At 17, he’s ‘the next big hope’ for U.S. chess
Lynda Richardson
Published: MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2005
International Herald Tribune
NEW YORK: Hikaru Nakamura, 17, sat at a red leather banquette in a brownstone-style building in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village that houses the Marshall Chess Club. It is a venerable membership-only club that has been visited by many of the world’s chess greats, from José Raúl Capablanca, the Cuban grandmaster and world champion in the 1920s, to Bobby Fischer, the American legend and former world champion.
Nakamura played a masters tournament there on a recent Tuesday night for what he described as lunch money —$300 to $400. He is now generating considerable chatter at the private clubas its most famous active member.
Nakamura believes that he is “the next big hope for American chess.” It seems an audacious statement coming from a teenager. Yet Nakamura, who lives in White Plains, New York, proclaims it with the utter confidence that perhaps can come only from youth and prodigious achievement.
In December, at age 16, he won the U.S. chess championship in San Diego, organized and sponsored by the America’s Foundation for Chess, making him the youngest player to hold the title since Fischer won the championship at 14 in 1957.
On Friday, the World Chess Federation, the international governing body for the game, placed Nakamura 43rd on its list of the top 50 chess players in the world. “Not too shabby,” he said.
Now, he is ready to take on the world.
“If I am able to get up there and play for the actual title of the world championship, then once again, everyone will be excited,” Nakamura said, noting how chess gained wide appeal when Fischer toppled Boris Spassky, the Soviet world champion, in 1972. “There have been plenty of great players since Fischer but none have been American players.”
Here is the full article.
Naka needs a check up from the neck up.
Why is the article from 2005?
I don’t agree with Naka…
IMO he didn’t push through after his success at the age of 16…. He admitted somewhere that he doesn’t study the ‘old school players’ and the history of chess and instead focussing only on current chess including computer/online chess.
IMO he will fail by this approach…
The biggest hope for US chess is right now Ray Robson.
Unfortunately the USCF sends second and third rate players to all kinds of Youth & Junior events all over the world (take the World Mind Games for example…) instead of focussing on the real promising kids…
Oh…I see why it’s from 2005. The title of the topic is “A Look Back for Nakamura”.
Duh…