May 10, 2020.[174] Nakamura is also an active stock market investor. In April 2017, he appeared on Bloomberg Television to discuss the relationship between chess and stock trading.[175] During his chess streams Nakamura occasionally discusses stock market investing and general financial topics.[176]

Notable games

This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
  • Nakamura vs. Boris Gelfand, World Team Championship 2010, King's Indian Defense: Orthodox Variation (E97) 0–1 Nakamura leaves his queen able to be captured four times in this win.
  • Nakamura vs. Michal Krasenkow, Casino de Barcelona 2007, English Opening, Agincourt Defense (A14) 0–1 Nakamura sacrifices his queen to chase Krasenkow's king up the board.
  • The following game is Nakamura–Igor Novikov, played in the 29th New York Masters 2002. Nakamura's annotations are given along with the text.[177]
abcdefgh
8
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Position after 34...Kd8. Typical of Nakamura's complicated and tactical style, Nakamura, age 15 at the time, finds a tactic to win some material and the game.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. Qd2 Nbd7 9. g4 Nb6 10. 0-0-0 Bb7 11. Nb3 Rc8 12. Na5 Ba8 13. a4!? This rare line has only been played two times, both games were draws. (13.g5 Nfd7 14.a4 b4 15.Na2 Nxa4 16.Bxa6 Qxa5 17.Bxc8 Ndb6=/+ Perez–Novikov, Aosta Open Italy 2002.) 13... Nc4 13...d5 14.g5 Nfd7 15.exd5 Bxd5 16.axb5 Bb4 17.Nc6 Bxc6 18.bxc6 Rxc6 19.Bxb6 Rxb6 20.Qd4 0-0 21.Na4! Rb8 22.Qxd7 Qxg5+ 23.f4 Qxf4+ 24.Kb1+/− Andreev–Voitsekhovsky, 2000. 14. Nxc4 bxc4 15. Qd4 Qc7 16. g5 Nd7 17. f4 17.h4 e5 18.Qa7 Qxa7 19.Bxa7 h6 20.Bh3+/= De la Villa Garcia–Suba, Benasque Open 1995. 17... h6 18. g6!? The idea behind sacrificing the pawn is to weaken the e6 and g6 pawns, and force Black to move his king to f7. (18.gxh6 Rxh6 19.f5 Rh7 [19...Rh4 20.fxe6 fxe6 21.Bf2 Rh7 22.Bg3!+/=] 20.fxe6.) 18... fxg6 Novikov accepts the challenge. Perhaps f5 was better because once he takes on g6 his pieces get tied down, and Black ends up with a very passive position. (18...f5!? 19.Bg2 Nf6~~.) 19. Rg1 Kf7 19...e5?! 20.Qd2 g5 (20...exf4 21.Bxf4 Qb6 22.Rxg6 Rb8 23.b3 cxb3 24.Re6+ Kf7 25.Bc4+/−; 20...Qb7 21.Qd5! Qxd5 22.Nxd5+/=) 21.fxg5 hxg5 22.Nd5+/=. 20. f5 gxf5 20...exf5 21.exf5 gxf5 22.Bh3→. 21. exf5 e5 22. Qh4?! Missing a chance to get a winning position. (22.Qg4! Nf6 23.Qg6+ Ke7 24.Bg2+/−.) 22... Nf6 23. Be2 Ke8 24. Rg6 Qf7 25. Qg3 Rb8 26. a5! Bc6 27. Bb6 h5 This is the only move which makes any sense here, but it allows White to win the exchange. Maybe Novikov felt like giving up the exchange to get some counterplay because if he does not play h5 White has all the play. 28. Qh4 d5 29. Qg3 Qe7 30. Bd4! Rxb2 31. Kxb2 exd4 32. Rxd4 Qa3+ 33. Kb1 Bd6? 33...Qb4+ 34.Kc1 Bd6~~ After the game, when I analyzed with Novikov, he suggested this line. I did not find anything which was winning for White, and I think that Black is at least even in this position, if not better. 34. Qe3+ Kd8 (see diagram) 35. Nxd5!! Clearly Novikov did not see this brilliant tactical shot as he used up most of his time trying to come up with a good move. In the end he had to settle for a losing endgame down an exchange. 35... Qxe3 35...Bxd5 36.Qxa3 Bxa3 37.Bxc4 Bc5 38.Rd3+−; 35...Qxa5 36.Nxf6 Qe1+ 37.Qc1+−; 35...Nxd5 36.Qxa3 Bxa3 37.Rxc6+−. 36. Nxe3 Kc7 37. Rxg7+ Nd7 38. Nxc4 Rb8+ 39. Nb6 Re8 40. Bf3 Re1+ 41. Ka2 Ra1+! Desperation. 42. Kxa1 Be5 43. c3 Bxg7 44. Bxc6 Bxd4 45. cxd4 1–0 45.cxd4 Kxc6 46.d5+ Kd6 47.Nxd7 Kxd7 48.f6+−.

Awards and nominations

Year Ceremony Category Result Ref.
2022 The Streamer Awards Best Chess Streamer Nominated [178]

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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hikaru Nakamura.
  • Official website
  • Hikaru Nakamura rating card at FIDE  
  • Hikaru Nakamura rating and tournament record at US Chess Federation
  • Hikaru Nakamura player profile and games at Chessgames.com
  • Hikaru Nakamura chess games at 365Chess.com  
  • Hikaru Nakamura player profile at Chess.com
  • Hikaru Nakamura member profile at the Internet Chess Club
Achievements
Preceded by United States Chess Champion
2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Chess Champion
2009 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Chess Champion
2012 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Chess Champion
2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Chess Champion
2019 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Youngest ever United States chess master
1998–2008 		Succeeded by
Nicholas Nip
Preceded by Youngest ever United States international master
2001–2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Youngest ever United States grandmaster
2003–2007 		Succeeded by

January 21, 2023
hikaru, nakamura, manga, artist, artist, christopher, born, december, 1987, american, chess, grandmaster, twitch, streamer, five, time, chess, champion, reigning, world, fischer, random, chess, champion, chess, prodigy, earned, grandmaster, title, youngest, am. For the manga artist see Hikaru Nakamura artist Christopher Hikaru Nakamura 2 born December 9 1987 is an American chess grandmaster Twitch streamer five time U S Chess Champion and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion A chess prodigy he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15 the youngest American at the time to do so Nakamura won the 2011 edition of Tata Steel Chess Tournament Group A and has represented the United States at five Chess Olympiads winning a team gold medal and two team bronze medals With a peak rating of 2816 Nakamura is the tenth highest rated player in history In May 2014 when FIDE began publishing official rapid and blitz chess ratings Nakamura ranked No 1 in the world on both lists 3 he has remained at or near the No 1 rank on both lists ever since 4 5 As of December 2022 update he has won all of the last five Chess com Speed Chess Championships 6 Hikaru NakamuraNakamura at the 2016 Chess OlympiadBornChristopher Hikaru Nakamura 1987 12 09 December 9 1987 age 35 Hirakata Osaka Prefecture JapanJapanese nameKanji中村 光Hiraganaなかむら ひかるKatakanaナカムラ ヒカルTranscriptionsRomanizationNakamura HikaruChess careerCountryUnited StatesTitleGrandmaster 2003 FIDE rating2768 December 2022 Peak rating2816 October 2015 RankingNo 5 December 2022 Peak rankingNo 2 October 2015 Twitch informationChannelGMHikaruYears active2015 presentFollowers1 5 millionTotal views174 98 millionFollower and view counts updated as of October 30 2022 YouTube informationChannelGMHikaruYears active2017 presentSubscribers1 43 million 1 Total views403 2 million 1 Creator Awards100 000 subscribers 20201 000 000 subscribers 2021Last updated November 21 2022 Contents 1 Early life 2 Chess prodigy 3 Chess career 3 1 2009 Second U S Championship and other tournament successes 3 2 2010 Gold medalist and top ten player 3 3 2011 Tata Steel Group A victory 3 4 2012 Third U S Championship 3 5 2013 Top FIDE blitz rating 3 6 2014 No 3 ranking and Zurich Chess Challenge 3 7 2015 2800 rating and fourth U S Championship 3 8 2016 2018 3 9 2019 Fifth U S Championship 3 10 2020 Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour 3 11 2021 Champions Chess Tour and return to over the board chess 3 12 2022 FIDE Grand Prix second Candidates and World Fischer Random Championship 4 Playing style 5 Chess records 6 Internet activity 7 Other activities 8 Notable games 9 Awards and nominations 10 References 11 External linksEarly life EditNakamura was born in Hirakata Osaka Prefecture Japan to an American mother Carolyn Merrow Nakamura a classically trained musician and former public school teacher and a Japanese father Shuichi Nakamura 7 8 Nakamura has an older brother Asuka 9 When he was two years old his family moved to the United States and a year later in 1990 his parents divorced 10 He was raised in White Plains New York He began playing chess at the age of seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry 11 Weeramantry began coaching the Nakamura brothers after Asuka Nakamura won the National Kindergarten Championship in 1992 which led to him developing a relationship with their mother 9 Chess prodigy EditAt age 10 he became the youngest American to beat an International Master when he defeated Jay Bonin at the Marshall Chess Club 9 12 Also at age 10 Nakamura became the youngest player to achieve the title of chess master from the United States Chess Federation breaking the record previously set by Vinay Bhat Nakamura s record stood until 2008 when Nicholas Nip achieved the master title at the age of 9 years and 11 months In 1999 Nakamura won the Laura Aspis Prize given annually to the top USCF rated player under age 13 In 2003 at age 15 years and 79 days Nakamura solidified his reputation as a chess prodigy becoming the youngest American to earn the grandmaster title at the time breaking the record of Bobby Fischer by three months 13 14 Chess career EditIn July 2002 Nakamura achieved 56th place at the 30th annual World Open tournament in Philadelphia 15 16 In April 2004 Nakamura achieved a fourth place finish in the B group at the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee the Netherlands 17 Nakamura qualified for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 played in Tripoli Libya and reached the fourth round defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov Aleksej Aleksandrov and Alexander Lastin before falling to England s Michael Adams the tournament s third seeded participant and eventual runner up On June 20 2005 Nakamura was selected as the 19th Frank Samford Chess Fellow receiving a grant of 32 000 to further his chess education and competition 18 Nakamura won the 2005 U S Chess Championship held in November and December 2004 scoring seven points over nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alexander Stripunsky for first place Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in two straight rapid playoff games to claim the title and become the youngest national champion since Fischer Nakamura finished the tournament without a loss and in the seventh round defeated grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov then the nation s top ranked player Following that victory Nakamura played a challenge match dubbed the Duelo de Jovenes Prodigios in Mexico against Ukrainian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin who now identifies as Russian and defeated his fellow prodigy by 4 1 19 In November and December 2005 Nakamura competed in the FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk Russia seeded 28th of 128 players but failed to advance beyond the first round He lost each of his two games to Indian grandmaster Surya Ganguly 20 In 2006 Nakamura was offered a full scholarship to the University of Texas Dallas but instead began attending Dickinson College with a partial scholarship in order to take a break from chess Later in the year he announced that he would resume playing 21 The same year he helped the U S team win the bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad at Turin Italy playing on the third board behind Gata Kamsky and 2006 U S Champion Alexander Onischuk In the same year he won the 16th North American Open in Las Vegas 22 In January 2007 Nakamura shared second place at the GibTelecom Masters in Gibraltar 23 He placed joint first in the tournament the following year finishing with five straight wins to tie with Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi whom he then proceeded to beat in the rapidplay playoff 24 In October 2007 Nakamura won the Magistral D Escacs tournament in Barcelona 25 and the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament 26 Nakamura won the 2008 Finet Chess960 Open in Mainz Germany 27 In November 2008 he won the Cap d Agde Rapid Tournament in Cap d Agde defeating Anatoly Karpov in the semifinals and Vassily Ivanchuk in the finals 28 In February 2009 he came joint third at the 7th Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar again finishing strongly with 4 5 to end the event on 7 10 29 2009 Second U S Championship and other tournament successes Edit Nakamura won the 2009 U S Chess Championship St Louis Missouri May 2009 scoring 7 9 to take clear first ahead of 17 year old GM elect Robert Hess who shared second with 6 30 In July 2009 Nakamura won the Donostia San Sebastian Chess Festival tying with former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov with 6 9 before defeating Ponomariov in a blitz playoff to win the title over a field including former undisputed world champion Anatoly Karpov former FIDE world champions Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Ponomariov 2009 World Junior champion Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Peter Svidler among others 31 In August 2009 Nakamura became the 960 World Chess Champion beating GM Levon Aronian 3 in Mainz Germany In November 2009 Nakamura participated in the BNbank blitz tournament in Oslo Norway He reached the final by winning all 12 of his games In the championship he faced the world No 2 and reigning World Blitz Champion Magnus Carlsen Nakamura won the match 3 1 further cementing his reputation as one of the best blitz players in the world despite having not been invited to the 2009 World Blitz championship 32 33 Nakamura skipped the Chess World Cup 2009 in favor of the London Chess Classic in December 2009 Although he drew with the black pieces against eventual winner Magnus Carlsen and with white against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik Nakamura failed to win a game during the tournament and ended in seventh place out of eight 34 2010 Gold medalist and top ten player Edit Nakamura began 2010 playing first board for the United States at the World Team Chess Championship held in Bursa Turkey His performance including a win over world No 6 and recent FIDE World Cup winner Boris Gelfand on the black side of a King s Indian Defense won him the individual gold medal for board one and led the U S to a second place finish behind Russia 35 36 Nakamura participated in the 2010 Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee He finished with 2 tying for fourth with Viswanathan Anand behind Carlsen Shirov and Kramnik In May Nakamura participated in the 2010 United States Chess Championship in Saint Louis Missouri attempting to defend his 2009 title Seeded first he scored 5 7 points to qualify for the round robin stage against the 1991 champion Gata Kamsky 2006 champion Alexander Onischuk and 2008 champion Yuri Shulman In the round robin stage he drew with Kamsky before losing to Shulman with the white pieces in both games 37 The loss to Shulman eliminated him from defending his 2009 title Nakamura competed in the 39th Chess Olympiad Although he defeated Le Quang Liem and drew Kramnik with the black pieces during the tournament the U S team failed to medal From November 5 14 Nakamura competed in the 2010 Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow the field consisted of world No 3 Levon Aronian world No 4 Vladimir Kramnik world No 6 Alexander Grischuk world No 8 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov world No 9 Sergey Karjakin Pavel Eljanov Boris Gelfand Alexei Shirov and Wang Hao The average Elo of the field was 2757 making it the third strongest tournament in chess history at the time Nakamura finished at 1 defeating Eljanov and drawing every other player to finish in a tie for fourth place and missing out on a tie for first place by blundering into a draw in a winning position in the final round against Grischuk 38 Nakamura s round two win over Eljanov placed him in the world top ten in the live ratings for the first time in his career 39 Nakamura s performance at this tournament his first involving an entirely super elite field allowed him to force the chess elite to respect him according to noted Russian commentator grandmaster Sergey Shipov 40 From November 16 18 Nakamura made his debut at the 2010 World Blitz Championship in Moscow Despite a disastrous start and losing four of his first five games to Magnus Carlsen Vladimir Kramnik Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Sergey Karjakin he recovered to score 5 7 in the second half of the day and finished with a score of 7 14 2 points behind co leaders Carlsen and Levon Aronian whom he defeated in their individual games On the second day Nakamura avenged his earlier losses against both Carlsen and Kramnik and scored 8 14 for a total of 15 28 three points behind Aronian and a point and a half behind Carlsen Nakamura finished with 21 38 for fifth place behind Gelfand Carlsen Teimour Radjabov and champion Aronian 41 In December 2010 Nakamura finished fourth in the London Chess Classic among a field including Anand Carlsen Kramnik Michael Adams Nigel Short David Howell and Luke McShane This included a win with Black against Kramnik evening their career head to head record at 2 2 The tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen 42 Nakamura s performance ensured that he would officially join the world top ten as of January 1 2011 2011 Tata Steel Group A victory Edit In the January 2011 FIDE rating list Nakamura was ranked number 10 in the world with a rating of 2751 Nakamura began training with former world champion Garry Kasparov The first of several training sessions were held in New York at the beginning of January 43 but the training ended in December 2011 44 From January 14 through 30 Nakamura competed in the Tata Steel Grandmaster A tournament in Wijk aan Zee among a field of world No 1 and defending champion Magnus Carlsen world champion and world No 2 Viswanathan Anand world No 3 and reigning World Blitz champion Levon Aronian world No 4 and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik world No 7 Alexander Grischuk former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi reigning Chinese champion Wang Hao Maxime Vachier Lagrave Alexei Shirov Anish Giri Jan Smeets and Erwin L Ami The average rating of the field was 2740 making this thirteen round event a category 20 tournament After twelve rounds Nakamura was in clear first place with 8 points going into the final round half a point ahead of Anand and a full point ahead of Carlsen and Aronian 45 46 In the final round Nakamura drew against Wang with the black pieces in a King s Indian Defense With the draw Nakamura finished with 9 13 5 a tournament performance rating of 2879 and guaranteed at least a share of first place With Anand s final round draw against Nepomniachtchi Nakamura clinched sole possession of first place 47 making him the first American to win the Wijk aan Zee tournament since 1980 The win also guaranteed that Nakamura would join Carlsen winner of the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament as qualifiers for Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September 2011 48 Nakamura after the tournament stated that his goal was to reach a 2800 rating by the end of the year the win raised his rating from 2751 to 2774 and from world No 10 to world No 7 on the unofficial live rating list 49 Kasparov called Nakamura s victory the best by an American in more than 100 years In an e mail Kasparov said Fischer never won a tournament ahead of the world champion He was second in Santa Monica referring to the Second Piatigorsky Cup Of course there were far fewer such events back then and Fischer had several great tournament results like Stockholm 62 the interzonal qualifier for the world championship Reuben Fine only equaled Keres on points at AVRO in 38 Referring to the breakout performance of Frank J Marshall the United States Champion from 1909 to 1936 Mr Kasparov continued Then you have Marshall at Cambridge Springs in 1904 ahead of Lasker though Tarrasch wasn t there So unless you include Capablanca as an American player I think you can go back to Pillsbury at Hastings 1895 for an American tournament victory on par with Nakamura s 50 Following his super tournament triumph Nakamura was given the key to the city of Memphis Tennessee on February 15 2011 51 The victory also opened the door for Nakamura to receive invitations from other super grandmaster tournaments for the first time and increased his world ranking to a career high number eight In May he contested a six game match in the United States against world No 11 Ponomariov where he lost the first game but rallied to win the match 3 2 raising his rating to 2777 and ranking to world No 6 on the unofficial live rating list both career highs to that date From June 11 21 he made his debut at the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania in a field including Carlsen world No 5 Vassily Ivanchuk world No 6 Sergey Karjakin world No 13 Teimour Radjabov and Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu the tournament was a Category XXI event with an average ELO of 2760 making it the third strongest tournament in history Nakamura finished 4 10 the tournament was won by Carlsen on tiebreak over Karjakin 52 Despite the disappointing performance at Bazna he reached a new career high world ranking of No 6 in the July 2011 FIDE list with a 2770 rating From July 21 31 Nakamura made his debut at the Dortmund Invitational in Germany the field comprised world No 5 Kramnik world No 10 Ponomariov world No 27 Le Quang Liem world No 40 Giri and Georg Meier 53 Nakamura had a second consecutive disappointing performance beginning at 3 before winning his last two games including a last round win over tournament winner Kramnik on the black side of the King s Indian Defense to finish at 4 10 54 Nakamura competed in the Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September after which he played in the Tal Memorial for the second consecutive year in a field comprising Carlsen Anand Aronian Karjakin Kramnik Ivanchuk Gelfand Hao and Nepomniachtchi He finished the year by participating in the London Chess Classic for the third consecutive time 55 2012 Third U S Championship Edit Starting in 2012 he participated in the Reggio Emilia Tournament tying for second with Alexander Morozevich of Russia and Fabiano Caruana of Italy Anish Giri got first place in the tournament a half point ahead of the field Nakamura then played in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament finishing fifth 56 He won the US Championship in May with a score of 8 one point ahead of Gata Kamsky 57 In June 2012 Nakamura played at the Tal Memorial in Moscow In a tightly bunched field he finished tied for eighth with Luke McShane 1 points behind winner Magnus Carlsen 58 He participated in the Biel Chess Festival finishing third with Anish Giri behind Carlsen and Wang Hao 59 At the 2012 Chess Olympiad in August and September he led the U S team to a fifth place finish with a 4 1 4 record on the first board 60 Nakamura then suffered through the FIDE London Grand Prix tournament at one point losing four games in a row He finished tied for last with Giri 61 After another lackluster performance in the European Club Championship in Eilat Israel Nakamura finished first in the crown group at the Unive tournament in Hoogeveen the Netherlands 62 In December he tied for third with Mickey Adams in the London Chess Classic with a 3 1 4 score 63 Nakamura finished the year by winning three silver medals in the three chess events rapid blitz and blindfold at the World Mind Games in Beijing 64 After this tournament Nakamura achieved a 2844 FIDE blitz rating and a 2795 FIDE rapid rating After what was to him a disappointing tournament at the fifth edition of the King s Tournament in Medias although Nakamura placed third of six among a cadre of top Grandmasters 65 Nakamura tweeted that he was focusing on the 2011 World Series of Poker 66 in which he played although busted out on the second day 67 Kasparov who had been training Nakamura at the time publicly grumbled about his interest in poker 68 2013 Top FIDE blitz rating Edit Nakamura vs Carlsen from the Tata Steel 2013 Nakamura began 2013 with a 7 13 3 2 8 result at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee finishing sixth 69 He scored a win against then world number five Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces in an Old Indian Defense He then played at the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Zug Switzerland in April scoring 6 11 3 1 7 and finishing clear second behind Veselin Topalov 70 Nakamura did not participate in the 2013 U S championship Instead he played in the Norway Chess tournament finishing tied with Magnus Carlsen for second behind winner Sergey Karjakin His 5 9 score 4 2 3 featured a win over then world champion Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces in a Ruy Lopez 71 He then scored 5 11 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki Greece 72 Nakamura had an up and down Tal Memorial in June at one point winning three straight games and then later losing three straight He finished in sixth place with a 4 9 score 4 4 1 73 However he won the blitz tournament before the classical competition raising his FIDE blitz rating to 2879 first in the world at the time In the World Cup in Tromso Norway Nakamura scored 6 8 5 1 2 eventually losing in the fourth round to Anton Korobov 74 Nakamura finished second at the Sinquefield Cup in his hometown of St Louis behind Carlsen with a 3 6 2 1 3 score including a win over then world number two Levon Aronian 75 At the FIDE Grand Prix in Paris Nakamura scored 6 11 3 1 7 and tied for third with Etienne Bacrot behind co winners Caruana and Boris Gelfand He defeated Caruana in their individual encounter but lost to Gelfand Overall Nakamura finished sixth in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012 13 series 76 He then played first board for O R Padova in the European Club Championship in Rhodes Greece and scored 4 6 2 0 4 77 He defeated current Russian champion Peter Svidler with the black pieces in an extremely sharp King s Indian Defense 78 At the World Team Chess Championship in Antalya Turkey Nakamura led the U S team to a fourth place finish 79 His personal record of 4 7 3 1 3 earned him an individual silver medal on board one 80 Nakamura closed out his tournament schedule for the year with a win at the London Chess Classic which was converted to a rapid chess event in 2013 He won his pool in the first stage of the tournament then defeated Nigel Short Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand in the knockout stage His overall record was 5 0 7 81 2014 No 3 ranking and Zurich Chess Challenge Edit Entering 2014 Nakamura had achieved a No 3 position in the FIDE ratings below Carlsen and Aronian He began his 2014 schedule with a ninth place finish in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament at Wijk Aan Zee with a 5 11 score 2 3 6 82 He then played the Zurich Chess Challenge drawing with Caruana in the first round and winning against Anand in the second In the third round Nakamura achieved a winning position against Carlsen but later made several mistakes and eventually lost the game 83 Nakamura finished fourth of the six players in the event with a 7 15 score 84 In April Nakamura finished third of the six players in the Gashimov Memorial In the double round robin event he lost both of his games to Carlsen but defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov twice to close with a 5 10 score 2 2 6 85 He then played a four game match against Czech grandmaster David Navara in June and won easily 3 4 86 In November Nakamura played a match against Levon Aronian consisting of four classical and sixteen blitz games The two tied the classical games 2 2 Nakamura won the match with a 9 6 score in blitz games 87 2015 2800 rating and fourth U S Championship Edit On the February 2015 FIDE rating list Nakamura fell behind Wesley So the first time since January 2013 that Nakamura had not been the top FIDE ranked player in the United States In January Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Masters tournament scoring 8 10 7 0 3 88 In February Nakamura won the Zurich Chess Challenge after a playoff event to settle a tie 89 Nakamura had one of his best ever months as a chess professional in February 2015 and as a result on the March FIDE classical list Nakamura moved to his then career highest 2798 and No 3 in the world 90 That April Nakamura won his fourth U S Chess Championship with a score of 8 11 91 In the final stage of the 4 stage Grand Prix event Nakamura finished equal first with Fabiano Caruana and Dmitry Jakovenko with 6 out of 11 points at Khanty Mansiysk giving him an overall second place Grand Prix placement which automatically qualified him for the Candidates tournament to determine the challenger for Magnus Carlsen in the next Chess World Championship 92 In the first stage of the June Norway Chess tournament for the Grand Chess Tour Nakamura finished equal second with Viswanathan Anand with 6 out of 9 points and a 2900 performance This gave Nakamura 8 points in the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour It also propelled his rating to a career high of 2814 and put him at number 4 in the July 2015 world rankings 93 94 2016 2018 Edit In February 2016 Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Festival for the second year in a row scoring 8 10 6 0 4 and beating Maxime Vachier Lagrave on tiebreaks 95 That same month he also won the Zurich Chess Challenge for the second year in a row He tied with Viswanathan Anand on the number of points however Nakamura was declared the overall winner due to his higher Sonneborn Berger score 96 In March 2016 Nakamura came seventh out of eight in the Candidates Tournament 2016 which decided the challenger Sergey Karjakin to face Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship He scored 7 14 as did the three players directly above him 97 In September 2016 Nakamura was part of the U S team that won the 42nd Chess Olympiad that took place in Baku Azerbaijan 98 In January February 2017 Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Festival with a score of 8 10 points 6 0 4 and beating David Anton Guijarro in the tie break final by 1 In January 2018 Nakamura took second place in the Chess com Speed Chess Championships after winning matches in 2017 with Sergey Grigoriants Fabiano Caruana and then World Blitz Champion Sergey Karjakin only losing to Carlsen in the January finals 99 That February Nakamura participated in the unofficial Chess960 Championship losing 10 14 to Carlsen 100 From May 28 to June 7 he competed in the sixth edition of Norway Chess placing third with 4 8 1 0 7 101 The Paris Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz tournament took place 20 to 24 June 2018 Nakamura won the event with 23 points ahead of Sergei Karjakin with 21 points and Wesley So who had 21 points Nakamura won the St Louis Rapid amp Blitz tournament that ran from 11 to 15 August 2018 102 Nakamura won the Rapid portion of the inaugural Tata Steel India Chess tournament held in November 2018 in Kolkata 103 He also finished runner up losing 1 in a tiebreaker to Viswanathan Anand in the blitz portion of the same event 104 105 From December 11 17 Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana with a score of 18 10 106 in the semifinal match at the London Chess Classic and in the final match with Maxime Vachier Lagrave scored a victory in the fourth and final blitz game after the previous seven games were drawn 107 Nakamura thus won the 2018 Grand Chess Tour 107 2019 Fifth U S Championship Edit In March Nakamura won his fifth U S Chess Championship by a score of 8 11 108 In April Nakamura won the Bullet Chess Championship hosted by Chess com 109 Defeating Grandmasters Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian in the quarterfinals and the semifinals respectively he then defeated Ukrainian Grandmaster Olexandr Bortnyk to win the tournament In early May Nakamura shared second place 110 with French grandmaster Maxime Vachier Lagrave in the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour which was held in Cote d Ivoire The tournament was a combination rapid amp blitz format with world champion Magnus Carlsen placing first 111 In late May Hikaru participated in the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix tournament which is part of the qualification cycle for the 2020 World Chess Championship The tournament was a 16 player event Nakamura defeated grandmasters Teimour Radjabov and Daniil Dubov but lost to grandmaster Alexander Grischuk in the semi final match 112 In early September Hikaru participated in the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX 113 tournament which featured seven other grandmasters playing a 4 day match in Chess960 Players faced one opponent only the entire event Hikaru was paired against Levon Aronian 114 Despite scoring only half a point out of 8 at the start of the match Hikaru eventually defeated Aronian by a score of 14 to 11 115 2020 Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Edit Nakamura started 2020 as the top ranked blitz chess player in the world Owing to the COVID 19 pandemic chess moved online with Nakamura playing an important role in popularizing it 116 Since April 2020 Nakamura participated in the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour with a prize pool of 1 million 117 He won the group stage of Magnus Carlsen Invitational and finished second behind Magnus Carlsen He beat Carlsen in the semi finals of Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge but finished second losing to eventual champion Daniil Dubov in the final Nakamura qualified for the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals against Carlsen where he took his opponent to seven matches before drawing an armageddon tiebreaker game as white thus losing the match The world champion praised Nakamura after the match saying he played a great match he made it extremely difficult for me 118 In September Nakamura tied for first with Carlsen in Champions Showdown Chess 9LX 119 and finished third in St Louis Rapid amp Blitz 120 After many victories in shorter tournaments on Chess com including Titled Tuesday 121 and Super Swiss 122 Nakamura failed to defend his U S Chess Champion title finishing seventh The tournament which took place online in a rapid format was won by Wesley So 123 In October Nakamura held a 77 board charity simultaneous exhibition online raising around 9 500 for Doctors Without Borders 124 Before the 2020 United States presidential election he challenged President Barack Obama to a game of chess to raise funds for the presidential nominee Joe Biden s victory fund and ActBlue 125 Nakamura won the Chess com Speed Chess Championship in December It was his third victory in the format The site promoted the knockout tournament by emphasizing a possible rematch of Nakamura and world champion Magnus Carlsen in the final However French grandmaster Maxime Vachier Lagrave defeated Carlsen in their semi final match earning a spot in the final against Nakamura In the Speed Chess Championship final Nakamura defeated Vachier Lagrave by a score of 18 to 12 Nakamura s skill at bullet chess proved to be the deciding factor as he beat Vachier Lagrave 8 3 in the bullet section of the match Previous to the final Nakamura had defeated grandmasters Haik Martirosyan 21 5 Vladimir Fedoseev 21 5 and Wesley So 13 12 126 Since November Nakamura participated in the Champions Chess Tour 2021 qualifying for the knockout stage of Skilling Open and Airthings Masters After losing in the quarterfinals of the second event to Levon Aronian Nakamura and his team held a charity stream raising over 358 000 for CARE 127 128 2021 Champions Chess Tour and return to over the board chess Edit Nakamura continued to play the Champions Chess Tour with the Opera Euro Rapid tournament in February 2021 In the initial round robin phase of the tournament Nakamura compiled an up and down record His final round robin game against fellow American grandmaster Sam Shankland was pivotal A win or draw in the game would have secured Nakamura s qualification to the tournament s knockout phase He obtained a winning position against Shankland but failed to convert the advantage and eventually lost the game This resulted in his exclusion from the knockout phase based on tiebreaks with Russian grandmaster Daniil Dubov 129 In the Magnus Carlsen Invitational the next tournament on the Champions Chess Tour Nakamura scored 3 0 12 to place fourth in the preliminary stage and thus qualified for the knockout phase He then lost his two day quarterfinal match against Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi He drew 2 2 with Nepomniachtchi on the first day but lost 2 on the second day 130 Nakamura scored 4 0 11 in the preliminary stage of the New In Chess Classic the fifth event of the Champions Chess Tour thus finishing second and qualifying for the tournament s knockout stage After defeating Le Quang Liem and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively he lost to Magnus Carlsen 3 1 in the first match of the final and drew the second match 2 2 thus losing the final and finishing in second place Nakamura qualified for the knockouts of the other two events FTX Crypto Cup and Chessable Masters finishing in the overall fifth place in the Tour after showing the second strongest performance in the Tour Final 131 In August 2021 Nakamura won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz competition without a single loss in his first over the board tournament since before the COVID 19 pandemic 132 He had three wins and six draws in the rapid portion as well as six wins and twelve draws in the blitz portion In December 2021 he won Chess com s 2021 Speed Chess Championship by defeating GM Wesley So 23 8 in the final match 133 134 This was his fourth successive victory in this event 6 From 26 to 28 December 2021 Nakamura participated in the 2021 World Rapid Chess Championship in Warsaw where he ended up in sixth place after tiebreaks 135 On the 29th he played the first leg of the 2021 World Blitz Chess Championship but had to forfeit the tournament due to testing positive for COVID 19 136 2022 FIDE Grand Prix second Candidates and World Fischer Random Championship Edit Nakamura was granted a wildcard entry to the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 in December 2021 by the FIDE President In the first leg of the tournament held in Berlin in February 2022 he played in Pool A alongside Andrey Esipenko Etienne Bacrot and Alexander Grischuk making it his first classical tournament in two years 137 Through five rounds he held a 3 5 2 0 3 lead in his group Following a thriller against Esipenko in the sixth round Nakamura held a draw with black to win his group and advance to the semifinals to face Richard Rapport With white he convincingly won a complicated rook and pawn endgame to take a 1 0 lead in the semifinals He held a draw in the following game to advance to the finals against Levon Aronian The classical portion was drawn but he won in rapid 2 0 to win the first leg of the tournament 138 On March 18 Nakamura won the 2022 edition of the Bullet Chess Championship hosted by chess com beating Andrew Tang in the final 139 Entering the third and final leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 Nakamura was ranked second in the Grand Prix standings with 13 points He played in Pool A alongside Andrey Esipenko Grigoriy Oparin and Levon Aronian who was ranked third in the standings entering the tournament with 10 points On March 28 Nakamura defeated Esipenko to finish a 4 6 run in the round robin stage guaranteeing him at least second place and qualifying him for the Candidates Tournament 2022 140 On March 31 after a draw in the semi finals against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov he secured first place in the Grand Prix standings thus winning the Grand Prix 2022 series 141 He would eventually proceed to defeat Mamedyarov by drawing in classical and proceeding to rapid tiebreakers where he won the tiebreakers in a 2 0 sweep 142 This briefly propelled Nakamura to the highest live rapid chess rating on April 1 surpassing Magnus Carlsen 143 though Carlsen regained his number one spot after Nakamura lost to Wesley So on tiebreakers in the finals of the third leg of the Grand Prix 144 145 From June 16 to July 4 Nakamura participated in the 2022 Candidates Tournament finishing in fourth place with a score of 7 14 146 On June 14 Nakamura joined Misfits Gaming Group as a content creator and influencer 147 Hans Niemann filed a 100 million lawsuit against Nakamura and others on October 20 See Carlsen Niemann controversy Later in October Nakamura won the second World Fischer Random Chess Championship ahead of reigning World Fischer Random Champion Wesley So World Classical Champion Magnus Carlsen World Rapid Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov and runner up World Chess Championship 2021 contender Ian Nepomniachtchi defeating the latter in armageddon 148 In December Nakamura won his fifth straight Speed Chess Championship defeating Magnus Carlsen 14 5 v 13 5 in the final 149 On December 30 Nakamura finished as the runner up in the World Blitz Chess Championship 2022 with a score of 15 21 behind Magnus Carlsen 150 Playing style EditNakamura is particularly skilled at rapid and blitz chess a variety of time controls in which players have less than an hour to complete all or most of their moves As of October 2022 update Nakamura is ranked No 1 on the FIDE blitz list 151 and was previously ranked No 1 on the rapid list 152 He is also strong at bullet chess a time control giving the players one minute each 153 In 2009 Nakamura authored the book Bullet Chess One Minute to Mate 154 Nakamura said in September 2020 At least at blitz chess I m probably the best or second best player ever in the entire history at least online 155 Nakamura has been nicknamed The H Bomb because of his explosive style of playing 156 Nakamura s long time second is USCF National Master Kris Littlejohn 157 who works with chess engines to prepare lines for Nakamura to play 158 Chess records EditNakamura has set several youngest ever records in U S chess history including 159 Youngest to defeat an International Master in a USCF rated game 10 years 0 months later surpassed by Praveen Balakrishnan at 9 years 29 days and then by Awonder Liang at 8 years 118 days Youngest to defeat a Grandmaster in a USCF rated game 10 years 117 days later surpassed by Fabiano Caruana at 10 years 61 days then surpassed by Awonder Liang at 9 years 112 days Youngest International Master 13 years 2 months later surpassed by Ray Robson at 13 years 1 month by Samuel Sevian at 12 years 10 months and then by Awonder Liang at 12 years 7 months and 6 days old 160 Internet activity EditNakamura has played on the Internet Chess Club as Capilanobridge formerly as Smallville and Playchess as Star Wars He served as a commentator and game annotator on the ChessNinja website operated by chess author Mig Greengard Nakamura is sponsored by Chess com a chess website 161 In 2018 Nakamura began streaming on the platform Twitch under the name GMHikaru He plays speed chess games variously against grandmasters other streamers and viewers who pay to subscribe to his channel 155 162 163 He may play blindfolded or with piece handicaps such as odds of a queen 163 He also reviews his tournament games on stream 164 165 In 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic chess became significantly more popular on Twitch with Nakamura widely identified as a significant reason for this 155 163 161 165 His channel received a tenfold increase in audience size between February and June 2020 162 Around August 2020 Nakamura averaged 14 000 viewers and streamed on Twitch on most days 166 By September 2020 he had reached 500 000 followers 155 Nakamura often plays games using joke openings while on stream including the Bongcloud Attack the Jerome Gambit and the Botez Gambit 167 Nakamura has stated that he prioritizes his streaming career over his chess playing career 168 On August 27 2020 Nakamura signed with the esports organization Team SoloMid TSM for a six figure sum making him one of the first chess players to join an esports team 161 155 He operates a Discord server named Naka s PogUniversity and has a Twitter account 155 161 Nakamura also has a YouTube channel which had over 1 24M subscribers as of March 2022 update 169 up from 78 000 subscribers in the beginning of 2020 170 When asked about his popularity online Nakamura attributed it to the ability to play extremely high level chess while seemingly not focused on the game and conversing with his viewers 155 Nathan Grayson of Kotaku called it a combination of teacherly wisdom galaxy brained skills and uncommon expressiveness 165 Nakamura has also coached beginner chess players on his Twitch platform including the streamer xQc 165 He gave lessons to players in PogChamps an amateur tournament for Twitch streamers hosted by Chess com and its sequel PogChamps 2 He additionally provided commentary 171 At its peak the tournament was the most watched channel on Twitch for a short period with 63 000 viewers 155 Nakamura told Kotaku that though the competition had been met with some criticism he believed that such tournaments with varying levels of skills among players could become popular 165 On February 14 2021 PogChamps 3 began During the xQc vs Rubius match on the second day of the event chess hit its all time high of 115 000 viewers in the chess category on Twitch On February 14 2021 Nakamura reached a milestone of one million followers on his Twitch channel GMHikaru 172 During the FIDE Grand Prix in March 2022 Twitch suspended Nakamura for three days later reduced to two days after he broadcast and commented on chess games being played by Dr Disrespect who is permanently suspended from the streaming platform 173 Other activities EditNakamura appeared as himself in season 5 episode 2 of the Showtime series Billions which premiered May 10 2020 174 Nakamura is also an active stock market investor In April 2017 he appeared on Bloomberg Television to discuss the relationship between chess and stock trading 175 During his chess streams Nakamura occasionally discusses stock market investing and general financial topics 176 Notable games EditThis section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves Nakamura vs Boris Gelfand World Team Championship 2010 King s Indian Defense Orthodox Variation E97 0 1 Nakamura leaves his queen able to be captured four times in this win Nakamura vs Michal Krasenkow Casino de Barcelona 2007 English Opening Agincourt Defense A14 0 1 Nakamura sacrifices his queen to chase Krasenkow s king up the board The following game is Nakamura Igor Novikov played in the 29th New York Masters 2002 Nakamura s annotations are given along with the text 177 abcdefgh8 877665544332211abcdefghPosition after 34 Kd8 Typical of Nakamura s complicated and tactical style Nakamura age 15 at the time finds a tactic to win some material and the game 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3 e6 7 f3 b5 8 Qd2 Nbd7 9 g4 Nb6 10 0 0 0 Bb7 11 Nb3 Rc8 12 Na5 Ba8 13 a4 This rare line has only been played two times both games were draws 13 g5 Nfd7 14 a4 b4 15 Na2 Nxa4 16 Bxa6 Qxa5 17 Bxc8 Ndb6 Perez Novikov Aosta Open Italy 2002 13 Nc4 13 d5 14 g5 Nfd7 15 exd5 Bxd5 16 axb5 Bb4 17 Nc6 Bxc6 18 bxc6 Rxc6 19 Bxb6 Rxb6 20 Qd4 0 0 21 Na4 Rb8 22 Qxd7 Qxg5 23 f4 Qxf4 24 Kb1 Andreev Voitsekhovsky 2000 14 Nxc4 bxc4 15 Qd4 Qc7 16 g5 Nd7 17 f4 17 h4 e5 18 Qa7 Qxa7 19 Bxa7 h6 20 Bh3 De la Villa Garcia Suba Benasque Open 1995 17 h6 18 g6 The idea behind sacrificing the pawn is to weaken the e6 and g6 pawns and force Black to move his king to f7 18 gxh6 Rxh6 19 f5 Rh7 19 Rh4 20 fxe6 fxe6 21 Bf2 Rh7 22 Bg3 20 fxe6 18 fxg6 Novikov accepts the challenge Perhaps f5 was better because once he takes on g6 his pieces get tied down and Black ends up with a very passive position 18 f5 19 Bg2 Nf6 19 Rg1 Kf7 19 e5 20 Qd2 g5 20 exf4 21 Bxf4 Qb6 22 Rxg6 Rb8 23 b3 cxb3 24 Re6 Kf7 25 Bc4 20 Qb7 21 Qd5 Qxd5 22 Nxd5 21 fxg5 hxg5 22 Nd5 20 f5 gxf5 20 exf5 21 exf5 gxf5 22 Bh3 21 exf5 e5 22 Qh4 Missing a chance to get a winning position 22 Qg4 Nf6 23 Qg6 Ke7 24 Bg2 22 Nf6 23 Be2 Ke8 24 Rg6 Qf7 25 Qg3 Rb8 26 a5 Bc6 27 Bb6 h5 This is the only move which makes any sense here but it allows White to win the exchange Maybe Novikov felt like giving up the exchange to get some counterplay because if he does not play h5 White has all the play 28 Qh4 d5 29 Qg3 Qe7 30 Bd4 Rxb2 31 Kxb2 exd4 32 Rxd4 Qa3 33 Kb1 Bd6 33 Qb4 34 Kc1 Bd6 After the game when I analyzed with Novikov he suggested this line I did not find anything which was winning for White and I think that Black is at least even in this position if not better 34 Qe3 Kd8 see diagram 35 Nxd5 Clearly Novikov did not see this brilliant tactical shot as he used up most of his time trying to come up with a good move In the end he had to settle for a losing endgame down an exchange 35 Qxe3 35 Bxd5 36 Qxa3 Bxa3 37 Bxc4 Bc5 38 Rd3 35 Qxa5 36 Nxf6 Qe1 37 Qc1 35 Nxd5 36 Qxa3 Bxa3 37 Rxc6 36 Nxe3 Kc7 37 Rxg7 Nd7 38 Nxc4 Rb8 39 Nb6 Re8 40 Bf3 Re1 41 Ka2 Ra1 Desperation 42 Kxa1 Be5 43 c3 Bxg7 44 Bxc6 Bxd4 45 cxd4 1 0 45 cxd4 Kxc6 46 d5 Kd6 47 Nxd7 Kxd7 48 f6 Awards and nominations EditYear Ceremony Category Result Ref 2022 The Streamer Awards Best Chess Streamer Nominated 178 References Edit a b About GMHikaru YouTube Memorandum in Support of Defendant Christopher Hikaru Nakamura s Motion to Dismiss United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri December 7 2022 FIDE Publishes Rapid and Blitz Rating Lists Nakamura Heads Both Chess News Retrieved June 14 2014 FIDE rating list comparison FIDE Publishes Rapid and Blitz Rating Lists Nakamura Heads Both Chess News Retrieved June 14 2014 a b Hikaru Nakamura wins fourth straight Speed Chess Championship Chess News December 21 2021 Retrieved December 21 2021 Jeff Pearlman December 17 2001 Only 14 Hikaru Nakamura is the best young U S player 12 17 01 SI Vault Sportsillustrated cnn com Retrieved February 2 2014 https www myheritage dk names carolyn nakamura bare URL a b c West Debra April 11 1998 Pawns With King Size Dreams Boy 10 Is Youngest Master Vaulting Past His Brother The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved June 30 2020 Kelsey Whipple July 21 2011 Hikaru Nakamura is the next Bobby Fischer and the reason St Louis is suddenly the epicenter of American chess News St Louis Riverfront Times Retrieved February 2 2014 Leland John March 17 2016 The New York Gambit The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved June 30 2020 Hikaru Nakamura vs Jay R Bonin Chessgames com Retrieved July 29 2020 Bishara Motez August 24 2015 Checkmate Forty Questions with Hikaru Nakamura CNN Retrieved June 30 2020 Chess Champ Hikaru Nakamura Next Bobby Fischer NPR org May 11 2012 Retrieved June 30 2020 World Open 2002 Standings Open Section CCA Chess Tournaments chessevents com Retrieved April 17 2021 30th annual WORLD OPEN www chesstour com Retrieved April 18 2021 Corus GM Group B April 2004 Netherlands FIDE Retrieved October 13 2011 The Web Novice 2005 Samford Chess Fellow Chessdryad com Retrieved November 14 2011 Karjakin Nakamura Match 2004 Chessgames com Retrieved November 14 2011 World Chess Cup 2005 Results FIDE Retrieved October 13 2011 McClain Dylan Loeb January 7 2007 After a Detour Nakamura 19 Is Back to His Winning Ways The New York Times Retrieved September 20 2020 Crowther Mark January 22 2007 TWIC 637 North American Open London Chess Center Retrieved December 31 2009 Akopian wins GibTel Masters in Gibraltar Retrieved April 9 2007 2008 Gibtelecom Chess Festival Archived from the original on January 10 2017 Retrieved February 1 2008 Nakamura wins the Magistral D Escacs Retrieved October 27 2007 Nakamura wins the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament Retrieved November 3 2007 Chessvine Article GM Hikaru Nakamura wins the Finet Chess960 Open Mainz Archived October 6 2008 at the Wayback Machine Hikaru Nakamura wins Cap d Agde Retrieved November 2 2008 Peter Svidler wins the 7th Gibtelecom tournament in Gibraltar ChessBase February 6 2009 Retrieved March 29 2011 Hikaru Nakamura wins 2009 U S Chess Championship Saint Louis Chess Club May 17 2009 Retrieved November 14 2011 Ponomariov catches Nakamura loses tiebreak Chessbase com July 17 2009 Retrieved November 14 2011 Oslo Blitz Nakamura beats Carlsen in final Chessbase com November 29 2009 Retrieved November 14 2011 Blog BN Bank Blitz Recap Hikarunakamura com Archived from the original on October 2 2011 Retrieved November 14 2011 London Chess Classic 2009 Londonchessclassic com Retrieved November 14 2011 Mark Crowther Sunday January 10 2010 January 10 2010 Nakamura Brilliancy Beats Gelfand Chess co uk Retrieved November 14 2011 Mig on January 13 2010 15 38 Russia Tames World Teams Chessninja com Retrieved November 14 2011 Hikaru Nakamura vs Yury Shulman 2010 Nakam Out Chessgames com Retrieved November 14 2011 5th Tal Memorial Round 2 Nakamura and Gelfand win Chessbase com November 6 2010 Retrieved November 14 2011 Live Top List Provisional World Chess Rankings Chess liverating org August 17 2011 Archived from the original on October 4 2011 Retrieved November 14 2011 mishanp on December 9 2010 December 9 2010 Shipov s live commentary on the London Classic Rd 1 Chessintranslation com Retrieved November 14 2011 Aronian wins World Blitz Championship Chessbase Published 18 November 2010 London Chess Classic Carlsen wins after incredible comeback Chessbase com December 16 2010 Retrieved November 14 2011 Peterson Macauley The Spirit of Saint Louis New in Chess Magazine 2001 07 p 12 Chessvibes Mark Crowther Saturday January 29 2011 January 29 2011 Nakamura half point lead over Anand could have been more Chess co uk Archived from the original on October 12 2012 Retrieved November 14 2011 Tata Steel Rd 12 Test of mettle tomorrow Chessbase com January 29 2011 Retrieved November 14 2011 Mark Crowther Sunday January 30 2011 January 30 2011 Nakamura wins Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee Chess co uk Archived from the original on October 12 2012 Retrieved November 14 2011 Hikaru Nakamura wins 2011 Tata Steel Chess Tournament ChessVibes January 30 2011 Archived from the original on November 27 2011 Retrieved November 14 2011 Tata Steel Nakamura wins first Super GM event Chessbase com January 30 2011 Retrieved November 14 2011 Loeb Dylan January 30 2011 The New York Times Chess Blog Nakamura Wins Tata Steel Chess Tournament Gambit blogs nytimes com Retrieved November 14 2011 Hikaru Nakamura in Memphis An Interview with the Man with a Key to the City Main uschess org February 28 2011 Retrieved November 14 2011 Bazna Kings Tournament Website Turneulregilor com Retrieved November 14 2011 Mark Crowther Sunday July 31 2011 July 31 2011 39th Dortmund Chess Meeting 2011 The Week In Chess Chess co uk Archived from the original on October 12 2012 Retrieved November 14 2011 Dortmund 2011 ChessGames com Retrieved October 13 2011 Blog More News Hikarunakamura com Archived from the original on November 3 2011 Retrieved November 14 2011 Standings Tata Steel Chess tatasteelchess com Retrieved August 31 2012 2012 U S Championships uschesschamps com Retrieved August 31 2012 Tal Memorial 2012 ChessGames com Retrieved August 31 2012 Biel International Chess Festival Grandmaster Tournament bielchessfestival ch Archived from the original on July 20 2011 Retrieved August 31 2012 40th Olympiad Istanbul 2012 Open tournament Archived from the original on October 5 2012 Retrieved October 3 2012 Gelfand Mamedyarov and Topalov share win at London Grand Prix Retrieved October 3 2012 Unive Hoogeveen Nakamura wins with 2855 performance October 28 2012 Retrieved October 31 2012 LCC R9 Carlsen first Kramnik second both with big wins December 10 2012 Retrieved December 22 2012 Aronian and Hou Yifan win blindfold in Beijing December 20 2012 Retrieved December 22 2012 Final Ranking Crosstables Grand Slam Chess Association Retrieved December 5 2011 Tweet of Hikaru Nakamura Twitter Retrieved December 5 2011 Chess Wins As Nakamura Goes All In WhyChess Archived from the original on December 17 2011 Retrieved December 5 2011 Now it s official Kasparov is training Nakamura Chessbase November 2011 Retrieved December 5 2011 75th Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee 2013 Retrieved October 1 2013 FIDE Grand Prix Zug 2013 Retrieved October 1 2013 Norway Chess Super Tournament 2013 Retrieved October 1 2013 FIDE Grand Prix Thessaloniki Retrieved October 1 2013 Gelfand wins 8th Tal Memorial Retrieved October 1 2013 World Cup R4 Korobov eliminates Nakamura Retrieved October 27 2013 Carlsen heads for date with destiny after winning Sinquefield Cup Retrieved October 1 2013 Grand Prix R11 all games drawn Caruana amp Gelfand share victory Archived from the original on October 4 2013 Retrieved October 8 2013 29th European Club Cup 2013 Archived from the original on October 27 2013 Retrieved October 27 2013 ECC SOCAR still perfect amazing KID fight Svidler Nakamura Retrieved October 27 2013 FIDE World Team Chess Championship 2013 Antalya Turkey Final Ranking Retrieved December 9 2013 The Closing Ceremony Retrieved December 9 2013 Hikaru Nakamura winner of the 2013 London Chess Classic Super 16 Retrieved December 15 2013 76th Tata Steel Tournament 2014 Retrieved June 14 2014 Zurich 03 Freak Occurrence Chess News February 1 2014 Magnus Carlsen wins Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 Archived from the original on September 22 2014 Retrieved June 14 2014 Magnus Carlsen wins the Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2014 Retrieved June 14 2014 Nakamura Beats Navara 3 5 0 5 in Prague Retrieved June 14 2014 Ramirez Alejandro November 27 2014 Showdown in Saint Louis goes to Nakamura ChessBase News Retrieved December 7 2014 The 2015 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival Masters Chess results Retrieved February 17 2015 results amp games www zurich cc com Top 100 Players March 2015 FIDE Top players archive ratings fide com McGourty Colin April 13 2015 Nakamura and Krush are 2015 US Champions Chess24 com Khanty Mansiysk GP Recap Chess News May 28 2015 Norway Rd9 Topalov wins event Carlsen loses Chess News June 25 2015 Top 100 Player July 2015 FIDE Nakamura takes his third Gibraltar chess title after thrilling sudden death play off Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation February 4 2016 Retrieved February 4 2016 Ramirez Alejandro February 15 2016 2016 Nakamura does it again Chessbase Retrieved February 20 2016 FIDE Candidates Tournament 2016 Chess com Retrieved April 29 2021 New in Chess 2016 7 Carlsen beats Nakamura wins Speed Chess Championship Chess com 4 January 2018 Retrieved 20 February 2018 Day 5 Decisions emotions conclusions Archived February 21 2018 at the Wayback Machine frchess com 15 February 2018 Retrieved 20 February 2018 Doggers Peter June 7 2018 Caruana Wins Norway Chess Chess com Nakamura Wins St Louis Rapid And Blitz Holding Off Vachier Lagrave Mamedyarov chess com August 15 2018 Retrieved September 16 2018 Doggers Peter November 11 2018 Nakamura Wins Tata Steel Chess India Rapid Chess com Vishwanathan Anand seals Tata Steel Chess India Blitz title in style PTI November 14 2018 Doggers Peter November 14 2018 Anand Wins Tata Steel Chess India Blitz chess com Fischer Johannes December 14 2018 London Classic Nakamura and Vachier Lagrave advance to Final Chessbase com Retrieved December 18 2018 Vachier Lagrave qualified to the finals and the remaining two games served to entertain the spectators The players traded points leaving the final tally in the match at 18 10 the same as the score between Nakamura and Caruana a b Pereira Antonio December 17 2018 Nakamura deservedly wins the 2018 Grand Chess Tour Chess News Retrieved December 18 2018 Klein Mike April 1 2019 Nakamura Wins fifth U S Championship Chess com Bullet Chess Championship All The Info Chess com Results and Standings Grand Chess Tour grandchesstour org Parodi Alessandro May 13 2019 Carlsen Wins Cote d Ivoire Rapid amp Blitz Chess com Doggers Peter May 24 2019 Grischuk Knocks Nakamura Out Of FIDE Grand Prix Chess com 2019 Champions Showdown Chess 9LX www uschesschamps com www uschesschamps com Champions Showdown Chess 960 2019 ChessBomb RECAP DAY 4 CHAMPIONS SHOWDOWN CHESS 9LX www uschesschamps com www uschesschamps com The Grandmaster Who Got Twitch Hooked on Chess Wired The 1M Magnus Carlsen Tour A New Era for Chess Chess24 com Magnus Carlsen triumphs at Magnus Carlsen Tour Final Chessbase Carlsen and Nakamura Tie For 1st in the Champions Chess 960 Showdown Chess Daily News St Louis Rapid amp Blitz Carlsen and So share first place Chessbase Nakamura Just Won t Stop Winning Titled Tuesday Chess com Nakamura Wins Super Swiss Fedoseev Qualifies For Speed Chess Championship Chess com Chess Wesley So wins US title unbeaten as Hikaru Nakamura s run ends tamely The Guardian 77 board simul Nakamura s Twitter Hikaru Nakamura challenges President Barack Obama to a game of chess Dot Esports Nakamura Wins 2020 Speed Chess Championship Final Presented By OnJuno Chess com CARE with Team Hikaru CAREwithTeamHikaru Team Hikaru raises 355 000 for CARE ChessTech Opera Euro Rapid 3 Carlsen top as Nakamura crashes out Chess24 com 2021 Magnus Carlsen Invitational Carlsen Giri Nepomniachtchi So In Semifinals Chess com Watson Leon October 4 2021 Final curtain falls on 2021 Tour with Radjabov sealing second chess24 com Retrieved March 19 2022 Live Results Grand Chess Tour Saint Louis Rapid amp Blitz 2021 Chess com Retrieved August 15 2021 Copeland SamCopeland Sam Nakamura Wins 2021 Speed Chess Championship Final With Double Digit Dominance Chess com Retrieved December 20 2021 Team CHESScom Chess com 2021 Speed Chess Championship Main Event All The Information Chess com Retrieved December 20 2021 FIDE World Rapid Championship 2021 Hikaru Nakamura is covid positive at the 2021 World Blitz Championship worldchess com Retrieved December 30 2021 Nakamura Is an Active Player Again According to FIDE Rules worldchess com Retrieved March 19 2022 Hikaru Nakamura is the winner of the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 worldchess com Retrieved February 17 2022 Rodgers Jack March 18 2022 Bullet Chess Championship Nakamura Wins Title Tang Runner Up chess com Retrieved March 19 2022 Hansen Carsten BREAKING Nakamura Rapport Qualify For FIDE Candidates chess com Chess com Retrieved March 28 2022 McGourty Colin March 31 2022 Nakamura wins Grand Prix Both semis go to tiebreaks Chess24 Retrieved April 1 2022 Hansen chansen64 Carsten Nakamura So To Meet In Final 2022 FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Leg 3 Semifinals Tiebreaks Chess com Retrieved April 2 2022 Nakamura overtakes Carlsen as rapid no 1 chess24 com Retrieved April 2 2022 Kelemen Luci April 4 2022 Wesley So wins third leg of FIDE Grand Prix 2022 over Nakamura Dot Esports Retrieved April 5 2022 Rapid Chess Ratings 2700chess com Retrieved April 5 2022 Crosstable FIDE July 4 2022 Retrieved July 5 2022 Hikaru Nakamura Signs with Misfits Gaming Group Misfits Gaming June 14 2022 Retrieved June 14 2022 Hikaru Nakamura wins world fischer random championship chess24 com October 30 2022 Retrieved October 30 2022 Speed Chess Championship Main Event 2022 Results Chess com Chess Magnus Carlsen captures double world crown in Rapid and Blitz the Guardian December 30 2022 Retrieved December 31 2022 FIDE Online FIDE Top players Blitz Top 100 Players October 2022 ratings fide com FIDE Online FIDE Top players Blitz Top 100 Players August 2022 ratings fide com Barden Leonard August 21 2020 Chess Carlsen fights back from brink to overcome Nakamura in 38 game epic The Guardian Retrieved September 20 2020 Scimia Edward Review Bullet Chess by Nakamura and Harper About com Retrieved April 19 2015 a b c d e f g h Browning Kellen September 7 2020 Chess Yes Chess Is Now a Streaming Obsession The New York Times Retrieved September 20 2020 The H Bomb explodes www telegraph co uk Archived from the original on January 12 2022 US Chess MSA Member Details General www uschess org Retrieved October 31 2022 McClain Dylan Loeb February 5 2011 Chess Hikaru Nakamura Wins Tata Steel Tournament The New York Times Retrieved October 29 2017 The Nakamura Brothers Chess com Retrieved November 14 2011 Silver Albert December 2 2015 Awonder Liang is youngest ever IM in US ChessBase Retrieved December 3 2015 a b c d Esports giant TSM signs Hikaru Nakamura its first pro chess player www theverge com August 27 2020 Retrieved August 30 2020 a b A nine year old aims to be the youngest chess grandmaster ever The Economist June 5 2020 Retrieved September 20 2020 a b c This grand master started a chess revolution on Twitch Fast Company Video September 10 2020 Retrieved September 20 2020 Streaming Platform Twitch Helps To Spread Interest In Chess NPR September 7 2020 Retrieved September 20 2020 a b c d e Grayson Nathan September 14 2020 Chess Is An Esport According To Twitch Star And Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura Kotaku Retrieved September 20 2020 GMHikaru TwitchTracker Retrieved December 18 2020 Linville Ray Be Like Nakamura Know When To Play The Bongcloud In Chess Chess com Retrieved October 28 2020 Kelemen Luci August 29 2022 Hikaru Nakamura Online chess as an esport is here to stay Dot Esports Retrieved September 1 2022 GMHikaru YouTube www youtube com Retrieved April 1 2021 GMHikaru s YouTube Stats Summary Profile socialblade com Retrieved December 20 2020 Chess com Launches PogChamps With Top Twitch Streamers Chess com Retrieved August 6 2020 GMHikaru Streamer Overview TwitchTracker February 14 2021 Retrieved February 17 2021 GMHikaru unbanned a day early after sudden Twitch ban for Dr Disrespect clip Dexerto com March 24 2022 Retrieved April 11 2022 Doggers Peter Hikaru Nakamura Stars In TV Series Billions chess com Retrieved May 11 2020 The Link Between Chess and Options Trading Bloomberg Retrieved April 11 2022 GME Hikaru Predicts Stocks and Chess YouTube Retrieved April 11 2022 Nakamura Hikaru 112 Nakamura H 2571 Novikov I 2719 B80 29th New York Masters New York 4 15 10 2002 Nakamura H newyorkmasters com Miceli Max February 22 2022 All nominees for QTCinderella s Streamer Awards Dot Esports GAMURS Group External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hikaru Nakamura Official website Hikaru Nakamura rating card at FIDE Hikaru Nakamura rating and tournament record at US Chess Federation Hikaru Nakamura player profile and games at Chessgames com Hikaru Nakamura chess games at 365Chess com Hikaru Nakamura player profile at Chess com Hikaru Nakamura member profile at the Internet Chess Club Hikaru Nakamura s Live Chess Rating StatisticsAchievementsPreceded byAlexander Shabalov United States Chess Champion2005 Succeeded byAlexander OnischukPreceded byYury Shulman United States Chess Champion2009 Succeeded byGata KamskyPreceded byGata Kamsky United States Chess Champion2012 Succeeded byGata KamskyPreceded byGata Kamsky United States Chess Champion2015 Succeeded byFabiano CaruanaPreceded bySamuel Shankland United States Chess Champion2019 Succeeded byWesley SoPreceded byVinay Bhat Youngest ever United States chess master1998 2008 Succeeded byNicholas NipPreceded byVinay Bhat Youngest ever United States international master2001 2007 Succeeded byRay RobsonPreceded byBobby Fischer Youngest ever United States grandmaster2003 2007 Succeeded byRay Robson Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hikaru Nakamura amp oldid 1133362603, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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