Hikaru Nakamura
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the football player with a similar name, see Haruki Nakamura.
- This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
| Hikaru Nakamura | |
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| Full name | Hikaru Nakamura |
| Country |  United States |
| Born | December 9, 1987 Hirakata, Japan |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2715 (No. 24 on the November 2009 FIDE ratings list) |
| Peak rating | 2735 (September 2009) |
Hikaru Nakamura, (中村光 Nakamura Hikaru, born December 9, 1987 in Hirakata) is an American chess Grandmaster (GM) and the current United States Chess Champion.
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[edit] Early life
Nakamura was born in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, to a Japanese father and an American mother. At the age of two, he moved with his parents to the United States. He began playing chess prior to the age of five and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry.
At age 10 years and 79 days, Nakamura achieved the title of chess master from the United States Chess Federation (USCF), becoming the youngest American ever to earn the title and breaking the record previously set by Vinay Bhat; Nakamura's record stood until 2008 when Nicholas Nip achieved master at the age of 9 years and 11 months. In 1999, Nakamura won the Laura Aspis Prize, given annually to the top USCF rated player under the age of 13. In 2003, at age 15 years and 79 days, Nakamura solidified his reputation as a chess prodigy, becoming the youngest American to earn the grandmaster title, breaking by three months the record of Bobby Fischer. In 2007, Fabiano Caruana beat this record.
[edit] Over-the-board chess
Nakamura is generally regarded as an aggressive player who is reluctant to draw games early, having once said in an interview that "there is no point of taking draws".[1] He prefers instead to exploit all prospective winning chances, giving him a style of play described by the U.S. Chess Federation as marked by "astonishing creativity...relentless determination...[the making] of unexpected moves and a will to win".
Formerly a resident of White Plains, New York, Nakamura often played in the weekly New York Masters chess tournament at the Marshall Chess Club, which he won several times.
In April 2004 Nakamura achieved a fourth-place finish in the "B" group at the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee.
Nakamura qualified for the 2004 world chess championship, contested in Tripoli, Libya, and reached the fourth round, defeating grandmasters Sergey Volkov, Aleksej Aleksandrov, and Alexander Lastin before falling to England's Michael Adams, the tournament's third-seeded participant and eventual runner-up.
On June 20, 2005, Nakamura was selected as the 19th Frank Samford Chess Fellow, receiving a grant of $32,000 to further his chess education and competition.[2]
Nakamura won the 2005 U.S. Chess Championship (held in November and December 2004), scoring seven points over nine rounds to tie grandmaster Alex Stripunsky for first place. Nakamura defeated Stripunsky in two straight rapid chess playoff games to claim the title and become the youngest national champion since Fischer. Nakamura finished the tournament without a loss and, in the seventh round, defeated grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, then the nation's top-ranked player.
Following that victory, Nakamura played a challenge match dubbed the "Duelo de Jóvenes Prodigios" in Mexico against Ukrainian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and defeated his fellow prodigy, 4.5-1.5.
In November and December 2005 Nakamura entered the FIDE World Chess Cup in Khanty, Russia, seeded 28th (of 128 players) but failed to advance beyond the first round. He lost each of his two games to Indian grandmaster Surya Ganguly.
In 2006 Nakamura helped the US team win the bronze medal in the International Chess Olympiad at Turin, playing third board behind Gata Kamsky and 2006 US Champion Alexander Onischuk.
In January 2007 Nakamura shared second place in the GibTelecom Masters in Gibraltar.[3] He placed joint first in the tournament the following year, finishing with five straight wins to tie with Chinese GM Bu, whom he then proceeded to beat in the rapidplay play off.[4]
In October 2007 Nakamura won the Magistral D'Escacs in Barcelona[5] and the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament.[6]
Nakamura won the 2008 Finet Chess960 Open (Mainz).[7] In November 2008, he won the Cap d'Agde Rapid Tournament in Cap d'Agde, defeating Anatoly Karpov in the semi-finals and Vassily Ivanchuk in the finals.[8] In February 2009 he came joint third at the 7th Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar, again finishing strongly with 4½/5 to end the event on 7½/10.
Nakamura won the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship (St Louis, MO, May 2009), scoring 7/9 to take clear first ahead of 17-year-old GM-elect Robert Hess, who shared second with 6½/9.[9]
In July 2009, Nakamura beat Ruslan Ponomariov in a blitz playoff to win the Donostia-San Sebastian Chess Festival. In August 2009, Nakamura became the 960 World Chess Champion, beating GM Levon Aronian 3.5-0.5 in Mainz, Germany.
[edit] Other
Nakamura is very skilled at blitz chess, and has been called "easily the best blitz player in America"[1] and "one of the best blitz players in the world."[10]
Nakamura is well known in the chess community for playing on the Internet regularly. He plays primarily on two chess sites: Internet Chess Club ('Smallville') and Playchess ('Star Wars'). He is the strongest bullet, blitz and standard player on the server and he has set many rating records under different categories.
Nakamura has served as a commentator and game annotator, most prominently on the ChessNinja website, operated by chess author Mig Greengard.
Nakamura has been described as having an uncommon enthusiasm for chess and as being much more approachable than other players of his ability. For instance, just after winning his first U.S. Championship in 2005, he played numerous 1-minute games with all comers in the lobby of the hotel where the competition had taken place.[11]
Nakamura attended Dickinson College for a short while in Pennsylvania as a member of the class of 2010. He is also an avid hockey fan, and frequently attends games of the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks.
[edit] Sample game
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The following game is Nakamura - Novikov, played in the 29th New York Masters 2002. Nakamura's annotations are given along with the text.
- 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 b5 8.Qd2 Nbd7 9.g4 Nb6 10.0-0-0 Bb7 11.Nb3 Rc8 12.Na5 Ba8 13.a4!?
This rare line has only been played two times, both games were draws. [ 13.g5 Nfd7 14.a4 b4 15.Na2 Nxa4 16.Bxa6 Qxa5 17.Bxc8 Ndb6=/+ Perez-Novikov, Aosta Open Italy 2002]
- 13...Nc4
[ 13...d5 14.g5 Nfd7 15.exd5 Bxd5 16.axb5 Bb4 17.Nc6 Bxc6 18.bxc6 Rxc6 19.Bxb6 Rxb6 20.Qd4 0-0 21.Na4! Rb8 22.Qxd7 Qxg5+ 23.f4 Qxf4+ 24.Kb1+/- Andreev-Voitsekhovsky, 2000]
- 14.Nxc4 bxc4 15.Qd4 Qc7 16.g5 Nd7 17.f4
[ 17.h4 e5 18.Qa7 Qxa7 19.Bxa7 h6 20.Bh3+/= De la Villa Garcia-Suba, Benasque Open 1995]
- 17...h6 18.g6!?
The idea behind sacking the pawn is to weaken the e6 and g6 pawns, and force black to move his king to f7. [ 18.gxh6 Rxh6 19.f5 Rh7 ( 19...Rh4 20.fxe6 fxe6 21.Bf2 Rh7 22.Bg3!+/= ) 20.fxe6 ]
- 18...fxg6
Novikov accepts the challenge. Perhaps f5 was better because once he takes on g6 his pieces get tied down, and black ends up with a very passive position. [ 18...f5!? 19.Bg2 Nf6~~ ]
- 19.Rg1 Kf7
[ 19...e5?! 20.Qd2 g5 ( 20...exf4 21.Bxf4 Qb6 22.Rxg6 Rb8 23.b3 cxb3 24.Re6+ Kf7 25.Bc4+/- ; 20...Qb7 21.Qd5! Qxd5 22.Nxd5+/= ) 21.fxg5 hxg5 22.Nd5+/= ]
- 20.f5 gxf5
[ 20...exf5 21.exf5 gxf5 22.Bh3-> ]
- 21.exf5 e5 22.Qh4?!
Missing a chance to get a winning position. [ 22.Qg4! Nf6 23.Qg6+ Ke7 24.Bg2+/- ]
- 22...Nf6 23.Be2 Ke8 24.Rg6 Qf7 25.Qg3 Rb8 26.a5! Bc6 27.Bb6 h5
This is the only move which makes any sense here, but it allows White to win an exchange. Maybe Novikov felt like giving up the exchange to get some counterplay because if he does not play h5 White has all the play.
- 28.Qh4 d5 29.Qg3 Qe7 30.Bd4! Rxb2[] 31.Kxb2 exd4 32.Rxd4 Qa3+ 33.Kb1 Bd6?
[ 33...Qb4+ 34.Kc1 Bd6~~ After the game, when I analysed with Novikov, he suggested this line. I did not find anything which was winning for White, and I think that Black is at least even in this position if not better.]
- 34.Qe3+ Kd8 (see diagram)
- 35.Nxd5!!
Clearly Novikov did not see this brilliant tactical shot as he used up most of his time trying to come up with a good move. In the end he had to settle for a losing endgame down an exchange.
- 35...Qxe3
[ 35...Bxd5 36.Qxa3 Bxa3 37.Bxc4 Bc5 38.Rd3+- ; 35...Qxa5 36.Nxf6 Qe1+ 37.Qc1+- ; 35...Nxd5 36.Qxa3 Bxa3 37.Rxc6+- ]
- 36.Nxe3 Kc7 37.Rxg7+ Nd7 38.Nxc4 Rb8+ 39.Nb6 Re8 40.Bf3 Re1+ 41.Ka2 Ra1+!
Desperation
- 42.Kxa1 Be5 43.c3 Bxg7 44.Bxc6 Bxd4 45.cxd4 1-0
[ 45.cxd4 Kxc6 46.d5+ Kd6 47.Nxd7 Kxd7 48.f6+- ]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b "GM Hikaru Nakamura". Accessed October 16, 2006
- ^ 2005 Samford Chess Fellow
- ^ Akopian wins GibTel Masters in Gibraltar, Accessed April 9, 2007
- ^ "2008 Gibtelecom Chess Festival". http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2008/index.html. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ^ Nakamura wins the Magistral D'Escacs, Accessed October 27, 2007
- ^ Nakamura wins the Corsican circuit rapid chess tournament, Accessed November 03, 2007
- ^ Chessvine Article, "GM Hikaru Nakamura wins the Finet Chess960 Open (Mainz)"
- ^ Hikaru Nakamura wins Cap d'Agde, Accessed November 2, 2008
- ^ Hikaru Nakamura wins 2009 US Chess Championship
- ^ "Five years of Playchess.com". Accessed October 16, 2006
- ^ Daaim Shabazz. "Why Nakamura's Victory is Good for Chess". December 9, 2004
| Preceded by Alexander Shabalov |
United States Chess Champion 2005 |
Succeeded by Alexander Onischuk |
| Preceded by Yury Shulman |
United States Chess Champion 2009 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
[edit] External links
- Hikaru Nakamura's Official Website
- FIDE rating card for Hikaru Nakamura
- Hikaru Nakamura player profile at ChessGames.com
- Play through Nakamura's 2005 US Championship Games
