- Hikaru Nakamura
: "For the football player with a similar name, see
Haruki Nakamura ."Infobox chess player
playername = Hikaru Nakamura
caption=
birthname = Hikaru Nakamura
country = USA
datebirth = birth date and age|1987|12|9
placebirth =Hirakata ,Japan
datedeath =
placedeath =
title = Grandmaster
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating = 2697
(No. 31 on the July 2008 FIDE ratings list)
peakrating = 2697 (July 2008)Hikaru Nakamura, (中村光 "Nakamura Hikaru", born
December 9 1987 inHirakata ) is an American chess Grandmaster (GM).He was born in
Hirakata ,Osaka Prefecture ,Japan , to a Japanese father and an American mother, and at the age of two years old, he moved with his parents to the United States. Nakamura began playing chess at the age of seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry. Within three years, at age 10 years and 79 days, Nakamura achieved the title ofchess master from theUnited States Chess Federation (USCF), becoming the youngest American ever to earn the title and breaking the record previously set byVinay Bhat . In 2003, Nakamura solidified his reputation as achess prodigy , by earning, at age 15 years and 79 days, the grandmaster title, breaking by three months the record ofBobby Fischer for youngest American to have claimed the GM title, surpassed only byFabiano Caruana .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" [" [http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/player_32_12.php GM Hikaru Nakamura] ". Accessed Oct. 16, 2006] . 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. [ " [http://www.uschess.org/news/press/uspr0522.php GM Hikaru Nakamura Named 2005 Samford Chess Fellow] ". June 20, 2005]
On
June 20 ,2005 , Nakamura was selected as the 19thFrank Samford Chess Fellow, receiving a grant of $32,000 to further his chess education and competition.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 [Daaim Shabazz. " [http://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2004/NB_Nakamura3.html Why Nakamura's Victory is Good for Chess] ". Dec. 9, 2004]
He is also very skilled at
blitz chess , and has been called "easily the best blitz player in America" [" [http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/player_32_12.php GM Hikaru Nakamura] ". Accessed Oct. 16, 2006] and "one of the best blitz players in the world." [ " [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3348 Five years of Playchess.com] ". Accessed Oct. 16, 2006] 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.Though primarily a serious tournament chess player, Nakamura has also served as a commentator and game annotator, most prominently on the ChessNinja website, operated by chess author
Mig Greengard .Over-the-board chess
A resident of
White Plains, New York , Nakamura often played in the weeklyNew York Masters chess tournament at theMarshall Chess Club , which he won several times.In April 2004 Nakamura achieved a fourth-place finish in the "B" group at the Corus tournament at
Wijk aan Zee .Nakamura qualified for the 2004 world chess championship, contested in
Tripoli ,Libya , and reached the fourth round, defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov,Aleksei Aleksandrov , andAlexander Lastin before falling to England'sMichael 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 grandmasterAlex 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 grandmasterGregory 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 grandmasterSergey 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 leaveKhanty ,Russia , without having won a game.In 2006 Nakamura helped the US team win the bronze medal in the International
Chess Olympiad atTurin , playing third board behindGata Kamsky andAlexander Onischuk (2006 US Champion).Nakamura is currently living in
Vancouver ,Canada , where he attends theUniversity of British Columbia .
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