107 Facts About Hikaru Nakamura

Christopher Hikaru Nakamura was born on December 9,1987 and is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, Five-time US Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion.

Hikaru Nakamura has represented the United States at seven Chess Olympiads, securing a team gold medal and two team bronze medals, and participated in three Candidates Tournaments, finishing second in 2024 edition, fourth in 2022 edition, and seventh in the 2016 edition.

In May 2014, when FIDE began publishing official rapid and blitz chess ratings, Hikaru Nakamura ranked No 1 in the world on both lists; he has remained at or near the No 1 rank in rapid and blitz ever since.

Since 2018, Hikaru Nakamura has pursued a career as a content creator and subsequently signed with an esports organization TSM, later joining Misfits Gaming and then Team Falcons.

Hikaru Nakamura began playing chess at the age of seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan-born stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry.

Also at age 10, Hikaru 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.

In 2003, at age 15 years and 79 days, Hikaru 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.

In July 2002, Hikaru Nakamura achieved 56th place at the 30th annual World Open tournament in Philadelphia.

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

Hikaru Nakamura won the 2005 US Chess Championship, scoring seven points over nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alexander Stripunsky for first place.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in two straight rapid playoff games to claim the title and become the youngest national champion since Fischer.

Hikaru Nakamura finished the tournament without a loss and, in the seventh round, defeated grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, then the nation's top-ranked player.

In November and December 2005, Hikaru Nakamura competed in the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, seeded 28th but failed to advance beyond the first round.

Hikaru Nakamura lost each of his two games to Indian grandmaster Surya Ganguly.

In 2006, Hikaru 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.

In January 2007, Hikaru Nakamura shared second place at the GibTelecom Masters in Gibraltar.

Hikaru Nakamura 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.

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

Hikaru Nakamura won the 2008 Finet Chess960 Open in Mainz, Germany.

In November 2009, Hikaru Nakamura participated in the BNbank blitz tournament in Oslo, Norway.

Hikaru Nakamura reached the final by winning all 12 of his games.

Hikaru Nakamura skipped the Chess World Cup 2009 in favor of the London Chess Classic in December 2009.

Hikaru Nakamura began 2010 playing first board for the United States at the World Team Chess Championship held in Bursa, Turkey.

Hikaru Nakamura's 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 US to a second-place finish behind Russia.

Hikaru Nakamura participated in the Corus Chess Tournament 2010 in Wijk aan Zee.

In May, Hikaru Nakamura participated in the 2010 United States Chess Championship in Saint Louis, Missouri, attempting to defend his 2009 title.

In December 2010, Hikaru Nakamura finished fourth in the London Chess Classic, among a field including Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell, and Luke McShane.

Hikaru Nakamura's performance ensured that he would officially join the world top ten in January 2011.

The win guaranteed that Hikaru Nakamura would join Carlsen as qualifiers for Grand Slam Masters Final 2011 in September 2011.

The victory opened the door for Hikaru Nakamura to receive invitations from other super grandmaster tournaments for the first time, and increased his world ranking to a career-high number eight.

Hikaru 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.

Hikaru Nakamura finished the year by participating in the London Chess Classic for the third consecutive time.

Hikaru Nakamura then played in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, finishing fifth.

In June 2012, Hikaru Nakamura played at the Tal Memorial in Moscow.

Hikaru Nakamura participated in the Biel Chess Festival, finishing third with Anish Giri, behind Carlsen and Wang Hao.

Hikaru Nakamura then suffered through the FIDE London Grand Prix tournament, at one point losing four games in a row.

Hikaru Nakamura finished the year by winning three silver medals in the three chess events at the World Mind Games in Beijing.

Hikaru Nakamura scored a win against then world number five Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces in an Old Indian Defense.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated Caruana in their individual encounter but lost to Gelfand.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated current Russian champion Peter Svidler with the black pieces in an extremely sharp King's Indian Defense.

At the World Team Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey, Hikaru Nakamura led the US team to a fourth-place finish.

Hikaru 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.

Hikaru Nakamura won his pool in the first stage of the tournament, then defeated Nigel Short, Vladimir Kramnik, and Boris Gelfand in the knockout stage.

Hikaru Nakamura then played the Zurich Chess Challenge, drawing with Caruana in the first round and winning against Anand in the second.

Hikaru 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 Hikaru Nakamura moved to his then-career highest 2798 and No 3 in the world.

In September 2016, Hikaru Nakamura was part of the US team that won the 42nd Chess Olympiad that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In January 2018, Hikaru Nakamura took second place in the Chess.

Hikaru Nakamura won the Rapid portion of the inaugural Tata Steel India Chess tournament, held in November 2018 in Kolkata.

In early May, Hikaru Nakamura shared second place with French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour which was held in Cote d'Ivoire.

In late May, Hikaru Nakamura participated in the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix tournament, which is part of the qualification cycle for the 2020 World Chess Championship.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated grandmasters Teimour Radjabov and Daniil Dubov but lost to grandmaster Alexander Grischuk in the semi-final match.

Hikaru Nakamura started 2020 as the top-ranked blitz chess player in the world.

Since April 2020, Hikaru Nakamura participated in the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour with a prize pool of $1 million.

Hikaru Nakamura won the group stage of Magnus Carlsen Invitational and finished second behind Magnus Carlsen.

Hikaru Nakamura beat Carlsen in the semi-finals of Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge but finished second, losing to eventual champion Daniil Dubov in the final.

From November, Hikaru Nakamura participated in the Champions Chess Tour 2021, qualifying for the knockout stage of Skilling Open and Airthings Masters.

Hikaru Nakamura continued to play the Champions Chess Tour with the Opera Euro Rapid tournament in February 2021.

Hikaru Nakamura obtained a winning position against Shankland but failed to convert the advantage and eventually lost the game.

Hikaru Nakamura then lost his two-day quarterfinal match against Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Hikaru Nakamura had three wins and six draws in the rapid portion, as well as six wins and twelve draws in the blitz portion.

From 26 to 28 December 2021, Hikaru Nakamura participated in the 2021 World Rapid Chess Championship in Warsaw, where he ended up in sixth place after tiebreaks.

Hikaru Nakamura was granted a wildcard entry to the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 in December 2021 by the FIDE President.

Hikaru Nakamura held a draw in the following game to advance to the finals against Levon Aronian.

On March 18, Hikaru Nakamura won the 2022 edition of the Bullet Chess Championship hosted by chess.

Hikaru Nakamura 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.

In February 2023, Hikaru Nakamura finished as runner-up in the Airthings Masters, coming in second to Magnus Carlsen.

Hikaru Nakamura overcame Magnus Carlsen in the loser's bracket final and emerged victorious in two matches against Fabiano Caruana to win the grand final.

Hikaru Nakamura participated in the Chess World Cup 2023 in August, where he was second seeded.

Hikaru Nakamura expressed disappointment with Ian Nepomniachtchi for reposting Kramnik's claims.

Hikaru Nakamura compiled a good record in the tournament's regular games but a poor showing in the Armageddon games prevented a higher finish.

Hikaru Nakamura led all players with 18 wins in the tournaments during 2023.

Hikaru Nakamura was touted as one of the favourites to win by former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, but had a slow start to the tournament after losing to Vidit Gujrathi with the white pieces in the second round.

Hikaru Nakamura compiled a +2 record in classical games the same as Carlsen, but a better record in Armageddon playoffs gave Carlsen the victory, though Hikaru Nakamura did defeat Carlsen in one of their individual Armageddon games.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated grandmasters Christopher Yoo, David Paravyan, Nihal Sarin and Daniel Naroditsky to reach the grand final.

Hikaru Nakamura won against Bogdan-Daniel Deac, Maxim Matlakov, Vasif Durarbayli, Vladimir Fedoseev and a second match against Moussard.

Hikaru Nakamura compiled an even score in the rapid section of the tournament and a +3 score in the blitz section.

Hikaru Nakamura lost his semifinal match to Alireza Firouzja but won the consolation match against Hans Niemann to take third place in the tournament.

Hikaru Nakamura then lost his playoff match against Javokhir Sindarov but won matches against Gukesh Dommaraju and Nodirbek Abdusattorov to finish fifth in the tournament.

Hikaru Nakamura won matches against Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja but lost in the winners bracket final to Magnus Carlsen.

Hikaru Nakamura then faced Nepomniachtchi again in the losers bracket final.

Hikaru Nakamura lost the rematch to finish second in the tournament and qualify for the Esports World Cup.

Hikaru Nakamura lost his match with Fabiano Caruana, won his match with Ray Robson and drew his match with Levon Aronian.

Hikaru Nakamura finished fourth on the prize money list with $37,625.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated Abhimanyu Mishra, Leinier Dominguez and Fabiano Caruana to win the winners bracket.

Hikaru Nakamura won the subsequent American Cup Blitz tournament, a nine-round Swiss event at blitz time limits, which featured a large field of grandmasters and other strong players.

Hikaru 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.

Hikaru Nakamura is strong at bullet chess, a time control giving the players one minute each.

In 2009, Hikaru Nakamura authored the book Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate.

Hikaru Nakamura has been nicknamed "The H Bomb" because of his explosive style of playing.

Hikaru Nakamura has set several "youngest-ever" records in US chess history, including:.

Hikaru Nakamura has played on the Internet Chess Club and Playchess.

Hikaru Nakamura served as a commentator and game annotator on the ChessNinja website, operated by chess author Mig Greengard.

In 2018, Nakamura began streaming on the platform Twitch under the name "GMHikaru".

Hikaru Nakamura plays speed chess games, variously against grandmasters, other streamers, and viewers who pay to subscribe to his channel.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, chess became significantly more popular on Twitch, with Hikaru Nakamura widely identified as a significant reason for this.

Hikaru Nakamura's channel received a tenfold increase in audience size between February and June 2020.

Around August 2020, Hikaru Nakamura averaged 14,000 concurrent viewers and streamed on Twitch most days.

Hikaru Nakamura often plays games using "joke openings" while on stream, including the Bongcloud Attack, the Jerome Gambit and the Botez Gambit.

Hikaru Nakamura has stated that he prioritizes his streaming career over his chess playing career.

On February 17,2025, Hikaru Nakamura signed with Team Falcons, who are rumored to have connections to the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Hikaru Nakamura operates a Discord server named "Naka's PogUniversity" and has a Twitter account.

Hikaru Nakamura has coached beginner chess players on his Twitch platform, including the streamer xQc.

Hikaru Nakamura gave lessons to players in PogChamps, an amateur tournament for Twitch streamers hosted by Chess.

Hikaru 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.

On February 14,2021, Nakamura reached a milestone of one million followers on his Twitch channel, GMHikaru.

Hikaru Nakamura appeared as himself in season 5, episode 2 of the Showtime series Billions, which premiered May 10,2020.

Hikaru Nakamura married Atousa Pourkashiyan, a Woman Grandmaster, in 2023.