Nakamura is one of the favorites to win the Candidates Tournament, the final stage to compete in the World Chess Championship.
The highly-anticipated 2024 Candidates Tournament kickstarts its one-month campaign today on April 4th. Eight of the world's top chess players will compete for the coveted slot in the World Chess Championship to challenge the current world champion, Ding Liren. Typically such a high-stake tournament calls for a do-or-die mindset. But Hikaru Nakamura isn't too eager to obtain the world champion title as he's content with where he's currently at.
Hikaru Nakamura doesn't feel pressure in the Candidates Tournament
Ahead of the prestigious Candidates Tournament, Hikaru Nakamura sat down with FIDE in a 10-minute interview. The conversation reflected Nakamura's laid back mindset coming into the tournament and his bold thoughts on chasing the world champion title.
Hikaru Nakamura has long been a prominent figure in chess, but his fame truly skyrocketed when he began his live streaming career. Nakamura now has almost 2 million followers on Twitch and a 560K following on Twitter.
Despite a full-time dedication to the streaming career, Nakamura's chess skills doesn't suffer any setbacks. Instead, Nakamura is in great form, reaching the top 3 in classical rating and swiftly qualifying for the Candidates Tournament. According to the 5-time world champion, Magnus Carlsen, this Candidates is even Nakamura's best shot to grab the world champion title.
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"If I were to become world champion, the reach or the influence of that is so minor compared to what I've done through streaming content creation."
The Japanese-American player is definitely one of the favorites of the Candidates. But he doesn't let the expectations pressure his shoulders. He stated that he is happy to stand where he's at and the impact of being the world champion to him is minute.
If I were to become world champion, the reach or the influence of that is so minor compared to what I've done through streaming content creation.
Hikaru Nakamura: "I don't feel any pressure with this tournament. You know, if I were to win it, it's nice and fine, but, the fact of the matter is, if I were to become world champion, the reach or the influence of that is so minor compared to what I've done through streaming content creation. So if I've reached.. let's just say 5 million people through all my online content, being world champion will reach a small fraction of that. So I'm pretty content with where I'm at and just looking forward to playing the tournament."
Nakamura also stated how professionally, he is a streamer more than a chess player. This stems from his main earnings coming from the world of content creation instead of competing in chess tournaments.
I am a streamer first. Creating content is what I do to earn a living. Um, playing chess is somewhat secondary, from the standpoint of being a professional player.
Nakamura also believes that he has an advantage to enjoy the Candidates games more. This is because he mainly plays the speedier time controls and doesn't play classical chess as frequently. According to him, the Candidates can be an opportunity for him to commit more time and effort into moves.
Because I do play a lot more Blitz online, it makes it a lot easier to enjoy classical chess because you know, when I play one tournament, it's the one chance I have to actually think and spend a lot of time on individual moves.
The Candidates Tournament is well underway with star names like Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi among the lineup. Keep track with more chess news and updates on esports.gg!
Portions of this article were generated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and promptly reviewed and fact-checked by the author. Learn how esports.gg uses AI here.
