For someone ranked No. 2 in the world, playing competitive games of chess sits curiously low on grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura’s list of priorities.
“I look at it as something to do to get away from streaming, versus the other way around,” he laughed during an interview with CNN Sport. “There are better things I can do with my time, aside from playing.”
Nakamura is not your average chess player. More than 20 years after he became the youngest ever American at the time to earn the grandmaster title at just 15 years old, the former child prodigy now considers himself primarily a content creator. With more than four million followers across Twitch and YouTube, he is, for many, the face of online chess.
Lockdowns and live streams
Nakamura tried his hand at streaming as early as 2017, but it wasn’t until he failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament, which decides who will challenge for the world championship title, in November 2019 that his career as a content creator really got going.
“I had no chance of becoming a world champion. I just needed a break,” he remembered. “It was during this time that I actually focused quite a bit on streaming.”
Having cultivated a loyal but small online fanbase which watched him play casual chess, discuss big matches and generally hang out, Nakamura saw his follower count skyrocket as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. By March 2021, he had more than 10 times as many Twitch followers as he had done a year prior.
“There were a lot of people who were stuck at home, a lot of people who were looking for forms of entertainment, whether it’s live streams, whether it’s watching Netflix or going on YouTube,” he explained.
“And I would also say there are a lot of people who, during the pandemic, reflected a lot on their life, nostalgia, all these different things that were going on. And many people were drawn to it as this game that they had played as a child. And they started flooding in – there were a lot of people coming in.”
While chess’ success during lockdowns may seem obvious in hindsight, the 36-year-old is quick to remind his peers that it was him who got in at the ground floor.
“When you look at the whole chess boom that happened, I’m the only top grandmaster who actually got into it. I’m the only one,” Nakamura said. “If you go back to, say, March 2020 or April, there were no chess tournaments going on, and none of the other top players got into it.
“None of them had the foresight or thought it could be something real. They simply figured it’s complete nonsense and a waste of time. And they were all proven completely wrong.”
It was a career move that has paid off, quite literally. Nakamura estimates that he now earns substantially more than most of his rivals.
“Let’s just say the top 10 players in the world,” he said. “They probably make, I’ll push it up a little bit, maybe $400,000 (per year).”
Nakamura, however, estimates that this $400,000 makes up less than half of his earnings. “It’s not even close, actually,” he explained. “Most tournaments, when I choose to play them, they’re effectively a net loss. For me, I’m essentially losing money by playing them versus staying at home and making YouTube videos or live streaming.”
Old game, new audience
Nonetheless, Nakamura maintains that his greatest success is bringing chess to a wider audience.
“I’ve always kept that in my mind more than, say, the specific financial successes,” he said. “Even though it’s been great, just a chance to bring it to more people is very special.”
While online chess has existed for decades, the past four-and-a-half years have seen a huge boost in the game’s popularity on the internet. The world’s top tournaments are now streamed worldwide on sites like Twitch and Kick, and Chess.com now has more than 185 million users, a 324% increase on January 2020.
TV series like “The Queen’s Gambit” and tournaments like PogChamps, where non-professional players like YouTuber MrBeast and actor Rainn Wilson compete for large cash prizes, mean that chess is more prominent in popular culture than has been the case for many years.
London’s Global Chess League, where Nakamura spoke with CNN Sport, is aiming to advance the cause even further. With players competing on a team and matches streamed on Kick, the competition can often resemble more of an esport than a 1,500-year-old board game.
“At this point, I’m looking for things that are a little bit more interesting, and I think this format provides that,” said Nakamura. “In general, when I look at chess right now, it’s in a much better place than it ever has been.
“(PogChamps) signified to me that what actually can sell well for chess is not necessarily the pure top-level competition. Even a little bit before this, some of the content I did was more on the whimsical side – more entertainment versus looking at chess from a pure professional standpoint. For me, the main thing was trying to keep as many people interested as possible.”
Nakamura, who has commentated and coached players at PogChamps and generally takes a playful approach to his own streaming, has recognized how his efforts to grow the game have sometimes proved divisive.
“There are a lot of people, more on the chess purist side, who certainly don’t like some of the things that I’ve done. They think that it’s cheapening the game,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, I think if you want to reach the biggest audience, you have to understand that taking chess seriously, or trying to do things at the absolute top level, is not necessarily what the people want.”
Nakamura’s confidence in chess’ online revolution is so strong that he believes the achievements of Magnus Carlsen – the game’s rock and roll superstar and arguably the greatest player of all time – pale in comparison.
“I think a lot of people know Magnus’ name. He is the world champion, he’s the best player in the world,” said Nakamura. “I think that overall, though, there’s much more interest online than there ever has been. And I don’t want to sound arrogant to take all the credit for that, but I think that what has happened online actually dwarfs what Magnus has done.
“I think in general, when I look at what has happened from 2020 to today, I would say myself, along with (fellow chess streamer) Levy Rozman, actually probably have done a lot more than Magnus overall.”
On the defensive
Such is his passion for the game, Nakamura has not shied away from controversy when chess is criticized online.
One public figure to have faced backlash from the world No. 2 is Elon Musk, who has repeatedly dismissed the game as too simple.
“I literally don’t care,” Nakamura wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 in response to a post from Musk appearing to criticize chess.
Two years later, the 36-year-old stands by what he said, appearing to suggest that Musk’s views on chess stem from a feud with former world champion Garry Kasparov over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“On a personal level, I have a feeling that Elon, some of the things he says might be related to the fact that I think certain former world champions have probably said things that have rubbed him the wrong way,” said Nakamura. “I don’t think he actually hates chess.
“When he says it’s a simplistic game, on the one hand it is, but I think there are a lot of qualities you can learn from it.”
With most chess players’ performances tending to decline after the age of 35, Nakamura is likely approaching the end of his competitive career.
“I’ll compete as long as I’m competitive and as long as I enjoy it,” he explained. “If I start losing games where it feels like I never had a chance to win the game, or stuff like that, I’ll probably quit.”
Nakamura’s rise to internet stardom has gone hand-in-hand with the increasing popularity of the game, and the American is determined that, when he does decide his playing days are over, he can continue to take chess to new audiences.
“It’s been a wild ride,” he said. “I think it’s mostly about trying to come up with new ideas, new events that the fans can get into.
“Whether it’s possible or not, who knows?”