December 9, 1987, saw the birth of Hikaru Nakamura in Hirakata, Japan. As a chess player, the Stars and Stripes are the only national flag he has ever known as his family relocated to the US when he was just two years old.
For much more than ten years, Nakamura has been among the best players in the world. For an important part of that time, he was the best player in America, and he still plays a major role in one of the world’s top chess scenes.
Five U.S. championships have been won by him: in 2005, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2019. Furthermore, Nakamura competed in the FIDE World Championship in 2004. He also registered for a third world championship in 2024 and was a candidate for the title in 2016 and 2022. In 2022, he won the Fischer Random World Championship as well.
Career Up to 2009
In 1998, Nakamura won the status of national master (USCF), followed by international master (2001) and grandmaster (2003). He was the youngest American grandmaster since Fischer at the time.
He played in his first U.S. Championship match in 2003, finishing with a score of +3 -1 =5. GM Alexander Shabalov took first place in the match. Nakamura participated in the Corus tournament in January 2004 and placed fourth with a plus score, which helped him pass the 2600 rating barrier in June. He made his debut in the world’s top 100 in October.
In the 2004 FIDE knockout event, which determined the winner, he scored 2600. Nakamura, ranked 83rd, advanced to the round of 16 by beating GMs Sergei Volkov, Aleksej Aleksandrov, and Alexander Lastin, all of whom were rated higher than him. He lost that round to Michael Adams, the eventual finalist and third seed in the tournament with a 150-point rating advantage.
With a +5 -0 =4 score in 2005, Nakamura and General Manager Alexander Stripunsky won their first U.S. title together out of a 64-player competition. Although American chess was not at its height in 2005, there was still competition among the top players, chief among them GM Gata Kamsky. Furthermore, Nakamura was still far from a finished product at the age of 17.
2009 saw Nakamura win his second U.S. Championship against similar competition that included Kamsky. The year before, in October 2008, he had become a member of the 2700 rating club.
In terms of Nakamura’s career, his 2011 performance at Wijk aan Zed might have been his greatest accomplishment to date. With a +6 -1 =6 score, he beat a group of world champions from the past, present, and future, including Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, and Viswanathan Anand. Nakamura’s performance against the top four rated players in the world going into the event was predictable given that they only managed two draws and a loss. However, Nakamura beat the rest of the field, winning 33 moves to none against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. During the event, Nakamura’s ranking increased by 23 points, from 2751 to 2774.
Given the circumstances, Nakamura’s joint first-place result at Khanty-Mansiysk in May 2015 (achieved with a score of +2 -0 =9) is also a candidate for his best-ever tournament. Nakamura needed to place second overall to win a spot in the 2016 Candidates Tournament, and it was the last event of the 2014–15 FIDE Grand Prix.
After years of playing with the mark, Nakamura finally reached the coveted 2800 rating on the June 2015 FIDE rating list with 2802 after his performance at Khanty-Mansiysk. His rating on the October 2015 list would be 2816, its highest point. At that point, Carlsen was the only player in the world with a higher standard rating.
Nakamura at Khanty-Mansiysk in 2015. Photo: Kirill Merkurev.
Nakamura defeated Kamsky by a full point to win his third U.S. championship in 2012. After missing the tournament in 2013 and 2014, Nakamura made a comeback in 2015, winning it once more in Wesley So’s first participation (albeit So was forced to forfeit the event). When GM Fabiano Caruana entered the match in 2016, he beat Nakamura and So by a full point.
2016
In March of the following year, Nakamura played in the second-most crucial game of the Candidates tournament, however, he only finished 1½ points behind GM Sergei Karjakin with a score of +3 -3 = 8. (Nakamura and Karjakin have been acquainted as chess players for quite a bit of time. They engaged in a match in 2004, which the Americans won handily.)
After going +1 -2 = 4 in the first half of the tournament and losing the opening game of the second half against Caruana, Nakamura was eliminated from the competition early on. Anand and GM Veselin Topalov, whom Nakamura beat in both games, were the only opponents he defeated late to tie the score with three other players for fourth place.
Nakamura facing Topalov at the 2016 Candidates. Photo by Lennart Ootes.
Nakamura played the United States at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, which took place in September of that same year. Kramnik was the only second-stage player with a higher rating going into the Olympiad. In the competition, Nakamura scored +5 -1 = 5 to help the United States win for the first time since 1976.
From 2017 to the Present
Ever since So and Caruana started competing in the U.S. championship in 2015 and 2016, it has been an extremely tough event. With Leinier Dominguez Perez’s recent entry into the picture, it has only become stronger, possibly making Nakamura’s 2019 victory his most remarkable U.S. title to date. In the final round, Nakamura won with the black pieces against Jeffery Xiong using the Dutch Defence, while Caruana and Dominguez were only able to draw. Nakamura defeated Caruana and Dominguez by a half-point each thanks to his +5 -0 =6 score.
Because the Grand Chess Tour is ruled by quick-witted events, Nakamura’s victory there in 2018 also played to his strength. His wins in St. Louis in August and Paris in June allowed him to get into the London Chess Classic four-player finals. There, he won the whole tournament by beating Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave.
Nakamura sadly missed the 2018 Candidates Tournament due to elimination at the hands of GM Vladimir Fedoseev in the third round of the 2017 Chess World Cup and his seventh-place result in the FIDE Grand Prix 201.
Rapid and powerful
Nakamura is a fantastic player under regular time controls, but his brilliance grows in quick and blitz play. With a 2900 FIDE blitz rating, he is the highest-rated blitz player in the world as of August 2020. With a 2836 rating, he is the fourth-best rapid player. Not only did he win the 2018 Grand Chess Tour’s Paris and St. Louis legs, but he also placed third in the World Blitz Chess Championships in 2014 and 2018.
Nakamura beat an impressive competition that included GMs Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian, Alireza Firouzja, Karjakin, Olaxandr Bortnyk, and Francisco Perez Ponsa to win the Chess Bullet Championship in April 2019.
Current and Prospective
In 2020, Nakamura became a major player in chess broadcast. In virtually every objective area, his Twitch channel has been the most-watched chess feed ever since it went viral. In August 2020, Nakamura’s channel gained over 500,000 followers, and he played a significant role in one of the biggest chess tournaments ever, PogChamps. Throughout the competition, Nakamura served as a coach and expert, and he will do so with the upcoming PogChamps.
Nakamura will continue to commentate and coach in the next PogChamps.
In 2020, Nakamura played extremely well at the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. After fighting in a long match against the winner, GM Daniil Dubov, who won in the end game, he came in second place in the Lindores Abbey tournament.
In addition, he placed second in the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals. He won most of the final match against Carlsen and overcame Dubov 3-0 in the semifinals. Everything hinged on Carlsen’s victory in the disaster game, which he held to a draw on the seventh and final day of the match.
Nakamura became the first professional chess player to sign with a games company when he signed with TSM, a professional games team based in the United States, on August 27, 2020. On June 14, 2022, he signed with Misfits Gaming after serving as TSM’s agent until June 1, 2022.
Chess had a great year in 2020, and Nakamura was largely responsible for it. Through his Twitch show, he has taught chess to an uncountable number of people worldwide. Nakamura is still a top-tier player and a great representative of the sport.
Nakamura won the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in 2022, his first classical over-the-board event in more than two years. This was an important step towards perhaps competing for the world championship again. In doing so, he qualified and played in the semifinals of the third Grand Prix leg. Nakamura finished the 2022 Candidates with a solid showing, tying for third place.
After overcoming GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the championship match and GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the semifinals, Nakamura became champion in the 2022 Fischer Random World Championship.
Nakamura’s 2022–2023 classical chess recovery extended into 2023. He beat Caruana on demand in the final round of the June Norway Chess tournament, and it was his first time back in the top two rankings since 2015. In July 2023, he won the Bullet Chess Championship for the fourth time in five attempts. Then, in November, he secured a second straight Candidate for the Bert platform after placing second in the FIDE Grand Swiss.