Hikaru Nakamura's playing style

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 and the FIDE rapid list.He is also strong at bullet chess, a time control giving the players one minute each. In 2009, Nakamura authored the book Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate. 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."

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

Nakamura's long-time second is USCF National Master Kris Little John, who works with chess engines to prepare lines for Nakamura to play.