Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura (2015)
Association	United States
Born	December 9, 1987 Hirakata
title	International Master (2001) Grand Master (2003)
Current  Elo rating	2736 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2816 (October 2015)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Hikaru Nakamura ( Japanese 中 村 光 , Nakamura Hikaru ; born December 9, 1987 in Hirakata , Osaka ) is an American chess grandmaster . He was also world champion in Chess960 in 2009 . At the 2016 World Chess Championship candidates tournament , he came seventh.

Life

Nakamura was born in Japan to a Japanese father, Shuichi Nakamura, and a US mother, Carolyn Merrow Nakamura. When he was two years old he came to the USA with his parents. His parents divorced in 1990. He learned the rules of chess at the age of seven from his stepfather, Sunil Weeramantry , a FIDE master who played for Sri Lanka and a well-known chess trainer in the USA . Nakamura lives in Sunrise, Florida .

Early chess career

Nakamura (2003)

Hikaru played his first tournament in February 1995. At the age of ten years and four months, Nakamura became a national champion, making him the youngest chess master in the USA of all time. 2001 won Nakamura, the US Junior Championship in Tulsa and in the same year youth vice champion of the category U14 in Oropesa del Mar . In 2002 he was split first in Bermuda , as well as at the Pan American Youth Championships in La Paz . In 2003, at the age of 15, he became the youngest American grandmaster, beating Bobby Fischer's 1958 record. That year he was tied for first at the prestigious Foxwoods Open in Ledyard, Connecticut . In the same year he was split 3rd-8th at the Pan American Championships in Buenos Aires . and thus qualified for the FIDE World Championship 2004 in Tripoli , where he was eliminated in the round of 16 against the eventual finalist Michael Adams . In the same year he defeated the Ukrainian Sergei Karjakin clearly in a competition in Cuernavaca with 4.5: 1.5 (+4 = 1 −1).

Establishment at the top

Nakamura (2009)

Nakamura (2012)

The year 2005 was particularly successful for Nakamura and laid the foundation for its permanent establishment as a top player in the US and one of the leading players in the world: in December 2004 he won in San Diego , the national championship of the United States in 2005. He won again the Foxwoods Open and the World Open in Philadelphia (divided). At the young championship tournament in Lausanne , he came second after losing to Andrij Wolokitin in the final . In 2006 Nakamura played for the US team for the first time at the Chess Olympiad in Turin , where his result on the third board (7 points from eleven games) made a decisive contribution to the bronze medal of the USA. In the same year he won the North American Open in Las Vegas . In January 2007 he finished second (after Vladimir Akopjan ) in Gibraltar and in October that same year he celebrated a great victory in Barcelona , where he scored 7 points from nine games, a category 15 round- robin , ahead of Leinier Domínguez (6/9) and Vüqar Həşimov (5.5 / 9) won. In January 2008 he won the Gibelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar after a play-off against Bu Xiangzhi , in November the rapid chess tournament in Cap d'Agde after a final victory against Wassyl Ivanchuk . In the same year he played on the second board for the USA in the national team at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden , where he scored 6.5 / 10 (+5 = 3 −2). As in 2006, Nakamura again won the bronze medal with the US team. In May 2009 Nakamura won the US Championship for the second time, held in St. Louis . At the Chess Classic Mainz from July 27th to August 2nd, he took Lewon Aronjan the Chess960 world champion title . Nakamura proved his class in blitz chess in November at a blitz tournament in Oslo , where he beat Magnus Carlsen 3-1 in the final . In March 2010 he won the 11th Dos Hermanas blitz tournament held online in the Internet Chess Club , in which the time limit was three minutes per game. In August 2010 Nakamura qualified at the NH Chess Tournament after a playoff against Anish Giri for the Melody Amber 2011 tournament . In January 2011 Nakamura won the Tata Steel chess tournament . In May 2011 he won a match against Ruslan Ponomarjow in St. Louis with 6.5: 3.5. Six games with tournament time (+2 = 3 −1) and four rapid chess games (+2 = 2) were played. In May 2012 he won the US championship for the third time with 8.5 points from eleven games.

Elo development

Elo development

Games against chess engines

In August 2014 he lost 1: 3 in a competition against the strongest chess engine Stockfish . He was able to use the Rybka program in two games, and received a pawn handicap in two other games . Again in January 2016 he did not manage to win against the Engine Komodo - despite not inconsiderable specifications - and he had to admit defeat with 1.5: 2.5. Sam Copeland (Chess.comNews) compared the "brave" but futile resistance to the historic battles of the Alamo and Thermopylae .

National team

Nakamura competed with the United States team in the 2006 , 2008 , 2010 , 2012 and 2014 Chess Olympiads , finishing third with the team in 2006 and 2008. He took part in the World Team Championship in 2010 and 2013. He achieved second place with the team in 2010, while he achieved the best individual results in 2010 and the second best result on the top board in 2013.

societies

In the Austrian Bundesliga , Nakamura played in the 2008/09 season for the master Husek Vienna , with whom he also took part in the European Club Cup in 2009. In France he played for La Tour Sarrazine Antibes in 2008 and in 2009 for the master Évry Grand Roque . In Spain he played for Sestao Naturgas Energia XT in 2010 , in Italy Nakamura plays for the team from Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova , with whom he competed three times in the European Club Cup. In the United States Chess League , he played in 2007 for the New York Knights , in 2008 and 2009 for the Seattle Sluggers and in 2010 and 2011 for the St. Louis Arch Bishops .

Play style

Nakamura is known for his uncompromising style of attack. In English-speaking chess circles, his nickname is therefore " H Bomb ". At the beginning of his career in particular, he did not shy away from opening variations that are generally viewed as dubious or even bad. For example, he started several tournament games against grandmasters with the Parhams attack, which is usually played by beginners . After his own declaration on the occasion of his tournament victory in Wijk aan Zee in 2011, he switched to more serious openings. In early November 2011 it was announced that Nakamura had been working with Garry Kasparov , who had previously trained Magnus Carlsen, since December 2010 .

Nakamura is considered one of the world's best bullet players on chess servers .

Streaming

In spring 2020 Nakamura was the coach and commentator of the chess event "pogchamps", in which many popular streamers took part. The streamers were mostly chess laymen and were prepared by successful chess professionals like Nakamura and Levy Rozman before they competed against each other. As a result, Nakamura gained a lot of attention, especially among new people interested in chess.

Game example

Krasenkow-Nakamura

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Final position after 28.… Bc8

Krasenkow -Nakamura 0: 1

Barcelona, ​​October 19, 2007

English opening , A14

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. 0–0 0–0 6. b3 a5 7. Nc3 c6 8. d4 Nbd7 9. Qc2 b6 10. e4 Ba6 11. Nd2 c5 12. exd5 cxd4 13. Nb5 exd5 14. Nxd4 Rc8 15. Re1 b5 16. Bb2 Re8 17. Qd1 bxc4 18. bxc4 Qb6 19. Rb1 dxc4 20. Nc6 Rxc6 21. Bxf6 Qxf2 + 22. Kxf2 Bc5 + 23. Kf3 Txf6 + 24. Kg4 Ne5 + 25.Kg5 Rg6 + 26.Kh5 f6 27.Rxe5 Rxe5 + 28.Kh4 Bc8 0: 1

Works

• Hikaru Nakamura, Bruce Harper, Yasser Seirawan : Bullet Chess. One minute to mate. Russell Enterprises, Milford 2009, ISBN 978-1-888690-67-5 .

literature

• Howard Goldowsky: Engaging pieces . Doawood & Brighton, Canton 2007, ISBN 978-0-9790488-2-1 , pp. 49-64 (interview with Nakamura and Weeramantry).
• Karsten Müller, Raymund Stolze: Fight and Victory with Hikaru Nakamura . Edition Olms, 2012, ISBN 978-3-283-01022-5 .

Web links

Commons : Hikaru Nakamura  - collection of images

• Hikaru Nakamura at the World Chess Federation FIDE (English)
• Homepage (English)
• Interview (video) with Nakamura after his victory at the US championships in 2009
• [1] (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jeff Pearlman: Only 14, Hikaru Nakamura is the best young US player - 17/17/01 - SI Vault. Sportsillustrated.cnn.com, December 17, 2001, accessed February 2, 2014 . 
2. ↑ myheritage.dk
3. ↑ Kelsey Whipple: Hikaru Nakamura is the next Bobby Fischer - and the reason St. Louis is suddenly the epicenter of American chess - - News - St. Louis. Riverfront Times, July 21, 2011, accessed February 2, 2014 . 
4. ↑ A Master of the Slow Game Who's a Speed ​​Demon, Too on nytimes.com, accessed on May 6, 2019.
5. ↑ Report on the homepage of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011 , accessed on June 25, 2015.
6. ↑ Numbers according to FIDE Elo lists. Data sources: fide.com (period since 2001), olimpbase.org (period 1971 to 2001)
7. ↑ Hikaru Nakamura's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
8. ↑ Results of the United States team at the 2014 Chess Olympiad on chess-results.com
9. ↑ Hikaru Nakamura's results at the World Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
10. ↑ ^{a b} Hikaru Nakamura's results at European Club Cups on olimpbase.org (English)
11. ↑ Malcolm Pein: The H Bomb explodes , The Telegraph, October 24, 2007.
12. ↑ tatasteelchess.com Literally: “ I have become more serious about chess. No more 2nd Qh5, no more crazy openings for me. ”
13. ↑ Now it's official: Kasparov is training Nakamura , Chessbase.com, November 1, 2011.
14. ↑ Social Blade Statistics