Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura (Japanese中 村 光, Hikaru Nakamura; born December 9, 1987 in Hirakata ) is an American chess grandmaster of Japanese descent. In addition, he is the reigning World Champion in Chess960.

Life

Nakamura was the son of a Japanese father and an American mother in Japan to the world. As a two year old, he came with his parents to the United States. From his stepfather, Sunil Weeramantry, a renowned chess coach in the United States, he learned the age of seven (together with his elder brother Asuka ) the rules of chess. Nakamura lives in White Plains ( New York).

Early Chess Career

His first tournament played Hikaru in February 1995. Already at the age of ten years and four months Nakamura was National Champion and was the youngest chess champion of the United States of all time. 2001 won Nakamura, the U.S. Junior Championship in Tulsa and in the same year youth vice world champion in the category U14 in Oropesa del Mar. In 2002, he was tied for first in Bermuda, as in the Pan American Junior Championships in La Paz In 2003, he was the age of 15 the youngest American grandmaster and thus undercutting the record set by Bobby Fischer from the year 1958. He was split this year first at the prestigious Foxwoods Open in Ledyard (Connecticut). In the same year he was split in the Pan American Championships in Buenos Aires 3 -8. and thus qualified for the World Chess Championship 2004 in Tripoli, where he first retired in the second round to eventual runner-up world champion Michael Adams. In the same year he defeated in a competition in Cuernavaca the Ukrainian Sergei Karjakin significantly with 4.5 to 1.5 ( 4, -1, = 1).

Establishment at the top

The year 2005 was particularly successful for Nakamura and laid the foundation stone for its permanent establishment as a top player in the U.S. and one of the leading players in the world: . Already in December 2004, he won in San Diego, the national championship of the United States for the year 2005, he again won the Foxwoods Open and the World Open in Philadelphia (divided). When Young Masters tournament in Lausanne, he finished second after a final defeat by Andrei Volokitin. 2006 Nakamura first played for the U.S. team at the Chess Olympiad in Turin, where his result on the third board (7 points from eleven games) decisively contributed to the bronze medal of the United States. In the same year he won the North American Open in Las Vegas. In January 2007 he became shared second place (after Vladimir Akopjan ) in Gibraltar, and celebrated in the same year in October, a major victory in Barcelona, ​​with 7 points from nine games, a round-robin tournament of category 15, before Leinier Domínguez ( 6/9) where he and Vüqar Həşimov (5.5 / 9) won. In January 2008, he won the Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar to stitch the fight against Bu Xiangzhi, in November the rapid chess tournament in Cap d' Agde to a final victory against Vasyl Ivanchuk. In the same year he played on the second board for the USA National Team at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden, where he 6,5 / 10 ( 5 = 3 -2 ) achieved. Nakamura won the U.S. team again, as in 2006, the bronze medal. In May 2009, Nakamura won for the second time the U.S. Championship, aligned in Saint Louis. In the Chess Classic Mainz from 27 July to 2 August he took Levon Aronian from the Chess960 World Champion title. His class in the blitz showed Nakamura in November in a blitz tournament in Oslo, in which he won with 3-1 against Magnus Carlsen in the final. In March 2010 he won the discharged online on the Internet Chess Club 11th Dos Hermanas blitz tournament, in which the cooling-off period was three minutes per game. In August 2010, Nakamura qualified in the NH Chess Tournament by tag battle against Anish Giri for the tournament Melody Amber 2011. In January 2011, Nakamura won the Tata Steel Chess tournament. In May 2011 he won in St. Louis a match against Ruslan Ponomariov with 6.5 to 3.5. Here, six games were tournament reflection ( 2 = 3 -1 ) and four rapid games ( 2 = 2) played. In May 2012, he won with 8.5 points from eleven games for the third time the U.S. Championship.

Game style

Nakamura is known for its uncompromising attacking style. In English chess circles his nickname is therefore "H Bomb". Especially at the beginning of his career, he also did not shrink from opening variations, which are generally regarded as doubtful or even bad. So he began, for example, several tournament games against grandmasters with the otherwise most played by beginners Parham's attack. According to his own statement on the occasion of his tournament victory in Wijk aan Zee 2011, he has but passed into more serious openings. Early November 2011 it was announced that Nakamura Since December 2010, working with Garry Kasparov, who had previously trained Magnus Carlsen.

Nakamura applies to chess servers as one of the world's best players Bullet. In 2009 he published along with Bruce Harper, the book Bullet Chess (ISBN 978-1-888690-67-5 ).

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