Hikaru Nakamura

Age: 38
October 2026 FIDE standard rating: 2792
World rank (active players, October 2026): 2

Hikaru Nakamura is a legendary figure. Many fans, particularly those new to the game, know him primarily for being the most popular streamer in the chess world, but it is his playing accomplishments that make Nakamura one of the greatest the game has ever seen.

One of the best players in the world over the past two decades, Nakamura has won pretty much everything there is to win outside of the World Championship title. This includes placing first in the U.S. Championship five times.

Nakamura was a mainstay of the U.S. national team for over a decade, leading it to a gold medal in the 2016 Chess Olympiad, a silver medal in the 2018 Chess Olympiad and bronze medals in the 2006 and 2008 Chess Olympiads. He won team silver and individual gold in the 2009 World Team Championship.

Hikaru’s peak rating of 2819 makes him equal ninth on the all-time list, but he has enjoyed even greater success at faster time controls. FIDE combined the World Blitz and Rapid Championships in 2012, and Hikaru has finished second twice in the World Blitz Championship (2019 and 2022) and third on two occasions (2014 and 2018). He was the bronze medalist in the 2018 and 2019 World Rapid Championship.

As of October 1, 2026, Nakamura is the third rated blitz player in the world and sixth on the rapid list. This is in addition to being rated number two in classical chess.

All this is mind boggling when you consider that playing tournament chess is not the first thing on Nakamura’s mind these days. Number one, of course, is streaming. During the pandemic, what was once a part-time hobby became a full-time job and, in the process, Nakamura became the most watched chess figure in the world with hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Twitch and millions of followers on YouTube. He has done all this while remaining one of the best players in the world.