Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster. Nakamura is a 5 time U.S. Chess Champion, winning the tournament in 2005, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2019. He has represented the United States at six Chess Olympiads, winning two team bronze medals and the first team gold in 40 years at the 2016 Olympiad. In May 2014, when FIDE began publishing its official rapid and blitz chess ratings, Nakamura was ranked number one in the world on both lists. He has also placed first in the Gibraltar Chess Festival 3 times: 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2018, he displayed a dominating performance in the Grand Chess Tour, winning the Paris GCT, Saint louis Rapid & Blitz, as well as the entire 2018 tour. As chess moved online in 2020, Nakamura became the most popular chess streamer in the world, and was an integral part of expanding the popularity of chess online. In the same year, he tied for first place in the 2020 Champion’s Showdown: Chess 9LX. In 2021, when chess started to return to over-the-board, Nakamura participated in many top level tournaments, and winning the 2021 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz. Most recently, Nakamura won the first leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin, and qualified for the 2022 FIDE Candidates.