GM Hikaru Nakamura

• USCF Rating: 2740
• Openings : -50
• Tactical Ability : +100
• Positional Play : -50
• Endgame Technique : +0
• Speed Chess : 10
• Consistency : 5
• Tenacity : 10
• Overall Aggressiveness : 8
• Against Strong Players : 9
• Against Weak Players : 7

Strengths: Hikaru's tactical ability is phenomenal, and his skill in speed chess is simply legendary. Hikaru is also one of the most tenacious GMs in the world, due to his ability to find strange tactics that his opponent overlooks.

Weaknesses: Hikaru doesn't always take chess seriously, and this can get him into trouble against lesser opponents. Against opponents he feels to be "not worthy", he will sometimes play silly openings and move too fast for his own good.

Amusing Story:

At the 2007 Foxwoods Open, I played Hikaru in time odds chess (5 minutes to his 1 minute). I was very confident that I would win even though Hikaru is one of the best blitz players in the world. 2 hours and $180 later, I found out that I was very wrong. Even though I managed to win 5 or 6 games against him, he was still +9 on the day. At the 2007 US Open, we changed the rules to 5 minutes against his 45 seconds, and this time Hikaru was only +3 (and this time I was smart enough to play for only $10 a game!). In a total of about 30 games, I only managed to flag Hikaru once.

Reason for this song choice:
Hikaru always makes chess look so easy, and often makes his moves very quickly even in very complicated positions.