How good is Hikaru Nakamura at chess?

Anytime a chess player has GM in front of their name, it’s clear they are genuinely a savant, but sometimes it’s difficult to put the title in its proper context.

Many fans of Twitch streaming know Hikaru Nakamura as the most popular chess streamer on the internet, but his foundation as a content creator is most certainly based in credentials and credibility.

He is one of less than 2,000 current players in the world to hold the title of “Grandmaster,” and that alone would put him in the top one percent of players in the world.

But, the 34-year-old Japanese-American is much more than just a Grandmaster.

How good is GM Hikaru at chess?

With a FIDE rating of 2768 is the fifth-ranked player in the world as of Nov. 2022. His peak rating, which came in 2015, was 2816 which made him the second-best player in the world at the time. For comparison, the current best player in the world, Magnus Carlsen, is rated 2859.

Nakamura’s impressive skill at chess started at a young age too. Reaching the title of Grandmaster as a 15-year-old, he was the youngest American to ever achieve the feat at the time. Samuel Sevian has since beaten that record by becoming a GM at 13 years old.

With more accolades than one can count, Nakamura has won the U.S. Championship five times, most recently in 2019. Nakamura also won the FIDE Fischer Random World Championship at the end of October.

His skills aren’t limited to traditional chess either. Nakamura is the best Blitz player in the world with a FIDE rating of 2909 in the more fast-paced chess iteration.