Hikaru Nakamura

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Hikaru Nakamura

"Hikaru" Nakamura, (中村光 Nakamura Hikaru, born December 9, 1987 in Hirakata) is an American chess Grandmaster (GM).

He was born in Osaka, Japan, to a Japanese father and an American mother and moved with his parents to the United States when he was two years old. Nakamura began playing chess at age seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master Sunil Weeramantry. Within three years, at age 10 years and 79 days, Nakamura achieved the title of chess master from the United States Chess Federation (USCF), becoming the youngest American ever to earn the title. In 2003, Nakamura solidified his reputation as a chess prodigy, by earning, at age 15 years and 79 days, the grandmaster title, breaking by three months the record of Bobby Fischer for youngest American to have claimed the GM title.

Nakamura is generally regarded as an aggressive player who is reluctant to draw games early, having once said in an interview that "there is no point of taking draws" ^[1]. He prefers instead to exploit all prospective winning chances, giving him a style of play described by the U.S. Chess Federation as marked by "astonishing creativity...relentless determination...[the making] of unexpected moves and a will to win". Nakamura says the bishop is his favorite chess piece. ^[2]

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.

On the January 2006 FIDE ratings list, Nakamura had an Elo rating of 2644, ranking him 65th in the world and third in the United States, behind only Gata Kamsky and Alexander Onischuk. Nakamura's rating also placed him sixth in the world among junior players and behind only Teimour Radjabov, Magnus Carlsen, and Sergey Karjakin among players born in 1987 or later. As of the January 2007 [1] Nakamura had a FIDE rating of 2651, ranking him 3rd in the United States, 54 points behind Kamsky.

He has been described as having an uncommon enthusiasm for chess and as being much more approachable than other players of his ability. For instance, just after winning the U.S. Championship, he played numerous 1-minute games with all comers in the lobby of the hotel where the competition had taken place ^[3]

Though primarily a chess player, Nakamura has also served as a commentator and game annotator, most prominently on the ChessNinja website, operated by chess author Mig Greengard.

He now attends Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and expects to graduate in 2010.

[edit] Over-the-board chess

Nakamura at the 2003 U.S. Chess Championships

A resident of White Plains, New York, Nakamura often plays in the weekly New York Masters chess tournament, which he has won several times.

Nakamura qualified for the 2004 world chess championship, contested in Tripoli, Libya, and reached the fourth round, defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov, Aleksei Aleksandrov, and Alexander Lastin before falling to England's Michael Adams, the tournament's third-seeded participant and eventual runner-up.

He won the 2005 U.S. Chess Championship (held in November and December 2004), scoring seven points over nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alex Stripunsky for first place, with whom he had drawn in the tournament's third round. Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in two straight rapid chess 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 and defeated his fellow prodigy, 4.5-1.5.

In November and December 2005, Nakamura entered the FIDE World Chess Cup seeded 28th (of 128 players) but failed to advance beyond the first round, losing each of his two games to Indian grandmaster Surya Ganguly and becoming the second-highest-ranked player to leave Khanty, Russia, without having won a game.

Other important tournament performances include Nakamura's fourth-place finish in the "B" group at the April 2004 Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee and his win at the 2001 World Youth Chess Championship for boys 14 years old and younger. Nakamura also helped the US team win the bronze medal in the International Chess Olympiad.

He is also very skilled at blitz chess, and has been called "easily the best blitz player in America"^[4] and "one of the best blitz players in the world." ^[5] Even in games with only one or two minutes in which to make all of his moves, Nakamura has shown an ability to create complicated combinations. He plays on the internet through www.playchess.com using the handle star wars.