What is Hikaru Nakamura’s net worth?
Hikaru Nakamura, nicknamed “The H Bomb,” is an American chess player and a five-time United States champion who has a net worth of $5 million.
He was born on December 9, 1987, in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, to an American mother, Carolyn Merrow, and a Japanese father, Shuichi Nakamura.
Hikaru and his family moved to the US when he was two years old.
Nakamura began playing chess at the age of seven.
At age 10, Hikaru became the youngest player to achieve the title of chess master from the US Chess Federation.
At age 15, Nakamura earned the title of Grandmaster.
In 1999, he won the Laura Aspis Prize.
In 2005, Nakamura won the US Chess Championship.
In October 2007, he won the Magistral D’Escacs tournament in Barcelona.
In 2008, Hikaru won the Finet Chess960 Open in Mainz, Germany.
In 2009, Hikaru won the U.S. Chess Championship. Later that year, he appeared in ”Changing of the Guard: The 2009 U.S. Championship,” a documentary for chess enthusiasts.
@Getty
On September 3, 2009, Nakamura published a book titled – ”Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate.”
In November 2010, he made his debut at the World Blitz Championship in Moscow.
In 2011, he won the Tata Steel Grandmaster A tournament in Wijk aan Zee, a small village in the province of North Holland of the Netherlands.
In 2012, Hikaru won his third US championship by a full point over Gata Kamsky.
In January 2015, he won the Gibraltar Chess Masters tournament, scoring 8.5/10.
In October 2015, Nakamura reached his peak FIDE rating of 2816. Also in 2015, he was featured in the documentary ”All the Right Moves.”
© Guliver / Getty Images
In February 2016, Hikaru won the Gibraltar Chess Festival, a chess tournament held annually at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. In September, he was part of the US team that won the 42nd Chess Olympiad.
On July 28, 2017, he started his YouTube channel (GMHikaru).
In August 2018, Hikaru won the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament.
In March 2019, he won his fifth US Chess Championship.
He started 2020 as the top-ranked blitz chess player in the world. In 2020, he appeared as himself in one episode of the TV series ”Billions.”
On August 27, 2020, he joined Team SoloMid, an esports organization founded in September 2009 by Andy “Reginald” Dinh.
”TSM’s signing of Hikaru comes as a result of the hard work and careful planning that Hikaru and Chess.com have put into the chess category over the last several years,” said Chess.com Director of Business Development Nick Barton.
In March 2022, he won the Bullet Chess Championship.
© Guliver / Getty Images
Signs with Misfits Gaming Group
In June 2022, Nakamura has joined Misfits Gaming Group as a content creator and influencer.
Hikaru placed second in the World Blitz Chess Championship in December 2022.
In March 2023, Nakamura won the 2023 American Cup.
On July 22, 2023, he won his fourth Bullet Chess Championship in a final against Magnus. He also took home $20k.
In April 2024, Hikaru played in the Candidates Tournament unsuccessfully.
IQ
In 2020, Nakamura took the Mensa online IQ test and scored 102 (100 is considered the population average). This definitely isn’t his true IQ since Hikaru took the Mensa test on stream and didn’t seem to have much focus. Here is the video.
Wife
In July 2023, Hikaru Nakamura married Atousa Pourkashiyan, an Iranian-American chess player. In 2009, Atousa earned the title of Woman Grandmaster.
Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran competes in the Women’s Rapid Swiss Chess Round 5 Competition – @Getty
Previously, Hikaru Nakamura was in a relationship with Maria De Rosa, an Italian chess player who won the Italian Women’s Chess Championship three times.
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Quotes
”I love chess, but if you’re just obsessed with that one thing, eventually you will go a little bit insane.” (Chess)
”Living my best life, even if it is complicated!”
”I think in general, when you play chess on the internet its not serious competition, so the goal is to have a good time.”
”Life is short, you might as well live!”
”I think it’s easier to just play rapid even when you’re tired than it is to play classical chess.” (Chess24)
Trivia
For about one year, Hikaru was trained by Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. ”The greatest chess player ever is sort of an opportunity you can’t turn down,” said Hikaru Nakamura about working with Kasparov.
He coached popular streamers like Albert “boxbox” Zheng, Faze Clan’s Nate Hill, and Felix “xQc” Lengyel as well as Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, an Icelandic former professional strongman and actor who played Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane in Game of Thrones.
During a 2020 stream, he raised more than $358k for CARE.
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Net Worth 2024
So, how much is Hikaru Nakamura worth? Nakamura earned most of his wealth from participating in chess tournaments. Therefore, American chess legend Hikaru Nakamura has an estimated net worth of $5 million.
Hikaru is a five-time US champion, claiming the title in 2005, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2019. In 2019, the winner took home $194,000.
His YouTube channels (GMHikaru, GMHikaru Clips, and More GMHikaru) have over 610 million views, meaning about $1.8 million in revenue before taxes. Nakamura also makes money from sponsors, including DoorDash, Chess.com, and RedBull.
His GMHikaru Twitch channel has over 1.8 million followers.
Hikaru appeared as himself in one episode of the Showtime series ”Billions.”
For winning the 2023 American Cup, Hikaru took home $60,000.
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I am Bulgarea Candin Stefan, and I founded FamousPeopleToday.com in 2018. I’m using my bachelor’s degree in economics and 9 years of experience in blogging to guide millions of people through the incredibly complex world of celebrity net worths.