Dispute Of The Decade: MAGNUS OR HIKARU?

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen^[a] (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Champion, and the reigning eight-time World Blitz Chess Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE rankings since 1 July 2011, the longest consecutive streak,^[1] and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at the elite level in classical chess at 125 games.^[2][3]

A chess prodigy, Carlsen finished first in the C group of the Corus chess tournament shortly after he turned 13 and earned the title of grandmaster a few months later. At 15, he won the Norwegian Chess Championship, and later became the youngest ever player to qualify for the Candidates Tournament in 2005.^[1] At 17, he finished joint first in the top group of Corus. He surpassed a rating of 2800 at 18, the youngest at the time to do so. In 2010, at 19, he reached No. 1 in the FIDE world rankings, the youngest person ever to do so.

Carlsen became World Chess Champion in 2013 by defeating Viswanathan Anand. He retained his title against Anand the following year and won both the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship, becoming the first player to hold all three titles simultaneously, a feat which he repeated in 2019 and 2022.^[4][5] He defended his classical world title against Sergey Karjakin in 2016, Fabiano Caruana in 2018, and Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021. Carlsen declined to defend his title in 2023, citing a lack of motivation.^[6]

Known for his attacking style as a teenager, Carlsen has since developed into a universal player. He uses a variety of openings to make it harder for opponents to prepare against him and reduce the utility of pre-game computer analysis.^[7] In 2025, he signed with esports organization Team Liquid.^[8]

Carlsen was born in Tønsberg, Norway, on 30 November 1990^[9][10] to Sigrun Øen (1963–2024), a chemical engineer, and Henrik Albert Carlsen, an IT consultant.^[11] The family spent one year in Espoo, Finland, and then in Brussels, Belgium, before returning to Norway in 1998, where they lived in Lommedalen, Bærum. They later moved to Haslum.^[12] Carlsen showed an aptitude for intellectual challenges at a young age. At two years, he could solve 50-piece jigsaw puzzles; at four, he enjoyed assembling Lego sets with instructions intended for children aged 10–14.^[13]

His father, a keen amateur chess player,^[14] taught him to play at the age of five, although he initially showed little interest in it.^[15] Magnus has three sisters; he has said his original motivation to study chess seriously was a desire to be able to beat his elder sister.^[16]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Magnus_Carlsen_simultan-dscn0443-2.jpeg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="315" data-file-width="352" data-file-height="443" />

Carlsen developed his early chess skills by playing alone. Carlsen had an exceptional memory and could recall the locations, populations, flags and capitals of all the countries in the world by the age of five.^[17] He participated in his first tournament—the youngest division of the 1999 Norwegian Chess Championship—at 8 years and 7 months, and scored 6/11.^[18]

Carlsen was coached at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport by the country's top player, Grandmaster (GM) Simen Agdestein,^[11] who in turn cites Norwegian football manager Egil "Drillo" Olsen as a key inspiration for his coaching strategy.^[19] In 2000, Agdestein introduced Carlsen to Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, a former Norwegian junior champion and later International Master (IM) and GM,^[20] as Ringdal served a one-year siviltjeneste (an alternative civilian service programme) at the college.^{[citation needed]}

Over the course of that year, Carlsen's rating rose from 904 in June 2000 to 1907. His breakthrough occurred in the Norwegian junior teams championship in September 2000, where he scored 3½/5 against the country's top junior players and gained a tournament performance rating (TPR) of around 2000.^[21] Apart from chess, which he studied about three to four hours a day, his favourite pastimes included playing football and reading Donald Duck comics.^[22] He also practised skiing until the age of ten.^[23]

From autumn 2000 to the end of 2002, Carlsen played almost 300 rated tournament games, as well as in several blitz tournaments, and participated in other minor events.^[24] In October 2002, he placed sixth in the European Under-12 Championship in Peñiscola.^[25] The following month, he tied for first place in the 2002 World Under-12 Championship in Heraklion, placing second to Ian Nepomniachtchi on tiebreak.^[26] He then obtained three IM norms in relatively quick succession: the first at the January 2003 Gausdal Troll Masters (score 7/10, 2453 PR); the second at the June 2003 Salongernas IM-tournament in Stockholm (6/9, 2470 PR); and the third at the July 2003 Politiken Cup in Copenhagen (8/11, 2503 PR). He was officially awarded the IM title on 20 August 2003.^[27]

After finishing primary school, Carlsen took a year off to participate in international chess tournaments in Europe during the autumn of 2003, then returned to complete secondary education at a sports school.^[28][29] During the year away from school, he placed joint-third in the European Under-14 Championship^[30] and ninth in the 2003 World Under-14 Championship.^[31]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/ErnstCarlsenWijkaanZee2004.jpg/500px-ErnstCarlsenWijkaanZee2004.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="167" data-file-width="3442" data-file-height="2303" />

Carlsen made headlines after his victory, at the age of 13, in the C group at the 2004 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee.^[32] He obtained a score of 10½/13, losing just one game (against the highest-rated player of the C group, Duško Pavasovič).^[33] As a result, he earned his first GM norm, and achieved a PR of 2702. Particularly notable was his win over Sipke Ernst in the penultimate round, when he sacrificed material to give mate in just 29 moves.^[34] His victory in the C group qualified him to play in the B group in 2005, and it led Lubomir Kavalek, writing for the Washington Post, to give him the title "the Mozart of chess" (although, as pointed out by Edward Winter, the nickname had been given to many illustrious predecessors).^[35] Agdestein said that Carlsen had an excellent memory and played an unusually wide range of openings.^[36] Carlsen's prowess caught the attention of Microsoft, which became his sponsor.^[37]

Carlsen obtained his second GM norm at the Moscow Aeroflot Open in February. On 17 March, in a blitz chess tournament in Reykjavík, Iceland, he defeated former World Champion Anatoly Karpov. It was a preliminary event leading up to a rapid knockout tournament beginning the next day. In that event, Carlsen was paired with Garry Kasparov, then the top-rated player in the world. Carlsen achieved a draw in their first game but lost the second, and was thus knocked out of the tournament.^[38]

In the sixth Dubai Open Chess Championship, held 18–28 April, Carlsen obtained his third GM norm, which made him the world's youngest GM at the time, and the second-youngest GM in history at the time (after Sergey Karjakin, who earned the title at 12 years and 7 months).^[39] Carlsen played in the FIDE World Chess Championship, becoming the youngest player ever to participate in one, but was knocked out in the first round by Levon Aronian.^[40]

In July, Carlsen and Berge Østenstad, then the reigning Norwegian champion, tied for first in the Norwegian Chess Championship, each scoring 7/9. A two-game match between them was arranged to decide the title. Both games were drawn, which left Østenstad the champion because he had superior tiebreaks in the tournament.^[41]

In the Smartfish Chess Masters event at the Drammen International Chess Festival 2004–05, Carlsen defeated Alexei Shirov, then ranked No. 10^[42] in the world, as well as the co-winner of the tournament.^[43] In the semi-finals of the Ciudad de León rapid chess tournament in June, Carlsen played a four-game match against Viswanathan Anand, who was ranked No. 2 in the world at the time and had won the 2003 World Rapid Chess Championship.^[44] Anand won 3–1.^[45]

In the Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen again finished in shared first place, this time with his mentor Simen Agdestein. A playoff between them was played between 7 and 10 November. This time, Carlsen had the better tiebreaks, but the rule giving the title to the player with better tiebreak scores in the event of a 1–1 tie had been revoked. The match was closely fought—Agdestein won the first game, Carlsen the second—so it went into a series of two-game rapid matches until there was a winner. Carlsen won the first rapid game, Agdestein the second. Then followed three draws until Agdestein won the championship title with a victory in the sixth rapid game.^[46]

In October, Carlsen took first place at the Arnold Eikrem Memorial in Gausdal with a score of 8/9 and a PR of 2792.^[47]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Carlsen_Magnus.jpg/375px-Carlsen_Magnus.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Carlsen_Magnus.jpg 2x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="214" data-file-width="495" data-file-height="424" />

At the end of 2005, Carlsen participated at the Chess World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the knockout tournament, he upset 44th-ranked Zurab Azmaiparashvili in round one, and proceeded to defeat Farrukh Amonatov and Ivan Cheparinov to reach the round of 16. There he lost to Evgeny Bareev,^[48] but won against Joël Lautier and Vladimir Malakhov before losing again to Gata Kamsky. Carlsen finished in tenth place and became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate.^[49]

Carlsen qualified for a place in the Corus B group due to his first-place finish in Corus group C in 2004. His shared first place with Alexander Motylev with 9/13 (+6−1=6) qualified him to play in the Corus group A in 2007.^[50]

At the 2006 international 'Bosna' tournament in Sarajevo, Carlsen shared first place with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (who won on tiebreak) and Vladimir Malakhov; this could be regarded as Carlsen's first "A" elite tournament win, although it was not a clear first.^[51]

Carlsen was close to winning the 2006 Norwegian Chess Championship outright, but a last-round loss to Berge Østenstad dropped him into another tie for first place with Agdestein. It also prevented Carlsen from beating Agdestein's record as the youngest Norwegian champion ever.^[52] Nonetheless, in the playoff held from 19 to 21 September, Carlsen won 3–1. After two draws at standard time controls, Carlsen won both rapid games in round two, securing his first Norwegian championship win.^[53]

Carlsen won the Glitnir Blitz Tournament in Iceland.^[54] He achieved a 2–0 win over Viswanathan Anand in the semi-finals and achieved the same score in the finals.^[55] He scored 6/8 in the 37th Chess Olympiad and achieved a PR of 2820.^[56]

In the Midnight Sun Chess Tournament in Tromsø, Carlsen finished second to Sergei Shipov.^[57] In the Biel Grandmaster Tournament, he placed second, beating the tournament winner Alexander Morozevich twice.^[58]

In the NH Chess Tournament held in Amsterdam in August, Carlsen participated in an "Experience" vs. "Rising Stars" Scheveningen team match. The "Rising Stars" won the match 28–22, with Carlsen achieving the best individual score for the Rising Stars team (6½/10) and a 2700 PR, thus winning the right to participate in the 2007 Melody Amber tournament.^[59]

With a score of 7½/15, Carlsen placed 8th out of 16 participants at the World Blitz Championship in Rishon LeZion, Israel.^[60] In the rapid chess tournament Rencontres nationales et internationales d'échecs in Cap d'Agde, France, he reached the semi-final, losing there to Sergey Karjakin.^[61] In November, Carlsen achieved a shared 8th place of 10 participants in the Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow with two losses and seven draws. He finished ninth in a group of 18 participants in the associated blitz tournament, which was won by Anand.^[62]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Magnus_%C3%98en_Carlsen_vs._Aronian_Linares_2007.jpg/500px-Magnus_%C3%98en_Carlsen_vs._Aronian_Linares_2007.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="167" data-file-width="1024" data-file-height="683" />

Playing in the top group of the Corus chess tournament for the first time, Carlsen placed last with nine draws and four losses, scoring 4½/13.^[63] In the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen played against top-rated players Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian, Peter Leko, and Vasyl Ivanchuk. Despite being rated significantly lower than any of them, he finished in second place on tiebreaks with 7½/14, having scored four wins, seven draws and three losses, and achieving a PR of 2778.^[64]

Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo in March. In the 11 rounds, he achieved eight draws and three losses in the blindfold games, as well as three wins, seven draws and one loss in the rapid games. This resulted in a shared ninth place in the blindfold, shared second place in the rapid (behind Anand), and a shared eighth place overall.^[65]

In May and June, he participated in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007, facing Levon Aronian in a six-game match at standard time controls, which Carlsen drew (+2−2=2) by coming from behind twice. The four-game rapid playoff was drawn as well (+1−1=2), with Carlsen winning the last game to stay in the match. Eventually, Aronian eliminated Carlsen from the tournament after winning both tiebreak blitz games.^[66]

In July and August, Carlsen won the Biel Grandmaster Tournament with a 6/10 record and a PR of 2753. His score was matched by Alexander Onischuk and they played a match to break the tie. After drawing two rapid and two blitz games, Carlsen won the armageddon game.^[67] Immediately after the Biel tournament, Carlsen entered the open Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø, but his fourth-place result with +5=4 was a slight underperformance in terms of rating. In the first round, Carlsen conceded a draw to his classmate Brede Hagen (rated 2034)^[68] after having a lost position at one point.^[69] A game which attracted some attention was his sixth-round win over his father, Henrik Carlsen.^[70]

Carlsen reached the semi-final round of the World Chess Cup in December, after defeating Michael Adams in the round of 16 and Ivan Cheparinov in the quarterfinals. In the semi-final, he was eliminated by the eventual winner, Gata Kamsky, scoring ½–1½.^[71]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Magnus_Carlsen_08.jpg/500px-Magnus_Carlsen_08.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="287" data-file-width="803" data-file-height="921" />

In the top group A of the 69th Corus chess tournament, Carlsen scored 8/13, achieving a PR of 2830. Carlsen won five games, lost two and drew six, sharing first place with Levon Aronian.^[72] At the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen had another 2800+ PR, scoring 8/14. He finished in sole second place, ½ point behind the winner World Champion Viswanathan Anand.^[73]

In March, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament, held in Nice for the first time. In the 11 rounds he achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the blindfold, and three wins, two losses, and six draws in the rapid. This resulted in a shared fifth place in the blindfold, shared third place in the rapid and a shared second place in the overall tournament.^[74]

Carlsen was one of 21 players in the six-tournament FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, a qualifier for the World Chess Championship 2012. In the first tournament, in Baku, Azerbaijan, he finished in a three-way tie for first place, with another 2800 PR. He later withdrew from the Grand Prix cycle despite his initial success, criticising FIDE for "changing the rules dramatically in the middle of a World Championship cycle".^[75]

Carlsen won a rapid match against Peter Leko held in Miskolc, Hungary, scoring 5–3.^[76] In June, Carlsen won the annual Aerosvit chess tournament,^[77] finishing undefeated with 8/11 in a category 19 field and achieving a PR of 2877, his best PR at that point in his career.^[78] Playing in the category 18 Biel Grandmaster Tournament, Carlsen finished third with 6/10, with a PR of 2740.^[79]

In the Mainz World Rapid Chess Championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to defending champion Anand 3–1.^[80] In the qualification round Carlsen scored 1½–½ against Judit Polgár, 1–1 against Anand and 1–1 against Alexander Morozevich.^[81] In the category 22 Bilbao Masters, Carlsen tied for second with a 2768 PR.^[82]

Playing in Group A of the 71st Corus chess tournament, Carlsen tied for fifth with a 2739 PR.^[83] In the Linares chess tournament, he finished third with a 2777 PR.^[84] He tied for second place with Veselin Topalov at the M-Tel Masters (category 21) tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. He lost to eventual winner Alexei Shirov in their final game, dropping him from first.^[85]

Carlsen won the category 21 Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament, 2½ points ahead of second-place finisher Topalov, the world's highest-rated player at the time. He scored an undefeated 8/10, winning every game as white (against Topalov, Wang Yue, Leko, Teimour Radjabov, and Dmitry Jakovenko), and also winning as black against Jakovenko. By rating performance, this was one of the greatest results in history, with a PR of 3002.^[86] Chess statistician Jeff Sonas has declared it one of the 20 best tournament performances of all time, and the best chess performance of all time by a teenager.^[87]

In the Tal Memorial, played from 5 to 14 November, Carlsen started with seven straight draws, but finished with wins over former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko. This result put Carlsen in shared second place behind former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and equal with Ivanchuk.^[88][89] After the Tal Memorial, Carlsen won the World Blitz Championship, played from 16 to 18 November in Moscow, Russia. His score of 28 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses left him three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second place.^[90]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/MagnusCarlsen.jpg/500px-MagnusCarlsen.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="257" data-file-width="2349" data-file-height="2415" />

Carlsen entered the London Chess Classic as the top seed in a field including Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Ni Hua, Luke McShane and David Howell. He defeated Kramnik in round one and went on to win the tournament with 13/21 (three points were awarded for a win, and one for a draw; using classical scoring he finished with 5/7) and a PR of 2844, one point ahead of Kramnik. This victory propelled him to No. 1 of the FIDE rating list, surpassing Veselin Topalov.^[91][92]

Based on his average ranking from the July 2009 and January 2010 FIDE lists, Carlsen qualified for the Candidates Tournament that would determine the challenger to World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2012. In November 2010, however, Carlsen announced he was withdrawing from the Candidates Tournament. Carlsen described the 2008–12 cycle as "[not] sufficiently modern and fair", and wrote that "Reigning champion privileges, the long (five-year) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept are all less than satisfactory in my opinion."^[93]

In early 2009 Carlsen engaged former World Champion Garry Kasparov as a personal trainer.^[94] In September their partnership was revealed to the public by Norwegian newspapers.^[95][96]

Responding to a question in an interview with Time magazine in December 2009 as to whether he used computers when studying chess, Carlsen explained that he does not use a chess set when studying on his own.^[97]

Carlsen won the 72nd Corus chess tournament played 16–31 January with 8½ points. His ninth-round loss to Kramnik ended a streak of 36 rated games undefeated.^[98] Carlsen struggled in the last round against Fabiano Caruana, but saved a draw, leaving him half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov.^[99]

In March it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer use him as a trainer,^[100] although Carlsen later stated that they would remain in contact and he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov.^[101]

Carlsen shared first place alongside Ivanchuk in the Amber blindfold and rapid tournament. Scoring 6½/11 in the blindfold and 8/11 in the rapid, Carlsen accumulated 14½ from a possible 22 points.^[102] Carlsen helped Anand prepare for the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov, which Anand won 6½–5½ to retain the title. Carlsen had also helped Anand prepare for the World Chess Championships in 2007 and 2008.^[103]

Carlsen won the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania in June, two points ahead of Radjabov and Boris Gelfand.^[104] In August, Carlsen played in the Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament in Kristiansund, Norway., defeating Anand 1½–½ in the two-game final to win the championship.^[105]

Carlsen suffered setbacks in his next two tournaments. In the 39th Chess Olympiad he scored 4½/8, losing three games, to Baadur Jobava, Michael Adams, and Sanan Sjugirov; these were his first losses with the black pieces in more than a year.^[106] His team, Norway, finished 51st out of 149 teams.^[107]

Carlsen played in the Grand Slam Masters Final in October, which he had qualified for automatically by winning three of the previous year's four Grand Slam chess events.^[108][109] The average Elo of the participants at the time was 2789, making the Grand Slam Final the strongest chess tournament in history. In the first round, Carlsen lost with black to Kramnik; this was Carlsen's second consecutive loss to Kramnik, and placed his hold on the world No. 1 ranking in jeopardy. In his second round, Carlsen lost with the white pieces to Anand; this was his first loss as White since January 2010. Carlsen recovered somewhat in the latter part of the tournament, achieving a win over Shirov, and finishing with 2½/6; Kramnik won the event with 4/6.^[110]

In October, Carlsen competed at the Pearl Spring chess tournament in Nanjing, China.^[111] This was the only tournament in 2010 to feature Anand, Carlsen and Topalov, at the time the top three players in the world, and was the first tournament in history to feature three players rated at least 2800. Carlsen secured first place by defeating Topalov with black. This was his second victory in the tournament over the former world No. 1; his final score of 7/10 (with a PR of 2903) was a full point ahead of runner-up Anand.^[112]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/London_Chess_Classic_2010_Calsen_02.jpg/500px-London_Chess_Classic_2010_Calsen_02.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="256" data-file-width="2009" data-file-height="2054" />

On 5 November, Carlsen withdrew from the 2011 Candidates Tournament, having qualified as the highest rated challenger, citing dissatisfaction with the World Championship cycle format.^[113]

In the World Blitz Championship, held in Moscow in November, Carlsen finished third with a score of 23½/38, behind Radjabov and winner Levon Aronian.^[114] After the tournament, Carlsen played a private 40-game blitz match against Hikaru Nakamura,^[115] winning with a score of 24½–15½.^[116] Carlsen won the London Chess Classic in December, ahead of Anand and McShane.^[117]

Carlsen competed in the GM-A group of the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus chess tournament) on 14–30 January in Wijk aan Zee in an attempt to defend his title; the field included World Champion Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Hikaru Nakamura, Ruslan Ponomariov, among others. Despite losing games with white against Anish Giri and reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen finished with 8/13, including victories over Kramnik and tournament winner Nakamura.^[118] Although Carlsen's performance raised his rating from 2814 to 2815, Anand's 8½/13 score elevated his rating to 2817, making him the world No. 1 for the March 2011 FIDE rating list.^[119]

The first tournament victory of the year came in the Bazna Kings tournament, a double round robin played in Mediaș, Romania on 11–21 June. Carlsen finished with 6½/10, equal with Sergey Karjakin but with a better tiebreak score. Carlsen won his White games against Nakamura, Nisipeanu, and Ivanchuk and drew the rest of the games.^[120]

Carlsen won the 44th Biel Grandmaster tournament, held from 16 to 29 July. He took clear first place with a score of 19/30 (+5−1=4; three points for a win) in a field comprising Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Morozevich, Alexey Shirov and Yannick Pelletier, two points ahead of Morozevich. This was Carlsen's second title.^[121][122]

The Grand Slam Chess Final was held as a double round robin with six players, in São Paulo (25 September – 1 October) and Bilbao (5–11 October). Although Carlsen had a slow start, including a loss against bottom-ranked Francisco Vallejo Pons, he finished +3−1=6, equal with Ivanchuk (whose +4−3=3 finish was equal due to three points for a win). Carlsen then won the blitz tiebreak against Ivanchuk. The other players were Anand, Aronian, Nakamura, and Vallejo Pons.^[123]

Another tournament victory was achieved in the Tal Memorial in Moscow 16–25 November as a round robin with ten players. Carlsen won two games, against Gelfand and Nakamura, and drew the rest. Although he finished equal on points with Aronian, he placed ahead since the tiebreak was determined by the number of black games; Carlsen had five black games, while Aronian only had four.^[124][125]

In the London Chess Classic, played 3–12 December, Carlsen's streak of tournament victories ended when he finished third, behind Kramnik and Nakamura. Carlsen won three games and drew five. Although he did not win the tournament, Carlsen gained rating points, rising to a new personal record of 2835.^[126]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/MCarlsen11.jpg/500px-MCarlsen11.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="254" data-file-width="1724" data-file-height="1752" />

At the 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament held on 14–29 January in Wijk aan Zee, Carlsen finished in a shared second place with 8/13, behind Aronian, and equal with Radjabov and Caruana. Carlsen defeated Gashimov, Aronian, Gelfand, and Topalov, but lost against Karjakin.^[127] At the blitz chess tournament at Tal Memorial, held in Moscow on 7 June, Carlsen shared first place with Morozevich. In the main event (a category 22 ten-player round robin), he won two games and drew seven. He finished in first place, ahead of Radjabov and Caruana.^[128]

Carlsen then went on to finish second in the Biel Grandmaster Tournament, with 18 points, just one point behind Wang Hao using the 3–1–0 scoring system. As in the Tal Memorial earlier in 2012, Carlsen managed to finish the tournament without any losses (+4−0=6). He also defeated the winner Wang in both of their individual games. In the exhibition blitz tournament at Biel before the GM tournament, Carlsen was eliminated (+1−2=0) in the first round by Étienne Bacrot. Bacrot deprived Carlsen of a win in the classical tournament by holding him to a draw in the final round. Carlsen would have won the classical tournament on the traditional 1–½–0 scoring system, with 7/10.^[129]

The Grand Slam Chess Final was again held as a double round robin with six players, in São Paulo and Bilbao. Carlsen started with a loss against Caruana, but after three wins in the second (Bilbao) round, finished +4−1=5, equal first with Caruana, and ahead of Aronian, Karjakin and Anand. Carlsen won the tournament by winning both tiebreak games against Caruana.^[130]

From 24 to 25 November, Carlsen took part in the chess festival "Segunda Gran Fiesta Internacional de Ajedrez" in Mexico City. As part of it, Carlsen took on an online audience (dubbed as "The World") with the white pieces and won. He then took part in the knockout exhibition event "Cuadrangular UNAM". Carlsen first beat Lázaro Bruzón 1½–½, thus qualifying for a final against Judit Polgár (who had in turn beat Manuel León Hoyos 1½–½). Carlsen lost the first game, but won the second one, and in the tiebreak defeated Polgár 2–0.^[131][132]

Carlsen won the London Chess Classic in December with five wins (over McShane, Aronian, Gawain Jones, Adams and Judit Polgár) and three draws (against Kramnik, Nakamura and Anand).^[133] This win, the third time Carlsen had won the tournament in the past four years, increased his rating from 2848 to a new record of 2861, breaking Kasparov's 13-year record of 2851.^[133][134] By rating performance, this was one of the best results in history, with a PR of 2994.^[135]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Magnus_Carlsen_Tata_Steel_2013.jpg/500px-Magnus_Carlsen_Tata_Steel_2013.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="166" data-file-width="2100" data-file-height="1398" />

Carlsen played in the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament from 11 to 27 January in Wijk aan Zee. In the 13-round tournament, he scored 10 points (+7−0=6), winning clear first 1½ points ahead of second-place finisher Aronian.^[136] On 1 February, Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen joined the team of assistants who helped Carlsen prepare for the Candidates Tournament in March. Before this, Nielsen was on Viswanathan Anand's team.^[137]

Carlsen played in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, which took place in London, from 15 March to 1 April. He finished with +5−2=7, and won the tournament on tiebreak over Vladimir Kramnik. As a result, he earned the right to challenge Anand for the World Championship.^[138]

In May, Carlsen played in the first edition of Norway Chess tournament. He finished second, scoring 5½/9 (+3−1=5), half a point behind Sergey Karjakin.^[139]

Carlsen played in the Tal Memorial from 12 to 23 June. He finished second, with 5½/9, half a point behind Boris Gelfand. Carlsen ended the tournament with +3−1=5, losing to Caruana but beating Anand, Kramnik and Nakamura.^[140] Later that month, Carlsen played a four-game friendly rapid match against Borki Predojević, which he won 2½–1½.^[141]

In the Sinquefield Cup, held in September, Carlsen finished first, scoring 4½/6 (+3−0=3), a point ahead of Nakamura.^[142]

Carlsen faced Anand in the World Chess Championship 2013, at Hyatt Regency in Chennai, India, from 9 to 22 November. Carlsen won the match 6½–3½ by winning games five, six and nine and drawing the remainder, becoming the new World Chess Champion.^[143] Though he was the challenger, and less experienced than Anand, he handled the pressure with ease. He had his first win in game 5 by taking advantage of a small mistake by Anand, and emerged victorious in games 6 and 9, making him the 16th undisputed World Chess Champion.

Christopher Hikaru Nakamura^[2] (born December 9, 1987) is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, 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. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history.

Nakamura has represented the United States at seven Chess Olympiads (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), 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, Nakamura ranked No. 1 in the world on both lists;^[3] he has remained at or near the No. 1 rank in rapid and blitz ever since.^[4][5]

Since 2018, 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. Having popular channels on Twitch, Kick and YouTube, Nakamura is the most popular chess streamer and has been credited with contributing to the growth in popularity of online chess.^[6][7]

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.^[8][9] Nakamura has an older brother, Asuka.^[10] When he was two years old, his family moved to the United States, and, a year later in 1990, his parents divorced.^[11] He was raised in White Plains, New York. He began playing chess at the age of seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan-born stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry.^[12] Weeramantry began coaching the Nakamura brothers after Asuka Nakamura won the National Kindergarten Championship in 1992, which led to his developing a relationship with their mother.^[10]

At age 10, he became the youngest American to beat an International Master when he defeated Jay Bonin at the Marshall Chess Club.^[10][13] 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.^[14][15]

In April 2004, Nakamura finished in fourth place in the "B" group at the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.^[16]

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, who eventually finished in second place.

In June 2005, Nakamura was selected as the 19th Frank Samford Chess Fellow, receiving a grant of $32,000 to further his chess education and competition.^[17]

Nakamura won the 2005 U.S. Championship (held in November and December 2004), scoring an undefeated seven points out of nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alexander Stripunsky for first place. Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in the rapid playoff to claim the title and become the youngest U.S. champion since Bobby Fischer.^[18][19]

Following that victory, Nakamura played a challenge match dubbed the "Duelo de Jóvenes Prodigios" in Mexico against Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and defeated his fellow prodigy by 4½–1½.^[20]

In November and December 2005, Nakamura competed in the 2005 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.^[21]

In 2006, Nakamura was offered a full scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas but instead attended Dickinson College, with a partial scholarship, in order to take a break from chess. Later in the year, he announced that he would leave college and resume playing chess.^[22] 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.^[23]

In January 2007, Nakamura shared second place at the GibTelecom Masters in Gibraltar.^[24] 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.^[25]

In October 2007, Nakamura won the Magistral D'Escacs tournament in Barcelona^[26] and the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament.^[27]

Nakamura won the 2008 Finet Chess960 Open in Mainz, Germany.^[28] 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.^[29] 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.^[30]

Nakamura won the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship (St Louis, Missouri, May 2009), scoring 7/9 to take clear first place.^[31]

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.^[32]

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.^[33][34]

Nakamura skipped the 2009 FIDE World Cup 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.^[35]

Nakamura began 2010 playing first board for the US at the World Team Championship held in Bursa, Turkey. His performance, including a win over world No. 6 Boris Gelfand on the black side of a King's Indian Defense, won him the gold medal for board one and led the U.S. to a silver medal finish behind Russia.^[36][37]

Nakamura participated in the Corus Chess Tournament 2010. He finished with a score of 7½/13, tying for fourth place with Viswanathan Anand.^[38]

In May, Nakamura participated in the 2010 U.S. Championship in Saint Louis, Missouri. Seeded first, he scored 5/7 points to qualify for the round-robin stage against the former champions Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, and Yuri Shulman. In the round-robin stage, he drew with Kamsky before losing to Shulman, with the white pieces in both games.^[39] The loss to Shulman eliminated him from the competition.

From November 5–14, Nakamura competed in the 2010 Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow; the field consisted of Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 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 with +1, defeating Eljanov and drawing every other player to finish in a tie for fourth place.^[40] 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.^[41] 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.^[42]

From November 16–18, Nakamura made his debut at the 2010 World Blitz Championship in Moscow. Despite 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.^[43]

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.^[44] Nakamura's performance ensured that he would officially join the world top ten in January 2011.

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,^[45] but the training ended in December 2011.^[46]

From January 14-30, Nakamura competed in the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee among a field of Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Ian Nepomniachtchi, 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.^[47][48] 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,^[49] 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.^[50] 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.^[51]

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.^[52]

Following his super tournament triumph, Nakamura was given the key to the city of Memphis, Tennessee on February 15, 2011.^[53] 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.^[54]

From July 21–31, Nakamura made his debut at Dortmund; the field consisted of Kramnik, Ponomariov, Lê Quang Liêm, Giri, and Georg Meier.^[55] 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.^[56]

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.^[57]

Starting in 2012, he participated in the Reggio Emilia Tournament, tying for second with Alexander Morozevich and Fabiano Caruana. Nakamura then played in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, finishing fifth.^[58] He won the US Championship in May with a score of 8½, one point ahead of Gata Kamsky.^[59]

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.^[60] He participated in the Biel Chess Festival, finishing third with Anish Giri, behind Carlsen and Wang Hao.^[61] 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.^[62] 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.^[63] 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.^[64] In December he tied for third with Mickey Adams in the London Chess Classic with a +3−1=4 score.^[65] 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.^[66]

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),^[67] Nakamura tweeted that he was focusing on the 2011 World Series of Poker,^[68] in which he played, although busted out on the second day.^[69] Kasparov, who had been training Nakamura at the time, publicly grumbled about his interest in poker.^[70]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/TataSteelChess2013CarlsenNakamura.jpg/960px-TataSteelChess2013CarlsenNakamura.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="350" height="257" data-file-width="4338" data-file-height="3187" />

Nakamura began 2013 with a 7/13 (+3−2=8) result at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, finishing sixth.^[71] 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.^[72]

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.^[73] He then scored 5/11 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki, Greece.^[74] 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).^[75] 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.^[76] 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.^[77]

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.^[78] He then played first board for O.R. Padova in the European Club Championship in Rhodes, Greece and scored 4/6 (+2−0=4).^[79] He defeated current Russian champion Peter Svidler with the black pieces in an extremely sharp King's Indian Defense.^[80] At the World Team Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey, Nakamura led the U.S. team to a fourth-place finish.^[81] His personal record of 4½/7 (+3−1=3) earned him an individual silver medal on board one.^[82] 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.^[83]

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).^[84] 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.^[85] Nakamura finished fourth of the six players in the event, with a 7½/15 score.^[86]

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).^[87] He then played a four-game match against Czech grandmaster David Navara in June and won easily 3½/4.^[88]

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.^[89]

In January, Nakamura won the Gibraltar Chess Masters tournament, scoring 8½/10 (+7−0=3).^[90] In February, Nakamura won the Zurich Chess Challenge after a playoff event to settle a tie.^[91] 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.^[92] That April, Nakamura won his fourth U.S. Chess Championship with a score of 8/11.^[93] 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.^[94] 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.^[95][96]

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.^[97] 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.^[98] 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.^[99] In September 2016, Nakamura was part of the U.S. team that won the 42nd Chess Olympiad that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan.^[100]

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.^[101]

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.^[102] That February, Nakamura participated in the unofficial Chess960 Championship, losing 10–14 to Carlsen.^[103] From May 28 to June 7, he competed in the sixth edition of Norway Chess, placing third with 4½/8 (+1–0=7).^[104] 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.^[105]

Nakamura won the Rapid portion of the inaugural Tata Steel India Chess tournament, held in November 2018 in Kolkata.^[106] He also finished runner-up, losing 1½–½ in a tiebreaker to Viswanathan Anand, in the blitz portion of the same event.^[107][108] From December 11–17, Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana with a score of 18–10^[109] 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.^[110] Nakamura thus won the 2018 Grand Chess Tour.^[110]

In March, Nakamura won his fifth U.S. Chess Championship by a score of 8/11.^[111]

In April, Nakamura won the Bullet Chess Championship hosted by Chess.com.^[112] 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^[113] 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.^[114]

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.^[115]

In early September, Hikaru participated in the Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX^[116] tournament, which featured seven other grandmasters playing a 4-day match in Chess960. Players faced only one opponent through the entire event. Hikaru was paired against Levon Aronian.^[117] 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.^[118]

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.^[119]

Since April 2020, Nakamura participated in the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour with a prize pool of $1 million.^[120] 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".^[121]

In September, Nakamura tied for first with Carlsen in Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX^[122] and finished third in St. Louis Rapid & Blitz.^[123]

After many victories in shorter tournaments on Chess.com, including Titled Tuesday^[124] and Super Swiss,^[125] Nakamura failed in his defense of his U.S. Chess Champion title, finishing seventh. The tournament, which took place online in a rapid format, was won by Wesley So.^[126]

In October, Nakamura held a 77-board charity simultaneous exhibition online, raising around $9,500 for Doctors Without Borders.^[127] 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.^[128]

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.^[129]

From 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.^[130][131]

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.^[132]

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.^[133]

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.^[134]

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.^[135] 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.^[136][137] This was his fourth successive victory in this event.^[138]

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.^[139] 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.^[140]

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.^[141] 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.^[142]

On March 18, Nakamura won the 2022 edition of the Bullet Chess Championship hosted by chess.com, beating Andrew Tang in the final.^[143]

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.^[144] 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.^[145] 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.^[146] This briefly propelled Nakamura to the highest live rapid chess rating on April 1, surpassing Magnus Carlsen,^[147] 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.^[148][149] From June 16 to July 4, Nakamura participated in the 2022 Candidates Tournament, finishing in fourth place with a score of 7½/14.^[150] Had Nakamura drawn or won against Ding Liren in the final round of the tournament, he would have finished second and faced Ian Nepomniachtchi to determine a new World Chess Champion following Carlsen's decision (which was affirmed following the candidates) not to defend his title.

On October 20, Hans Niemann filed a $100 million lawsuit against Nakamura and others (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 2021 World Chess Championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, defeating the latter in the armageddon match.^[151] In December, Nakamura won his fifth straight Speed Chess Championship, defeating Magnus Carlsen 14½ vs. 13½ in the final.^[152] 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.^[153]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/HikaruNakamura23c.jpg/500px-HikaruNakamura23c.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" width="250" height="313" data-file-width="1422" data-file-height="1778" />

In February 2023, Nakamura finished as runner-up in the Airthings Masters, coming in second to Magnus Carlsen.^[154] In March, he secured his first over-the-board victory of the year at the American Cup, defeating GM Wesley So in the final.^[155]

Nakamura won the Chessable Masters in April during the Champions Chess Tour. He overcame Magnus Carlsen in the loser's bracket final and emerged victorious in two matches against Fabiano Caruana to win the grand final.^[156]

Nakamura won Norway Chess 2023 in June by beating Fabiano Caruana in the final round to finish the tournament ½ points in front of him, ending with a score of 16½/27. The tournament used an unusual scoring system that awarded 3 points for a win in the classical games and zero points for a loss in classical. If players drew their classical game, they played an Armageddon game. The Armageddon winner scored 1½ points and the loser scored 1 point.^[157] Nakamura's performance at the tournament also resulted in him being ranked No. 2 in FIDE's July rankings^[158] for the first time since 2015.^[159]

In July, Nakamura won his fourth Bullet Chess Championship title, defeating runner-up Magnus Carlsen in a tight Grand Final match.^[160][161]

Nakamura participated in the Chess World Cup 2023 in August, where he was second seeded. He received a bye win on the first round, won the second round on tiebreaks against Indian grandmaster Karthik Venkataraman with +0−0=2 in Classical and +1−0=1 in rapid, won the third round against Hungarian grandmaster Benjámin Gledura with 1½–½ score in the classical portion but ended up losing to the Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa on tiebreaks with a score of 1–3 (two draws in classical portion and two losses in the rapid portion).^{[citation needed]}

In October and November, Nakamura participated in the FIDE Grand Swiss 2023, finishing in second place with 8/11 points (+5−0=6)^[162] and thus qualifying for the Candidates Tournament 2024.^[163] Vladimir Kramnik made a statement on his Chess.com profile purportedly insinuating that an unnamed high-level player was cheating on November 20. Nakamura believed this post was targeted towards him, and responded with a statement on Twitter reading "Vladimir appears to be referencing my record...is he really accusing me of cheating??? [sic]". Nakamura also expressed disappointment with Ian Nepomniachtchi for reposting Kramnik's claims.^[164][165]

Nakamura played in the Champions Chess Tour Finals in December. He finished fifth in the eight-player field. He compiled a good record in the tournament's regular games (+6−3=9) but a poor showing in the Armageddon games (one win and five losses) prevented a higher finish.^[166] Throughout 2023 Nakamura frequently played in chess.com's Titled Tuesday online blitz tournaments, which usually attracted strong fields, often including five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen. Nakamura led all players with 18 wins in the tournaments during 2023.^[167]

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Hikaru_Nakamura_at_the_Candidates_2024_tournament_%28cropped%29.jpg/500px-Hikaru_Nakamura_at_the_Candidates_2024_tournament_%28cropped%29.jpg 1.5x" style="border-image: none 100% / 1 / 0 stretch; vertical-align: middle; margin: 3px auto; background-color: #ffffff; color: #202122; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 8px); border: 0.666667px solid #c8ccd1;" class="mw-file-element" alt="Nakamura looking over a chess board." width="250" height="337" data-file-width="2115" data-file-height="2847" />

In April, Nakamura played in the Candidates Tournament 2024. He was touted as one of the favourites to win (alongside Fabiano Caruana) by former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand,^[168] but had a slow start to the tournament after losing to Vidit Gujrathi with the white pieces in the second round.^{[169][170][171]} During the eighth round, Nakamura defeated Caruana.^[172]

After losing to Vidit in the ninth round, Nakamura ran off three consecutive victories in rounds ten, eleven and twelve against Nijat Abasov, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja. This put him in a three-way tie for first place with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Gukesh Dommaraju.^[173] In the final two rounds of the tournament Nakamura was held to draws. He finished in second place with a record of 8½/14 (tied with Nepomniachtchi and Caruana on overall score but placing ahead of them due to tiebreaks: better Sonneborn–Berger score and more wins than Caruana, equal Sonneborn–Berger score but more wins than Nepomniachtchi.)^[174]

In May and June Nakamura competed in the Norway Chess tournament against five other grandmasters. He finished second with 15½ points behind Magnus Carlsen at 17½. The tournament was a double round-robin in classical chess, with an Armageddon playoff after each classical draw. A classical win counted for three points, a classical draw and Armageddon win counted for one-and-a-half points, a classical draw and Armageddon loss counted for one point, and a classical loss counted for zero points. Nakamura compiled a +2 record in classical games (+2−0=8) the same as Carlsen, but a better record in Armageddon playoffs gave Carlsen the victory, though Nakamura did defeat Carlsen in one of their individual Armageddon games.^[175]

Nakamura played in the online Chess.com Bullet Chess Championship in June. He defeated grandmasters Christopher Yoo (14½-4½), David Paravyan (13½-5½), Nihal Sarin (19–12) and Daniel Naroditsky (16½–11½) to reach the grand final. In a match marked by personal conflict and technical connection issues, he lost the double elimination final to Alireza Firouzja (17½–12½ and 12½–10½).^[176] In July Nakamura played in the online CrunchLabs Masters tournament on the Champions Chess Tour. He qualified with a 7/9 score in the Swiss play-in but lost a match to Jules Moussard (2–1) and was placed in Division Two of the tournament. He won against Bogdan-Daniel Deac (2½–1½), Maxim Matlakov (1½–½), Vasif Durarbayli (2–0), Vladimir Fedoseev (2–1) and a second match against Moussard (2–1). But he lost another match to Fedoseev (2½–1½) and then lost to Alexander Grischuk (2–1) and was eliminated from the tournament.^[177]

In August Nakamura participated as a wild card in the ten-player St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, part of the Grand Chess Tour. He compiled an even score in the rapid section of the tournament (+2−2=5) and a +3 score in the blitz section (+9−6=3). Overall he finished third in the tournament behind winner Alireza Firouzja and runner-up Wesley So.^[178] Nakamura played in Chess.com's Speed Chess Championship in August and September. He qualified for the in-person semifinals by defeating Jose Martinez (14–8) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (14½–9½) in online matches. He lost his semifinal match to Alireza Firouzja (16–11) but won the consolation match against Hans Niemann (21–9) to take third place in the tournament.^[179]

Nakamura played in the Global Chess League, a rapid-play team event held in London in October. Playing on the top board for the American Gambits team, he compiled a +2 record (+3−1=6) including wins against Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Viswanathan Anand. His team finished fourth in the six-team tournament.^[180] Also in October Nakamura played the Chess 9LX tournament at the St. Louis Chess Club, a ten-player rapid round-robin event in Fischer random chess. His record of 7/9 (+6−1=2) earned second place, but his sole loss against tournament winner Fabiano Caruana cost him the chance at first.^[181]

The World Rapid and Blitz Championships in December were a disappointment for Nakamura. He finished with 7.5/13 in rapid (+5-3=5)^[182] and 8.5/13 in blitz (+6-2=5)^[183] to end well behind the leaders in both events. During 2024 Nakamura frequently played in Chess.com's online Titled Tuesday blitz tournaments. For the year he won more of the tournaments than any other player and earned the site's Titled Cup award for 2024, 4.5 points ahead of five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen.^[184]

Nakamura's first over-the-board event of 2025 was February's Freestyle Chess tournament in Weissenhaus, Germany. This ten-player Fischer Random event consisted of a rapid-play round-robin followed by a series of playoff matches, which were played at classical time limits with rapid and blitz tiebreakers if necessary. Nakamura placed fifth in the round-robin with a +3-1=5 record that included wins against Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer and Vladimir Fedoseev. He then lost his playoff match against Javokhir Sindarov (2.5-1.5) but won matches against Gukesh Dommaraju (2.5-1.5) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2-0) to finish fifth in the tournament.^[185]

Also in February Nakamura played in the online double-elimination Chessable Masters rapid tournament on chess.com. He won matches against Alexander Grischuk (2.5-0.5), Ian Nepomniachtchi (3-0) and Alireza Firouzja (3-2) but lost in the winners bracket final to Magnus Carlsen (2.5-0.5). He then faced Nepomniachtchi again in the losers bracket final. The match went to an Armageddon game where he drew with black and thus earned the victory (1.5-1.5) and a rematch with Carlsen in the tournament grand final.^[186] Nakamura lost the rematch (2.5-1.5) to finish second in the tournament and qualify for the Esports World Cup.^[187]

In March Nakamura played in the six-player Champions Showdown at the Saint Louis Chess Club. This event consisted of matches with games at blitz, rapid and "semi-classical" (60 minutes for the game with a 15-second increment) time limits. Cash prizes were awarded for each game. Nakamura lost his match with Fabiano Caruana (2-1), won his match with Ray Robson (2-1) and drew his match with Levon Aronian (1.5-1.5). He finished fourth on the prize money list with $37,625.^[188]

Later in March Nakamura played in the American Cup, an eight-player double elimination tournament also held at the St. Louis Chess Club. The event featured matches with games at classical, rapid and blitz time limits. He defeated Abhimanyu Mishra (3.5-2.5), Leinier Dominguez (1.5-0.5) and Fabiano Caruana (1.5-0.5) to win the winners bracket. In the tournament grand final he beat Caruana again (1.5-0.5) to take first place in the event.^[189] He also 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.^[190]

Nakamura continued a busy tournament schedule with April's Freestyle Chess tournament in Paris. In this Fischer Random event he placed sixth in the preliminary rapid-play round robin (+4-3=4) and then won knockout matches at classical time limits against Arjun Erigaisi (1.5-0.5) and Vincent Keymer (1.5-0.5) to reach the tournament grand final. He lost the final to Magnus Carlsen (1.5-0.5) to finish second in the event.^[191] In May Nakamura participated in the sixteen-player online Chess.com Classic. He won matches against Levon Aronian (3-2), Ding Liren (2.5-0.5) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (3-2) to reach the winners bracket final against Magnus Carlsen. He lost the match to Carlsen (3-1) and, in an odd turn of events, resigned a winning position against Carlsen in the fourth and final game.^[192] Maxime Vachier-Lagrave then beat Nakamura in the losers bracket final (1.5-0.5) in a match where a power outage in Nakamura's hotel affected play. He thus finished third in the tournament.^[193]

Nakamura's next event was Norway Chess 2025, held in May and June. This was an extremely strong tournament with five of the world's top six ranked players participating. The event was a six-player double round robin with its normal format of classical games followed by Armageddon playoffs in case of a draw. Nakamura compiled a +1 record in classical (+2-1=7) with victories against Fabiano Caruana and reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju. But his poor record in the Armageddon playoffs (two wins and five losses) meant that he finished fourth overall. He expressed satisfaction with the result because it cemented his place as the world's number-two ranked player in classical and thus improved his chances of earning the ratings spot in the 2026 Candidates tournament.^[194]

Later in June Nakamura played as part of team WR Chess in the World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships in London. He compiled strong records in rapid (+6-0=5) and blitz (+11-1=3), including wins against Anish Giri, Richard Rapport and Michael Adams. His team won the blitz title and finished fifth in rapid.^[195]

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. In August 2022, Nakamura was ranked No. 1 on both the FIDE blitz list^[196] and the FIDE rapid list.^[197] He is also strong at bullet chess, a time control giving the players one minute each.^[198] In 2009, Nakamura authored the book Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate.^[199] 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."^[200]

Nakamura has been nicknamed "The H Bomb" because of his explosive style of playing.^[201] Nakamura's long-time second is USCF National Master Kris Littlejohn,^[202] who works with chess engines to prepare lines for Nakamura to play.^[203]

Nakamura has set several "youngest-ever" records in U.S. chess history, including:^[204]

• 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.^[205]

Nakamura has played on the Internet Chess Club (ICC) (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.^[206]

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.^{[200][207][208]} He may play blindfolded or with piece handicaps, such as odds of a queen.^[208] He also reviews his tournament games on stream.^[209][210] In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, chess became significantly more popular on Twitch, with Nakamura widely identified as a significant reason for this.^{[200][208][206][210]} His channel received a tenfold increase in audience size between February and June 2020.^[207] Around August 2020, Nakamura averaged 14,000 concurrent viewers and streamed on Twitch most days.^[211] By September 2020, he had reached 500,000 followers.^[200] Nakamura often plays games using "joke openings" while on stream, including the Bongcloud Attack, the Jerome Gambit and the Botez Gambit.^[212] Nakamura has stated that he prioritizes his streaming career over his chess playing career.^[213]

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.^[206][200] On June 14, 2022, he joined Misfits Gaming as a content creator and influencer.^[214] On February 17, 2025, Nakamura signed with Team Falcons, who are rumored to have connections to the Saudi Arabian royal family.^[215]

Nakamura operates a Discord server named "Naka's PogUniversity" and has a Twitter account.^[200][206] Nakamura also has a YouTube channel, which has 2,620,000 subscribers as of November 2024,^[216] up from 78,900 subscribers in the beginning of 2020.^[217] 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.^[200] Nathan Grayson of Kotaku called it a "combination of teacherly wisdom, galaxy-brained skills, and uncommon expressiveness".^[210]

Nakamura has also coached beginner chess players on his Twitch platform, including the streamer xQc.^[210] 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.^[218] At its peak, the tournament was the most-watched channel on Twitch for a short period, with 63,000 viewers.^[200] 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.^[210] 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.^[219] 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.^{[220][unreliable source?]}

Nakamura appeared as himself in season 5, episode 2 of the Showtime series Billions, which premiered May 10, 2020.^[221] 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.^[222] During his chess streams Nakamura occasionally discusses stock market investing and general financial topics.^[223]

He married Atousa Pourkashiyan, a Woman Grandmaster, in 2023

Who would you rather? Magnus Or Hikaru?