Notable Nakamura

Just last week, at the 2009 US Chess Championship, Japanese chess prodigy Hikaru Nakamura made a highly anticipated comeback as national champion. I find it interesting for a Japanese to top the US Championship.

The 21 year old chess celebrity had, as a junior, broke every age-group record set by Bobby Fischer, other than that of being the youngest U.S. Champion (which the latter attained at fourteen.) Hikaru Nakamura had actually won the national championship once at the age of 16. In the picture posted, he has this killer look, doesn't he? But someone once said, u have to be ready to kill to win. Was it Nigel Short? Anyway it's a nice candid shot.

His contemporaries describe him as an aggressive player with a relentless will to win; after all, he had once said during an interview that there is no point in drawing games. This is surely an admirable attitude and to many sponsors, Nakamura has to be a dream come true for them.

One thing which Nakamura had conveyed in his interviews that I totally admire, is that he is not fixated with ratings. FIDE (pronouced fee-day and the french acronym for the supreme body responsible for the organization of chess and its championships at global and continental levels, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee,) updates and maintain ELO ratings for semi- and full time professional chess players. Just like handicap rating for golfers, the ELO rating represents an achievement, and a good idea of the sportsman strength, but not something to be over glorified or prided with.

Besides his uncommon enthusiasm for chess, he is known to be surprisingly approachable for a chess player of his level. Quoting from an article "Nakamura is one of the few Grandmasters who will watch a game on the Internet Chess Club and interact intimately with players well below his strength."

Hikaru Nakamura's well chronicled rise, with elements of phenomenal prodigy, an attractive style of play, and also the heartfelt (for many) sibling rivalry that marked his early chess development, makes his an intriguing story, and him a star to watch.