Who else agrees that Hikaru Nakamura is the best player right now?

It is very unfortunate that he has such a losing streak against Magnus Carlsen.

However, he is an excellent player and improving quickly :)

Best of the west! :)

hahaha for sure, my friend :)

The quickest draw in the land! haha... just playin :)

no that's the kid.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr9xVmCL0bA

haha

nice pic!

I'm kind of a Naka fan, I'm just afraid he doesn't have what it takes to beat Carlsen in slow, or "tournament" time controls. 

I think that had this thread been posted one or two months ago it would have been compelling, but it seems to me that Carlsen has recently stood up in his rightful podium once more.

So no, but maybe second, although Giri is also trailing very close.

This is why they have the candidates tournament.Right NOW you would have to rate Giri higher.In reality Carlsen is still the best right now. Look at how many players have been number 2 while Carlsen has maintained his number 1 ranking.

I know soulpower74 Giri rating has gotten higher recently.

I think that Naka is good, but the ability to beat Magnus currently I think not. Maybe soon...

This is a joke, right?

He is not even in top 5 in classical time control right now or ever was. He is way below that league, playing good chess on internet in bullet never made anyone the best player.

Carolyn Nakamura maybe.

Ummm...he was rated #2 in the world in classical only a few weeks ago, Sherlock.

Enjoy your short trolling lifespan.

Naka had a good year, but hardly better than Carlsen's. Behind Carlsen I'd say five-six players are more or less equal fighting for the #2 spot and Naka is one of them.

I knew that him being ranked #2 in the list was going to come up. But ranking means very less at that level, Aronian was about to fall out of top 10 before sinquefield cup but everyone knew he was top 3 in Classical chess. Kramnik's rating has fallen as low as 2710 but no one ever doubted his ability.

Anand and Kramnik were consistently ranked below Carlsen around 2011-12, but they consistently had a positive score against Magnus in classical chess.

This year Kramnik's ranking shot up to 2 after the LCC even though he didn't even participate in the grandchess tour, which was supposed to have the strongest SGMs. and so on so Its not always about ratings and rankings, they reflect very little.

I'm not in a position to judge, but Nakamura's 2015 was phenomenal. I don't think he's demonstrated being a stronger player than Carlsen, but then again, Carlsen is world champion and world no. 1 for a reason!  It's notable that he's lost very few games this year (especially before August: he only lost one game!!), and he seems to play less riskily, in my uninformed opinion. It's been good watching Nakamura's chess this year, and I think he's got a good shot at winning the Candidates. 

Hey aina0, let's end this argument here hahaha.  This is all opinion based, and I feel that Nakamura is the best at the moment.  It is true, and fact, however, that the top 10 GMs are all extremely close.