Nakamura was born in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, to an American mother, Carolyn Merrow … See more

At age 10, he became the youngest American to beat an International Master when he defeated Jay Bonin at the Marshall Chess Club. Also at age 10, Nakamura became the youngest player to achieve the title of … See more

In July 2002, Nakamura achieved 56th place at the 30th annual World Open tournament in Philadelphia.
In April 2004, Nakamura achieved a fourth-place finish in the "B" group at the Corus tournament… See more

Nakamura is particularly skilled at rapid and blitz chess, a variety of time controls in which players have less than an hour to complete all or most of their moves. In August 2022, Nakamura was ranked No. 1 on both th… See more

Nakamura has set several "youngest-ever" records in U.S. chess history, including:
• Youngest to defeat an International Master in a USCF-rated game (10 years, 0 months); later surpassed by Praveen Balakrishn… See more

Nakamura has played on the Internet Chess Club (ICC) (as "Capilanobridge"; formerly as "Smallville") and Playchess (as "Star Wars"). He served as a commentator and game annotator on the ChessNinja website, operated b… See more