Disgusting Video

To be completely fair though, it was Levy Rozman that actually ranked Hikaru in the video, probably to flatter him. In the end Hikaru lowered himself down. 

Completely agree and in bad taste. I like watching his speedruns and stuff, but he should have let Levi do all the contemporary players (or left them out of it).

Yeah, it was Levy who ranked him...

asterisk asterisk asterisk 

lol

Although I will say Hikaru seemed bashful. He is a terrific player of course with a tremendous reach to the game, but by his own admission he is basically unlucky. He certainly can't be undisputed #1 because...well his highest ever classical rating was #2. And if Fabi is a legend, he's gotta be below that since he has never competed for a WC. It doesn't help he is probably the 3rd best player in his own country currently. Again, terrific influence for the game, but when compared alongside other super GMs and all-timers, he doesn't match up (yet, who knows he could have a mid 30s resurgence, pulling for him to do so!)

Real talk.

@Llama, I was watching the stream live. Multiple times both Levi and Hikaru stated that the list was based off of not just strength, but also their impact on  chess. 

Hikaru is the #1 bullet and blitz player, and has been for quite a while now. He's acted in shows, been on the news, streams on Twitch with over 500K+ followers and usually over 10K+ concurrent viewers. Hikaru helped "humanize" super GMs.

You have to admit, Hikaru's impact on chess has been pretty big. In future years, who will people remember more: Caruana, So, or Hikaru?

Hikaru.

So why isn't QxC on the list?

Why isn't agadmator?

Agadmator has more social medial presence and an ESPN news articles written about him

https://www.espn.com/chess/story/_/id/29591948/meet-antonio-radic-creator-agadmator-most-popular-chess-channel-youtube

But Naka doesn't include him because fk anyone with a rating below 2800 right? (Never mind that Hikaru hasn't had a 2800 rating in years.)

The truth is that Naka breaks his arm jerking himself off on stream, but no one is impressed except a Twitch following whose average rating is under 1000.

You ask how Hikaru Nakamura will be remembered years from now? Consider that only 5% of his fans will be playing chess 6 months from now, so it's a non starter.

Ask real players to rate him.

Ask Anand to rate him. Ask Kramnik to rate him. Ask Kasparov to rate him.

No one rates him above Caruana because that's stupid.

Hikaru did not want to spoil his one opportunity for self-promotion, even though it is farce.

And look, I don't hate the guy. Obviously I'm checking his youtube channel for new videos otherwise I'd never have seen this.

But rating himself above Caruana is shameless.

Writing a speech for Levy to read on stream that rates him as, and I quote, a god of chess is shameless.

Absolutely shameless.

And, as a consequnece, I honestly have no reason to check his channel anymore.

I was interested in the opening tier list series, but disappointingly they covered all rating ranges except mine.

They covered GMs.

They covered literal beginners.

And then they defined intermediate as 1200 to 1800.

So where the hell am I?

"On my own" is the answer to that question.

And soon after finishing that series he rates himself as a literal legend.

Well yeah, I think it's time for me to say goodbye to his channel.

Not that he will care. Not only am I a chess player, but I'm also over the age of 12, which means I'm doubly not part of his target demographic

Being American definitely helps. Fischer is undispitably one of the best players ever, but other world champions like Karpov and Kasparov were on his level, but not nearly as well known among "casual" fans.

Also, Nakamura's reputation for being a blitz and bullet aficionado already gave him a big following back in 2008, so online streaming was a natural step for him. He also has a very outgoing personality and is quite eloquent so he can connect with viewers better and explain concepts while relating to real life anecdotes and interesting stories.

He might not be in the Top 10 Classical ratings list right now, but he has arguably done more for popularizing chess than most grandmasters have, especially in this day and age of social media proliferation.

Perhaps Hikaru was joking?

Oh yeah, sure.

Ask around. Hikaru Nakamura has a long history of being both humble and likable.

/sarcasm

QxC and pogchamps has unarguably done more, but isn't on the list at all.

Why not?

In other words, he lowers the standard of actual chess player just low enough to include himself. 

He's the worst chess player on his list.

But then he raises the threshold of "impact among non-players" just high enough to exclude players like Caruana... who is well known in the US among chess players, of course, and has been mentioned in news articles much more recently than Hikaru. For example the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/sports/bobby-fischer-chess-caruana.html

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In other words, like I said at the beginning: ask real chess players

Ask Anand, ask Kramnik, ask Kasparov.

Ask people above 2700.;

Hell, ask people above 1200.

No one rates Hikaru as a "god" except 3 factions:

1) simp-Levy,
2) Hikaru's wildest fantasies and
3) Newf**s on Twitch.

Hikaru Nakamura has a long history of being an unlikeable brat.

But since that's before most if his fans were born, what they see is the new Nakamura.

Which is great. I'm glad he has matured a little. After all he's over the age of 30 these days.

And I wish him success. He's currently one of (if not the # 1) leading ambassador for the game.

But none of this means I'll overlook my absolute disgust when he rates himself as a God of chess and/or rates himself above Caruana.

It's probably only a subject of his denial, realizing no matter how hard he tries, he cannot reach the peak. For someone that lives for chess, this might be frustrating. 

In all honesty, Naka probably realized this 5 or so years ago.

That doesn't stop Carlsen from ribbing him about his enormously arrogant Sauron tweet

https://twitter.com/gmhikaru/status/402632662663176192?lang=en

https://twitter.com/magnuscarlsen/status/1296524793974599683?lang=en

Just for context... Carlsen broke the 2800 rating when he was only 18 years old. And since then he has never dipped below 2800.

Nakamura, by comparison, only broke 2800 once, at age 27 and then quickly went back under 2800.

Carlsen was rated world #1 at age 19. Naka has never been rated world #1.

But oh, because some little kids subscribe to his Twitch channel he thinks he can rate himself among the likes of Anand. A 5 time world champ. A living legend.

What a fking bad joke.

Maybe if Naka stopped looking at the chat and learn some patience, he might improve